News

Rewarding Rides is the creation of two friends: Mohammed 'Mo' Farunia and Gabriel 'Gabe' Williams. Each year Mo and Gabe will use cycling as a tool to raise money for a charity of their choosing; embark on a different cyclling tour with a varied destination, distance, and charity. Through the rides they promote healthy living and their motto, "Do something nice for someone, today and everyday."

Mo and Gabe's first tour took place in May of 2011. They cycled from Lakewood, Ohio to Athens, Ohio in 2 days, covering over 180 miles. During this first ride, the two were able to raise over $1,600 for St. Jude's Research Hospital.

On June 25 of 2012, Mo and Gabe rode from Lakewood, Ohio to Chicago Illinois and raised funds and awareness for Good Works Inc. of Athens, Ohio. The 5 day ride spanned a little over 400 miles, camping and meeting nice and interesting personalities along the way.

The 2013 Bike to Work Day series kicked off in May with over 450 people celebrating the joy of arriving to work by bike. On Friday, May 17th people on bikes were greeted at Energizer Stations and Bike to Work Day Parties where they were offered free coffee, breakfast,

Upcoming Bike To Work Days, Summer 2013

June 28

July 26

August 30 

September 27

October 25

All these Bike To Work days offer coffee and pastries at Bike to Work Day Parties from 7 to 9:30 a.m. at the Downtown Cleveland Bike Rack.

massages, free bike tune-ups and much more.

Bob Polk of Bob's Bike Tours has been offering guided tours of Downtown Cleveland, Ohio City, and Tremont since 2011.  He is now also the face of Cleveland Bicycle Advertising, providing an eco-friendly, fun, and personable alternative to ho-hum advertising.

Bob's passion for bicycling, baseball, and Cleveland lead him to start an Annual Ride for the Tribe.  Bob said, "I was sitting in the bleachers at an Indians game in late September 2011, it was the 7th inning and, if I remember, we were on our fifth pitching change, which gave me plenty of time to daydream.  I was thinking ahead to next Spring, and thought, how about a bicycle ride to the game!  What a perfect way to kick-off the bicycling season."  He thought, combining the three things he loved; riding, baseball, and Cleveland, this was a no-brainer.  As they say, the rest is history.

Mountain Bike Racing Is On

It’s time to race your mountain bike in Northeast Ohio.  Are you a traditional 26 inch wheel kind of rider with front or full suspension?  Are you a 29er rider sitting high with your 100 or more millimeters of travel?  Are you a trendy 27.5 (aka 650B) wheel rider?  Maybe you are one of the single speed unicorn mountain bike riders.  Well, here are some races for you.

The Heights Bicycle Coalition will again host Wednesday evening rides that showcase the Heights and neighboring communities. These are social rides open to all cyclists of all ages. The rides often conclude at a local restaurant or pub for refreshment.

Free Wheelin' Wednesday rides, starting at 6:30 p.m. from the Coventry Peace Park in Cleveland Heights.

• June 12, Little Free Libraries, ride to three Heights Library mini book houses providing free books in the Fairfax, Canterbury and Noble neighborhood, led by Sarah O’Keeffe.
• June 26, Tour of Heights Community Gardens, led by Alice Stratton.
• July 10, Forest Hill Park and neighborhood history and the Rockefeller family connection, led by Joy Henderson.
• July 24, Cleveland Heights Pub Crawl, including The BottleHouse Brewery, Rockefeller’s Restaurant, Melt and Winking Lizard Tavern, led by Tom Ligman.
• August 14, Wade Oval Potluck, ride to University Circle for a potluck picnic and Wade Oval Wednesday concert, with music by Otis & The Shoreway Saints Rock/Motown/British Mod, led by Lee Reis.
• August 28, Democracy in Action: Civil Rights History of Cleveland Heights, led by Susie Kaeser and Joy Henderson.

May is Bike Month nationwide.  The Heights Bicycle Coalition is supporting local celebrations of Bike Month through collaborations with Heights cities, schools and more.  All are welcome to participate in these free Bike Month activities in the Heights:

Cleveland’s bike enthusiasts have spoken! Due to the sold out crowd for last year’s inaugural safari on two wheels – Wild Ride at the Zoo – this year we’re planning two!

 Most people who ride regularly in traffic have had the adrenalin-raising experience of being “buzzed” by a motorist: you’re riding along, minding your business, riding legally on the right side of the road, and some idiot passes you within a foot or two of sending you to the hospital, or worse.  Your fight-or-flight response kicks in: maybe you make a futile, angry hand gesture -- or you catch up to them at the next red light, and engage in an angry (and, usually, unfulfilling) “discussion” of the finer points of traffic law.

