Hi Rebecca,

It's great to hear that BCGP and NBW are working on this! That's super exciting! Here's a link to a youth cycling club guidebook that Recycle-A-Bicycle and Bike New York put together a few years back:
http://www.recycleabicycle.org/sites/default/files/onerevolution.pdf

It delves into how to start youth ride clubs and also how to maintain and grow them. A bit of background -- Recycle-A-Bicycle's Kids Ride Club began 18 years ago w/ a few kids riding bikes in the general area around their neighborhoods. It's grown to become a comprehensive partnership program w/ Woodhull Medical Center and New York Cycle Club that reaches 150+ youth each year (ages 10-18), 50+ volunteers, and 18 scheduled rides to fun/interesting/educational destinations that start small (5 mi), become increasingly longer (50 mi), and amounting to a collective 20,000+ miles ridden each season. 

Take a look at the guide and please feel free to reach out w/ any additional questions. 

Best,
Pasqualina


Youth Bike | Director
www.youthbikesummit.org | Facebook | Twitter 

Youth Bike transforms our local communities and strengthens our national movement by empowering bicycle leaders.


On Wed, Jul 16, 2014 at 2:15 PM, Cweibel, Rebecca <rebecca@bicyclecoalition.org> wrote:
Thanks, Ryan! All tips & tricks are helpful.

Any suggestions (from anyone) on creating a breakdown of what skills youth might learn on a ride-to-ride basis?

Many thanks,
Rebecca


On Tue, Jul 15, 2014 at 3:30 PM, Ryan Kragerud <rjkragerud@gmail.com> wrote:
On the blog click any of the tabs across the top (beneath the banner picture). I've found cruiser rides, specifically family oriented cruiser rides help get kids on bikes. The best part happens when I'm doing bike safety with the kids, the parents hear the message, too. In my opinion, teaching kids the rules of the road does absolutely no good unless their parents are comfortable riding on the street. If we tell kids riding on the sidewalks is unsafe, but, at home that's the only place they're allowed to ride, then it creates a conflict in the mind of the child. However, if through a cruiser ride, the parents get comfortable riding on the street - then, the family begins to ride together.

After each weekly cruiser ride I ask the adults to seek out streets in Longmont with Bike Lanes and ride with their kids.

Lastly, kids 7 years old and younger rarely understand why something is wrong - in contrast they have a fantastic understanding of safe vs unsafe. So I always couch ideas/examples in safe vs unsafe language. Like Is it safer to wear a helmet? Then go into the safe way to wear a helmet. I also ask parents to call out safe bike riding vs unsafe riding when the kids are in the car. Calling out safe vs unsafe cyclists helps kids get a better visual for what safe vs unsafe looks like.

IMHO

Ryan Kragerud - president
BIcycle Longmont
Organizer of Longmont Bike Night - 2004 - present.


On Tue, Jul 15, 2014 at 11:07 AM, Cweibel, Rebecca <rebecca@bicyclecoalition.org> wrote:
Hi folks,

I'm also new to this resource, but loving it! Forgive me if this sort of thing has already been asked, or if you're getting this a second time because I've already emailed you personally.

I'm working with the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia and Neighborhood Bike Works to create a curriculum toolkit for a month-long youth ride club. We'd love to hear from everyone with youth ride clubs (or even adult programs, if they're not endurance training-based), and we're especially interested in projects concerned with environmental stewardship.

Do you have any sort of curriculum materials for anything in these areas? I'd love to see comprehensive curriculum, but even week-by-week topics/bullet points would be really helpful.

Many thanks in advance!
Rebecca

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