Amy Schiebel, of Denver, Colo., logged the 10 millionth mile in the National Bike Challenge

Here at the League, we love the holiday season. But for us the most wonderful time of the year is the month of May.

And in 2012, National Bike Month was bigger and better than ever before.

In May, we officially launched the National Bike Challenge — a new, nationwide initiative to inspire and empower millions of Americans to ride their bikes for transportation, recreation and better health. The friendly, online competition far exceeded its 10 million mile goal and transformed the lives of countless Americans.

Like the many innovative advocates who put on thousands of Bike Month events nationwide, the League came up with new ways to celebrate, too.

In line with the 2012 theme of One Ride, Many Reasons, we curated the personal reflections and inspirations of a diverse collection of bicyclists from coast to coast for our daily 31 Days, 31 Reasons blog feature. We also partnered with Sierra Club and the National Council of La Raza to release a new fact sheet on Bike to Work Day that showed U.S. bicyclists save a staggering $4.6 billion by biking instead of driving.

Elizabeth Williams of Cali Bike Tours shared her story in the 31 Days, 31 Reasons series

This year was also a first for two other major events. On Mother’s Day, thousands of women (and men) united for Cyclofemme — a global initiative to empower more women to ride and build the community of female bicyclists. And the inaugural Bike to School Day was a tremendous success, too, with more than 700 events across the nation.

Bike to School Day in Savannah, Ga.

We’re already getting excited for Bike Month 2013. Click here for the dates and our Bike Month Guide!

Carolyn Szczepanski
Communications Director

Carolyn joined the League in March 2012, after two years at the Alliance for Biking & Walking. In addition to managing the League's blog, magazine and other communications, Carolyn organized the first National Women's Bicycling Summit and launched the League's newest program: Women Bike. Before she crossed over to advocacy, she was a professional journalist for nearly 10 years.

Growing up in England I followed a similar path to many an American. I rode everywhere as a kid on a light blue Coventry Eagle ten speed with a leather saddle (probably the most valuable thing on the whole bike, and certainly what I missed most when it was inevitably “nicked”) my older brother David bought me for Christmas. As a teenager I pretty much gave up riding — true, I also went to boarding school, which limited the opportunity and need to ride whole lot — and didn’t get back in the saddle until the end of my second year at university, when I was invited to go on a cycling holiday in France.

At the start of that summer, I got a second-hand bike and started to ride in preparation for the trip. Lo and behold, not only was it a fun way to see the countryside but it was also a whole lot better and more practical than waiting for the bus at home in Bristol. Riding turned out to be quicker and a lot cheaper than any other way of getting to classes in Birmingham. At the end of that summer, I traded in the bike for a new one and had another “aha!” moment: I got more trade-in value and had ridden more miles than my other brother Peter did on his motorcycle over that same summer!

So before I turned 20, I’d figured out that riding a bike was cheap, economical, quick, practical, and enormous fun. Why wouldn’t I ride a bike?

A growing social and environmental conscience confirmed the bike as a true vehicle for change in the world — more so than the law degree I was finishing at the time. The day after exams finished I took off on a six-week ride around Europe with a fierce determination not to be a lawyer and not much else. On my return, I volunteered for a local cycling campaign in Cheltenham and worked on a Safe Routes to School project. That was the summer of 1984 and within a matter of months I had gotten a job with Friends of the Earth in London as a part-time bicycle campaigner, visited the Netherlands for the first time, and in May 1985 found myself appointed the [volunteer] Secretary-General of the European Cyclists’ Federation — still the best title I’ve ever had.

What’s not to love about cycling and riding a bike?

Almost 30 years on, I am still amazed at the practical versatility and simple common sense of the bicycle. I still ride to work every day. I still see the bike as THE vehicle for change. And I am still amazed that so many people just don’t get it… yet. Why wouldn’t you ride? Why on earth haven’t individuals, communities and nations embraced the multitude of diverse benefits bicycling brings; all the reasons you’ve read about in this compelling “Why I Ride” series of articles.

