News

Huddersfield Star Wheelers AGM

Huddersfield Star Wheelers Annual General Meeting will take place on Wednesday 11 January 2023 at 19:30.

The meeting will take place at the Rat & Ratchet, 40 Chapel Hill, Huddersfield. HD1 3EB.

All club members are welcome to attend. 

There are several vacancies on the Club Committee as some members are standing down. 

If any club member is interested in supporting the running of the club or would like to discuss more details, please contact Graham Piccavey, the Club’s President (president@huddersfieldstarwheelers.com ) or Paul Witkowski, Club Secretary (secretary@huddersfieldstarwheelers.com)

We look forward to seeing you all at the AGM

Bernard Joseph Heath

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Bernard Joseph Heath who was one of the founding members of Huddersfield Star Wheelers.

Born in Huddersfield on 31st March 1922, Bernard was a great enthusiast for cycling and other outdoor sports. 

In 1953, Bernard and several other keen cyclists formed the Huddersfield Star Wheelers. Known as “Beef” to his cycling friends, he made a major contribution to the Club’s development over 15 years acting in various official positions. In recognition of his contribution, he was made a Life member. He led many Club runs and one person said ‘every run was an adventure and it always involved some riding on rough tracks’. 

Bernard dabbled in time trailing and in 1963 recorded 224 miles in a 12-hour event and he also participated in some cyclo-cross events, but his heart was in club and leisure cycling.

In 1958 Bernard was a key member of a group of four cyclists who crossed the interior of Iceland by bike to become the first to do this, a memorable achievement. This was followed by a further solo three and a half month tours to Scandinavia and in 1963 a long European trip taking in Germany, Austria, Greece, Yugoslavia, Italy and France.  

Everyone who knew him had great respect for his enthusiasm, hard work, dedication, and modesty.

A more comprehensive obituary, written by Adrian Hinchcliffe can be found here.

For those of you who wish to pay their respects, Bernard’s funeral will be held at 12:30 pm on Tuesday 26th April at St Nicholas Parish Church, Prestwick, KA9 1NW with the burial taking place at Troon Cemetery KA10 7AP at 1.30pm.

Our thoughts are with Bernard’s family and friends at this difficult time. 

Bernard Joseph Heath:  22nd March 1928 – 31st March 2022

Huddersfield Star Wheelers Annual General Meeting

Huddersfield Star Wheelers Annual General Meeting will take place on Friday 24th September 2021 at 19:30.

The meeting will take place at the Rat & Ratchet, 40 Chapel Hill, Huddersfield. HD1 3EB.

All club members are welcome to attend. 

There is a vacancy for the the Club Secretary as the current Secretary, after a successful 8 years in the role, will be standing down this year. If any club member is interested in supporting the running of the club or would like to discuss more details, please get in touch with Graham Piccavey, the Club’s President (president@huddersfieldstarwheelers.com).

We look forward too seeing you all at the AGM

Smile a While Charity Ride in memory of Ash Raine

Smile a While charity bike ride in memory of our fantastic and softly missed club mate Ash Raine, raising funds for Mesothelioma. 

A charity ride from Upper Hopton Community Centre to the Royd Moor Windmills, riding Ash’s favourite route. Roughly 30 miles, with a few hills and rolling terrain.

Don’t let your fitness or type of bike put you off, just join in the fun and there will be lots of help and support on the way round. Included in the donation: ride leaders per group 10 riders (at different speeds), drink and snack on route, recovery support if required, food and drink refreshments on return to the Community Centre.

You can book onto the ride and donate here

 If you aren’t a rider and don’t want to miss out on day, call up for a cuppa and cake from 11:00 – 16:00 all donations greatly received 

🥰

Hope you can all join in the fun! 

Huddersfield Star Wheelers Women’s Hill Climb Returns: Tuesday 15th June 2021

A Welcome Return!

Following the huge success of our previous Women’s Hill Climbs,  Huddersfield Star Wheelers are proud to present the return of the Alison Whitely trophy event. Previous events had 60 fantastic riders turn up to take on the hill.

The Climb!

The hill climb sets off just outside the Cricket Club and Golf Club on Mount Road and climbs for just under 1 mile to the top of Mount Road. The event is open to all women cyclists aged 12 and over and the only person you’re racing is yourself so turn up and give it a go. You have nothing to lose and there will be refreshments at the end! Riders under 18 years of age MUST wear a helmet.

Where, When and What to Expect?

The event will be hosted again at the Marsden Cricket Club, Mount Road, Marsden HD7 6NN, with sign on from 6:30pm.  We would like to encourage riders and supporters to turn out in huge numbers , make plenty of noise and take on the hill and win some fantastic prizes.

The event will be managed in line with the Covid restrictions in place at the time, so we’ll be keeping everyone safe.

Entries on the Night Only

Entry is a mere £5 and will only be on the night! Please let us know if you want to enter, come along and support, marshal or just make a lot of noise.

Further details can be found at our Facebook Event Page here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1971091633144400/

Please leave a comment on the page if you rode last time and what your target is for this year.

Watch a Round Up of the 2017 Event:

Update on Club Activities

Dear Club Members,


On Friday 31st July the UK Government announced new local measures for Kirklees in response to the Covid 19 outbreak.

The Committee have reviewed these measures and have concluded that club runs can continue to take place. However those runs that ordinarily would include a cafe stop should not visit cafes (or any other hospitality venues) according to the new restrictions.

Consequently, where they can, Ride Leaders will look at alternative refreshment options, for example places offering take away food and drinks, to ensure that we can all remain appropriately fuelled for the ride.

