National Bike Challenge


National Bike Challenge Charlotte Awards Event

 

 

 
sumposterSaturday, December 17th, we hosted the Charlotte awards and celebration event at Advent Coworking Space.  We had lots of prize packages to award to top riders and to raffle off to everyone who could attend.  It was great seeing and meeting some of the riders that were on the leader board.  I met the guy who beat me by 60 points for #8 on the Charlotte team.  He rides a lot!

We posted full challenge rankings for the Charlotte challenge as well as for the Charlotte Spokes People Team and Crank Mafia.

fullresultsrankings  These are the full results rankings for the Charlotte Challenge.

csprankings  These are the rankings for Team Charlotte Spokes People.  Join our team next year!

2016summary  This is a summary of the Challenge.

Kevin Caldwell spoke briefly about his masters thesis, which will research bike commuting.  Please contact him at kcaldw19@uncc.edu if you can contribute.

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Milton and Sarah awarded the prize packages.

 

A big thank you to the Bike Benefits businesses who donated prizes.

Bicycle Benefits

Bicycle Benefits

  • img_20161217_203137-01Queen City Bicycles
  • Common Market
  • Legion Brewing
  • Birdsong Brewing
  • Brixx Pizza
  • Blue Blaze

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One Year Car Free

Last year when Bethanie joined the National Bike Challenge I was lucky she signed up for our team, the Charlotte Spokes People.  She’s a little competitive.  Somewhere along the way of pedaling everyday and racking up lots of miles on her bike, she got the idea to go car free.  Now it’s been over a year.  Here’s a snippet of her blog post with a link below to the entire story.

This is my favorite part:

“You can inspire people with something as small as a bicycle.  It doesn’t take lots of money or even a fancy bike.   Sometimes all it takes is a 1983 Schwinn, which is red, with white highlights.”

 

Read the rest:  Bethanie’s blog link

Bethanie inspires me everyday.  We can all inspire each other.  Come ride with us.  And be on our Charlotte Spokes People National Bike Challenge team.  Sign up for the Challenge then join our team Natl Bike Challenge team leader board.


Bike Challenge Prize Drawings 1

We'll draw for prizes at Birdsong at the stop for the Critical Mass ride.  Each rider who participated in the Challenge will get tickets based on miles, points, days miles were logged and leadership.  Choose which prize(s) you want to win and then we'll draw the winning ticket for each prize.

You can get your tickets before the ride or at Birdsong.  Please enter the prize drawings as soon as you get there so we can start drawing for prizes.  We should be at Birdsong around 9.  And drawings should start at 9:15.

Thanks to the Bike Benefits businesses who donated prizes.  We have a prize pool valued at $1800.  Thanks to Bart at Queen City Bicycles, Charlotte Bicycle Benefits, Davede Varner, Dilworth Eye Associates, Plaza Midwood Dentistry, Sir Edmond Halley's, Common Market, Birdsong Brewing, Letty's, BikeSource, Good Bottle, EcoLicious, Great Outdoor Provision Company, Dread's Mobile Bike Repair, VeloClean, The Diamond, Harry Johnson and Tony Cam.

Prize
Queen City Bicycles prize kit 1
Queen City Bicycles prize kit 2
Queen City Bicycles prize kit 3
Queen City Bicycles prize kit 4
Queen City Bicycles prize kit 5
Queen City Bicycles prize kit 6
Plaza Midwood Dentistry dental cleaning
Dilworth Eye – comprehensive exam 
Espada service gift certificate
Framed print
Davede Varner -Massage
Eagles Nest Doublenest hammock
Dread tune up
Dread tune up
Dread tune up
Sir Ed's gift cert
Brooks wrench
CM gift cert & Buddha dashboard cat
VeloClean gift cert
VeloClean gift cert
Growler w/free refill, pint glass,pint koozy
BikeSource gift card
Letty's gift cert
Good Bottle Hat, t shirt and sticker
EcoLicious gift cert
Floor Pump
Cyclometer
Chain
Chain
Diamond Gift card
Diamond Gift Card
Bell
Lube
Lube
Speed lever
Speed lever
Speed lever
Speed lever

2014 Charlotte Bike Challenge Summary 1

The local challenge of the National Bike Challenge just ended midnight last night.  I've been tallying up the results and stats.  

