Bike Palatine Club blog offers safety tips, route options
Over the past two months, the Bike Palatine Club launched a bike blog on its website, www.bikepalatine.com, with 30 entries covering safety tips, trail etiquette, mechanical issues and bike route options, among other topics.
As of June 14, more than 1,300 views have been logged on the website since the first blog entry went live on April 6.
The blog is the club's way of staying connected to the local bicycling community, offering a forum for idea sharing and cycling information. Like other local organizations, the club canceled its group events this spring due to the COVID-19 shutdown. Online outreach seemed a logical way to go.
Club treasurer Tom Lucas and special projects coordinator Ralph Banasiak recognized the surge in new bike riders on the streets and trails as a result of the stay-at-home orders.
"Initially, we wanted to address the safety concerns we observed when inexperienced riders, young and old alike, began crowding the trails," said Banasiak. "But we also wanted to expand our reach to include other issues casual riders may not consider."
Club vice-president Kevin Keehn said, "Unlike any time in history, we seem to have more people riding bikes. As a bike club, we need to - and want to - continue this forward momentum on bikes. With our blog, we hope to encourage, support and educate those who have decided to get that old bike from the corner of the garage, full of cobwebs, and give it a go."
Blog authors include Bike Palatine Club members as well as cyclists in Utah, Washington and Indiana. The blog is available to the general public and written in plain language so that relatively new riders can understand. No special mechanical knowledge or cycling expertise is needed.
Comments appended to each entry enable any reader to offer an opinion, ask questions and add their own perspectives. Of the 30 blog entries, half have already prompted comments.
Popular among the entries are blogs on e-bikes, suggested cycling locations (Have you biked the Cuba Marsh?) and basic maintenance, like chain lubing and tire replacement.
Q&A interviews with the owners of Mikes Bike Shop and SamCycles in Palatine provide expertise in simplified terms.
More blog entries are in the works. Check for updates at www.bikepalatine.com. Readers are encouraged to submit future blog topic ideas as comments, or to join the club and become a BPC blogger, too.