Why do I ride? Seems pretty obvious to me: it’s a good thing to do.

Why wouldn’t I ride?

May is National Bike Month and this year’s theme is One Ride, Many Reasons. To highlight and celebrate the many benefits of bicycling, throughout May we brought you the personal reflections and inspirations of a diverse collection of bicyclists from coast to coast with our daily 31 Days, 31 Reasons blog feature.

Click here to view the full series.

I remember my mother teaching me to ride my bike with training wheels as a child. I remember riding lopsided. And I remember finally being able to balance my bike all by myself and not having to depend on my lopsided training wheels. I had no idea what kind of wonderful journeys my bike would take me on then. I just knew I was having fun.

Growing up, we (my brother & friends) rode our bikes all over our neighborhood in Compton and North Long Beach, exploring, just having fun riding and being outdoors. Everyone didn’t always have a bike of their own, so we would take turns riding each other’s on the handlebars. Just about every summer day included some adventure by bike.

When high school came around, riding bikes was replaced with hanging out at the mall or a friend’s house or talking on the phone. But I’ve always fondly remembered those Saturdays and long summer days riding. As an adult, for years I told myself that I was going to buy a bike, but it didn’t happen until my 36th birthday. My initial desire was to buy a bike and use it as an alternate form of exercise. I had no idea that my purchase would eventually change my life.

I was going through a divorce and my birthday was coming up. I like to give myself gifts for my birthday, so I decided it would be a bike that year. It would serve two purposes 1) provide a fun type of exercise and 2) get me out of the house so I wasn’t sitting at home being depressed about my divorce. My plan was to buy a beach cruiser like the one I had as a child, but I found out I had more of a need for speed. I bought a road bike.

I started out putting my bike in my car, driving to the beach and riding between 30 minutes and one hour after work. I was too afraid to ride the two-plus miles from my house to the beach, because I was not comfortable riding in traffic. After a while, I finally got up the courage to ride from my house to the beach. It felt great not being afraid.

I did this for about 6 months. With the new year coming, I decided I wanted to do something different. I wanted to do something major in my life. I wanted to stretch out my boundaries further than I had ever done. A friend was training for a marathon and suggested I try one. That didn’t excite me. So I went online to look for some kind of adventure that would spark my interest. Nothing gripped me.

One day I was standing in line at Whole Foods and saw the Outside magazine. On the cover it talked about “10 Things to Try for the New Year”. The write-up on training for a triathlon jumped off the page and said “Pick me!”  So I did.

I decided to train for a triathlon with Team In Training. They helped me overcome my childhood fear of drowning and taught me how to swim. They also taught me how to be a better runner and how to get more out of my bike riding.

After I completed my first international triathlon, it increased my already growing need to ride. I started meeting people who did century bike rides for causes they supported. I couldn’t get my mind around riding my bike 100 miles in one day, but my interest was piqued.

The event I did was the Solvang Century and this was a full century in one day. I met a guy in the parking lot on the way to pick up my registration packet and, while standing in line, he tells me one of the craziest things I’d ever heard. He tells me he’s planning a bike tour from San Francisco to Los Angeles! I really thought he was crazy. But the more I started to ride and the more century rides I completed; it started to not seem so crazy after all. This guy became a friend and a coach and encouraged me to join him and his friends on this ride. I trained with them and on my own and built up enough strength, endurance and most of all, confidence to complete the tour.

Six days down the beautiful Pacific Coast changed my life forever. It was breathtaking, beautiful, challenging, fun and inspiring.

While I was training for the SF to LA tour, I started thinking about how much time and energy I was investing into cycling. I decided I needed to share some of this fun with others and thought long on how to translate it into a business. Several ideas came up, but a bike touring company landed on top. I decided to start a bike touring company, Cali Bike Tours, so people could experience my wonderful city, Long Beach, Calif., by bike.

