May is National Bike Month

May is National Bike Month

The League of American Bicyclists (LAB) celebrates National Bike Month each year in May. It's a chance for people to consciously promote cycling and the many ways bicycling is such a fun and useful way to get around.

Here are 18 ideas on how to do to celebrate National Bike Month:

1. Plan a cycling vacation.
2. Organize a neighborhood bike parade.
3. Commute to work on a bike!
4. Attach playing cards to your bike wheel and ride around like you did when you were a child.
5. Rent a Classic Bicycling Movie and have a Screening .
6. All you need is a projector, screen/sheet, speakers, and a nice yard or open space.
7. Ask your employer to install bike racks at your workplace.
8. Write a letter to the editor of your local paper on the virtues of bicycling.
9. Wear spandex to your next board meeting.
10. Write your congressman about the importance of bicycling.
11. Rent a book on the history of bicycling from your local library.
12. Organize a group to clean the local bike trail.
13. Take a Family Ride on a Local Trail.
14. Attend a Mayor’s Bicycle Advisory Committee Meeting in your Town.
15. Write a “thank you” letter to your local advocacy group for the work they do.
16. Ride a different bike than usual: Try a tandem, a tricycle or a unicycle!
17. Teach a child to ride a bicycle.
18. Visit the Bike Museum in Buffalo New York

*****

In England, when I was fourteen, I dreamed of owning a bicycle. Not just any bicycle - the object of my desire was a 10 speed racing bike. My dad said I could have it if I got a job and earned the money. I agreed and he arranged for me to help with his friend’s local milk delivery service every morning. I was up and out at 5 a.m. before going to school. It was often raining very hard or freezing cold and I did so much walking that my favorite yellow socks quickly developed giant holes in the heels. I really did not enjoy the job at all but I was determined to earn the money.

I worked all winter and eventually earned almost enough money for the deposit to purchase the bike, so my dad went with me and co-signed the small loan. As soon as it was paid for I gave up the job and was in heaven over owning my own bicycle. I remember feeling very proud that I had earned the money by myself.

Years later I realized that I had been taught a very valuable lesson. The main one being that I had to work in order to get the things that I want in life and I have never varied from that philosophy. I also learned that I wanted to have an indoor job where I could be dry

and warm :-)

I am aware that this sounds like a "when I was a child I walked 10 miles to school in the snow" story - but this one is true :-)

I loved that bicycle – I rode it every day and on the weekends I would ride long distances to visit my great aunt. It was a silver, 10 speed racing bike – very modern for the times :-)

*****

Cycling is an excellent way to get exercise and also a very important way to save on energy and pollution to improve the air in this wonderful earth that we share.

So, if you can, make cycling more than a sport but a basic way of life for you and your children and enjoy the National Bike Month.