Two Wheels of Awesome - Episode 18 - Ghisallo Cycling Initiative

This year we are very excited to continue our In-School PE Bike Rodeo Program. This has been such a fun and effective way to teach kids the basic safety and skills for riding. For this program we partner with a school PE Coach and integrate our program into their class, typically over 3 days, so we can reach a large number of students. A Bike Rodeo is just another name for a youth skills clinic where participants learn basic riding and safety skills (bike control, stopping, obstacle avoidance, hand signals, scanning and helmet fitting) and which may include a short, group ride.

For our first rodeo of the 2015 Spring Semester we partnered with Coach Megan Vasquez and Perez Elementary. This is an important school for us as it feeds into our Bike Club at Mendez Middle School. It was also one of our largest PE Bike Rodeos to date, 334 students! We taught all 3rd-5th grades over the 3 days of classes. With class sizes of over 40 students, the instructors & Coach Vasquez and the students worked extra hard to make sure everyone got through the course. All the kids had a lot of fun and were excited at the mention of a future After-School Bike Club.

We are very happy to be expanding our program from last year and to have PE Rodeos planned for Lee Elementary and Reilly Elementary this semester, as well. And a big shout out and thank you to Bicycle Sport Shop for helping us purchase the Specialized Hot Rock 20″ bikes seen in some of the pictures. They are stationed at Widen, Metz and Reilly Elementary Schools as part of our weekly Bike Club programs but were temporarily coalesced into this fleet for the huge rodeo.

Bikes are lined up and ready for the students.