With the recent Olympic games taking place in Rio, we decided to pick up on the energy of this momentous athletic event and find a way to get the kids involved. Going offline in Slovakia, we hosted an exciting day focused on bike education and getting kids riding! As always when facilitating activities for the younger generation, our mission was to empower all youth to lead healthy, active, and happy lives through bicycling.

We all know the freedom, joy, health, and friendship that come from exploring your neighborhood by bike, it is that one activity we cherish and want to share. In addition, there are tremendous health benefits to riding your bike everyday and we want to make biking possible for kids from all walks of life, and encourage them to reach for new limits.

For example, the number of children cycling to school alone has rapidly decreased over the past few decades, largely because parents worry about traffic danger. But teach them about road safety, and there’s no reason why children couldn’t enjoy the freedom of cycling. Helping kids to gain the confidence they need to navigate the roads safely on their bikes, we believe cycling is a skill that can allow them to develop in many ways. Not only will they gain a sense of freedom and independence, they’ll also improve their confidence and fitness.

Focusing on things like properly fitted equipment, and a well adjusted bicycle, our workshops also offered tips and tricks for bike control, being aware of and avoiding road hazards, and how to be considerate of other cyclists and road traffic. Teaching kids how to stay alert and obey traffic laws ensures the roads stay safe for everyone.

Not only covering the cycling world at large, at WeLoveCycling we also believe in taking a grassroots local approach to enhancing the relevance of cycling in people’s lives. By hosting events like these, it’s our hope that by transforming communities, one neighborhood at a time, we can make an incredible impact in the lives of children.

We understand that at the end of the day, cycling is really about community. Our mission started as a simple love for bikes, but now we integrate families, neighbors, and other community partners as we expand our mission of exploring the world by bike. Our hope in supporting events like this is to get more kids pedaling, aid in developing an inclusive environment for everyone who bikes, and act as a partner in developing the next generation of cyclists.