Fifty Plus (50+) - What would your club do with $18,000?

Our cycling club has a chance to receive $18,000 to fund a bicycle related project in our area. The rules are very simple - the project must be bike related and it must be carried out locally.

One of the suggestions received today was to sponsor 2-3 day bike trips for kids at risk. We could take them on one of the local bike tours or put together a weekend trip to a local park. We would work with local schools or other organizations to identify kids who might benefit from this type of activity.

What would your club do?

I'm not in a club, but a suggestion would be to look at possibly opening a bike co-op. Lots of underprivileged people can benefit in many ways.

I have no idea of the cost of such a project. It's just a thought.

Sponsor a bike rodeo for grade school kids, with free helmets.

Sponsor a bike rodeo for grade school kids, with free helmets.

That's a great idea but the local park district and one of the Children's Hospital already does this. I'm one of the helmet fitters:)

I'm not in a club, but a suggestion would be to look at possibly opening a bike co-op. Lots of underprivileged people can benefit in many ways.

I have no idea of the cost of such a project. It's just a thought.

That's an idea. We already work with the local "Bike Guy". He collects bikes, restores them and gives them away to kids in the area. I've gave him a couple of my old bikes for his projects.

An outfit in DC set up Chain Reaction to not just repair bikes, but to train kids to become bike mechanics.. Here is a short write up:


Chain Reaction educates youth about the role of the bicycle in sustainable communities, equips youth with job skills, and provides residents of Washington, DC, with safe, affordable, and pollution-free transportation. The Youth Bike Shop, an entrepreneurial venture of Chain Reaction, hires and trains youth mechanics to recycle donated bikes for resale and to complete repairs for customers. All revenue generated supports the work of the youth mechanics, inventory, and educational workshops.

Chain Reaction is part of Shaw EcoVillage, whose mission is to train youth to be effective leaders and catalysts for meaningful and sustainable change in DC's urban neighborhoods. Another program under their umbrella is the EcoDesign Corps, where kids ages 15-19, are provided the opportunity to develop leadership skills to create innovative solutions to real-life community issues through hands-on action projects. Students use action tools to analyze/develop their solutions. At the completion of their project, students present their ideas to key decision makers and community residents.

Our cycling club has a chance to receive $18,000 to fund a bicycle related project in our area. The rules are very simple - the project must be bike related and it must be carried out locally.

One of the suggestions received today was to sponsor 2-3 day bike trips for kids at risk. We could take them on one of the local bike tours or put together a weekend trip to a local park. We would work with local schools or other organizations to identify kids who might benefit from this type of activity.

What would your club do?

What a nice question for your club to have to ponder. :)

I think my club would want to use it for some way of getting kids (and adults) started toward safe and frequent bicycle riding. Buying and/or restoring bikes to give away in exchange for sweat equity would be one suggestion. Instruction and training in safe bike riding would be part of the program.

Another possibility would be to use some of the money for a public awareness campaign to help make drivers more cognizant of bicyclists as humans.

Please let us know what you decide to do.

My club does a lot of road and trail advocacy work. That usually takes time rather than money. For instance, last week I met with the state DOT people to help plan for bike traffic through a *radical* new, first-of-its-kind design for an expressway junction.

Given money, I would complement that work with "destination advocacy". There are places that desperately need racks and other facilities. While the road and trail people work on getting from point A to point B, I would use the money on what to do with your darned bike once you get to point B.

For example, a large park here is called "Trail Central" because it is serviced by no fewer than four MUPs with a fifth one planned. Beautiful work by the trail advocacy people in the club. They even got a bike bridge built over the river. It's named for the club's founder.

But don't bother riding your bike *to* the park, you can only ride *through* the park, since there's no place to lock your bike in the park. I discovered this the hard way when I rode to a community picnic there. There should be a bike rack at every ball diamond, picnic pavilion, tennis court and soccer field.

Alternatively, I would put it towards a bike commuter center downtown, with lockers (both bike and clothing) changing areas and such. $18K wouldn't go very far by itself, but as seed money or combined with another projects, it could help.

That's what I mean by "destination advocacy".

The Arkansas Sustainability Network has started a project to put those noodle shaped bike racks in at local merchants. I think the cost is about $200-250 a pop with installation. 72 bike racks at strategic points in our city would really help.

The Arkansas Sustainability Network has started a project to put those noodle shaped bike racks in at local merchants. I think the cost is about $200-250 a pop with installation. 72 bike racks at strategic points in our city would really help.

There ya go! Another example of "destination advocacy".

An outfit in DC set up Chain Reaction to not just repair bikes, but to train kids to become bike mechanics.. Here is a short write up:


Chain Reaction educates youth about the role of the bicycle in sustainable communities, equips youth with job skills, and provides residents of Washington, DC, with safe, affordable, and pollution-free transportation. The Youth Bike Shop, an entrepreneurial venture of Chain Reaction, hires and trains youth mechanics to recycle donated bikes for resale and to complete repairs for customers. All revenue generated supports the work of the youth mechanics, inventory, and educational workshops.

Chain Reaction is part of Shaw EcoVillage, whose mission is to train youth to be effective leaders and catalysts for meaningful and sustainable change in DC's urban neighborhoods. Another program under their umbrella is the EcoDesign Corps, where kids ages 15-19, are provided the opportunity to develop leadership skills to create innovative solutions to real-life community issues through hands-on action projects. Students use action tools to analyze/develop their solutions. At the completion of their project, students present their ideas to key decision makers and community residents.


What a good idea. Train the kids to have job skills in the real world and use the school labor to inject a number of repaired bicycles into the community. Win/Win.

The Arkansas Sustainability Network has started a project to put those noodle shaped bike racks in at local merchants. I think the cost is about $200-250 a pop with installation. 72 bike racks at strategic points in our city would really help.

We did some research on bike parking racks for our town a while back and found that the inverted U shape racks are the preferred design for maximum utility.

This is not one of the studies we used, but the conclusions are similar. I can't find the ones we used at the moment.
http://www.denvergov.org//Bicycle_Program/EquipmentStandardsforBicycleParkingAreas/tabid/378655/Default.aspx