Here’s an interesting idea from Ian Street, the chap who invited me to speak at an event in Leeds earlier in the year. It’s called ‘Leeds Rides‘ and (in the words of Ian himself) “…is designed to show the human side of cycling in Leeds… Whatever style of bike you ride; fixie, singlespeed, clunker, mountain, cargo, road, cyclocross, balance, kids, bmx, those funny trick ones with no saddles, tandem, folding, fat, commuter, penny farthing, recumbent, time trial, tall, unicycle, handcycle, home made and whatever age, gender, race, creed or colour you are; whether you ride for a living, ride to work, race, pootle or dig your bike out once a year on a sunny day to ride and get an ice cream, if you ride in Leeds you are welcome here.“

“To be part of Leeds Rides simply send a picture of you and your bike, together with your name (or nickname) to LeedsRides@gmail.com or tweet to @LeedsRides and you will be featured on the blog of the Leeds Rides community. As this blog is pictorial and is designed to show us, the humans of Leeds who ride bikes, then ideally ditch the body armour, lycra, full face helmets etc and just show you (with clothes on!) and your bike.  If you want to say a bit about yourself, why you ride, where you ride, what your favourite rides in Leeds are then that’s great but it’s not a fundamental part.  It’s just you and your bike.  I hope you will join the Leeds Rides community.“

It’s an idea that could catch on elsewhere, no? Good luck to Ian and the cyclists of Leeds. The artwork on the homepage of Leeds Rides may look familiar as it has been designed by Andy Mitchell who also produced the excellent covers for ‘Crossing Europe…‘ and ‘Along The Med…‘.