If you haven't taken advantage of the spring weather by getting your bike out of mothballs, then you're probly like me and have been riding since way back in the cold months. For me, every month is bike month and every week is bike to work week, but the month of May is the month we collectively celebrate as Bike to Work Month. If you were looking for an over-arching theme to your commitment to ride, this is it homies.
To quote the folks that started the movement:
May is National Bike Month, sponsored by the League of American Bicyclists and celebrated in communities from coast to coast. Established in 1956, National Bike Month is a chance to showcase the many benefits of bicycling — and encourage more folks to giving biking a try.
Cool, right? I know I'm down for more riders and if this gets people to try riding for a single month out of the year, I think it could change lives. Seriously, I believe!
Especially if you sign up for the Wisconsin Bike Challenge which starts in May like National Bike Month, but continues through September and is a sort of state vs state challenge to ride the most miles. The National Bike Challenge encourages you to keeps stats and log miles while comparing them to others on an online leaderboard or just with friends and co-workers. The Challenge is also interesting because Wisconsin won it last year and we aim for the same this year! I guess Vermont is hot on our tails so maybe you'll join the challenge, I just did HERE.
If you're not invested enough to do the Challenge, NBM culminates on Bike to Work Day on May 15th and Wisconsin Bike Fed is planning on having a commuter station will be set up on the Hank Aaron State Trail Menonmonee Valley passage near the Urban Ecology Center from 7am to 9am. Probably with some goodies and coffee.
National Bike to Work Week is May 11th-15th, however this year the Bike Fed is holding theirs from June 7th-13th just to make sure we get the best weather we can and get more people on the roads for a whole week. Freewheel! will keep you posted as we get closer to that week...
