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COLUMNS<br />
FAMILY CYCLING 101 by KEVIN BRUGMAN kbrugman@cox.net<br />
On Vacation<br />
In the summer time, thoughts turn to swimming<br />
pools, vacations and other ways to escape the heat.<br />
So instead of finding a sandy beach and big umbrella<br />
to shade me, I am in Flagstaff, Arizona, enjoying the<br />
high desert.<br />
When we first drove through Flagstaff, I thought that<br />
I was in Portland, Oregon. There were bikes everywhere.<br />
And not just mountain bikes, there were high<br />
end road racing bikes, touring bikes, commuter bikes<br />
with fenders and folks pulling kids in trailers. It seems<br />
that there is an active biking community complemented<br />
by a university population that uses their bikes<br />
instead of having cars on campus.<br />
To better understand the local biking community I<br />
stopped in and talked with Bruce Wright, the owner<br />
of AZ Bikes and Mark Shaw one of his staff. I was at<br />
first rather skeptical of the feasibility of cycling year<br />
round in Flagstaff, after all it boasts of being the<br />
metro area with the second highest snow fall in the<br />
nation. But Mark assured me that biking is a year<br />
round activity and the locals are a hardy bunch. While<br />
the road bikes may be put away, the biking population<br />
does not fall by much as the mountain and commuting<br />
bikes get brought out.<br />
When I mentioned my surprise at seeing such a wide<br />
variety of bikes in such a off-road biking paradise,<br />
both Bruce and Mark pointed out that their highest<br />
sellers were the commuter bikes. Currently they can<br />
not keep commuting bikes in stock; they are selling<br />
faster than they can get them. They have even sold<br />
some of these bikes to the owners of local gas stations!<br />
Their customers want a practical bike to get<br />
where they are going and cut gas expenses.<br />
Helping build a better biking environment is the<br />
Flagstaff Biking Organization, FBO. Bruce explained<br />
that while there has always been an active biking<br />
community in Flagstaff, biking activism took off a few<br />
years ago when a developer removed a popular bike<br />
trail connector that had traversed private land. The<br />
FBO has built active liaisons with the Flagstaff city<br />
government and the National Forest Foundation to<br />
promote biking both road and off road riding.<br />
While much of their work is focused on adult activities<br />
such as Bike to Work week and a Commuter Bike<br />
Map of the city, they have also focused on FBO FUNn-Family<br />
Rides. This summer they had a Father’s Day<br />
bike ride and pancake breakfast. In July they took<br />
advantage of not being on Day Light Savings Time<br />
and had a Full Moon Ride. In <strong>September</strong> they will be<br />
having another morning ride and pancake brunch.<br />
To take advantage of the local terrain, they also have<br />
a Youth Mtn Biking program with several rides or<br />
races in August and more planned for the fall.<br />
The FBO is also doing outreach to non-biking families<br />
through its Safe Kids program where over 1,000<br />
helmets have been distributed in Flagstaff to students<br />
K-6 so far this year. They also have an active bike<br />
rodeo programs having run six different bike rodeos<br />
and health fairs reaching over 500 children where the<br />
volunteers teaches kid safe riding skills while having<br />
fun.<br />
In 2004, FBO helped establish a local chapter of<br />
the Trips for Kids Program in an effort to get more<br />
kids riding bikes. Recognizing that not all kids could<br />
afford a bicycle, Flagstaff Trips for Kids provides<br />
children from many different challenging economic<br />
backgrounds mountain biking opportunities, loaning<br />
them a bicycle for the day and providing water<br />
and snacks. Working with the Sierra Club of Phoenix,<br />
inner city Phoenix children and African refugee children<br />
living in Phoenix have been able to experience<br />
the natural world through mountain biking, sometimes<br />
for the first time, without the influence of gangs<br />
or the danger of warfare.<br />
Family Friendly Fall Events<br />
Not to be out done in the Mid-Atlantic region, we<br />
have some local rides that are very family friendly.<br />
One of these is the Potomac Pedalers Century ride is<br />
being held on Sunday, <strong>September</strong> 21st. There is a 25<br />
mile family friendly option as well as a 50 mile option<br />
for more experienced families. New this year is a pancake<br />
and sausage breakfast being put on by the local<br />