Despite the cold and snow, winter has been a busy season for Bike Cleveland. We recently moved our office to the Sustainable Cleveland Center in Tower City (230 W. Huron Rd, Cleveland, OH 44113). Please stop by and visit us at our open house on April 4th, from 8-9pm, then check out La Camioneta, our sponsored film in the Cleveland International Film Festival, premiering at 9:40pm. We will have refreshments and plenty of great bike information. We hope to see you there!

The Towpath Trail is one of Northeast Ohio's most popular bicycle paths by day. Riding it by moonlight is an entirely different experience that bicyclists of all abilities can enjoy on Century Cycles Night Rides on the Towpath Trail, now back for their 19th year this spring.

Beck Center for the Arts and Connect to Beck (C2B) are proud to announce the second annual Bike for Beck bike ride and festival on Sunday, May 19th. C2B and the Beck are excited to build on last year’s triumphant success by offering even more music, food, art, activities, and other cycling-related fun.

Allow us to introduce ourselves.  Our mission is to offer a bicycle education - based workspace, and to advocate for bicycling in a way that fosters a healthier, safer, and more sustainable community.  Although our workspace happens to be located in Bay Village, our organization is not just for Bay rresidents, but for everyone in the region.

Our education offerings this year will focus on teaching basic bicycle maintenance and safe bicycling techniques.  Class times and dates will be posted on our website as they are finalized.

In line with our mission of sustainability and education, the cooperative also repairs donated bicycles and sells them back to the community.  This keeps usable bicycles from ending up in a landfill, and at the same time  provides education opportunities for our volunteers. Of course it also allows the public to purchase low-cost bicycles that have been freshly tuned-up.   All proceeds help fund the Cooperative.

Our first year of operation was a busy one.  We were able to develop collaborative relationships with many organizations throughout the region.  We continue to seek creative, collaborative relationships with any business or organization interested in furthering bicycling in our community.

During open hours, all are welcome to see our mission in action by stopping at our workspace in the basement of the Bay Village Community House, at 303 Cahoon Rd.. There you'll learn more about our mission by talking with volunteers.  You can also view and purchase used bicycles, and you can even bring your bicycle to work on it.  Because we are 100% volunteer-operated, our workspace hours vary from week to week.  Current open hours are posted to the Open Shop tab of our website, www.villagebicycle.org.  You may also contact us at info@villagebicycle if you have any questions, are looking to collaborate, or would like to get involved.

Grace Gallucci, executive director of the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency, will speak at the Heights Bicycle Coalition’s annual meeting at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, April 23, at The Open Office, 2843 Washington Boulevard, Cleveland Heights, Ohio.  Following a brief annual meeting of the bicycle coalition, Ms. Gallucci will speak about the role of NOACA in regional transportation and environmental planning, and her view of the place of bicycles in the transportation mix.  The public is welcome to attend.

East-siders have an opportunity – rare in the Heights – to take a course to become confident riders, taught by a League of American Bicyclists’ certified instructor. The Heights Bicycle Coalition is offering a Smart Cycling class for adults on Saturday, May 4, 9 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. at Heights High School, 13263 Cedar Road, Cleveland Heights.

It’s only been a few short years since we last expanded, but the response was so positive that we decided to do it again!  Over the winter, another 4000 square feet was added to our North Olmsted showroom to enhance our bike and clothing selection, stretch out our service department,  and allow our fitters to have some working room when we are busy.   Cycling is more popular than ever in NE Ohio, and we are doing our best to keep pace with the growth of our favorite sport.

Throngs of folks tumbled through the doors of the Denver Convention Center over the 3 days of the North American Handmade Bicycle Show--NAHBS 2013--in February.  

Extreme sports are on the rise and bicycling is no exception. Enter the Amish Country Roubaix, complete with gravel, dirt and worse. Fashioned after the Paris-Roubaix, a one day professional bicycle race in northern France, this local challenging event will be held Sunday, April 21, at noon from the Holmes County Fairgrounds in Millersburg. It's sponsored by Ride On Wooster Bicycle's Soupcan Mountain Bike racing team.

It’s spring and thoughts turn towards … Riding? Baseball?  How about a ride featuring Cleveland baseball history, what could be better! 

