Supporting a community of social biking
Back in fall 2013, I had a 30-year-old bike restored.
Although the newer bike I had at the time was a cruiser I had won off of a glitch contest with Sweet Leaf Tea, oddly enough, it wasn’t in the best of shape. So, instead of spending money on a new one, I brought my mom’s bike, a road bike purchased in 1983 in Ruston, to River City Cycling to have it refurbished.
Reason being, a few friends of mine and I got together to start what became known as “Waterside Croozers.” Our organizer, Allen Wheless, wanted to see a social bike movement in Shreveport, and that’s exactly what we set out to do. (We gleaned the name “Waterside” from the area of Shreveport that is burrowed between neighborhoods Broadmoor, Madison Park and Centenary.)
We sat down at El Compadre and mapped out a few routes, deciding that our first ride would be one from Marilynn’s Place to the Red River Revel. We created a Facebook group, added our neighborhood friends and ended up with 17 riders on our inaugural ride in October 2013.
The group began to grow, and soon random rides were happening between new friends who had met on wheels, while the core organizers were planning groups rides for at least once a month.
It became obvious quickly that people of all ages shared Wheless’s vision for social bike rides. Plus, we didn’t receive any flak for the emphasis on both bike safety and following traffic laws – a good sign.
Fast forward to March 2014, after a couple Mardi Gras “Booze Cruize” rides, Stephen Pederson joined the Facebook group, posting to let us all know about a Critical Mass ride that would happen the last Friday of each month, beginning March 28, 2014, and to also join the group, SBC Bike Social on Facebook. (The Critical Mass was started in the early ’90s in San Francisco with the sole purpose of cyclists meeting on the last Friday of the month and simply ride around their city.)
Pederson – nicknamed “Speederson” – had moved here from Ruston after graduating from Louisiana Tech University in May 2013. As a motivated community organizer who usually chooses a bike over a car, he realized that other people in Shreveport needed help, both to recognize how great the city is for biking and garnering the attention of policy makers to push for safer bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure. The critical mass rides started in spring 2014, and have grown as much as the cycling community in Shreveport. (The first one I mentioned had 25 riders. Last month’s? 40.)
We then began to point anyone interested in the Waterside Croozers to SBC Bike Social; after all, we all wanted a large social bike movement to happen in Shreveport-Bossier City, and there was no reason to keep the two groups separate.
The Critical Mass rides began to grow, and smaller rides between these events were happening more and more with riders ranging in age from 6 to 75.
After her first ride with the group, Regan Horn, 24, of Shreveport, began to learn how much fun it is to get somewhere by bike. She chose to ride to work, to shop or just to get some fresh air, saying that no matter the destination, she arrives with a smile.
“And it’s even better that there are always people willing to come with you,” Horn said. “I am fine riding by myself, but most things are better shared with other people, and the social bike community combines fun, exercise, and friendship into a sustainable mode of transportation.”
Not only were there more consistent rides with SBC Bike Social, there were bike tune-ups, rides to the Shreveport Farmers Market, and rides for females only, which offer more opportunity to interact with other cyclists.
Speaking of interaction, SBC Bike Social was as much active online as it was on the streets, incorporating hashtags and tagging in all of its posts on multiple platforms. In fact, it was social media that piqued the interest of Jonathan Toups, 30, of Thibodaux.
“I saw a friend had ‘liked’ SBC Bike Social on Facebook,” Toups said. “I checked out the page, and it seemed to match my idea of what I wanted: social riding rather than more fitness long distance riding. I went to a posted meet up with a few people, enjoyed riding around town with them, and have been hooked since.”
Toups elaborated on the social aspect of the group, explaining its pull, saying, “Meeting like-minded people has been awesome; a group of friends I’ve met via the group and I have grown as cyclists together and regularly undertake long rides I’d have previously thought were nuts. I love that the entire group encompasses every level of cyclist and is completely and utterly welcoming.”
Today, SBC Bike Social is Bike Shreveport, led by Speederson, with the mission “to be a social movement dedicated to cycling advocacy. We aim to get #buttsonbikes and #makeshreveportweird one pedal turn at a time.”
The change from SBC Bike Social to Bike Shreveport was natural for Pederson, who had studied similar bicycle advocacy groups such as Bike Austin, Bike Baton Rouge and Bike Lafayette.
“It just made sense to join those successful groups both in nomenclature and mission, although we’ll always have our own Shreveport flavor,” Pederson said.
“The #ButtsOnBikes thing, well, no one remembers the first time it was used, but it couldn’t be a better way to bring people together; that’s why it’s in our mission statement. It really is that simple. There are just so many positives to riding a bicycle, and my goal is, quite literally, to put all #ButtsOnBikes, first Shreveport, then the rest of the U.S. (gotta think big).”
To learn more about Bike Shreveport, visit bikeshreveport.com, and visit the Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages with @BikeShreveport.
As for my old wheels and me, I can attest to Toups’ sentiment about Bike Shreveport being utterly welcoming, because you’ll find me at a Bike Shreveport ride any chance I can get – these are some of the nicest people you’ll meet in Shreveport-Bossier City.