Since then, I’ve been able to do just that and then some.  I bought a vintage Schwinn bike that I love riding around town for shopping, attending meetings and running errands.  I’ve had opportunities to teach basic bike education on safety & maintenance to women and girls that included women only group rides, held a bike drive & give-away to women living in transitional housing, and I try to encourage all listening ears to get on a bike and ride.

Who knew my bike would have taken me on so many different journeys. And I keep discovering new places to ride and explore around the world. It looks like my next adventure will be cycling 500 miles along the Camino de Santiago in Spain, hopefully this summer. I love riding my bike and exploring. I want everyone to experience what I feel when the wind is blowing against my smiling face and I’m feeling free to ride anywhere I choose.

May is National Bike Month and this year’s theme is One Ride, Many Reasons. To highlight and celebrate the many benefits of bicycling, throughout May we’ll bring you the personal reflections and inspirations of a diverse collection of bicyclists from coast to coast with our daily 31 Days, 31 Reasons blog feature.

I ride a bicycle because…

I want to get around on a vehicle that weighs less than I do.

I’d rather be a bicycle rider than envy them.

I like to sweat a little, not a lot, every day, and riding is my favorite way to sweat.

I never find money and tools on the road when I’m in a car, but I do when I ride my bike.

A bike fits in places a car doesn’t, and I often want to go into those places—like between cars and the curb, between two cars, on bike-and-pedestrian bridges and overpasses.

My house and yard fit more bikes than cars.

I can park my bike on the sidewalk, or a lawn, or anywhere. I don’t need a parking lot.

If I drive on a sidewalk, I go to jail. If I ride my bike on a sidewalk, no big deal. Somebody might try to make a big deal of it, but it doesn’t register with me as a big deal.

I just want to go someplace without announcing “I’m a-coming!” and a bike does that a lot better than a car or motorcycle.

If I hit somebody when I’m riding my bike, I’m not likely to kill him. I know it’s possible, but I’m not that reckless, and I’ve never hit anybody yet.

I like riding something I can fix.

I own a bicycle company, and it would be weird if I didn’t (though obviously, I rode before I owned).

If I couldn’t ride a bike, I know there would be nothing I’d want to do more. I’m glad I have had that realization while I can still ride.

It’s a habit. It’s not something I have to do, or something I think about doing, and often it’s not something I even think about wanting to do.

Some rides are pure utility, not fun, but they’re never bad.

A few times every year I get on my bike and feel proud that I’ve mastered this flip-floppy thing that doesn’t look like it could do everything it does for me. I don’t need to hop it from boulder to fence-top, and then somersault down to a soft-front wheel landing. I sure don’t need to be able to grind out 10,000 miles a year, or a dreadful double century in under 11 hours.

I’ve mastered my bike for how I ride it.

May is National Bike Month and this year’s theme is One Ride, Many Reasons. To highlight and celebrate the many benefits of bicycling, throughout May we’ll bring you the personal reflections and inspirations of a diverse collection of bicyclists from coast to coast with our daily 31 Days, 31 Reasons blog feature.

My love of bikes began when I was very young.

I learned to ride a bicycle when I was 7 years old. I lived in Puebla, Mexico at the time and I learned to ride on my father’s Panasonic mountain bike. It was much too big for me. Each time I fell down, I was motivated to keep trying.

Eventually I discovered my sister’s old bike that she had grown too big for. It was just about my size but it needed a lot of work. I studied the bicycle and could see that each and every part fit into another part, again and again, making the bicycle whole. I realized that if the bike was broken, it was just a matter of finding and fixing the broken place.

After three afternoons, I had fixed the bike.

I would ride through the city until the streets turned to earth and the air was fresh and I felt free. My sister told me I was crazy but I knew that if I could do this, I could do anything.

Learning to ride a bike is something I think back to a lot — that particular combination of feelings: self-sufficiency, motivation, and accomplishment — is something that I take great comfort in. These are the lessons I want to carry with me no matter what I learn and do.

