share your bicycle photos with us!

Welcome to National Bike Month, one of our favorite times of the year! Nothing quite compares to the feeling of riding a bicycle: freedom, fresh air, adventure, and the overall sense of living life just a little bit slower--of taking in the world a little more deliberately. Who can be angry or preoccupied or harried while riding a bike? Bicycling is mindful living; it is truly living in the present.

Which is probably why many of us associate riding a bicycle with our childhood--a time when living for the moment was pretty much all we knew how to do. We most likely learned how to ride when we were children. The majority of our bike-riding memories probably took place before the age of 18. Many adults can probably still remember those afternoons and evenings after school or on weekends, riding their bike with friends around the neighborhood until dinnertime.

With all these magical, nostalgic bicycling memories, why do so many Americans stop riding their bikes as adults? According to National Geographic, Americans use their bicycles for less than 1 percent of all urban trips. In the Netherlands, by contrast, 30 percent of all trips are done by bicycle! And 7 out of 8 Dutch people over the age of 15 own a bike.

To celebrate this month of youthful spirit, we invite you to share some of your childhood bike photos with us. If you don't have a photo to share, just post in the comments section. Describe your first bicycle. Recall a funny bike memory. Tell us when, where, and why you ride your bike these days. Will you be commuting via bicycle on May 18, National Bike to Work Day?

And don't forget to join us on three exciting bike events this season! Bring the whole family--because it's time to bring that bike out of your childhood, and into the present.


UPCOMING BIKE EVENTS
Saturday, May 12
PAL Bike Rodeo

Sunday, June 24
Bike to Breakfast (Stotzky Park to Briermere Farms)

Saturday, September 22
Bike to Breakfast (Shade Tree Center to South Jamesport Beach, with breakfast from Main Rd. Biscuit Co)

Danielle Doll and her trusty Strawberry Shortcake tricycle, circa 1982.

Kathleen Pantaleo and Amy Campbell, early 1980s

Kathleen Pantaleo, 1983