Hi, I do several sprint and Olympic triathlons per year, as an age group finisher, aside from recreational cycling and commuting. I can say that if you do get children interested in the sport, I wouldn't worry about the type of bicycle they'll be riding (yet). At that level as novice competitors, a mountain bike or maybe a youth-sized steel road bike is more than adequate. I'd be more concerned it fights right and is mechanically sound.

I've got some other questions about the USAT's youth programming ideas:

1. What age group are you trying to work with?

2. How many triathlons might the students do per year, as the triathlon

season is sort of opposite the school year?

3. Are you targeting a specific population to broaden appeal of the

sport (urban and racially diverse?)

4. How willing is USAT to work within individual bike coops' missions?

Some co-ops already have youth Earn-A-Bike programs in place and can function limitedly as charities.

Best, Leslie Peteya Durham Bike Co-op

On Sat, Oct 9, 2010 at 11:16 PM, james bledsoe jamesbleds0e@yahoo.comwrote:

hi, where are you? there might be a "bike kitchen" around the corner from you many times open shops will support direct involvement with hands on projects.

--- On *Thu, 10/7/10, Jonathan Morrison jonathan.morrison@gmail.com*wrote:

From: Jonathan Morrison jonathan.morrison@gmail.com Subject: Re: [TheThinkTank] Question To: "The Think Tank" thethinktank@bikecollectives.org Date: Thursday, October 7, 2010, 9:23 PM

I might suggest looking into the safe routes to school program for education funding, tri would have to be secondary, but you could work it in there and have money to buy educational bike fleets.

In my experience used bikes suitable for tri in kids sizes are not common, if not rare. So at least in SLC, we couldn't supply bikes even if we wanted to.

-jonathan morrison

On Thursday, October 7, 2010, Tara <windshifts@gmail.comhttp://mc/compose?to=windshifts@gmail.com> wrote:

...

Hi, I work at a National Governing Body, USA Triathlon, and I am working on

youth programming. As of right now the program is an awareness program. The thought is to bring a coach into schools to introduce triathlon to the kids.

...

A next step, down the road, would be to bring a multisport curriculum

into the Physical Education programs. One major hurdle to this would be equipment.

...

Now my question to the listserv- would bike co-ops be interested in being

involved in such a program by way of donating bicycles and hosting a cycling safety educational component?

...

I'd appreciate any thoughts on the subject. Thanks! Tara McCarthy

-- Sincerely,

Jonathan Morrison Executive Director Salt Lake City Bicycle Collective 2312 S. West Temple Salt Lake City, UT 84115 w: 801-328-2453 c: 801-688-0183 f: 801-466-3856 www.slcbikecollective.org

The mission of the Salt Lake City Bicycle Collective is to promote cycling as an effective and sustainable form of transportation and as a cornerstone of a cleaner, healthier, and safer society. The Bicycle Collective provides refurbished bicycles and educational programs to the community, focusing on children and lower income households. _______________________________________________ Thethinktank mailing list Thethinktank@bikecollectives.orghttp://mc/compose?to=Thethinktank@bikecollectives.org To unsubscribe, send a blank email to TheThinkTank-leave@bikecollectives.orghttp://mc/compose?to=TheThinkTank-leave@bikecollectives.org To manage your subscription, plase visit:

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Thanks for the responses! The school program would be geared towards fitness and not competition. The bikes would not need to be a tri bike, in fact most youth coaches prefer children stay away from that type of bike. Road bike frame and even mountain bike frames with slicks on them would work for this type of program.

All thoughts are welcome,

Tara

On Fri, Oct 8, 2010 at 8:15 AM, Austin Amos aamos1977@gmail.com wrote:

Many of the co-ops have an "earn-a-bike" program where the kids are students in a course to build a bike if their own. The addition of a training or competitive outlet for their use of the said bike would be a benefit to both programs (earn-a-bike and training).

What does everybody else think? Please "weigh in" here with your comments.

Austin Amos Sent from my iPod

On Oct 7, 2010, at 9:47 PM, Tara windshifts@gmail.com wrote:

...

Hi,

I work at a National Governing Body, USA Triathlon, and I am working on

youth programming. As of right now the program is an awareness program. The thought is to bring a coach into schools to introduce triathlon to the kids.

...

A next step, down the road, would be to bring a multisport curriculum

into the Physical Education programs. One major hurdle to this would be equipment.

...

Now my question to the listserv- would bike co-ops be interested in being

involved in such a program by way of donating bicycles and hosting a cycling safety educational component?

...

I'd appreciate any thoughts on the subject.

Thanks!

Tara McCarthy

---

Thethinktank mailing list Thethinktank@bikecollectives.org To unsubscribe, send a blank email to

TheThinkTank-leave@bikecollectives.org

...

To manage your subscription, plase visit:

http://lists.bikecollectives.org/listinfo.cgi/thethinktank-bikecollectives.o... _______________________________________________ Thethinktank mailing list Thethinktank@bikecollectives.org To unsubscribe, send a blank email to TheThinkTank-leave@bikecollectives.org To manage your subscription, plase visit:

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Lara, or anyone else interested in working with PE programs,

Boulder Valley School District (BVSD, in Boulder, CO) has launched a program this year or last called "BLAST" or Bicycle Learning And Safety Training (i think). It's in conjunction with several local PE classes. It's pretty awesome. I was involved early in the process when they were looking at different curricula. In the end, I believe they went for an already existing one from the Bicycle Transportation Alliance out of Portland, OR.

