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Join me for 30 Days of Biking in April

Editor’s note: Here’s a guest post by Madi from Family Ride. After reading this post, I’m not sure I have ever ridden my bike every day for 30 days straight without missing a single one. I never kept track before. I may have to give it a shot next month. If you are participating or interested in making a Seattle ride (or rides) happen, be sure to say so in the comments.

Last August I was new to Twitter, and in my poking around I soon discovered 30 Days of Biking in its second iteration. The brainchild of two friends in Minneapolis, it’s heavily populated by Minnesotans, but the site is open to everyone. Round three starts April 1 and I can’t wait!

I started the challenge just to see if I could do it, but in the end it changed me from a fair-weather cyclist into someone seriously working towards becoming car free. Over the course of the month I cycled to places I hadn’t dreamed possible or previously considered practical. I ride with two small children on my bike and two baskets stuffed with toys and snacks, so I have to keep my routes pretty flat or I get stuck dismounting and pushing my heavy rig slowly uphill.


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I mustered the strength to ride from Green Lake to Phinney Ridge every week and eventually found a route (albeit twenty blocks out of the way) that was completely rideable. Since the bus was so easy for getting to the Seattle Center, I never thought to bike there. Turns out that while it’s a bit of a pain to cross Aurora, it’s totally worth doing. Plus it set us up for confidently biking to Bumbershoot later in the month and taking advantage of the secure bike parking and the freebie-filled VIB (Very Important Biker) booth.

Of course there were a couple less-than-stellar days, including a pajama-clad ride up and down my driveway at 11:59pm and bribing the Puyallup Fair parking lot attendant with an apple fritter to let me ride his mountain bike for a couple minutes.

Here’s the official blurb from 30DoB:

The only rule for 30 Days of Biking is that you bike every day for 30 days—around the block, 20 miles to work, whatever suits you—then share your adventures online. We believe biking enriches life, builds community, and preserves the Earth. This is the second year, and third round, of 30 Days of Biking.

Want to join the fun? The first step is to register. There’s also a Facebook page to like and a Facebook event to attend. Follow the tweets with the #30daysofbiking hashtag and use it in your event-related tweets.

Group rides are also part of the bargain. Minneapolis boasts several rides and it seems that Portland is getting into the 30DoB game in a big way, too. I’m hoping more Seattleites get involved and some events spring up here, too.


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11 responses to “Join me for 30 Days of Biking in April”

  1. Rich

    I just signed up. I ride most says anyway. Would be interested in local rides.

  2. […] post also appears on the Seattle Big Blog. Join the conversation in the comments section […]

  3. Wonderful post. So glad to see another biking family. I’m a fan of 30 Days of Biking, too. Totally got me excited about bicycling and changed life for me and my family. We’re much more active now. Did the September challenge with my family of four. Planning to do April.
    ~Myrna – @myrnacgmibus

  4. Melinda

    I can’t decide whether this is a great idea or a terrible idea for me, given that I’m going to be on vacation in foreign cities for two weeks in the middle of April.

    1. Do it do it do it! But vacationing does make it harder. I just realized we’re going to be gone for one week. Lately I’ve been renting cargo bikes when I’m out of town, but that’s definitely easier in some cities than others.

      1. Melinda

        I think it’s going to be the days on which I have ten-hour flights that would be the most trouble. After those I just want to collapse, not get on a bike!

  5. JAT

    forgive me, but am I the only one who thinks it would only take a tiny stumble of miscalculated balance and plop! your bike with two kids strapped to it tumbles upside down into the lake?

    Nice photo, I guess, but it gives me the heebie jeebies.

    1. Tom Fucoloro

      On the highway, it only takes a tiny movement of the steering wheel and you and your kids smash into another vehicle going 60+ mph…

      I think posing for a picture on a quiet dock by a lake on a sunny day is far less dangerous. My $0.02.

    2. I don’t make a habit of riding on piers, but it seemed like an exciting shot to walk the bike out there at the time. I guess holding my breath watching my toddler take his little balance bike near (and not event his near) the water has desensitized me more than I realized. :)

  6. Shirley

    Wow, it is great to see another woman biking. We bike from our little house in Seward Park to Interlaken (and back) 5 times a week for school and I hardly ever see other women trailing or carrying children on bikes.

    1. Good for you!! I just noticed the wonderful Yepp baby and kid seats are being carried at REI now so I’m hoping more and more women (and men, of course) will get out there. And I believe there are four moms with Madsen cargo bikes in South Seattle (with electric assist for those hills of yours!).

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