A MAN who launched a cycling club in lockdown for the visually impaired said it has been a “lifeline” for those with the condition.
John McKnight founded Caversham Visually Impaired Pedallers five years ago from his home in Micklands Road, where he lives with his wife Elaine, an optometrist.
After sustaining a rugby injury in his twenties, he temporarily lost his sight.
Although he made a full recovery, it was 30 years on that the memory sparked a desire to connect people through tandem riding.
He now houses eight bikes in his garage and the group has boomed to 47 members after initially piloting the group with a friend from the area in 2020.
Mr McKnight said: “I was a volunteer at the Association for the Blind in Reading and then I became a trustee.
“There was a need for tandem cycling to happen because several of the stokers [visually impaired riders] there had their own bicycles but they didn’t have people to pilot with. I did that personally.
“I started piloting a local chap and he instantly said to me, ‘would someone else like to ride?’”
Mr McKnight, who works as a head of a supply chain, hit the ground running and his group began to attract cyclists from as far as Bournemouth.
“It was easier than trying to squeeze it into an already existing charity,” he said. “They perhaps haven’t got the time or the expertise to sort out tandem cycling so I thought I could do it.
“But I knew then that we needed another tandem and I brought in another pilot. At that point, I saw it as a problem that needed solving.” The tandem bikes are steered by the pilot, who gives verbal cues to the rider when the surface is going to change, when they will be turning, to warn of upcoming hills and let them know when to brake.
The stoker provides horsepower by pedalling in sync with them.
Mr McKnight said the group has just been recognised as a British cycling-specific disability club.
“It spread really quickly by word of mouth within the visually impaired community,” he said.
“We started a Facebook group and it grew very quickly to the point where I had three things to balance all the time, having enough visually impaired riders, do I have enough pilots, do I have enough bicycles.”
Mr McKnight, a former skydiving instructor, said 18 pilots have been trained in the last year and members have ridden nearly 3,500km between them. The group set out on jaunts of about 50km on the second Sunday of the month, including through Caversham, Henley, Twyford, Wargrave and Harpsden. There are members from Reading, Sandhurst, Bournemouth, Salisbury, Portsmouth, Southampton, Winchester and Basingstoke.
They go out in “pods” of three tandems who will have a ride leader and a solo cyclist to keep them safe on the road.
The sessions are free of charge but there will be a small membership fee introduced this year to help with operational costs.
Mr McKnight said: “Cycling can be very pale, grey and stale.
“It can be middle-aged, middle-class men in Lycra on Sundays and I fall into that category. But we just want to help people who want to experience cycling.
“We became an official cycling club in the last three months and coupled with me retiring, it will allow us to spend more time focusing and developing it.
“You might see our visually impaired riders take part in time trials or going to velodromes or local competitions in the county.”
Helen Sheldrake, 69, from Caversham, was registered as sight impaired about 10 years ago when she was left unable to drive or ride a bike alone.
She has lost all vision in her left eye and has peripheral retinal tears and a cataract which cannot be operated on and as they thicken, her sight worsens.
Mrs Sheldrake, who lives off Gosbrook Road, said: “I was put in touch with John and within a short time he organised for me to get my own tandem from an organisation called Charlotte’s Tandem.
“They hire for free. But the tandem is no good to me without a pilot that goes with it.
“One of the pilots, who lives in Caversham, will ride to my house and pick me and the bike up and we’ll ride up to John’s to start the ride.”
Without the club, she said her quality of life would be “much poorer”.
“You feel like you belong to a community and have something to look forward to.
“It’s the whole thing of getting out and doing something very physical and social while being out in the fresh air.
“I can’t imagine not doing it.
“Sometimes when you’ve got a disability, you think ‘I’m depending on all these people’ or ‘I’m a bit of a drag on them’ or that I’m a nuisance.
“But it never feels like that here. I cannot tell you what it has done for my confidence.
“We share our niggles and the funny things people say to you and how they respond to you and you’re not just a lump on the back of a bike.”
Ella Davies, 37, of Valley Road, Henley, lost her vision at five months old after she was diagnosed with meningitis.
On a walk to the supermarket last year, Mr McKnight spotted her as she was wearing a cycling jacket and walking with a cane.
“I didn’t know who he was then,” she said. “He introduced himself after he’d asked me if I wanted to join a cycling group.
“I was a bit taken aback to be asked to join something.”
Ms Davies picked up the hobby as a child, inspired by her father, but stopped aged 16. She said: “We made up a tandem using his bike and a trailer bike that we found some time ago and put the two together.
“When we stopped, I thought that was the end of me being able to cycle because I thought there wouldn’t be anyone I could cycle with.
“I like the feeling of belonging to something again and it’s nice to know I’m not alone.
“We cycle on the big roads. We don’t cycle on piddly little lanes. It feels exhilarating.” Moshfique Ahmed, 43, from Reading, plays cricket for the England Men’s Visually Impaired team.
He joined the cycling club two years ago after he lost his eyesight due to a brain haemorrhage in August 2017. Three weeks after the bleed, the former security guard woke up from a coma in the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.
The father-of-three felt suicidal and found it difficult to leave the house for a time but said clubs like Mr McKnight’s have “turned his life around”. He said: “I was already a member at the Reading Association for the Blind.
“John came up to me and told me about the cycle group but I didn’t know anything about tandem cycling.
“He told me he’s thinking of doing tandem cycling for people like me and I said that I would love to do it. They came to my house and did a trial. Then, afterwards, they would pick me up from my house and take me in the car [to John’s house] and bring me back. They did everything for me.
“John has made my life more exciting from how I was when I lost my sight until now.”
Mr Ahmed said the rides do wonders for his mental health.
“It was very difficult [after my brain haemorrhage] and I felt like I didn’t want to stay alive anymore because I thought there was nothing to live for if I have to be dependent on someone for everything I do.
“But when I’m part of something where there are people like me and they’re also surviving and coping with their struggles, you feel more relaxed.
“You feel like you’re not left out or the only person in the world [struggling].
“Tandem cycling fights the bad side of my mental health. It gives me something to look forward to, an excitement.
“I get a thrill from going on a bike ride and on a small lanes and roads and hillsides. The fresh air is amazing.”
