Do you ride your bike every day, or need a bit of extra incentive to do so? Well, now there’s an extra reason to do so with the launch of the 30 Days of Biking – slogan, ‘We ride our bikes. every. friggin’. day. ‘– from 1 April. As the name suggests, the idea is to get you riding your bike every single day of the month, while using a variety of social media to keep in touch with like-minded people doing the same.
As the organisers put it, “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!”
The initiative was launched in Minnesota last year, but thanks to the power of websites such as Twitter word has quickly spread – it even got a mention in the Watford Observer last month, with West Hertfordshire cycling campaign group Spokes encouraging local cyclists to take part.
To take part, all you have to do is register on the 30 Days of Biking website, which the organisers say “will shoot your name onto our master participants list, setting your name in virtual stone. Interaction from here is up to you! Bike every day, then tweet (using the hashtag #30daysofbiking) or blog, or Facebook, or Flickr, or Tumblr, or Daily Mile, or write a snail mail letter about it. Make videos and songs. Be pleased as punch you’re biking and fulfilling an awesome goal.”
With the clocks going forward and the weather improving, what better excuse do you need to get out and about on your bike?
Happy riding.
24 thoughts on “Get in the saddle for 30 Days of Biking in April”
Pah, what a load of
Pah, what a load of ridiculous Freds. Somehow I have managed to ride every day in most months for most of my life, with the need to boast about it on web sites with missing ‘e’s in their names.
Riding 30 straight days in April is easy. Riding 30 days in February, now that’s hard.
handlebarcam wrote:Pah, what
Couldn’t agree more 😕
handlebarcam wrote:Somehow I
You just did.
You’re missing the point here
You’re missing the point here I think… good to share your achievements (however small), and hopefully inspire others to get out there too!
Rode to the train station and
Rode to the train station and locked up my bike, unlocked it and rode back again. Rode to the train station, rode back again. Rode to the train station and had to avoid a big dog, rode back again.
Nope, don’t think anyone wants to read that.
Nice endo by the way Morgan.
What you have said is
What you have said is actually quite amusing, if not a little cynical. Yes, I would like to read that sort of thing…it means you are involved and participating. By extension you can show other people how easy it is to get on your bike – do you see?
30 Days of Biking is about showing others how viable the bike is as a method of transport and how much fun it can be on two wheels under your own steam.
The benefits of riding a bike are clear to you but perhaps not to others. This is a good thing.
Personal point of view. Yes,
Personal point of view. Yes, this would be easy if I were still commuting, did so by bike for a few years in Oxford/London, 12 months of the year.
Now though, with one thing and another (work from home, dog to look after/take for walks, live a couple of minutes’ walk from high st shops), I don’t get out on the bike nearly as much as I should.
So, if this little goal of doing a ride each day of April helps me get out every day, even if it’s just riding to the next village and back, I’m up for it.
And after 30 days of it, I think the habit would stick through the Summer and hopefully into the autumn/winter.
🙂
I somehow think the idea may
:* I somehow think the idea may not be aimed at compulsive bike-botherers. Count bum spots, change your tyres every trip, snort energy drinks, pull a lorry driver. It will be fine.
I somehow think the idea may
:* I somehow think the idea may not be aimed at compulsive bike-botherers. Count bum spots, change your tyres every trip, snort energy drinks, pull a lorry driver. It will be fine.
Yeah that’s the way I see it
Yeah that’s the way I see it too, surely the point is to show people that don’t ride a bike that often that riding a bike every day for 30 days is pretty easy, and better still really enjoyable too. Then maybe at the end of 30 days they’ll feel inclined to keep on riding
Obviously a lot of us regular bike riders know that anyway, but that doesn’t mean to say we all do it, so this is a way for even experienced cyclists to challenge themselves to to a bit more cycling. On both levels it seems like a good idea to me.
Man, this is what I hate
Man, this is what I hate about “cyclists” Not want anyone else to join your little tribe, do we? I ride most days too, but if tweeting about it gets someone else to consider giving it a go, then that’s great.
Have it in February and everyone else (on the 99% of journeys not made by bike) will continue to think that riding’s for freaks and masochists. Let’s sell the joys of spring air and fluffy lambs, not keep cycling for the few hard men.
PS Where’s the missing E? Or do you think it’s 30 days of Bikeing?
Thanks. I feel much better now. I’ll try not to make my second post here a rant.
