May is Bike Month Across the West and Throughout the World!

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Celebrate Cycling in May!

In most years, Cycling West celebrates National Bike Month by publishing an extensive calendar of events like bike to work day, scavanger hunts, alley cats, and the Ride of Silence. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, most events are cancelled, so we are publishing a very limited calendar this year. See below. 

Bike to Work Day will be September 22, 2020. In Bike Month, you can still take part by joining the National Bike Challenge, nationalbikechallenge.org. Here, riders participate in Bike to Work Day 2019. Photo by Dave Iltis

That doesn’t mean we aren’t celebrating Utah Bike Month, Idaho Bike Month, Montana Bike Month, Nevada Bike Month, California Bike Month, Colorado Bike Month, and Wyoming Bike Month – you get the idea.

Ride your bike to work if you aren’t working from home, on errands, or just for fun!

The following from the League of American Bicyclists lets you know how to celebrate wherever you are:

Bicycling makes life better. It makes us healthier and it makes us happier, two things that are always good for us and that are even more important in 2020. That’s why the League of American Bicyclists is so very excited to celebrate National Bike Month in May.

Celebrate Bike Month in May in Utah and the West!

First celebrated in 1956, National Bike Month centers on biking to work and riding with a friend to a local coffee shop to get them back on a bike. In 2020, we’re doing National Bike Month a little differently. This May, the League encourages everyone to get on a bike, go for a ride, and share the joy online together.

For the 31 days in May, #BikesUnite us. Whether you’re riding for fun, fitness or with family, or taking essential trips to work or shop, you are part of a movement for safer streets, connected communities, a healthier planet, and happier people.

Share photos of your solo or family rides on social media using #BikesUnite and share the joy biking brings you. By sharing your “reason to ride” on social media and encouraging friends and family across the country to go by bike, we can experience the joy of biking together even as we shelter at home apart.

Here’s how to take part in National Bike Month this year:

  • Go for a ride – solo! Take a photo and share it on social media and show the world that #BikesUnite
  • Take a picture of yourself and your bike
  • Challenge your friends to a photo contest – who can take the best photo of their bike leaning next to a tree?
  • Make a scavenger hunt in your community and help people discover local sights
  • Take a selfie in front of your favorite small businesses to show support.
  • Join the National Bike Challenge to log your miles and see how united people are across the country by biking: http://nationalbikechallenge.org/
  • If you have the ability, consider supporting your local bicycle advocacy organization and Bicycle Friendly Businesses in your community – find them on the League’s map.

National Bike Month is a celebration of the benefits of biking. Biking is good for the planet, it’s good for businesses in your community, and it’s good for you. Bonus: the bike is a “happiness machine” that brings joy to even the shortest trips. Biking together is our favorite way to celebrate this amazing machine and the communities it has helped us build, and with #BikesUnite we will show that bikes unite us even while we’re apart, so that we may get through the most difficult situations.

In addition to being National Bike Month and the start of the National Bike Challenge, May is Mental Health Month. The benefits of exercising for physical health have been promoted for decades, and it’s increasingly recognized that physical activity benefits mental health, as well. Our well-being, physically and mentally, is in focus right now. We don’t talk often enough about the mental health benefits of biking, including reducing stress and anxiety, and improving happiness, mental focus, and sleep.

You don’t have to put on Lycra or bike up a mountain to get these effects. Short and regular physical activity will go a long way to a cumulative effect on your health. This May, we’re not only encouraging people to bike because it is fun, but also because it feels good and is good for you. Tune up the bike in your garage or keep pedaling in the drops, but whatever you do: bike!

For more on Bike Month, visit bikeleague.org

May 6, 2020National Bike to School Day, Utah Bike Month, Everywhere, UT, A day to climb out of the motor vehicle and onto your bike on your way to school., None , [email protected], walkbiketoschool.org

May 20, 2020Ride of Silence, Utah Bike Month, Salt Lake City, UT, Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and in solidarity with The Ride of Silence founder, riders are encouraged to participate in solo or household silent rides in memory of cyclists killed on public roadways., Chris Slauger, [email protected], rideofsilence.org, facebook.com/events/1101400300066668/

May 20, 2020Ride of Silence, Utah Bike Month, Provo, UT, Join the Provo chapter of the Worldwide Ride of Silence to ride to honor people who were killed or injured while biking this last year and last several years. We will begin at Dixon Middle School and go for a short, slow, silent ride with brief stops at the ghost bike memorials for Doug Crow and Mark Robinson, and return to Dixon Middle School where we will have light refreshments. Meet at 6:30. Dixon Middle School, 750 W 200 N. Ride begins at 7 pm sharp., Lucy Ordaz, 801-477-7048, [email protected], rideofsilence.org

September 19, 2020Golden Spoke, Utah Bike Month, Wasatch Front, UT, This third annual cycling event features 100 miles of interconnected trail systems across the Wasatch Region with multiple starting locations from Provo to Ogden, Utah. This year’s theme also highlights the theme of the Spike 150 celebration of the completion of transcontinental railroad. Rides of various lengths — with 100 mile, 75 mile, 50 mile, 25 mile, 10 mile and 1.5 mile segments — will feature connections with local communities around various historic and contemporary railroad themes. Some stretches of trail in Utah, Davis and Weber County, will also include rails to trails cycling paths. The rides are geared for fun and community engagement rather than competition, and are planned to accommodate riders of all ages and abilities., Heidi Goedhart, 801-783-8426, [email protected], goldenspokeutah.org

September 21-27, 2020National Bike to Work Week, Utah Bike Month, Everywhere, UT, A week to climb out of the motor vehicle and onto your bike on your way to work., None , [email protected], bikeleague.org

September 22, 2020National Bike to Work Day, Utah Bike Month, Everywhere, UT, A day to climb out of the motor vehicle and onto your bike on your way to work., None , [email protected], bikeleague.org

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