|
Bicycle Rides & Touring
BICYCLE TOURING
The goal of our bike touring programs is to get our youth out on bikes and into the world. We want to encourage bicycling as an alternative and fun means of transportation and an exciting way to travel. In addition to teaching road safety and cycling acumen, we also hope to provide positive and memorable experiences through biking.
In 2006, we were looking for ways to retain older/teen participants within our programs. In addition, we were interested in fostering certain attributes in our alumnae: maturity, positive outlooks on life, resourcefulness, interest (in the world, and each other), humor, and a sense of adventure and wonderment.
We started bicycling on progressively longer road rides from January up until June of that year, and had a group of older youth who had all earned road bikes and were willing to give bike touring a try. This was a way to teach youth how to train, to encourage them to bike year-round, and to prepare them for long-distance riding. By the time we had reached June the youth were ready and committed to a weeklong trip in the San Juan Islands, and they were hooked on the idea. In July of 2006 we completed the bike tour of the San Juan Islands with a group of 9 youth, all on bikes, with all of our gear (no car support), camping out every night - and learning about the environment, local food and history, and leave no trace ethics.
After much planning we offered three bike touring camps in the summer of 2007. These camps still offered outdoor and environmental education components as part of our curriculum in addition to the bicycle touring education - and we were able to offer a progression of tours that let youth ages 10 -17 get outdoors on their bikes and under the stars. That summer our camps led the youth on trips around Bainbridge Island, Lopez Island, San Juan Island, and up Whidbey Island and over the mountains on a 400 mile tour of the scenic Cascade Loop. We plan to be able to continue to add new tours to our programs every summer, in order to expose our youth to the diversity of where they live, the varied and wonderful aspects of their own Washington State - and beyond!
Every summer we have been able to accomplish these dreams by collecting in-kind donations of gear and supplies from our community. In order to continue to push this type of programming and add new opportunities for these sorts of trips for our youth, we are always happy to accept any donations that you can make towards this effort. We thank you in advance for whatever you can give - and remember, the world is only a ride away!
"Bike touring was a great opportunity to see the state from a different perspective. I learned to be more efficient and going through the mountain passes made me realize that I can do much more than I think."
- Maya, age 15
BICYCLE RIDES
At Bike Works we ride bikes to inspire youth, motivate them, and to get them excited about bicycling. Putting youth on a bike gives them a sense of empowerment in their own learning and the tools for success in life. Bicycling can be made accessible to almost every youth, and a fun ride will give them a memorable experience and potentially turn them into committed cyclists for life.
STREET BURNERS BIKE CLUB
Our Street Burners Bike Club expands our activities to keep youth involved at Bike Works after they have earned their bicycle or have graduated from our classes. In 2002, the alumni youth of Bike Works chose their own name for this club and the Street Burners were born! Earn-a-Bike graduates ride bikes together to celebrate their hard work, enjoy bicycling, and practice safe riding skills. Youth have been mountain biking, BMX riding, road riding, building specialty "chopper" bikes, playing bike polo, and learning safety skills in bicycle rodeos. Bike Works keeps a fleet of bikes tuned up to lend out to riders if they haven't yet earned their own bike and still want to ride. Every year Bike Works offers 100 different types of after-school and weekend activities for the youth to stay active on their bikes, and we consistently ride over 5,000 miles each year on these neighborhood journeys.
BIKE POLO
Hard-court bike polo originated in Seattle around a decade ago; since then the sport has grown throughout the world. Bike Works has been offering bicycle polo activities as part of the Street Burners youth alumni club since 2006. The youth who had been playing polo here over the years were featured players during exhibition matches at the North American Championships in 2009, and the World Championships in 2011. In early 2011, a group of three enthusiastic Bike Works youth traveled down to Portland for the Cascadia Regional and performed as a team against players from around the region.
The game is played with three people on a team – and the playing field consists of tennis court sized arenas. Players most often use homemade mallets made out of ski poles with plastic pipe on the end. Bikes are normally single speed, with either 26 inch, or 700c wheels. Players try to hit a tennis ball sized street hockey ball into nets that are around handlebar height tall and bike length wide.
In Seattle, polo is huge. The city has recently designated two converted tennis courts for polo – one on Capitol Hill and one in the Central District -and players can be seen on at least one of these courts every day. In 2011, Seattle hosted the World Championships, and had 3 teams place in the top 10. At the North American Championships, a Seattle team took home the crown. A city with such an active scene is a great place to start your polo career!
MAJOR TAYLOR PROJECT/RIDES CLUB
In celebration of Major (Marshall) Taylor's 130th anniversary birthday, in 2008 we began discussions with a group of bicycle educators interested in starting a Seattle-wide Major Taylor Bike Club. Born in 1878, Taylor became the first African American World Champion cyclist after facing much racism in the cycling community he overcame huge barriers and was a true hero for many. The idea behind this program is to encourage youth from diverse backgrounds to get on their bikes and keep pedaling. The Major Taylor Project is a consortium of youth organizations, schools, and communities who are all starting and running their own bike clubs. At Bike Works this project has become the RIDES Club, a program that is open to anyone who wants to join and expands the options of activities for youth who want to be involved in biking at Bike Works. This club is part of an eight week program for youth who want to increase their road riding skills and get out and explore their communities. In 2009 we offered a RIDES club as part of an internship program with the Seattle Girls' School, as well as two RIDES summer camps - also known as RIDES (ride, investigate, discover the environment & society) - where youth explore the urban environment by bicycle and create their own maps of the city. Let's honor our history and ride bikes together!
BICYCLE PASSPORTS
Our bicycle passports program and our bike ride wall at Bike Works gets youth thinking about bicycling for transportation. As they log their bicycle miles around town (outside of Bike Works) - they use a personalized score card to travel along the bicycle wall in our classroom, and they can also track their rides in a bicycle passport. The youth are given the chance to win incentive prizes for every five miles they ride, with extra points for biking to school or to get to Bike Works. Bicycle passports and the bike riding wall get kids out of the car and onto their bikes to get around town.
|
 |