All previous rules will still apply; social distancing, groups of no more than six people and the recording of attendees details for track and trace purposes.

Other club activities such as Go-Ride and coaching can also still continue, following all the new and previous guidance.

All of the above will only take place where we have willing ride leaders/coaches in place to do so. We must remember that ride leaders, coaches and club officials all give their time freely.

Club members, ride leaders and coaches must all make their own decisions regarding their own personal safety whether to attend/run club activities based on their personal circumstances and taking into account the measures in place.

The Committee will continue to monitor any new Government or local guidance as it’s released and make the appropriate decisions regarding club activities.

Regards

Graham Piccavey – Club President

Hayley Lomas – Club Welfare Officer

What 3 Words Challenge Map

As everyone knows we’re living in strange times, but given that we’ve still been able to ride bikes solo during the lockdown, to encourage members to stay fit and engaged, the club set up the What 3 Words challenge for our members to get stuck into.

We set up a table of 50 What3Words locations with their corresponding Ordnance Survey grid references. You will also see 50 images from Google Street View, but these are all mixed up and DO NOT match the location they are next to.

The challenge was:

  • visit as many of the locations during your May rides, put the location numbers in your ride descriptions
  • when riding to the locations create your own version of the photo with you and/or you bike featured. Make them funny and entertaining and post them on the club Facebook group and/or your Strava rides.
  • match up the pictures and submit your answers. A full list of the answers and locations on a map will be released at the end of May.

All 50 are within a 10 mile radius of the centre of Huddersfield so no one should need to be too far away from home at any given point.

To document all of this is, the Google Map below shows all the locations complete with a “rogues gallery” of member’s photos at the locations.

Why not give it a try?

Statement on Coronavirus from Huddersfield Star Wheelers

Following on from the Government guidance issued yesterday as the spread of the virus escalates, the Committee have been discussing the Club’s response to the outbreak and the effect this will have on the Club’s activities. 

Members will appreciate that the advice on measures required to reduce the spread of the infection is changing rapidly and consequently we have decided to take a conservative approach,  not only to ensure that we comply with official guidance, but that we do everything we can to protect our members, their families and the wider community from the threat. We recognise that this may be a different approach than other clubs in the area. 

The Club therefore is taking the following steps with regard to activities with immediate effect and these measures will be in place for the next 14 days and will be reviewed as the official guidance evolves:

  1. You will have already seen that the Presentation Evening on 21 March has been cancelled. The decision to do this has not been taken lightly, but in the interests of minimising non-essential social contact, we believe this is the best course of action. We’d like to thank Steve for all his work on organising the event and hope that we’ll be able to reschedule the celebration of the Club’s achievements later in the year;
  2. The Saturday afternoon Go-Ride sessions will be cancelled. Additionally, British Cycling have cancelled all Cluster Sessions and other training events until the end of April. Further information can be found here.
  3. All group rides, including the Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday rides, the Saturday MTB rides, and the Ladies’ rides are cancelled. This has been a very difficult decision for the committee, as the group rides form the core of our activities. However, taking into account the official guidance we cannot justify continuing the rides for the time being. We know that this will be disappointing for many, but would ask that members respect the decision, which is taken on the basis of official guidance and with the objective of keeping all our members safe;
  4. As an alternative to group rides, ride leaders will, where possible, seek to post a route as usual on the Facebook pages for members to ride as they wish. Should you choose to ride, we would ask that members don’t use the official Club social media groups to promote the fact they are planning to ride. Please keep in mind Government guidelines, especially with respect to social distancing and consider the perception that a group of cyclists will send to the wider community;
  5. During the period where the group rides are not running, we will look to establish frequent HSW “meet ups” on Zwift, where club members can ride together and we’ll also look to set up a Discord channel where the usual “witty banter” found on club rides can continue. Members will appreciate that this will take a little time to establish, but please express your interest in joining and event to one of the usual ride leaders and check the FB pages regularly, where details of the meet ups and how to join will be published; and
  6. With respect to the track sessions, audax, road race and ladies’ hill climb, at the moment we are not taking any steps to cancel these, but clearly we are keeping the situation under review as the advice from the Government and British Cycling evolves.

We know these steps will be hugely disappointing for members but we’re sure you’ll appreciate that, as a club, we have a duty of care to our members and a responsibility to the wider community in Huddersfield and Kirklees. We’ll keep the situation under constant review as the advice evolves and seek to re-establish the regular timetable of events as soon as we possibility can.

In the meantime, it is clear that one of the best ways to minimise the impact of the virus is to remain fit and active, so please ride your bikes as much as you can, either outside maintaining an appropriate distance from others or on the turbo at home. We’ll hopefully see you on the road, trail or track shortly…

If members have any concerns, questions or comments on the steps being taken please feel free to get in touch with any member of the committee or via e-mail

Flaps!

Following on from the bulk order of mudguard flaps a few months ago, you can now order individual flaps from our very own FlapShop on the Raw Mudguards site.

Lots of different sizes are available to fit all types of mudguards. You know you owe it to your club mates to get flappage before the next wet club run. You now have no excuse!

HSW Humber Bridge Audax

*** Update – Event Cancelled due to ongoing Covid-19 situation ***

It’s back for 2020!

The Humber Bridge Audax is a 230km cycling event starting from Huddersfield. Controls at Birkin, Barton on Humber and Hatfield.

The return of the big spring ride out east over the bank holiday weekend so you get to recover on Monday

Celebrate the start of summer with a run out across the flatlands of the East Riding to the Humber Bridge and back. Fast paced peloton on the way out and various paced groups back.

Entry via Audax UK site http://www.aukweb.net/events/detail/20-467/