Cycle Lewes Guide to Family Cycling
Image credit: I. McKay
By Ian McKay
Introduction
Most of us learned to ride a bicycle when we were young children. However, it does not necessarily follow that families will cycle together. For those that do, they experience together all the joy and the physical and mental health benefits that cycling brings. It is a great way to explore your local area or holiday spot at a speed where all your senses are engaged. Are you missing out?
For many forms of cycling, Lewes and its environs has so much to offer for local and visiting family cyclists. With the charming but narrow routeways of an ancient town and the pronounced topography, it is fair to say the town itself has its challenges particularly for younger and inexperienced riders. However, by exploring its networks of roads and cycle paths as well as the wonderful and varied geographies within easy reach of the town, it starts to reveal plenty of opportunity for enjoyable rides for all ages and abilities.
Getting young riders started
Above: A handlebar stem mounted child seat and visor for very young passengers. Image credit: I. McKay
Even though the modern bicycle is only a little more than a hundred years old, the desire for a parent to get their child cycling almost feels like an ancient human instinct. Happily, you can take your children with you on a bike from when they are pretty much toddlers and then right through to when they are the ones cycling faster than you. Each step of the way is a cherished life experience, as much for the older generation as it is for the younger.
Thanks to the spirit of invention, there seems to be bike kit to cater for all those developmental stages:
Child seats
These can be retrofitted to your handlebar or seat stem for relatively modest outlays and allows a parent to take their child with them on a bike from around 9 months (depending on the child’s ability to sit upright unsupported).
Bike trailers
These clip onto the adult bike’s seat stem which can take one or two small children in tow and can allow you to comfortably take your young children on more significant excursions on bike.
Child / parent tandems
As an alternative to clip on bike seats, these purpose-designed multi-rider bikes provide a more robust manner for riding with young people on board.
Electric cargo bikes
There are more and more electric cargo bikes coming onto the market and many of them are designed to take more than one person. Some can be fitted with additional modular seats.
Single wheeled tag along bikes
These clip onto the seat stem of the adult bike and allow your child to cycle behind you at a controlled distance. If you have children of different ages and cycling ability, these clip-on bikes allow the smaller of your group to keep up with the bigger children.
Balance bikes
These have no peddles but are a much better way for your child to get used to the balancing skills needed for riding on two wheels than a bike fitted with stabilisers.
Child-specific pedal bikes
These days the better-quality children’s bikes are nice and light and are fitted with brake levers, pedals and cranks which are sized correctly for small people.
Young riders grow out of their bikes so quickly when they are young. Buying a good quality second-hand balance bike or pedal bike helps keep costs down but also helps avoid significant depreciation in resale value.
When children start to ride into their teens, the mileage and therefore the wear and tear on the moving parts of a bike can become a significant financial and safety issue. It is worth learning to do some of the basic maintenance tasks, like patching inner tubes, changing brake pads and adjusting gears and brake mechanisms yourself. As a parent, it is important to adopt regular inspections of the critical moving and wearing parts of your child’s bike, as is keeping it relatively clean, well lubricated and free of rust. Try and involve your children in this habit as much as possible early on so hopefully by the time they are in their teens, they can start taking on basic maintenance tasks themselves.
Most of us as parents can teach our children how to ride a bike and share some basic ‘dos and don’ts’ of using the roads but there are courses available to specifically help young people arrest bad habits, improve their cycling skills, increase their knowledge of road rules, how bikes work and how to fix them. Bikeability is a great example of this and you can find out more about it through your child’s school or by following this link.
Learning to ride around Lewes
Above: A farm track to south of Lewes heading towards Iford. Image credit: I. McKay
The single biggest deterrent to cycling is having to share the road with motor vehicle traffic and if you are a parent in Lewes, looking to get your young children into cycling, it is probably tempting to think there are safer and easier places to nurture a beginner on a bike. To an extent this is true but if you look a little closer you will find the town has a few gems in terms of places for young family cycling.
Cycle Lewes produce a town cycling map which identifies cycle friendly routes which avoid the busier vehicular routes. There is also a Cycle Lewes map showing connections out to the wonderful network of country lanes, bridleways and cycle paths over the South Downs, the banks of the River Ouse, the coast and up to the Weald. It is certainly worth having a look at these to familiarise yourself with these less stressful routes. (Cycle Lewes Map here).
