Guided Rides offer fun, friendly, supportive bike rides for individual and family cyclists. The programme has been growing in Scotland over the past few years, helping more people to build their cycling experience and explore their local area by bike.

In the past month volunteer ride leaders have led rides in the Scottish Borders, Perth and Kinross, Aberdeenshire, South Lanarkshire and Glasgow and in this series of articles we meet some of the volunteers supporting more people to cycle in their local communities.

We spoke to David Killean, a volunteer ride leader based in Hawick, to tell us more about his experience of the Guided Ride programme since becoming a qualified leader in Spring 2022.

“I knew about the Guided Ride programme through several friends who are Breeze Champions, and who have developed a community of confident cycling women here, called the Hawick Belles,” said David.

“They each now have well over 100 rides under their belts and offer several rides per week. So, this year I teamed up with them to complement their volunteering as a Guided Ride leader.

“My hope was to create opportunities for those who wanted to ride in a group but would find the cycling club rides too demanding. I have been delighted with how popular this is, with my rides quickly filled up with people booking on.

“Many of those joining me were women who wanted to ride faster than the Breeze groups, with the Hawick Breeze Champions signposting those women looking for a new challenge to my rides. I also knew local male cyclists who weren’t comfortable joining cycling club runs but wanted something that would work for them. I am pleased to say that all of these people seem to have found what they were looking for in my Guided Rides.

“What also helped was riding the same route at the same time each week. One of the Breeze Champions joined me after a few weeks so that we could offer more places and take a larger group out. It became something of a group tradition to have three jelly baby stops, two at the tops of climbs and one at a village road junction! We also had our regular camera stop where I would fail miserably at taking a group selfie.

“In a town like Hawick, news about my Guided Rides quickly spread, and I began to get people turning up without signing up through the Let’s Ride website. So, although I politely explained that we had a cap on numbers and how they should join my rides, there is a real opportunity for more volunteer Guided Ride leaders in Hawick.”

If you want to cycle more, then British and Scottish Cycling Guided Rides are for you. All you have to do is bring your bike and pedal. Guided Ride Leaders do the rest. It's easy. It's free.

All kinds of cyclists are welcomed on Guided Rides, with rides classifications offering easy-going, steady and challenging rides, and opportunities of adult or family rides.

You can join David on his next Guided Ride, find a ride near you or more about Guided Rides at the Let’s Ride website: www.letsride.co.uk/guided-rides

For more information about becoming a Guided Ride leader visit: www.letsride.co.uk/volunteers