SpokeFest v1

With 1200 riders the first year, this event was an unqualified success.

The vision for this event was from Bill Bender. Bill is a morning ride guy. In fact, I think it's his ride that he started 18 years ago. This is a ride that hammers the Hangman loop at like 5:30 AM. Bill's day job is neurology. He jumped into the SpokeFest thing head first and just started making it go. He pulled together a board of people; got sponsors; and generally did stuff. I've talked about idea guys before. Bill is a doer. I'm impressed with his ability to pull this together.

The range of cyclists that attended this event was impressive: from the fully kitted out team cyclist to the "this is the first time I've ridden my bike this year" family guy.

I'm curious to see how this event shakes out for next year. It should be clear to the sponsors, cyclists, and vendors that were wary of participating in the version 1 SpokeFest, that there is interest for this event and that it's likely to be a successful yearly event.

I hope the various segments of the cycling community are able to engage earlier in the planning so that we have an even broader range of cycling representation at the expo.

As I think about the expo/finish line, I'm hoping we'll see a much bigger swap and more (and healthier) food choices next year.

I want to see more bike shops there. Given the timing of SpokeFest, this is a golden opportunity for bike shops to come out and strut their new bike models for the upcoming year.

Bike manufacturers, vendors, and service providers that are local or semi-local (Hairy Gary, Atoc racks, Raliegh/Novara/Redline design teams, Silver Tours, etc) should have a booth there.

A BMX and dirt jumping demo would rule. Maybe a small CX demo course for people to try out. A track stand competition and free style competition would be fun to watch.

Gather a bunch of different load hauling bikes so people could get a feel for how different bikes handle loads.

It would be great to have a booth where the local clubs/teams (SRV, FBC, Spokane Bike Club, Emde, etc) could tell their stories and cultivate new members.

BAB should be there with educational material and with maps and an updated story about the overall Master Bike Plan progress.

BAW should be there in a similar way. This year they pushed the swap, but next year we should see a booth that explains who they are and what they do to get more members signed up.

P2P should have a bigger presence. P2P was there swapping, but fielded way more questions about what we do and where we do it and how people could get involved.

I'm starting to sound like an idea guy here. I haven't even gotten to the riding part...