Yeah I looked for the missing
Yeah I looked for the missing Es too. they’re there alright – “Flickr” and “Tumblr”.
Pants. That was my second
Pants. That was my second post. The first was a schwag entry… 🙂
“Riding 30 days in February,
“Riding 30 days in February, now that’s hard”
Get a life.
Maybe we should ban people from talking about climbing Snowdon until they have managed the Eiger. Do you have gears on your bike ? If so, I suggest you get a fixie and follow the 1910 TDF route, then come back and talk about hard. The internet is a wonderful way of sharing experiences small and great, and for a lot of people 30 days of cycling will feel epic. Dont mock or disparage them, your own achievements are surely nothing in comparison to someone else’s – it doesn’t matter, they still have value. Belittling initiatives like this is small minded and only highlights your own inadequacies.
If 30 consecutive days of
If 30 consecutive days of riding in the spring is too easy, there’s always the Cent Cols or the Race Across America. Everyone should have a goal…
Thanks for the mention!
I
Thanks for the mention!
I cocreated 30 Days of Biking, with my friend Zachariah Schaap, and want to get as many people biking as possible! The event’s about helping people really and truly integrate bicycling into their lives. Every 30 Days of Biking participant means one more car off the road, if only for one trip. That alone makes a difference.
Here’s what one lady who had never considered biking a viable form of transportation said: “My life changed when I did 30 days of biking last year. I started riding on April 1st and rode every friggin day until July 9th! 99 days. I became a biker. My husband and I started doing bike rides for dates, I biked for errands, I biked to work, we biked to dinner, we biked to the beach. It transformed me. It has been a long winter, I did some of my first winter biking, although not much, and can’t wait to get back out there on a more regular basis. @patiomensch and @zachamon rule!”
P.S. As far as hard men go, I’d like to see if handlebarcam could survive a Minnesota February, which is what I just biked through. 😉
As a copy editor, I also have
As a copy editor, I also have to address this:
“Riding 30 straight days in April is easy. Riding 30 days in February, now that’s hard.”
It’s not hard; it’s impossible. February has only 28 days.
patiomensch wrote:As a copy
Really? Hold on while I go and check my calendar…
…dum-de-dum…
…where is that thing…
…oh yes, down the back of the sofa…
…OK, no, you are wrong. My calendar clearly states that there were 30 days in February. True, I did get it from my local pound shop’s reduced-to-10p bin, along with copies of Catch-24 by Joseph Holler and 1986 by Jimmy Orwell. But it must be right, because I’ve got February 30th marked as my monthly day to stand on a street corner and shout abuse at people riding hybrid bikes, and I never miss that.
Haha, I can’t deny you your
Haha, I can’t deny you your February 30 fun! I love me some Holler and J. Orwell.
What a sad lot we are when
What a sad lot we are when something comes along to encourage those none regular cycle users to try cycling on a regular basis, we get these trumpet blowing weezes who like to blow loud and clear abut how they are so great and regular on a bike in all weathers but can’t seem to understand a simple concept of trying to promote the bike to more people. have these people not realised that the more cyclists there are the better is for all of us. Cycling should not be this elitist like these trumpet blowing weezes wish it was.
One last note. Check out our
One last note. Check out our ongoing Twitter stream here: http://bit.ly/30Stream
Like Simon MacMichael, I love
Like Simon MacMichael, I love cycling but don’t ride every day because work’s too far away, life/family takes up time etc. Anything to motivate me to get out more is a good thing 🙂
More power to the 30DaysofBiking guys, and a happiness transplant for the haters 😉
I was quite tickled with the
I was quite tickled with the idea of having a crack at Rapha’s ‘Festive 500’ – I didn’t manage to complete it. Had great fun trying though! I’m equally taken with the thought of riding the 30 days of April. Sitting here now, of course I’ve convinced myself I’m going to do it all. Whether I do or I don’t I know I’ll have fun, as will all the others who use it as a focus to try to get out even more regularly. I doubt that I’ll write about it, but I’ll enjoy reading the stories of other people that do. I think it’s a splendid initiative.
Come over to Facebook and do
Come over to Facebook and do the ‘like’ thing http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/30daysofbikingUK/191968464178238 Use it to find out what others are up to, and put a call out to organise your own events/group rides – regular updates here and on the twitter hashtag #30daysofbiking
Enjoy it, April is going to be a lot of fun!
Thanks
M