Gearing up for our 5-year anniversary and National Bike Month

We are busy getting ready to celebrate our 5-year anniversary AND Bike Month! That's right, May is National Bike Month and Baton Rouge is participating! There was a whole dedication at the last Metro Council Meeting. Of course, we’re going to celebrate the best way we know how… by going for a bunch of bike rides!

Mark Martin accepting the May Is Bike Month Proclamation from the Mayor on behalf of the Complete Streets Advisory Committee.

Getting the Word Out

On Wednesday, April 17, I spoke at the Downtown Development District meeting about the history of our ride and our upcoming anniversary. I knew about the meetings because of my time in media, but I only started regularly attending them after I started the bike ride. From time to time, I'll get up and talk about the ride, but honestly, it’s been many years since I did that last.

Another thing I did for the first time was be on WAFB as a guest! I actually worked at the station from 2013 until 2021. I never felt comfortable promoting the ride through the station while I worked there, even though I had other stations reach out to me over the years to do stories. But now that I’m no longer an employee, it felt like the right time to talk about our ride.

Upcoming Events

Our first ride in May will go to Spoke and Hub to kick off the month-long celebration of our anniversary and National Bike Month. If you’re unable to ride, but want to meet us there to be part of the kick-off, we are anticipating arrival at roughly 6:45 p.m.

On Saturday, May 25, there will be two bike activities to close out the month. First up will be at the Red Stick Farmers Market in downtown Baton Rouge. We will be there handing out free bike lights as part of our Light Up The Night program.

Later that evening at 6 p.m., we will return to Spoke and Hub for a celebration of bikes! There will be some music provided by the talented teens at the Baton Rouge Music Studio. Also, Pedego bikes will have some electric bikes there for demonstration and test rides. We’ll also have a demonstration on how to use the fabulous bike station located in the parking lot of the restaurant.

There are other great events being put on by other bike groups and bike enthusaists. If you want to find out more about those rides, they are being shared in the Facebook group. If you do not have access to Facebook but would like to know more, send me a message and I’ll get you the details.

Coming Soon

A print-on-demand store will soon be added to the DESR website! We will have our logo shirt in a variety of colors, along with some other fun merch! Also changing on our website will be a newly constructed area featuring the stories that have been told on our rides over the years. You’ll still get those stories delivered to you in the newsletter.

There are a few other things in the works, but that’s enough for now!

DING, DING!