BRONTË Wheelers held their general meeting on October 20 when we reviewed our year and started planning for next year.

The annual general meeting is also when the club elects its officials to run the club, and this year there was no change to the old guard.

Last year was an eventful year with lots of activity outside of the core purpose of riding the bike due to Le Grande Depart coming to Yorkshire.

Brontë Wheelers were involved in cycling-related activities at Glusburn Institute in the run-up to the Tour de France, and contributed cycling-related equipment to a display in Keighley put together by Frank O’Dwyer.

We saw a rise in participation of the events we organise with full fields on several of the evening 10-mile time trials.

Membership has also increased with more people riding on a regular basis. The test is whether this will be maintained in the coming years.

The onset of winter and the dark nights tend to discourage people from riding and it is easy to slip out of the habit of regular riding. The trick to keeping riding is to get the right clothing and a good set of lights.

These days the technical clothing can be bought at relatively cheap cost or you can spend a small fortune.

Well-known discount supermarkets stock as special-buys cycling clothing at very cheap prices, and looking at the quality they provide value for money. Of course they are not as good as the premium products but then not every one has £200-plus to spend on a winter jacket.

Lights also have much improved. Back in the 1970s and 80s when I started the lights were heavy with zinc batteries that lasted a couple of hours at most, or you had to get a dynamo.

The lights let water in and stopped working or poor connections caused them to go off and required strategically-folded cardboard inserting to ensure connections were sound.

These days with the advent of LEDs and rechargeable batteries for £40 or so you can get a set of lights that are bright, low in weight and have batteries that recharge.

You can also get them to flash or strobe, and the poor connections of old are a thing of the past.

The amount of hi-vis and reflective kit available is never ending so riding in the dark is possible to do safely.

So to all those who have got the bug for riding over the summer, get the right kit and keep it up over the winter.

This is also the time for cycling club dinners and prize presentations.

The first one in my calendar is the Nelson Wheelers Cycling Club dinner in November. This is their centenary year so is a special year for them.

Nelsons have this year won the interclub competition we run in conjunction with them on the Kildwick time trial course, so congratulations to them.

The Bronte Wheelers dinner is usually held in late January or early February and again this year it is planned to be at the Dog and Gun in Glusburn.