My Area 106: Bicyclings "Biketown"

Biketown came to downtown Columbus, Ohio (set up was right outside of City Hall) this morning courtesy of the crew from Bicycling Magazine, Shimano Coasting, Trek Bicycle Corporation and the Trek Bicycle Store of Columbus. This was formerly the summer kickoff for the Biketown program and it all started in "MY AREA".

Biketown was created about 6 years ago when the editors of Bicycling started asking consumers (that weren't cyclists) why they didn't ride. Many answered that they were intimated because they didn't know much about cycling, how to shift gears, where to ride and even feel safe on a bike. That's when Bicycling came up with the Biketown idea and went on a search to find other industry bigs to see if they would be willing to join them in getting the word of cycling out to the masses.

The first Biketown was done in Portland, Maine. Basically, you can even enter yourself for a chance to win a new bike by visiting Bicycling's on line page and writing an essay on what a new bike would mean to you! As a matter of fact, Biketown today gave away approximately "30" Lime Lite bicycles to these essay winners. I spoke to as many as I could today and they came from all backgrounds. An office worker, a salesman, college students and a stay at home mother raising 3 kids. This women is overweight and wants to use her new bike to loose the pounds she's added since having the 3 children.

The day was outstanding! Sunshine (I actually got a little sunburn today) to the max and temps around 60 degrees. I had the pleasure of meeting the Mayor of Columbus (Mayor Coleman) and listened to his address on how his administration is working to create additional paved trails for the cyclists of Columbus and getting more bicycle access to all roads in and around the city of Columbus thus making the roads truly "multi use".

The Bicycling Representatives that help put all this together was Courtney and Lois, whom really did a fantastic job of organizing and pulling this altogether. This was truly a grand event today and I only wish I could have gotten the word out to more people to join us this morning.

Heck, through the course of the day, I helped with bike demo's, bike fittings, helmet fittings, posed for photographs, directed in a U haul truck, got a $20 parking ticket for not feeding the meter, felt the presence of Christopher Columbus staring down at me, spoke with members of the riding club "Major Taylor", and more importantly helped with the giveaway of "30" bikes. I love my job!!

Special thanks to Chris Bishop and Amanda Reass (& all the staff at the Trek Store of Columbus) for getting all the bikes built and handling all the details; Lois and Courtney from Bicycling for choosing Columbus as a "Biketown" site; Mayor Coleman for taking time out of his day to join us and for getting Columbus on their way as a "bike friendly city"; John from Shimano and everyone one that participated in this very cool event.