Tag: 2000

Are More Women Riding Bicycles?

Two gurus who have published numerous reports on the state of cycling are offering a free webinar next week on who is cycling and why.

The sessions on May 15 at 12 noon (Eastern) will help bicycle businesses and others understand the changes in the bicycling public: is ridership going up or down? Are more women riding, or fewer? And what about kids?

The seminar is being offered free to anyone in the bicycle business said the researchers, Elliot Gluskin and Jay Townley who have been providing research on what cyclists do in the United States for years.  (Normally the webinars cost $49.)

The data being presented next Wednesday will focus on why people are riding, how many are riding, and how the trends have changed since 2000.

Their data is based on the National Sporting Goods Association’s information that is recorded at local bike shops.

Among the talking points that Gluskin and Townley will cover are:

  • 2013 American bicycle riding participation compared to 2012 and the previous fourteen years going back to 2000.
  • The changes in bicycle riding participation among children and Americans 17 years of age and younger.
  • The changes in adult bicycle riding participation among Americans 18 years of age and older,
  • The changes in the gender of adult bicycle riding participation.
  • The opportunities for bike shops in the trends and the latest bicycle riding participation data.

The researchers say the seminar is being offered free as part of Mother’s Day and Armed Forces Day present, and it will be recorded so if you can’t make the live presentation you will receive the recording.

Click this link to sign-up for our May 15, 2014* Webinar starting at 12:00 Noon Eastern (11:00 AM Central, 10:00 AM Mountain, 9:00 AM Pacific).

*Note: The May 15 date may be moved one week to May 22 if there is any delay in the NSGA releasing the 2013 Bicycle Riding Participation data.

For more information, you can contact the company directly, Gluskin Townley Group, LLC., 281 Indigo Way, Allentown, Pennsylvania 18104, Phone: 610.624.1690. or at their website.

 

 

Rechnitz’s Velodrome Dream

By Jen Benepe

Josh Rechnitz

Josh Rechnitz was profiled by the NY Times on Sunday, but the journalist never spoke to the man.

Perhaps that’s because the Times doesn’t have any cyclists on staff, because just about everyone at the Century Road Club Association, one of the oldest bike racing clubs in the U.S., knows Rechnitz.

Besides often seeing him at races put on by the CRCA in Central Park, or waving Hi! in Nyack, NY, I traveled with Rechnitz and many other cyclists to Cuba in 2000.

That was the first time Rechnitz raced on a velodrome, at the Pan American Masters’ Championships in Cuba, an event organized by Mike Fraysse, previous president of U.S. A. Cycling, and now owner of his own training camp in Glen Spey, NY.

I published two films about the trip, one focusing on how Cubans live and think, the other on our racing event.

Rechnitz is seen in the first video (see below) in the bus that took us from the airport to the hotel, then later he crosses the camera lens in his USA cycling suit before a race.

With his slightly mussed hair and often off-kilter glasses, Rechnitz was shy and sweet, and loved his mojitos.

When he announced that he was donating $40 million dollars to help build a velodrome in New York City, I almost fell off my chair. That was because the guy never let on that he was a passionate, and deeply pocketed velodrome advocate.

I called Adrian, my brother, who also happened to be NYC Parks Commissioner at the time, to check and make sure what I heard was true.

I hadn’t spoken to Josh for a long time, not since I raced in Central Park under the Century Road Club Association umbrella.
Or maybe the last time we said hi in Nyack, NY.

But he’s still the sweet guy I always knew, and obviously with his heart and head in the right place.

It does however pain me to see the opinions of some expressed in the Times’ article, that cycling is a secondary or tertiary sport.

The reality is that those who think so have absolutely no idea how popular cycling is, and how important it is to cyclists. They also have no vision of how popular it could be once again since the time of the Six Day races that were held at Madison Square Garden.

In those races riders literally rode for 6 days straight around the velodrome, taking short naps in between. The arena has since been replaced by big moneyed basketball courts and regular games.

But what the critics don’t understand is that the lack of a velodrome within close proximity to Manhattan is a huge detractor for cyclists living in the city.

But no one has ever measured either the level of need or desire for a velodrome, nor for the level of cycling that would take place if the city’s population actually felt safe riding on the streets. Of the people I speak to who aren’t cycling, their number one reason to stay off a bicycle is fear of being hit by a motor vehicle.

Even though velodrome cycling is not always safe–falling down the steep banks and crashing are always possibilities, it is one of the greatest venue sports in the world.

What cycling lacks now is a place where crowds can come and watch as they do with baseball, football, and basketball–the big money sports.

With time, and now soon a velodrome, the popularity of cycling, and watching bike racing, will soar.