I would suggest getting in touch with Landon Hilliard at BVSD: landon.hilliard@bvsd.org. He's the alternative transportation coordinator for the district. Manages buses, bike to work events and issues, all that sort of thing. He's also the one who lead the charge to get the BLAST program up and running. From what I hear, it's been a huge success.

I believe they solicited donations from a local bike shop, not the local not-for-profit shop. They got a fleet of new or refurb'ed bikes for the class to use. They belong to the class, not the students. The plan was to outfit an out of commission bus with bike racks, so that the bus could drive the bikes to different schools for when the program was happening. (ie, Tuesdays at school A, Wednesdays at school B, etc).

If anyone's interested in hearing more, I'm happy to dig some and report back. I've not been involved in the program for a year or two, but I believe it's off and running, and has had some amazing feedback already.

And lastly, I would caution against approaching local community bike shops for outright donations of complete bikes. I don't want to speak for everyone, bit it's a request we get a lot, and one that puts us in a tough position. Some sort of mutual aid or reimbursement is much more amicable and usually doable. See if the school district, USA Triathlon or a local bike shop/distributor would have some kind of funding or bikes to provide for this.

Hope that helps.

josh.

On Fri, Oct 8, 2010 at 9:08 AM, Tara windshifts@gmail.com wrote:

Thanks for the responses! The school program would be geared towards fitness and not competition. The bikes would not need to be a tri bike, in fact most youth coaches prefer children stay away from that type of bike. Road bike frame and even mountain bike frames with slicks on them would work for this type of program.

All thoughts are welcome,

Tara

On Fri, Oct 8, 2010 at 8:15 AM, Austin Amos aamos1977@gmail.com wrote:

...

Many of the co-ops have an "earn-a-bike" program where the kids are students in a course to build a bike if their own. The addition of a training or competitive outlet for their use of the said bike would be a benefit to both programs (earn-a-bike and training).

What does everybody else think? Please "weigh in" here with your comments.

Austin Amos Sent from my iPod

On Oct 7, 2010, at 9:47 PM, Tara windshifts@gmail.com wrote:

...

Hi,

I work at a National Governing Body, USA Triathlon, and I am working on

youth programming. As of right now the program is an awareness program. The thought is to bring a coach into schools to introduce triathlon to the kids.

...

A next step, down the road, would be to bring a multisport curriculum

into the Physical Education programs. One major hurdle to this would be equipment.

...

Now my question to the listserv- would bike co-ops be interested in

being involved in such a program by way of donating bicycles and hosting a cycling safety educational component?

...

I'd appreciate any thoughts on the subject.

Thanks!

Tara McCarthy

---

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TheThinkTank-leave@bikecollectives.org

...

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At Interbike I bumped into the Preston Tyree preston@bikeleague.org, the LAB's Director of Education -- he mentioned that the LAB had *finally* approved a standard Safe Routes to School curriculum.

I didn't see it listed on their website yet (http://www.bikeleague.org/programs/education/courses.php), but I am sure you could drop him a line and ask.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Morrison (LCI #1555) Executive Director Salt Lake City Bicycle Collective 2312 S. West Temple Salt Lake City, UT 84115 w: 801-328-2453 c: 801-688-0183 f: 801-466-3856 www.slcbikecollective.org

The mission of the Salt Lake City Bicycle Collective is to promote cycling as an effective and sustainable form of transportation and as a cornerstone of a cleaner, healthier, and safer society. The Bicycle Collective provides refurbished bicycles and educational programs to the community, focusing on children and lower income households.

On Fri, Oct 8, 2010 at 11:21 AM, Brian brian@slobikekitchen.org wrote:

Good responses so far.  SRTS (Safe Routes ...) is a great idea, as it targets nearly the core of the problem - inactivity and a huge shift away from people powered movement. Another resource would be the League of American Bicyclists education program.  It is a safety and rider (mental) comfort focused program, using nationally certified (and insured) instructors.  Many of the people involved in this sort of education will have already designed course materials for presentation to a school aged audience.  The organization of the instructors in an area takes many forms - instructors can be found on a local basis. http://www.bikeleague.org/programs/education/ Brian SLO Bike Kitchen LCI #2386

On Thu, Oct 7, 2010 at 18:47, Tara windshifts@gmail.com wrote:

...

Hi, I work at a National Governing Body, USA Triathlon, and I am working on youth programming.  As of right now the program is an awareness program.  The thought is to bring a coach into schools to introduce triathlon to the kids. A next step, down the road, would be to bring a multisport curriculum into the Physical Education programs.  One major hurdle to this would be equipment. Now my question to the listserv- would bike co-ops be interested in being involved in such a program by way of donating bicycles and hosting a cycling safety educational component? I'd appreciate any thoughts on the subject. Thanks! Tara McCarthy

---

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