Links

York Wednesday Wheelers

York Wednesday Wheelers is a “member group” of Cycling UK and we receive a grant from them to assist us in running the club (join Cycling UK here).  You can join up to three York Wednesday Wheelers rides as a guest but if you like us and wish to continue riding with us after that you must join Cycling UK (see Join us page).  There is no additional fee, beyond your Cycling UK membership, to become a York Wednesday Wheeler.  Cycling UK is a trading name of Cyclists’ Touring Club (CTC).  

York Wednesday Wheelers on Facebook

A brief history of the origins of York Wednesday Wheelers

Other Cycling Groups

North Yorkshire CTC.  See also their Facebook page. Useful site for finding other groups in North Yorks. They also organise rides around the county, several of which are included in the North Yorks Awards Scheme.

CTC York organise rides on Sundays, plus other rides and tours.

Harrogate Wheel Easy.  One of the larger groups in the area with several grades of regular ride.

Resources for Ride Leaders

Wednesday Wheelers route library on Plotaroute is a library of routes plotted by Wednesday Wheelers ride leaders and used on our rides.  The library can be filtered and sorted by ride name (rides are named for their elevenses and lunch destinations), distance and ascent.  Alternative views allow you to see just rides whose general direction is north, northeast, east, southeast, south, southwest, west and northwest.  Note: the existence of a route in the library definitely doesn’t mean that it is the only route a leader can take a ride on. He or she could follow one of the routes exactly if they want, use it as a basis for a customised route, or create an entirely new one.
By default, Plotaroute uses metric units for distance and ascent.  If you prefer miles and feet to kilometres and metres, you can register and set your preferences in your user profile. 
The library is still developing so, if you have route you would like to add, please send a link or a GPS file in any of the popular formats to webmaster@wwyork.org.
Another reference for leaders looking for routes is the archive of past Wednesday Wheelers’ rides curated by Eamon Prendegast. 

When planning rides, leaders need to be aware of the potential risks involved.  Our Generic Risk Assessment document provides a useful checklist.

A crowd-sourced map of cafes catering to cyclists (covers the UK and, plus a few cafes further afield).

Gritting routes for planning routes on icy days: York, North Yorkshire, East Riding.

Bad Driving

Dangerous or anti-social driving can be reported online.  At the very least make sure you get the vehicle registration number but video from a bike- or helmet-mounted camera is the most likely means of prompting police action.  Inexpensive cameras are now available. 

North Yorkshire Police: you can submit videos or otherwise report incidents.

Humberside Police (covering the East Riding): videos, other reports

West Yorkshire Police: videos here.  If you don’t have a video and there hasn’t actually been a collision, WYP don’t seem very interested in hearing from you, though you might find something suitable in their list of online forms.

Apps and webpages for route planning and recording

When planning a route these know where cyclists go and use this intelligence to help plan and modify routes for you. In all cases routes can be saved in the open, GPX format that can be used with Garmin and other cycling SatNavs.

Plotaroute (Website) Fully functioned planning website similar to Komoot.  Free with Ads and some limits. £15 for unlimited ad free version.  Take care with your settings when route planning: when you use if tor route-planning, Plotaroute can have a tendency to include unexpected off-road excursions.

Komoot  (app and website, details here).  Turns a smartphone into a cycling SatNav. Clever planning functions.  Andrew Monk reports having found several new routes with Komoot.  Local maps free.  Worldwide maps, one-off cost of €29.99.   Komoot can be set to work with Garmin Connect so that routes created on the Komoot website are automatically downloaded to your Garmin SatNav. Andrew is a “Komoot Pioneer” (be very impressed!) and is happy to give advice on the use of this website/app. 

Bikemap (app and website, details here).  Excellent maps but many features, including the ability to download routes, require a premium plan (e.g. €39 p.a.)  including , easy to share (see our very own WW BikeMap routes).  Most features free, premium plan (needed for off line use)

Strava (app and website, details here).  More fitness and social media oriented than the above two apps.  Records your ride and computes useful stats such as calories burned (to justify all those cakes :-).  Follow other Wednesday Wheelers, comment on and give “kudos” on each other’s achievements.  Can also plan routes. Free for most useful stuff.

Garmin Basecamp (Widows or MacOS application, details here).   Adrian Setter says “The free download doesn’t come with much in the way of useful maps.  You can buy mapping from Garmin but OpenStreetMap works very well both on Basecamp and on my Garmin device.  Several web sites offer free download of OpenStreetMap maps in the right format but so far, I’ve found those from Openfietsmap, which have pretty comprehensive coverage of cycle routes, the best for cycling.  Decent broadband is useful: the Openfietsmap download that includes Great Britain covers the whole of Europe and is 14Gb!  Basecamp will probably be of most interest to owners of Garmin devices, but those with other brands of GPS set could find it useful for route-planning as routes are saved in the open, GPX format.”

Garmin Connect (app, details here) This app syncs planned routes with your Garmin. May also be of interest to cyclists keen on fitness monitoring and “connecting” on social media.

Bikehike (Website) Dave Bean says “When creating or viewing a route, the left hand side of the screen shows either 1) a generic map 2) a satellite view or 3) a OSM cycle map showing all the National Routes. The right hand side of the screen shows a 1:50,000 Ordnance Survey Map. This is a free site but donations are welcome! Bikehike have a limited OS Licence so sometimes (when heavily used) the 1:50,000 is not available. Bikehike covers the whole world – amazing (with cycling routes where available).”

Others? If you have a favourite cycling app or website please let us know: email rides@wwyork.org