I am a curious person. I moved to New York City, learned to speak English, learned carpentry and welding, learned to fix bikes and cars, and I want to go to college and study to become an electrical engineer.

So why do I ride? I ride because biking makes my life complete. I can be a responsible citizen, care for the environment, help to save our natural resources, save my money, choose my pace, and at the same time, I can go anywhere I dream.

May is National Bike Month and this year’s theme is One Ride, Many Reasons. To highlight and celebrate the many benefits of bicycling, throughout May we’ll bring you the personal reflections and inspirations of a diverse collection of bicyclists from coast to coast with our daily 31 Days, 31 Reasons blog feature.

I am mostly a bike commuter and errand runner. I replace relatively short car trips with my bike and pair transit with bike sharing too. On weekends, my family takes rides when we have time, when we are together. I don’t race. I don’t wear spandex or bike shorts. I ride about 12 miles a day, on average four days of the work week. My commute takes me in equal parts through old tree-lined neighborhoods, along Denver’s Cherry Creek Greenway and through the heart of downtown to my office.

I ride because it helps me know where I am in space and time. I have eye contact with my neighbors. I am aware of my breathing and in touch with my health. I know what season it is. These cool Colorado spring mornings are glorious. Last week, I rode through clouds of Iris fragrance. Soon it will be the flowering Linden trees. I see hawks on top of trees, herons along the creek, inspiring sunsets as I ride on the highway overpass near my home. In the bottom half of my visual field: eight lanes of clogged, stop-and-go traffic on Interstate 25 going both directions. In the top: the Rocky Mountains, often snowcapped, lowering sun piercing through multi-colored clouds. Beautiful!

Riding helps me prioritize my time, enforces a kind of preparatory discipline or mindfulness about the day and weeks ahead. I organize meeting places to be on my ride in or out, or I consolidate those that are far away on one day. Any marginal extra time it may take me to ride to work regularly is quickly compensated for by efficiency. At the end of long work days, I might start dragging, think how much easier it might be if I had a car to pop into and numbly drive.

Then, without fail, every time, within three blocks I am smiling.

So I ride for me — my joy, my health, my energy, my sense of belonging.

But that’s not all.

In 1989, before either of my two children were born, I had the great honor of working with Walter Orr Roberts, an older gentleman, a brilliant scientist and the Founder of the National Center for Atmospheric Research. He changed my life forever. The project was an exchange on climate change with the Soviet Academy of Scientists. In the 21 years since, my husband and I have raised our two children, Luke and Meg. In truth, not a day has gone by when I did not, at some moment, experience a wave of despair for the world we are leaving them and outrage at the perpetual inattention and inactivity of our generation. How is it that not everyone feels this urgency!!!

While raising Luke and Meg, I worked on pollution prevention and sustainability projects for different sectors – for a non-profit, for different levels of government, with a partner on our own small business. Enter bike sharing. Since 2008 I have worked to bring bike sharing to Denver, and without contest, this work is the single most effective, most rewarding, most real contribution I have made to a sustainable world.

I can see it. We can measure it. We know that 37% of our riders are replacing car trips, and it makes them smile while they are doing it. We know that the emission of more than 1 million pounds of carbon to the atmosphere have been avoided since we opened. Not to mention, we estimate our riders have burned almost 20 million calories while headlines rage about an obesity epidemic that will cripple future generations for years to come.

And not to be underestimated: My now college-aged children and their friends think I’m cool. How great is that?!

While our political and social institutions are polarized into inaction on almost every issue at every level, each of us can do something real. With each simple ride, we are simultaneously helping our own sense of well being and place, our neighborhood cohesion, our city’s public and economic health, our nations’ reliance on limited fossil fuels supplied by unstable and unethical governments, and if we are not too late already, the habitability of our planet for future generations and communities we cannot imagine.

