By Helena Howard and Ilse Griffin
“Celebrating the 2024 season of Adult Learn to Ride!” Here are a few photos from this summer’s classes, including group photos of smiling participants with their bikes and students gathered in a circle.
Here at BikeMN we are celebrating another amazing year of Adult Learn to Ride. This year we continued hosting our regular Adult Learn to Ride classes, pop-up repairs, and other community events. We also added additional programs, including a pedal pal commuter support program, and expanded our reach into Greater Minnesota. We worked with the following organizations to teach 319 participants: St. Paul Public Housing, International Institute, Sarah’s Oasis, Minnesota Council of Churches, Literacy Minnesota, Richfield Community Education, Minneapolis Parks, Washington County Parks, Zeitgeist Duluth, and Franklin Library. The majority of our partners serve new Minnesotans (refugees and immigrants).
Adult Learn to Ride is BikeMN’s metro based program designed to teach adults who have never learned to ride or those needing a refresher after a long hiatus. The program includes balance and pedaling practice, a presentation on bike safety and rules of the road, group riding, bike repair pop-ups, and bike maintenance classes. This year we reached over 319 participants and taught 51 classes. We were assisted by 36 awesome volunteers throughout the season. Metro-wide Adult Learn to Ride programming is funded by the Metropolitan Council.
Participation in Adult Learn to Ride is free of charge, and upon completion of the classes, students receive a refurbished bicycle. This year we gave away 69 bikes, along with locks, helmets, and sets of lights.
A note from a student: “I am 77 years old and I never dreamed I could learn to ride a bike at this age. I always read how the Twin Cities has some of the best parks and bike trails in the country and often regretted that I didn’t learn to ride a bike. But Helena and her crew of volunteers have been amazing! I can balance by myself now, and with their excellent instruction I never once fell off. I look forward to a summer of fun and good exercise on my new bike. Thank you to everyone who made this program possible! -Colleen”
A participant in our Richfield Learn to Ride class wrote us a letter describing what the opportunity meant to her as one of our older participants. (above)
Another participant, a refugee woman who took our Learn to Ride class at the International Institute of Minnesota, shares how learning to ride has changed her life; “I love my bicycle! I ride my bike to school every day. Before, I needed my son to give me a ride or I was walking. Now I ride my bike! I also ride my bike with my grandson. In my country, girls did not learn how to ride a bike, so I was very happy to learn to ride a bike here.”
As a way to support riders after they know how to ride a bike, we launched a commuter support program called “Pedal Pals.” In this program, experienced riders are matched with new bike commuters to help plan and practice routes. We trained 24 pedal pal volunteers this year, and look forward to growing this program in 2025. You can request a pedal pal here and sign up to be a volunteer on this Pedal Pal Volunteer Interest Form.
Additionally, BikeMN received funding from the Minnesota Department of Health to expand Learn to Ride programming to Greater Minnesota. The education team traveled to both Duluth and Rochester to conduct train-the-trainer sessions so that there are more teachers and organizers to facilitate Learn to Ride programming. In Duluth, the newly trained teachers were able to use their skills to co-teach a three-part Learn to Ride session that started the day after the training.
Next year, we will continue teaching Learn to Ride in the Twin Cities and beyond, expanding our reach in Greater Minnesota through several additional train-the-trainer sessions. We also plan to train in more pedal pal volunteers and recruit more participants for the program. We look forward to another great year of wobbly striders into confident riders!
Interested in taking a class? Sign up for Adult Learn to Ride class updates here.
We’re always looking for class assistants! Sign up here to volunteer for the program.
Students gather in a circle at a commuting seminar at the Blaisdell YWCA, next to the BikeMN van.
Ilse and Helena helped bikers fix their bikes at a repair pop-up in downtown Minneapolis for Bike to Work Day.
At Franklin Library in Minneapolis, CJ and Helena worked with library patrons to repair their bikes.