  • 248 riders registered 
  • 160 active participants
  • 126 riders earned > 500 points
  • 23 riders rode > 100 days
  • Total miles logged 136,864
  • 850 miles/rider on average
  • 111 men
  • 62 women

The two main teams in town were the Charlotte Spokes People and the Queen City Bicycles / Crank Mafia.  The two teams made for some fierce competition and some smack talk.  But it was all in fun.  The two teams are ranked #4 (QCB/CM) and #14 (CSP) in the national challenge when you look at the teams in the 50-99 team size range.  Great job done by all riders!

Here's a chart of the Top 30 riders for the whole challenge through last night.  Top Men's rider was Rufioo and Top Women's rider was Bethanie.  

Thanks for riding.  See you out there.

Rank Name    Distance   Points    Active Days
1 Jacob "Rufio" Pilkerton   5,173     8,113   147
2 David Spranger     3,270     6,230   148
3 Stephen Gilbert     3,144     5,884   137
4 Tate Austin     2,853     5,833   149
5 Bethanie Johnson     2,799     5,579   139
6 Carrie Logan     4,169     5,349   59
7 john speight     3,321     5,181   93
8 Pamela Murray     2,126     5,066   147
9 Matt W     2,389     4,469   104
10 Joe Nestor     1,882     4,462   129
11 Kelly Aderholt     2,165     4,345   109
12 Dianna Ward     1,884     4,344   123
13 Pel Deal     1,835     4,275   122
14 Leisure McCorkle     1,789     4,269   124
15 Kyle Moen     2,404     4,164   88
16 Bryan Dubuc     1,816     4,136   116
17 J Miller     1,848     4,108   113
18 Kevin Thompson     1,916     4,096   109
19 Sara Nieft     2,100     3,960   93
20 ryan stachurski     1,582     3,942   118
21 Hernan Atencio     1,032     3,892   143
22 Nicholas Able     2,082     3,882   90
23 Rich Haag     1,833     3,853   101
24 Garry Wallace     2,869     3,829   48
25 Bart Stetler     1,288     3,668   119
26 Merrill Thierman     1,730     3,650   96
27 Liz Lovell     1,212     3,532   116
28 David Ponivas     1,551     3,531   99
29 Mark Herman     1,602     3,502   95
30 Jonathan grabants         942     3,402   123

National Bike Challenge – update

We are about 100 days into the National Bike Challenge.  This year we have 239 riders who have logged more than 112,000 miles!  That's a lot of miles.  These people are actually riding their bikes. A LOT!  The Challenge ends September 30th.  The competition will end but hopefully we'll all still be riding.

I'm planning a celebration for September 26th.  I'll try to round up some prizes that we can give away to the riders of the Challenge.  If you're observant, you'll notice this is on the same night as Critical Mass.  We'll have the celebration at the stop for September Critical Mass.  If you'd like to donate a prize, let me know.  These people have logged some serious miles during the Challenge.  It'll be fun to see them win something too.

Keep riding!  I'll look for you on the streets of Charlotte.


More rides and more miles

The national Bike Challenge is in full swing.  Although the Local Challenge really isn't that Local due to the way the software works this year, it's still fun to create teams, internal rivalries and such.  Have you noticed people are riding more and for more miles.  And hopefully we're all supporting the local Bike Benefits businesses too.  For example if you look at the Local leaderboard and click on any person and see their mileage for the month.  One person I looked at was riding 325 miles in May and in July rode 760 miles.  That's a lot of miles….on a bike!

Keep pedaling!