About our Ride Leaders and Rides
Choose from the menus below to find more information about a ride or a ride leader. (alternatively use the search tools here.
Information for Rideleaders
How to Become a Bike North Ride Leader
Click here to submit a ride to the next calendar
How to submit an EXTRA ride (after the calendar is published)
Click here to download the Ride Protocols. [PDF]
The ride leader assessment pack is now part of the Bike North Ride Protocols. See the link above.
Click here to download the Ride Sign On Sheet. [PDF]
Click here to download the Incident Report Form [PDF].
Click here to download the Briefing Card (prompt sheet) [PDF].
How to submit an EXTRA ride
Ride Leaders may wish to add another ride once the Rides Calendar has been issued. This may be for a number of reasons and is to be encouraged. It requires that:
- The Ride Leader is an approved BN Ride Leader
- The ride is in the BN Rides Database and describes the intended additional ride, including cue sheet.
The process to add an EXTRA ride is:
- Ride Leader contacts Rides Coordinator with details of the EXTRA ride, at least prior to Tues pm of the week of the proposed ride. Key information is: Date, start-time and location, ride grade
- The Rides Coordinator agrees to add the EXTRA ride to the rides calendar.
- The Rides Coordinator enters the ride in the BN website calendar and in BNSW PushON. This is required for risk management and insurance cover.
- The Rides Coordinator informs the BN News editor of the EXTRA ride details. As the Rides Coordinator could be away from email access when an EXTRA ride is planned, it is advisable to also inform info@bikenorth.org.au about the ride.
How to become a Bike North Ride Leader
Bike North encourages riders to become Ride Leaders. The more leaders we have, the more rides and greater variety of ride programme can be created for members. We need leaders for a range of rides - easy to hard - so you donŐt need to be able to lead everything. We do expect that all leaders are capable of at least leading medium rides. You should be competent with riding skills, have some basic bike mechanical and first aid knowledge and be confident in managing a group.
It is important that prospective ride leaders understand that being a ride leader can at times be a challenging task and that Bike North takes the ride leading process seriously. Primarily your role will be to safely guide a ride group for the enjoyment of all participants. There are many situations that you will find you need to deal with as a leader, which is very different from being a participant. You need to feel comfortable and confident in dealing with these circumstances. You need to be able to clearly demonstrate and communicate that capability to a ride group so that the Rides Committee is confident that you will be able to manage rides to the standards set by Bike North. Bike North ride participants have become quite accustomed to these standards. In fact, that is why they tell us they actually join Bike North.
The progression to Ride Leader therefore is not necessarily an automatic one. It can also take time as people learn and become accustomed to what is required. While you will be encouraged and given feedback, at the end of the day, all ride leaders need to demonstrate their competency.
So to the process:
- You need to read and understand the Bike North ride protocols as available on the Bike North website. This sets out the standards to which Bike North expects rides to be led.
- It is recommended that you talk to other ride leaders on how they manage the ride leader situation and how they cope with circumstances that often appear on rides.
- You should contact some ride leaders and sweep some rides that are of the grade that you intend to run. Typically these would be easy-medium to medium graded rides. Pls seek feedback from the ride leader on the day.
- Report back to the Rides Co-ordinator on how the sweeping went.
- Once you have done 3-4 of these, and you feel comfortable in taking on the ride leading task, you should contact the Rides Co-ordinator again and they will coordinate with an experienced ride leader that you co-lead a ride. This will be done with the experienced ride leader actually leading and then talking and coaching you on what a ride leader would be thinking about as they go through the ride.
- After having done that, the roles are reversed on another ride (maybe with a different ride leader) so that you lead the ride and the experienced ride leader provides detailed feedback.
- Depending on how this goes, you may wish to do other rides as the co-leader.
- Finally, you will need to undergo a Bike North ride leader assessment with a recognised Bike North ride assessor.
- Following that, the Rides Committee will need to consider and endorse you becoming a Bike North Ride Leader.
This may seem a drawn out process, but it is designed so that both Bike North and a prospective ride leader are comfortable with what is required and that the ride leader gets sufficient exposure to what is really required to make a good ride leader.
After that you never stop learning. What can happen on rides will never cease to amaze. Bike North further supports improving ride leader skills by holding twice-yearly Ride Leader mtgs. Every 3 years you will need to undergo another assessment.
BNSW does also run ride leader training days several times a year. Look out for when these are on. Basically this is another approach to understanding what is involved in being a ride leader all conducted in a single day and includes an assessment process. Please understand that Bike North can only endorse a ride leader who has been assessed under the Bike North Ride Leader Assessment system.
If you are interested in becoming a Ride Leader, then please contact the Bike North Rides Coordinator at rides@bikenorth.org.au
Last update: 01/09/2008 — Copyright © 2005