17 miles, or 23 if brave, of virtually traffic free cycling!

Hi All

Some of you may already know but I am the Warranty Manager for Rutland Cycling near Oakham, in Rutland funnily enough! We have four shops, plus a large online presence, and two of these are based on Rutland Water. The water has a 17 mile route around, or 23 if you take in the peninsula in the middle, of beautiful and mainly traffic free cycling (only a small part is on a roadside cycle lane). It is suitable for all cycling ability so if you're an insane mountain biking whippet you can get around in just under an hour (did it once, nearly killed me!) or you can take a much leisurely pace and take a few hours.

My suggestion as a social event would be to hire a minibus, I'm happy to drive this as have experience, and take a few us upto the water (about an 1.5 hour drive away from Warwickshire, which I do on a daily basis so could do blindfolded but won't on this occasion!!!) so we can hire some bikes and take in the beautiful scenary and relaxed cycling. I'm sure I can get us deals on the bike hire and we just need to split between us the cost of the minibus and fuel, as a minibus takes upto 17 people with driver I'd say it'll work out cheaply for a day out as no profit is to be made out of anyone.

Around the water there are a couple of cafes and a great pub (http://www.horseandjockeyrutland.co.uk/) so we can take as much time as we like. If we go in the week the minibus will be cheaper, as I only need to book it for a day rather than weekend, and we'll have a better choice of bikes but am open to the general vote. Alternatively we could all go in convoy and drive in a few cars (lift sharing) if people would prefer.

Have a look at the following link for details of hiring from the company I work for (bear in mind I can probably get us a group discount on the bikes, especially if during the week).

http://www.rutlandcycling.com/article/495/hire-a-bike.html (Whitwell is where we'll go from)

Please let me know on any level of interest and thoughts on weekend or weekdays. I was thinking some time in April maybe.

Plans for the year ahead

Thought i would post some thoughts about what we might try to achieve in 2013. there seems to be a number of things that we can do throughout the year including maintenance on the routes, signing, both upkeep and new signing. Edward is at present getting contracts signed for resurfacing, scraping back and vegetation cutting on both the sections around long Itchington and from Birdingbury to Draycote. When complete it should make upkeep much easier and if we do a few sessions through the year we should be able to keep We have made contact with the Canals and Rivers Trust - what was British Waterways and they are keen to work with us on improving the towpaths both where they form parts of the National Cycle Network and on other sections as they now want to encourage cycling on all towpaths. they will supply materials and some work power we just need to help get the material in place.so plenty of scope there for us to help. i would like to sign connecting routes to existing signed routes. We can also review signing and add distances where possible. leading rides for new cyclists and children would also be a great thing to do during the summer. I would like to see us make the section beyond the Fosse into a Mountain bike route. Let me know your ideas and availability, are Sundays and or Saturdays the best days for work? How many could do things on weekdays? Also what about evenings on the longer days of summer? Don't forget the Two Tunnels Bath opening and Festivol, look at the details on susnet.org.uk - mail me if you can't get onto the site. That's all for now! Bob