The Cleveland State Cycling Club is building much hype, and is in the beginning stages of becoming the most exciting school organization on the CSU Campus.  With already 180 "likes" (and counting) on Facebook, students have been engaging throughout the Internet and exploring the new club's personal website (www.CSUCyclingClub.org), where they learn about great reasons to join. For example, club President Michael Hach has been talking with local cycling shops such as Fairview Cycle, Century Cycles, and Cleveland’s new Velodrome, to get CSU Cycling Club members discounts on bicycles, parts, and accessories.

Trains, Trails, and Limestone – An Inexpensive Ride

Eddy's maintenance classes are low key, informative, and fun!  All 4 of our locations offer convenient classes on a variety of dates. Please call the store you wish to visit and reserve your spot.  You can also welcome to sign up the next time you are in.  Prepayment is required, and is 100% refundable if you are unable to attend.

To inspire a spirit of giving back to bicycling, national bicycle advocacy organization Bikes Belong awarded local bike retailer Century Cycles with a $1,000 "Build More Than Bicycles" Award for its Bike To School Challenge program. The award was presented at Interbike, the bicycle industry's biggest trade show. Century Cycles was one of only three bike shops in the United States to win the grant challenge, which received over 200 submissions.

Century Cycles is offering over 10 different bicycling and maintenance clinics at its stores from mid-November through mid-March, all free to attend with no RSVP required.

The Heights Bicycle Coalition was founded in 2010 with a focus on making the Heights area more bicycle friendly. Most of the work has focused on improving infrastructure, and encouraging more people to ride. 

When you think of a 62 year-old woman from Bay Village, you probably don't think of Pat Kahl.  Kahl  who has never owned a car, goes everywhere by bike. 

FutureHeights will host the last installments of its app-enhanced neighborhood tours on Oct. 20 and Nov. 3. They are part of four neighborhood tours created by FutureHeights, with help from the Cleveland Heights Historical Society, the Cleveland Heights Landmark Commission, and the Center for Public History and Digital Humanities at Cleveland State University.

Blazing Saddle Cycle is proud to announce that they will be joining forces with Scapegoat Cycleworks to form what we believe will be the centerpiece of Cleveland's cycling community. Since our inception in 2011, our main goal and focus has been to provide the most knowledgeable and functional bicycle workshop for our area. With the addition of Carmen Gambino and his frame building and mechanical talents, we are confident that we will be the most complete and unique shop in the entire region. We will now feature sales, service, restoration, and custom built bicycle frames and components. 

On Wednesday, August 22, 2012 from 6:00-8:00pm at Madison Park in Lakewood was the first “Ready to Ride” program which assists young people  to learn about bike safety, maintenance and promote biking as a healthy way of life.
 
This event was spearheaded by Lakewood residents, Tricia Gogol, Scott Gerbac, and Jennifer Smillie from Village Bicycle Cooperative (located in Bay Village), and in collaboration with Bike Lakewood, Mahall’s, and  Beck Center.  Donations included seven "upcycled" bicycles from Village Bicycle Cooperative; free tickets from Mahalls & The Beck;  safety sheets and stick-on reflectors from NOACA; and other organizations provided miniature first aid kits, sample chain lubricant, and  teddy grahams. Also important to note were the 15 people that volunteered their time to help make this event such a success... without them this would not have happened!!
 
There were over thirty children interested in the bike raffle and they waited eagerly for the 7:00 p.m. drawing.  The smiles and giggles when a child won a bike was priceless.  One little guy, Jordan, did a dance and rode off with the biggest smile.  Approximately 27 children participated in bike maintenance and  learned some elements of how to fix their bikes and the tools associated with certain repairs.  The mechanics from the various organizations were patient, thorough and instructive as they helped the children repair their bikes.
 
Big thanks to all who participated and made the end of the summer special for some boys and girls in Lakewood.  There are plans for more “Ready to Ride” events in other communities.
 
By Donna & Gregg Wilson Village Bicycle Volunteers

Bike Rack Giveaway? Yes, you’ve read this correctly. Thanks to a collaborative effort between Dominion Foundation and the City of Cleveland’s Economic Development Department, Metro Metal Works is giving away and installing 50 bike racks to nominated businesses and organizations throughout Cleveland. 

Metro Metal Works began in 2011 as one of Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry’s new Social Enterprises.  The program hires people who are homeless and/or formerly incarcerated and teaches them employable skills, while producing a quality product.  LMM also operates Central Kitchen that employs people with obstacles to employment and provides meals for area homeless shelters. 

