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Hi, Wondering if the hive mind can help me out. I'm a teacher and I've started taking the kids out for rides locally but want to take them somewhere out of town. Transporting their bikes is a challenge so, i'm looking for a place in the north west area that hires out bikes (up to 30) kids are 11 - 14 years old. Any suggestions would be much appriciated!
Llandegla has a pretty large hire fleet, suppose it depends what part of the northwest you're in regards distance.
It's quite a few quid per bike hire cost though, would cost a few hundred quid for that many bikes. Definitely cheaper to hire a big van I'd have thought.
Edit - bike hire FAQ's says £38 per day for a hartdail. I guess you'd get a bulk discount, but that's going to mount up!
I know a guy in the new forest that does bike hire for events and away trips etc. Might be a bit too far away though?
Is the North West, Manchester or Torridon?
If you mean North West England, then centre parks, or any big hotel around the lakes will have a good size hire fleet. Scotland, you might struggle more.
Local bike shops will likely work together to help if the hire period justified it.
As previously said, the hire cost will quickly add up to the cost of buying a bike trailer, or hiring a big van if the kids already have suitable bikes. Pretty sure you'll easily get 30 bikes in a Luton transit.
Thanks for the replys, we are in Bolton and would travel a few hours. I was thinking about hiring because a coach load of kids need the staff on it and there won't be any left to drive a van with the bikes in. But i'm sure I could sort something out! It would also be nice for the kids to ride some 'nice' bikes most of them have BSO's!
Let alone hiring 30 bikes, where are you thinking of riding with 30 kids all of different standards ?
Who is paying for the hire too? Nice bikes cost lots to hire. Also not many places will have a fleet of bikes that will do 30 kids let alone 30 adults
Becomes a very expensive day out !
My sons school actually bought about 15 bikes
Some Scout areas have cycle teams for delivering cycle events - certainly Derbyshire and Leicestershire do. Whether they would be willing to deliver to a non-Scouting youth group I don't know - I'll check with the Derbyshire guys.
@jonk - your schools OEAP advisor will be able to point you at a local and not so local outdoor centre who do this all the time. I would contact them, likely the LEA or MAT may even have SLA with a supplier or 10, and if not just have a good recommendation.
Good on you for doing this - I takes effort to organise this, but the benefits for the learners are huge.
https://oeapng.info/find-an-adviser-home/
You may have some better suggestions now, particularly from Matt above, but, (and I don't know why I didn't think of it first) Delamere Forest has a pretty big hire fleet now. About an hour from Bolton and the marked bike trails are probably ideal for an inexperienced group. All fire-road family type trails with nothing to bother a risk assessor!
@tthew i have managed to secure Delamere on one day so thanks for your suggestion and the price is pretty good.
@matt_outandabout - the LEA have been great but, they have zero availability in the summer due to them running bike ability courses
Thanks
I'm not suggesting using the lea as instructors, I'm suggesting that the OEAP advisor will know other places and ensure you are the right side of risk management.
The OEAP advisor may also be LEA instructor, but not always.
And Delamere is a good venue for a group, if you can get the qualified instructors with AALS.
@jonk - I'm going to just ask this directly.
Do you and all the other ride leaders hold a suitable qualification?
Are you adhering to industry norms around adventurous excursions?
@matt_outandabout Myself and the other school staff are qualified with Mias. The delamere staff hold similar.
Cool, I'll take me nose out. 👍
Enjoy the trip - the kids most certainly will...
I believe the traditional approach for kids at Delamere is to smoke weed and to litter profusely whilst hitting jumps 😳.
Enjoy !
Hope the kids are able to play on the 4x track !
As an ex employee at a hire business I would just add that ensuring you supply the hire guys with an accurate list of the kids heights and ages will help hugely. No doubt they will also have a chat with you before the day about logistics on the day of getting everyone kitted out and on the trail as quickly as possible. Hope you all have a great time!