30 Days of Biking

News

by Hannah Dobson April 1, 2016 4

If you’ve not heard of it before, 30 Days of Biking is a personal challenge with a charitable edge. People pledge to ride their bike every day in April, and for every two that do, 1USD is donated to World Bicycle Relief. This year the organisers are hoping to get 10,000 people signed up – to raise 5,000USD. It’s not as easy as it sounds, and a number of the Team Singletrack riders taking the challenge this year have scores to settle following previous failures.

Meet the team:

Adele Mitchell

My ’30 days of bike selfies’ (that is the brief, right?) will mainly consist of photos of my road bike (I’m training for Ride London), cups of coffee, sunsets and mountain bike shots framed to try to make me look like I am a really good rider despite the fact that I am not. So, nothing new there then. To liven things up a little, I will endeavour to be photographed with a celebrity at least once. Wish me luck.

Giles Perkins

Giles completed 30 Days of Biking for the first time back in 2014 with a dubious mix of off-road, hire-bike and convoluted trips to cafes. Spending most of his time on a front-sus ‘cross bike of his own making (haters gonna hate) Giles spends most of his rides on trails and singletrack eating up the miles as he adapts from CX racing to endurance riding. 30 Days will allow Giles to fill his Instagram and Twitter feeds (@cakebikecake) with more than just pictures of his cat, cakes and cheese. Be warned though, there may be a pink Brompton on his commuter days!

Greg May

Photo by Chris Davies

Contributor for both Singletrack and Grit.cx, Greg has been riding bikes most days for the past 20 years, everything from wooden boards, ‘cross, to 24 hour mountain bike races. This year, he’s training for the Tour Divide – a 2,700 odd mile race from Banff Canada to the US/Mexican border – and has no real reason not to ride his bike. If you want to get an idea of what goes on inside the mind of an endurance rider, and possibly find out if Trump will get his wall with Mexico, you can follow him on Twitter (@greg_may_) and Instagram (@gregory.c.may). If you see him, stop him and feed him.

Hannah Dobson

Photo by Ed Oxley, Great Rock.

This will be Hannah’s third attempt at 30 Days of Biking. Previous efforts have included some rather contrived fitting of rides into each day, including one after dark (and beer) ride around a friend’s garden on their Dad’s bike. Currently most of her rides are head down frantic commutes between work and the school gate, so she’s hoping that having to take a photograph a day will help her to sit up and take in the pleasures of riding, and maybe even find time to take the long way round to work.

Lara Dunn

Lara has successfully managed 30 Days of Biking for the last two years and thought she’d give it another whirl for 2016. While faux-commutes (she works from home) and social rides carry her through most days, past years have also required half mile bimbles to the corner shop, creative travel in Paris, and setting aside a morbid fear of dying under a bus in central London. She loves having to make an effort to use her bike every day and the fitting finale to it all this year will be her first Welsh Ride Thing.

Rachel Sokal

30 days of biking seems a little too good to be true: I now have a valid excuse to ride my bike every day for a whole month and in doing so help raise money for a charity that supports people and communities in Africa to use bikes to further their economic development.  And, what’s more,  I have now made a commitment to document this for Singletrack and thus have an even better reason to prioritise a quick spin over any mundane household task or staying late at work.  What can possibly go wrong…?

Wish us luck!

We’ll be bringing you regular updates on how our riders are getting along, in the form of photo diaries. Check back to see whether the experience is inspiring them to create beautiful landscapes, smiling selfies, or just bedraggled snaps of puncture repairs in the rain. Feel free to provide encouragement, share your 30 Days of Biking tales with us, or sit back with a nice ale by that roaring fire and be glad that you’re not the fool that absolutely has to go out in the icy rain or face public failure.

Hannah Dobson

Managing Editor

I came to Singletrack having decided there must be more to life than meetings. I like all bikes, but especially unusual ones. More than bikes, I like what bikes do. I think that they link people and places; that cycling creates a connection between us and our environment; bikes create communities; deliver freedom; bring joy; and improve fitness. They're environmentally friendly and create friendly environments. I try to write about all these things in the hope that others might discover the joy of bikes too.

More posts from Hannah