THERE was plenty of giggling behind the bike sheds as youngsters arrived at Moredon Primary School via some highly decorative modes of transport.

More than 70 children cycled to the Moredon Road school yesterday as part of National Bike Week.

To mark the occasion they decorated their bikes with innovative designs for a competition run by national cycle to school project Bike It. The project is run by sustainable transport charity Sustrans and is aimed at nine to 12-year-olds, who might be tempted to leave their bikes at home when moving up to secondary school.

Bike It officer Ruth James encouraged children at Moredon to cycle to school by offering them a special Bikers' Breakfast of croissants and muffins.

Police community support officers had been at the school earlier in the week to put postcodes on the children's bikes.

But by the end of the week the number of children opting to go to school via two wheels rather than four had doubled.

"It went really well," Ruth said yesterday. "We had 76 bikes today so we had almost double the number we had earlier in the week.

"The Bike It project is all about encouraging children to cycle to school, so it has certainly worked."

Callum McClean and Jamie Smutek won the prizes for the most decorative bikes, but Ruth admitted it was a hard decision to pick out the best designs.

"We had dragons, pirate ships and lots of tinsel and tassles," she said. "They decorated the bikes at home and cycled in so there must have been quite a lot of tinsel and tassles on Moredon Road."

Moredon Children's Centre manager Kay White said the bike initiative had been a hit with the youngsters.

"The designs were very clever," she said. "The week was all about promoting healthy choices, but we are also in the process of improving the school travel plan and that includes encouraging children to cycle to school."