By Kathy Ormiston
I got serious about biking when I got my first e-bike eight years ago. I decided I was going to bike anytime I had to get someplace within 10 miles of my home in Mountain View. I started riding my bike to visit friends, buy groceries at Walmart, buy pillows at Target, attend meetings in Palo Alto, and go to dentist appointments in Sunnyvale. By the end of my first year, I had 800 miles on my odometer!
When I started looking for a place to retire, good biking was at the top of my must-have list. I searched the League of American Cyclist’s Bicycle Friendly Communities list and found Davis at the top of the list. Mountain View is a silver level community and Palo Alto is a gold. I knew a platinum level ranking meant Davis had to be special. And it is!
In 2019, my brother invited me on a bicycling tour of Sicily. The Sicily tour was loads of fun and it reminded me how much I loved being in nature on a bike. I came back to Davis and bought a road bike. At first, I biked mostly by myself thinking I was too slow to ride in a group, but my friend Carolyn Regan took me under her wings and introduced me to group riding. Today I still ride 12–14 mph, but I have found fellow Davis Bike Club riders who share my love of bike touring in the Yolo County countryside. I now bike regularly with the Tuesday Morning Donut group, and this year, John Forsyth and I started the Saturday Joy Ride for people who enjoy a slower-paced group ride. On our touring paced rides we chat, look for hawks and still get a good workout.
One of my favorite Davis Bike Club events is March Bicycle Madness. For the second year in a row, I will be organizing the event. Davis Bike club members set a bicycle mileage goal for March that challenges them to load up their miles. Some riders get their miles on long groups rides, others get their miles riding the Davis Bike Loop to the grocery store. We give awards to the top three finishers, but everyone gets satisfaction from meeting their personal goals whether it is 100 miles or 1000 miles. Not to brag too much, but I hit my personal goal of 500 miles last year. This February I hope you will join me in setting a really big biking goal for March and registering for March Bicycle Madness. See you on the Russell Bike Path!
This article was written by Kathy Ormiston, and submitted by The Bike Campaign. For more information about how to “Bike More. Drive Less.”, contact Maria Contreras Tebbutt at funmaria@sbcglobal.net or www.the bikecampaign.org