Celebrate Cleveland Beer Week on two wheels -- and pay tribute to the long tradition of the post-ride beer -- at the 3rd Annual All Hail the Ale Night Ride on the Towpath Trail on Saturday, October 15, at 7:30 p.m.

One year ago this September, 125 bicycle advocates, business leaders, and community residents gathered at Windows on the River in the Flats of Cleveland with one mission: to develop a strategy for making our region more bike-friendly.

On Wednesday August 28th, the City of Cleveland presented to a crowd of 86 people a plan to add a bike lane to Detroit Avenue. Before the meeting even started, we knew it was going to be fun, since 68 out of those those 86 people had biked to the meeting. Bike Cleveland has worked with the City of Cleveland on the Detroit Avenue Bike Lane project since December 2011, when the City committed to find a way to get cyclists safely east and west while the City worked out its dispute with ODOT for funding the West Shoreway Project.

On Saturday, August 18th Bike Cleveland, Famicos Foundation, University Circle Inc., the Ohio City Bicycle Co-op, and Joy Machines Bike Shop sponsored an adult bicycle fix-a-thon. The fix-a-thon provides a way for Bike Cleveland to engage with cyclists in their ongoing and future advocacy work, and also get more working bikes back on the road. Thanks to the hard work of almost a dozen volunteers, including some amazing mechanics, we were able to get 68 bikes back on the road. 

I ride two sides of my bicycle these days. Infuriated and jubilant.

The 'rock dodge' that I learned in the League of American Cyclists' Traffic Skills 101 is a manifestation of those two sides.  It's the idea that you can control the whole bicycle from the seat; which is true, just like a kayak.

I've been fascinated with yin and yang for a long long while for it’s such a powerful thought that one cannot exist without the other. In fact, the presence of one makes the other stronger. It's a bit Jedi, a bit oxymoron, and a bit of holism. It's also a great view from that seat.

So, I had this idea to tie together two of the jubilant joys in my life, bicycling, brewing, and locally grown foods. I thought wouldn't it be nice to celebrate the Coit Road Market, one of the oldest year-round markets in Greater Cleveland (since 1932 ya'll)? Indeed, it would be. The Coit Road Market is in East Cleveland, a grand old place that many would prefer to forget, like Bombay Beach on California's Sulton Sea.  Alas, it does exist, people live their lives there daily. Some great people I might add.  And that's the thing about Greater Cleveland, so much greatness in the ordinary. 

A sharp, short chirp of a siren called from behind me on my way home that night. I slowed down, eyes adjusting to a squad car’s strobe in the noncommittal darkness of dusk, and waited by the curb. I felt a little nervous—It was my first experience with being stopped by a cop— but couldn’t think of what I might have done wrong.

Ready To Ride kicked off on Wednesday August 21st in Madison park. The event was the inspired idea of Lakewood residents Tricia and Scott Gogol who brought the idea to reality with the assistance of Jennifer Smillie from the Village Bicycle Cooperative. 

 Hello, my name is Kory Piorkowski and I’m a 24 year old college student with big goals and big dreams. I’m creating this once-in-a-lifetime documentary to educate people in local communities about the benefits of “going green” and living a healthier lifestyle, both for themselves and the environment.

The afternoon of July’s Cleveland Critical Mass ride, my 10th time on the ride so far, started off sunny and cool, a welcome respite from the heat and humidity we had been having lately. Josef and Jerry and Sam and I left about two hours before the ride to slurp some noodles and enjoy $3 gyozas (a special price for cyclists that night) at Noodlecat.

In celebration of Cleveland's first ever Car Free Friday over 75 cyclists stopped by the Cleveland Bike Rack for a locally made breakfast, thanks to vendors from the Downtown Farmers Market. Car Free Friday was sponsored by Bike Cleveland, the Cleveland Bike Rack, Ohio City Bicycle Co-op, and the Downtown Farmers Market and vendors.

Five hundred seventy-five Greater Clevelanders have stepped up to the Cleveland Bike Challenge, logging over 188,000 miles in just three months, that is the equivalent of biking around the world 7.5 times. But the Challenge is not over yet. Our goal is to log 250,000 miles by August 31st--an additional 62,000 miles in what will (by the time you read this) be less than 31 days. Can Greater Cleveland cyclists log at least 2,000 miles a day for the next month? Sign-up and make your miles count.  Visit BikeCleveland.org/challenge for more information.