A Reason To Ride. My name’s Jemma, I’m 36 and I’ve never ridden a bike. There, I’ve said it. Actually, that’s not strictly true. I have a very clear memory of my dad teaching me to ride a bright purple bike with stabilizers, a white basket on the front and streamers on the handlebars. I remember him walking alongside me, encouraging me across the path in front of the newsagents we owned. I’d have been about six years old. I remember the stabilisers coming off and then? Nothing. My mum and dad simply couldn’t run alongside me whilst I got used to not having stablisers. So that was that. I took up swimming. Fast forward to my being 21 and living in Amsterdam. Not only is having a bike a way of life for the Dutch, they are also ten a penny rust buckets with no brakes. So I didn’t feel too bad when the bloody thing ended up in the canal, after getting on then immediately falling o...