Bicycles are a way to access our community, allowing us to commute to work and school, to purchase goods and services, to socialize and visit friends, and provides a source of transportation that is both environmentally-friendly and beneficial to health. From zero carbon emissions, to zero-cost travel, from active bodies to healthy minds, bicycles transform our communities, especially when there are resources for bicyclers to travel safely and effectively.
Bicycles are all around us. They are in our garages, on our trails, on our streets, roads, and highways. Sharing space with large, motorized vehicles makes it critical that bicyclers are taking precautionary steps to make sure they are staying safe and visible while in traffic. Bicycle rodeos are events dedicated to children and parents, and open to entire communities, to empower cyclists to take these steps necessary to ensuring a problem-free, enjoyable ride to their destination, whether it is a friend’s house, a schoolyard, work, or the grocery store.
While bicycle rodeos of all forms and sizes exist, there are three basic, universal components to hosting a bike rodeo. Those three components are: rider check, bicycle check, and skills check.
A rider check composes of stations dedicated to making sure the rider is wearing visible clothing, such as bright neon vests or reflectors that help the rider stick out in a sea of surrounding traffic. At this station, the bike rodeo host may want to hand out high-visibility “swag” for free to increase the safety of children and community members.
Another component of the rider check is to make sure every bike rodeo participant has access to a U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission's standard approved helmet, which is indicated by a CPSC label. Participants should be encouraged to bring their own helmet, and for those that come without one, local bicycle shops and organizations may offer to donate some helmets for free (it never hurts to ask!).
Finally, before moving to the next station, the participant should be checked for proper helmet fitting, and must pass the Eyes-Ears-Mouth check. The helmet must: be two finger’s distance above the participants eyebrows, have straps that form a “V” under each ear lobe, and be buckled tight enough under the participants mouth that when opened as wide as possible the helmet fits snugly and hugs his/her/their head.
The next component of a bike rodeo is a bicycle check. The best case scenario for a bicycle check station is having access to a bicycle mechanic from a community bicycle shop, whose role is to help make sure each participant bicycle is “road-ready”. If your town has a local “bike kitchen”, invite them to come out and help check bicycles. Bike kitchens are centers in a community that allows people to come in and learn about bicycle repairs and maintenance, empowering community members to discover their bicycles and work on them independently, all the while providing an educational experience. Bike rodeos give bike kitchens a great opportunity to meet with community members and bring the experience offered at the kitchen to those who may not have otherwise heard of one before. Several communities in Montana have bike kitchens, including Helena’s Queen City Wheel House, Missoula’s Free Cycles, and Bozeman’s Bike Kitchen.
The participant should be able to sit on the bicycle and touch both feet on the ground. If they cannot reach the ground, the seat may be adjusted as necessary. Other simple repairs, such as air-checks and filling up tires with the right air pressure, tightening spokes and replacing broken ones, handle-bar adjustment, replacement of flat or damaged tires and brakes, securing the chain and other reflectors, mirrors, and lights that may be on the bicycle are made at the bicycle check stations.
Once the rider and the bicycle are checked, the participant, along with their bicycle, may move to the skills component of the bicycle rodeo. Here is where the fun begins! The skills stations can be as creative as the mind will allow, but these examples are some basic stations for simple bicycle rodeos to get started: balancing, starting, stopping, riding straight, scanning, and signaling.
For the balancing station, have participants ride in a straight line, as well as a circle, which can be drawn with sidewalk chalk, traffic cones, or tennis balls cut into halves. To add a little competition, throw in a “Slow Race”, where participants race along a path to the finish line going as slow as possible without stopping and touching the ground. The last one to the finish line wins!
The next station, stopping and starting, are important skills used at driveways, sidewalks, crosswalks, and roads. At this station, teach participants to stop, look left, right, then left again before entering traffic. Set up cones to resemble a driveway, have them practice going down the driveway, stopping at the edge, looking, and starting again. At the riding straight station, have children ride along a painted straight line. Remind them that staying in a straight line, and preventing swerving or minimizing serving when an obstacle presents itself, such as a rock or pollution, can help them remain predictable to other members of traffic, and therefore increases their safety while riding on the streets.
Finally, teach participants how to scan and signal. Create a route with cones or sidewalk chalk, and have a volunteer at the station hold up signs, either blank or with a vehicle image, while following behind the participant. Every few seconds, ask the rider to scan or “look back”, and, without swerving, have them say what type of sign was held up. This teaches participants how to remain stable on their bicycle while observing their surroundings. After mastering scanning, teach participants how to properly signal turns and stops. Have them practice holding up their left hand to signal a left turn, their right hand to signal a right turn, and their left hand pointed down towards the ground to signal a stop. Another tip to mention is that some cyclists still signal a right turn with their left hand, motioned by holding up the left arm at a 90 degree angle with their palm pointing upwards towards the sky. Montana law allows a right hand signal for a right turn, and is in general a less confusing way to communicate a right turn to other members of traffic.
Now you know how to throw a basic bike rodeo! The more community members involved, and the more resources, skills, and practice included in the rodeo, the more successful and educational your event will be. At the end of the day, don’t forget to make the event fun and memorable, so that the lessons learned at the bike rodeo event pedal through the minds of the participants for a lifetime to come.
Contact info@bikewalkmontana.org today if you would like more information on bicycle rodeos, and information on local community resources to use to help make your bike rodeo a success!