Boy Scout troop. The Century is keeping its famous<br />
scenic route. Enjoy the peaceful country roads over<br />
the Shenandoah River valley’s gently rolling terrain.<br />
Ride through the rich historic land where a young<br />
George Washington once rode as a surveyor for Lord<br />
Fairfax. More information can be found on the PPTC<br />
web site www.bikepptc.org<br />
Another ride that has been growing for the past 15<br />
years is the Baltimore Tour du Port hosted by One<br />
Less Car on October 5. There are 15, 22 and 45 mile<br />
options that should meet most family’s desires. This<br />
year’s ride begins at the Korean War Memorial in<br />
Canton Waterfront Park just south of the historic<br />
Canton neighborhood in the City’s Southeast section.<br />
Riders will enjoy Baltimore’s Inner Harbor and this<br />
year the Tour will coincide with the 42nd Annual Fells<br />
Point Festival. After they finish, riders can participate<br />
in the festival (only 10 minutes away from Canton) and<br />
enjoy street performances, great food and live music.<br />
Don’t forget to bring your panniers because there<br />
will be an international bazaar to go shopping. More<br />
information can be found on the Tour du Port web site<br />
www.onelesscar.org/TDP/<strong>2008</strong>/index.php<br />
Starting its 16th year is the Between the Waters Ride<br />
hosted by Citizens for a Better Eastern Shore on<br />
October 25 in Wachapreague, Virginia. This ride is<br />
on some of the quietist roads in the area. It is possible<br />
to ride all day and not see more than a dozen<br />
cars outside the seaside village of Wachapreague.<br />
There will be rides of 25, 40, 60 and 100 miles with<br />
rest stops every 7-10 miles for the 25 and 40 mile rides<br />
and other than on the 25 mile ride, riders will enjoy<br />
views of both the Atlantic Ocean and the Chesapeake<br />
Bay. This ride is great for readers from the Virginia<br />
Beach/Hampton Roads area. For others there are<br />
some hotels in the area, however we enjoy going to<br />
Chincoteague for the weekend and enjoy some of the<br />
activities there on Friday afternoon and Sunday. More<br />
information can be found on the Between the Waters<br />
web site www.cbes.org/events_biketour.asp<br />
While I strongly encourage group rides and ride with<br />
my family every chance I get, I also realize the pitfalls<br />
of over doing any one sport. I have one friend whose<br />
son was a champion runner all the way through high<br />
school and one of the best on the East Coast; however<br />
he burned out and does not enjoy running at all any<br />
more. Another pushed his son to bike ride all the<br />
time and now laments that he may be the only person<br />
in the Netherlands without a bike, although I heard<br />
rumors that may be changing.<br />
We all need to experience multiple sports for multiple<br />
reasons. Obviously one of the reasons is to avoid<br />
burn-out. Watching the Olympics reminded me how<br />
important cross training is. While observing the<br />
runners, I could see that they had also spent time<br />
doing weights. This summer both my boys took an<br />
introductory course in historical swordsmanship and<br />
my younger followed up with a course in Olympic<br />
Fencing as well as a week at Chess Camp, all available<br />
through the Fairfax County, Va., Park system. (Does<br />
any one want to relieve me of my embarrassment of<br />
being checkmated consistently by a nine year old?)<br />
This summer on vacation they have been swimming in<br />
the Great Salt Lake and hiking up and down the Zion<br />
and Grand Canyon National Parks. The hard part was<br />
driving through Moab with neither a bike nor time to<br />
rent one to ride.<br />
The mid-Atlantic region offers so many opportunities<br />
to venture out in other activities that we now make<br />
biking part of our repertoire of activities. The boys<br />
are experiencing new activities that tax their muscles<br />
as well as their minds. They are now happy to go<br />
out on bike rides and do not feel forced. Jonathon<br />
wants to ride the Northern Central Trail and the York<br />
Heritage Trail again this year and maybe bring along<br />
younger brother Jason on the tandem. The boys look<br />
forward to riding with their parents and do not feel<br />
that it is a burden to appease their parents. What a<br />
wonderful way to get our children to enjoy life with<br />
us. As I started with last month, “Our children are not<br />
our future, they are now!”<br />
22 <strong>September</strong> <strong>2008</strong>
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