I ride my bicycles for me.

And I work long hours every day to get more people to ride for the planet.

May is National Bike Month and this year’s theme is One Ride, Many Reasons. To highlight and celebrate the many benefits of bicycling, throughout May we’ll bring you the personal reflections and inspirations of a diverse collection of bicyclists from coast to coast with our daily 31 Days, 31 Reasons blog feature.

It’s hard to believe but there are only six days left in this year’s National Bike Month. So Jenn gave us her top six reasons she loves to ride.

• To get more quality time with friends. The bike is a perfect vehicle, not just for transportation, but also for conversation. I meet people riding. I do some of my best thinking while riding, and I get uninterrupted time with friends while riding.  Sure, sometimes we get interrupted by passing traffic; sometimes I can only get a few words out while huffing and puffing up a hill. The punctuated staccato rhythm of a ride lends time to think, time to laugh, time to take it all in.

• To see my home and be part of my community. I learned to ride a bike when I was 18. I had acquired a red Schwinn ten-speed to get around the Stanford campus. The following summer, I rode across the U.S. Whether touring the Rockies on my own, or riding RAGBRAI with 10,000 Midwesterners, I’m hooked.

• To feel empowered. I was the opposite of a tomboy growing up. Fixing flats on my first long tour brought out the engineer and tinkerer in me.

• To make a living doing something I love. I spent summer vacations working for the Denver Spoke learning the industry. I worked for Backroads leading hiking and bicycling trips. What could be better than helping (and joining) others to see the world by bike?!

• To stay healthy, mentally and physically. My daily bike commute to work isn’t far, but I know it is my time, everyday. Once a week, I leave my house at sunrise to ride in the Marin Headlands before heading to work in downtown San Francisco. I notice the weather, the roads, the daily cycles; and I enjoy them.

• And, maybe most importantly, to have fun!

May is National Bike Month and this year’s theme is One Ride, Many Reasons. To highlight and celebrate the many benefits of bicycling, throughout May we’ll bring you the personal reflections and inspirations of a diverse collection of bicyclists from coast to coast with our daily 31 Days, 31 Reasons blog feature.

I’ve been interested in cycling all of my life, since I was a kid. But growing up and in college, cycling was about racing. Living in Arkansas, riding to work wasn’t a safe or comfortable option. It wasn’t until I moved to Portland that I got a different kind of introduction to cycling. In Portland, bicycling is more for commuting.

One day, shortly after I moved here, I was in a car accident. It was the first car I’d purchased brand new, and I’d driven it, at that point, for about seven years and I’d paid it off. I had already lived a couple of years without a car payment and I thought it was a vehicle I’d have for a really long time. After the accident, I didn’t want to spend all that money on another car again. When I got the money back from the insurance company, I thought, “Well, I can buy another car and have another car payment for who knows who long, or I can try commuting by bike.”

I decided I would give myself three months to test it out and it was the hardest three months in Oregon: November, December and January. I was able to do it and I enjoyed it. I’m in a bike lane basically the whole way to work, which is great and something that’s almost unheard of in any other part of the country. I saved a lot of money, felt healthy and less stressful at work.

At the time, I had just started new job at a nonprofit organization, the Hacienda CDC. One of our programs partnered with the Community Cycling Center and we felt really close to that work. At one point, 20 percent of the Hacienda staff was commuting by bike. The organization targets the Latino community and, in those neighborhoods, there weren’t a lot of Latinos riding to work. I happened to be one that does, and the Community Cycling Center felt my story would be a good connection to community outreach, too.

I hope I am a role model for younger kids. I have a little brother from Big Brothers Big Sisters and one of the first things we did, one of our first activities together was going to the Community Cycling Center and learning how to fix your own bike. Hopefully, he learned something. Hopefully, he will want to become a commuter one day, too — and not spend all his money on a car.

