Wheels were set in motion at the weekend for a whole host of fun and fundraising despite the persistent rain and cloudy skies.

On the hillsides and in the valleys yesterday hundreds of cyclists braved the rain to ride routes between 25 and 88 miles in aid of Sue Ryder’s Manorlands hospice, Oxenhope.

The charity hopes to have raised £5,000 from the Bronte Big K Cyklesportive event, sponsored by All Terrain Cycles, Saltaire. Around 100 cyclists participated.

It started with the ‘Race the Train’ challenge. Four cyclists out-paced the 9.40am train over a 4.8-mile route from Keighley to Oxenhope. Andrew Pratt was quickest, beating the train's time of 19 minutes and one second with a time of 17 minutes and 38 seconds.

Arron Sands travelled from Scotland to complete the 88-miles and finished first in an impressive five hours and 15 minutes.

Andrew Wood, of Sue Ryder, said: “It never fails to surprise me how keen cyclists are. You wouldn’t catch me riding 88 miles on any day, certainly not on a day like today. It’s a gruelling trek but they’ve just got stuck in.

“The 88-miles basically follows a big circle ten miles around Keighley taking in every hillside. People come from all over to take part.”

Elsewhere, the fourth Otley Street Festival featured a monocyclist and an ice cream vendor on his three-wheeled variety, plus belly dancers, live bands, stilt walkers, jugglers and a giant inflatable in the town’s shopping centre as fun-seekers braved the occasional downpour and sustained drizzle to support the town’s event.

And in Keighley’s Cliffe Castle, music lovers got the brollies out and went ahead with their picnics and snacks as they were entertained to live music at the Airedo Festival.

And on Saturday music filled Bradford city centre on Saturday as Bradford Busker Festival continued. Musicians are performing from three official pitches every weekend until August 27.

New Market Place featured the ‘12 Bars from Mars’ jazz quintet, Darley Street was enlivened with folk and country music from ‘Otra’ and Tim Moon sang in Northgate during the apfternoon.

Meanwhile, at the city’s Bolling Hall, members of the Earl of Newcastle’s Regiment of Foote of the Sealed Knot Living History Re-enactment Society gave free demonstrations of firing canons, the use of pikes, swords and muskets, and military drills. Inside the hall, women and children busied themselves, cooking and cleaning for the men as visitors were treated to a vision of what life was like under siege in Civil War England.