Join us 12:00pm to 3pm on Sunday, May 21 at the Plainfield Park and ride for a day of all ages bicycle adventuring!

 
We will be helping people along on two rides. One is a 3 mile out and back (6 miles total) bike ride on the Plainfield rail trail ideal for beginner bike riders and younger kids, the other is a 6 mile out and back (12 miles total).
A bicycle that can handle muddy gravel roads and is in good working order, plus a helmet are required. (Vermont Bicycle Shop will be on hand, though we will only have limited supplies, tools, and time.) It's also a good idea to bring your own supplies to fix a flat.

Directions to the Park and Ride can be found here: Park and Ride in Plainfield, VT

Can't join us in Plainfield? Make your own Take a Kid Adventure Biking Day. Post photos of your adventure to the Vermont Bicycle Shop Facebook page or instagram and tag @vermontbicycleshop and you could win a new Bontrager Helmet valued at $100.00!!

 

Read the letter below to learn more about Take a Kid Adventure Biking Day.

 

We’d like to share an idea with you called Take a Kid Adventure Biking Day.

Adventure biking can be anything. It can be a 30 minute bike ride on a new route to a familiar destination. It can be riding with a picnic lunch to a new destination. It can also be that great first overnight bicycle adventure packed with camping gear. We encourage you to head out on your overnight on Saturday so you can time your return trip on Sunday and possibly come home to a community day ride organized near you!

 

We will be set up at the Plainfield Park and Ride where we will be available to pump up tires and provide route suggestions along the Plainfield Rail Trail. We will also be taking both a 3 mile out and back (totaling 6 miles) and a 6 mile out and back (totaling 12 miles) ride on the rail trail. Both rides depart at 12:30 sharp! All children must accompanied and supervised by an adult. All riders are required to wear a helmet and have a bicycle in good working order. You don't have to join us in Plainfield to participate. If you are going to take a kid adventure biking on May 20 let us know, comment on the event. Post photos to the Vermont Bicycle Shop Facebook page afterwards for a chance to win a new ABUS Cycling helmet valued at $100.00! To learn more about how you can have your own Take a Kid Adventure Biking day read below. Otherwise we hop you will join us in some way on May 20!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hello my name is Darren Ohl.

I own Vermont Bicycle Shop in Barre, VT. Thank you in advance for taking the time to read this long winded letter!
We’d like to share an idea with you called Take a Kid Adventure Biking Day.

In the working class towns of Vermont we’ve always struggled with National Take a Kid Mountain Bike Day. It’s an amazing idea that introduces thousands of kids to the fun of riding bicycles in the woods and the fun that fitness by bicycle can be. For residents in Vermont the problem is that it happens in October, when conditions are not ideal and many are turning their focus to hunting. Even if they aren’t hunting, it isn’t always the safest time to be in the woods. This rings true for many places outside of large population density areas.

At Vermont Bicycle Shop we love mountain biking, we also feel like the kind of riding we do is so much more, mountain biking is only a part of the riding we love, mountain bikes are only a part of the kinds of bicycles that can get us there. The better word for it is adventure. We often love to take those mountain or road bike trips and extend them to adventurous destinations rather than ride the traditional trails and loops. What if we could ride that trail, connect it to the other trail by taking that old carriage road marked on the map? Does that old carriage road still exist? We could stop for lunch along the old pond and make a day of it. No rush, no heart rate zones, let’s go somewhere people might not have been for 10 years. A simple adventure. For us the wonder is insatiable and endless. We also love inclusivity. We want to share our adventures with everyone.

At a young age we are often engrossed with the nature that is the bicycle adventure. From our very first bike ride alone to the playground up the block, the bicycle has been a vehicle of freedom for adventuring. As adults we at Vermont Bicycle Shop love crafting bicycle adventures, whether an hour or a week, with the notion of reclaiming that wonder of going somewhere new by bicycle, or going there in a new way.

With Take a Kid Adventure Biking Day we can really expand that sense of wonder and create new adventure bicycle riders of all ages. Holding Take a Kid Adventure Riding Day in the early Spring we open the possibilities for many more places around the United States to participate. We can also teach our children about responsible trail and road use early in the season, when they are most excited to go out in the world. We can ride with them and teach them which trails are closed and why or what a trail too wet to ride looks like.  We can teach them when trails are in good shape for riding as well by showing them instead of telling them.

 

Below you will find a link to download a generic graphic where we have removed our branding so that you can use it with your shop or club logos to share this idea. Just right click and save the image to your desktop. The image is registered and protected under a creative commons license so feel free to use it on promotional materials as you see fit, however you cannot sell anything with the supplied image or the Take a Kid Adventure Biking name. We hope you find it useful. If we all use a branding that becomes recognizable it will help make Take a Kid Adventure Biking easier to recognize and establish. We hope you will choose to join us in your own communities and Take a Kid Adventure Biking on May 20, and then each year in May on the Sunday following Mother's Day there after.

Introducing kids to the ever expanding wonder of bicycle adventures will lock in their insatiable desire to get outside. It will teach them to go out into the world in search of happiness and health and that thru bicycles and cycling it is easy to find.

Sincerely,

 

Darren Ohl

 

Vermont Bicycle Shop

 

 

Click here for the Take a Kid Adventure Biking graphic.