May is National Bike Month and this year’s theme is One Ride, Many Reasons. To highlight and celebrate the many benefits of bicycling, throughout May we’ll bring you the personal reflections and inspirations of a diverse collection of bicyclists from coast to coast with our daily 31 Days, 31 Reasons blog feature.

I bike, well… because I can.

It’s been less than a year since my passion for biking was born but, then again, it’s pretty amazing what can happen it just one year.

Less than a year ago I was struggling to get through life without a dependency on alcohol. During this time I was given the opportunity to join Gearing Up, a Philadelphia-based bike program offered to women as a means of self-growth and motivation.

“Sure, I’ll ride a bike,” I thought. “Can’t hurt any more than what I’m already going through.”

That first ride made me feel like a little girl again. A sense of freedom and independence from daily struggles had overcome me. Something in me had been sparked. How grateful I was to have those feelings.

So it began…

Goals were set and met, not only in my biking program, but in life, too. Riding became my outlet, my personal sense of freedom and accomplishment. The more I rode the more grateful I was to be able to.

Over this year I have learned to look at things from a different point of view. There are so many people in this world who would give anything to be able to do something as simple as ride a bike. But for whatever reason they are physically unable to. How can I take riding a bike for granted? That’s why I say I bike because I can.

Each and every time I am grateful to experience the ride.

May is National Bike Month and this year’s theme is One Ride, Many Reasons. To highlight and celebrate the many benefits of bicycling, throughout May we’ll bring you the personal reflections and inspirations of a diverse collection of bicyclists from coast to coast with our daily 31 Days, 31 Reasons blog feature.

Fifteen years ago, I was transformed.

After doing the AIDS Ride in 1996 – my life changed. After this RIDE, I no longer just rode a bike; I understood what it meant to move on two wheels and experience the space and communities around me.

After this RIDE, I knew what it felt like to be in good shape and actually thought much clearer in my daily decision making. After this RIDE, I wanted and want to be on a bike to simply enjoy life and all the benefits that come along with it rolling on two wheels.

As a child, I road my bike almost every weekend with my sister and neighborhood friends. We grew up and went to school in an area that is now called South Central LA. Growing up in the sixties was a different time – as children, we were more free and able to explore much more than what our youth are able to do today.

Knowing that my life and lifestyle have been positively altered because I ride, it has become a mission of mine to find ways to incorporate this lifestyle and ways of thinking about a bike within my family and beyond.

Over the past year I have been on a mission to direct and produce my first documentary RIDE: In Living Color, which will be a documentary that drives a campaign to tell the stories of African American cyclists who are part of the fabric of life within diverse communities in California and beyond.

The film and campaign will provide an insiders’ perspective on how cycling in urban American communities is increasing in numbers and participation, both recreationally and professionally.

A few of the numerous cyclists, bike riders, and advocates I have had the pleasure of meeting and interviewing are Olympic 2x medalist Giddeon Massie; first African American National woman cyclist Karla Bland; and noted biographer Andrew Ritchie, who chronicled the story of the first recognized African American competitive cyclist Major Taylor.

I’ve interviewed Tafarai Bayne of T.R.U.S.T. South LA (and CicLAvia board member) and John Jones III of the East Side Riders in Watts, who both are advocating for safer streets and programs that encourage young kids to get involved in the varied rides paired with empowerment events.

Not to mention, I’ve talked to cyclists about the wide range of health benefits bikes are having in our community in the areas of diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease and the like. I too have been educated and enlightened with real stories on how cyclists are changing their lives for the better!

In the end, however, while this film will offer more insight into our commonalities than our differences- my journey has shown me that the bike is being utilized as a tool to help us “find our own internal happiness” and can be used as a “vehicle for change in any community,” too.

May is National Bike Month and this year’s theme is One Ride, Many Reasons. To highlight and celebrate the many benefits of bicycling, throughout May we’ll bring you the personal reflections and inspirations of a diverse collection of bicyclists from coast to coast with our daily 31 Days, 31 Reasons blog feature.