Shenandoah Valley Bicycle Coalition

Harriet Flynn with the City of Harrisonburg Parks and Recreation showcased a year of partnership and scaling youth bike opportunities in Harrisonburg in the latest edition of Virginia Recreation & Park Society's publication - thank you! We are already looking forward to 2025 with more youth bike lessons, adding adult bike lessons, and a full Bike Month 🚲 💡 Harriet ended the article with a few great tips: • Partner with a bike organization or bike store to help collect and fix donated bikes • Find a parking lot or park road that has a slight incline and can be blocked from cars • Remove all pedals for the first day or two and teach everyone how to use a balance bike • Have a high adult-to-child ratio (we did 1 adult to 2 children)

Launching JOYRIDE, an all-day women’s and girls’ mountain biking event at the Western Slope, was about creating pathways for more women and girls to get into mountain biking and enjoy it for life. 😱 We were stunned when we reached capacity for this event and had to start a waitlist, demonstrating the clear demand for gathering among an uplifting, encouraging, and inclusive community of women and girls to celebrate riding together, learning, and fostering friendships. For many, this was their first time at the Western Slope…and for some, their first time ever on a mountain bike. 🍔🎵🚲The day included professional clinics, Massanutten shuttles, group rides, grilled lunch and snacks, mocktail tastings, a raffle, and a bumping base camp with a fire, music, and smores on a beautiful fall day. ⚡️JOYRIDE was among the many moments from this past year that showed us how our massive community support (we are looking at you, volunteers, donors, sponsors, and partners!) continues to open new doors to the trails. 💛As we approach the end of the year, we reflect on the ways everyone in our Coalition contributes to creating pathways for connection—whether through trails built, miles ridden/run/walked, voices heard, ideas dreamt, or events gathered. Thanks for making this possible! Massanutten Resort Blue Pallet Events Gabe National Interscholastic Cycling Association Kristin Gibson Demetra Heckman and Take Aim Cycling!

That's right. We can never forget what's at stake in discussions about how we plan and build our streets. Or how we choose to regulate or not regulate the vehicles on our roads that have the ability to destroy lives.

Over the years, we’ve celebrated our community and mission with a bit of lighthearted April Fools’ fun. In 2023, we teased about rogue trail-building shutting down the Western Slope trails. In 2024, we joked about the U.S. Forest Service green-lighting a wave of new trails. Both were meant to bring a smile (or a groan)—but also to shine a light on critical truths about our role in trail access and advocacy. Not everyone found the humor—and I understand.

Shout-out to Outdoor Alliance for their work on our public lands🙌

And the winner of our first annual bike raffle is… Thank you Lauf Cycles for helping us raise over $15k for better biking in the Valley!

Soaring with gratitude ✈️ our first annual bike raffle was our greatest amount of support EVER for a (fun)draining event with 419 (!!!) of you donating for not only a chance at winning a sweet Lauf Cycles ride but a wide range of projects in the Shenandoah Valley. 🌳Biking and hiking trails in the National Forest 🚶🏽♀️Greenways in town ☀️Trails close to home, like Sunset Park in Waynesboro and Hillandale  🚵🏽 Trails at the Western Slope 🚲Connecting our community with bikes to transportation through Bikes For Neighbors ❤️and advocating for safer walking and biking infrastructure …your support funds ALL of this. Thanks for being on this ride with us 🚲🫶

Sunset Park Trails! ALMOST fully funded. Learn more about these trails from our Director of Community Enchantment, Amanda Presgraves #shenandoahpixiedust #shenandoahvalley #trails #waynesborova #sunsetpark #trailsforeveryone

What is THAT thing? It's what comes on the Lauf Cycles Seigla Ultimate that you could win by supporting biking, walking, and trails in the Valley. Tickets are on sale until Tuesday night, November 12 (link in comments). It is also the fork that started Lauf as a bicycle component company and now a bicycle manufacturing company. Why is Lauf offering up a bike for our annual raffle? Lauf chose to locate their USA assembly factory and distribution center in the Shenandoah Valley. Why Harrisonburg? Because it offers amazing riding (gravel, road and MTB), and because it’s a beautiful college town that has excellent ground logistics for the US and flight connections to Iceland. The Lauf Grit SL suspension fork is a very unusual design. It uses glass fiber springs that are mounted to the carbon legs of the fork. The springs react to bumps, allowing up to 30mm (1.2″) of vertical movement. #Bikeraffle #ShenandoahValley #HarrisonburgVA #Laufcycles Harrisonburg Economic Development Harrisonburg-Rockingham Chamber of Commerce #economicdevlopement

When was the last time you saw 130 women and girls of all levels, abilities, and ages gathered around the trails mountain biking? Only 17 percent of mountain bikers in the U.S. are women, and within our Coalition community, ~30% of participants are women. Launching JOYRIDE, an all-day women's and girls' mountain biking event at the Western Slope, was about creating pathways for more women and girls to get into the sport and enjoy it for life. We were stunned when we reached capacity for this event and had to start a waitlist, demonstrating the clear demand for gathering among an uplifting, encouraging, and inclusive community of women and girls to celebrate riding together, learning, and fostering friendships. The day included professional clinics, Massanutten shuttles, group rides, lunch and snacks, mocktail tastings, a raffle, and a bumping base camp with a fire, music, and smores on a beautiful fall day. Thank you National Interscholastic Cycling Association, GRiT, She Sends, Take Aim Cycling, Massanutten Resort, and Blue Pallet Events for sponsoring the event ❤️ we are additionally grateful for SO many of our community members who brought this day to life, especially the dozens and dozens of volunteers who led and swept rides, helped with lunch, checked folks in, offered their skills and allowed this community-centered day possible☀️🍂 And a big thank you to Demetra Heckman and Kristin Gibson, the ShenRock coaches who wanted to see more female representation and served as the lead volunteers and planning team for this event.