Some of the best places for young riders to learn how to ride are on the softer surfaces or on quiet lanes. One particularly good area is around the Railway Lands where a number of soft surface routes interconnect with the Cinder Path and from there you can connect with Ham Lane which wraps around to Cockshut Lane and out to Kingston. The surface of some sections can be a little challenging but overall, this is an excellent area to gain basic skills and develop confidence.
Family trips on bikes
Above: Quiet lanes near Hamsey Image credit: I. McKay
A key consideration of getting out to the wider landscapes of East Sussex from Lewes is that the cycle path network out from the town is improving but still limited. As such, there are unfortunately some old arterial roads entering the town which are not exactly pleasant or forgiving to cycle along.
The A27 has a cycle path towards Brighton (probably the oldest in the local area) as well as one in the opposite direction towards Firle, The latter is being extended out to Polegate at the time of writing. Another cycle path project of note which is still in the making is Egrett’s Way which will eventually link Lewes to Newhaven. Heading north on either the A26 or the A275 is more challenging. A simple work-around for the A275 is to catch a train to Cooksbridge and from there a plethora of quiet and glorious country lanes beckons. Some of these are the ancient droving roads which shepherds once used to drive their flocks up to the Weald after grazing along the Downs. Here you will find routes leading to Hamsey, Barcombe Cross, Newick, Ditchling, Plumpton and Wivelsfield Green. An excellent cycle path connects Ringmer to the A26 but taking the busy main road to or from this point is best avoided by coming through Malling via Brooks Road, Mayhew Way and Church Lane.
Other popular short train rides that open-up a whole host of family-friendly rides include Glynde and Southease which are useful for outward or return legs when cycling over the Downs or along the River Ouse and Brighton or Seaford stations if you fancy a cycle along the seafront. Further afield is Pevensey Bay station where you can ride northward onto the pan-flat Pevensey Levels or eastward down Sluice Lane towards Norman’s Bay and Cooden Beach. Trickier to reach but equally flat are the lanes south and east of Laughton stretching all the way to Berwick and Upper Dicker. Note too should be made of the old coach road from the south end of Firle all the way to Berwick, with a spur virtually to Alfriston. This is a dirt track nearly all the way and can be unsuitable for some riders particularly in the winter months. Firle can be reached by cycle path pretty much from the southern end of South Street and the Snowdrop pub or you can take the train to Glynde and from there it is a short distance south. Care is needed in crossing the A27 but there is a new pedestrian crossing going in at the time of writing. Another old coach road to explore out of Lewes is the one from the north edge of the Landport estate and runs along the bottom of the South Downs that leads towards Offham. Its route is through an enchanting stretch of woodland and the steep slope to the side is something to behold. At Offham you can turn right and continue over the railway tracks and join the lane which takes you into the strangely close but isolated hamlet of Hamsey or continue into the village of Offham with its pub, The Blacksmith’s Arms.
When the children are a little older, say 10 to 12 years of age, they might be able to ride parts of the famous South Downs Way. This opens a completely different set of possibilities along the ridges and coombes of the rolling chalk hills. From the outskirts of Lewes, you can access the Downs directly from Spittal Road and the long drive that connects to the old racecourse. Another popular ride is up Juggs Lane which starts near the Swan pub and climbs up to towards the Kingston Ridge with fine views over the Ouse River Valley and Castle Hill Nature Reserve. Other off-road cycling can be found within the wooded slopes of Stanmer Park where many combine it with a longer looping ride out to Ditchling Beacon, Black Cap and Mount Harry and the ‘grit your teeth and bare it’ A27 cycle path. For more serious off-road fun there is Bedgebury which is a fair old drive eastwards across Sussex. Here are many kilometres of purpose made bike trails of varying difficulty within a woodland run by the Forestry Commission. You can rent off-road bikes there. Slightly closer to Lewes is Friston Forest near Exceat which also has a range of off-road cycle paths.
For when your children are older and able to take on a reasonable quota of daily mileage is the Avenue Verte. This is the London to Paris cycle route and Lewes is neatly placed just a few kilometres away from its sea crossing between Newhaven and Dieppe. You can choose to do it all over a period of a week or so or just portions of it. It includes many kilometres of car-free paths.
Related links
There is lots of additional information available on cycling for young families including: