Cycling Science & the Himalayas

Cycling Science and the Himalayas in Chester. There was a fair bit of setting up to do before the start, so my tea came on a tour of the campus with me.

This handsome old Raleigh Silhouette had a starring role in one of the first demonstrations.

Sheltering from the rain while learning about the mysteries of bicycle stability.

Chester’s Roman walls (and tourists) look on as we learn more about why bikes stay upright.

It was a bit of a chilly day for standing around in shorts, but the science was compelling…

The day concluded with Max’s tales of taking mountain bikes across the Himalayas in the 1980s. Thanks to one and all who came along for the ride (and the talk).

Coming Soon to Chester: Cycling Science & the Himalayas (25th April 2015)

Hands-on Cycling Science

Back in February, I was mooching about on Facebook one evening when I discovered an advert for an event on ‘Cycling Science’ presented by the science journalist Max Glaskin at the Brighton Science Festival. It looked really interesting; not just a talk (although that would have been interesting in itself), but also a led ride with practical, hands-on experiments and explanations along the way.

Cycling Science

I made some enquiries and discovered that Max was interested in bringing the event to Chester as well, that the local council (Cheshire West and Chester) were prepared to provide funding, and that some of my colleagues in the Faculty of Science & Engineering at the University of Chester were keen to help.  The result is that we are running an event for schools (plus University of Chester staff and students) at Thornton Science Park on Friday 24th April, and following that up with public events at the University’s Parkgate Road campus in central Chester on Saturday 25th April.  Thanks to the CWAC funding, all of the events are completely FREE OF CHARGE.

We’d really love to see a big turnout of local (or not-so-local) cyclists, mountain bikers, and, well anyone who’s interested really.  You can find out more about the events at our Eventbrite pages, at:-

http://www.eventbrite.com/e/cycling-science-the-ride-tickets-16412624602 

and

http://www.eventbrite.com/e/mountain-biking-across-the-himalayas-with-max-glaskin-tickets-16413098018

Hope to see lots of you there!

Photo (c) Jeremy Torr and Max Glaskin