Frequently Asked Questions

We gather around this pledge every year, from April 1 to April 30! 2020 is our 10th year of riding together.

A pledge to ride your bike every day in April (no minimum distance!) and share your adventures online. Our hashtag is #30daysofbiking

Step 1: Ride your bike.

Step 2: Share your adventures online with the hashtag #30daysofbiking.

Step 3: Repeat steps 1 and 2 ad infinitum and experience pure joyfulness.

You're good to go!

Good call. Our first piece of advice is to ensure the bike you're using is in good working order. If you haven't pedaled it in awhile, give it a once-over using this basic bike check-up from the League of American Bicyclists.

You could also bring it into a bike shop near you to get it all tuned up and freshened up. That way, when April kicks off, you'll know your bike is ready to go and you'll start the month with confidence.

We also recommend enlisting a friend to join you. One of the most powerful aspects of the 30 Days of Biking community is accountability—we keep each other riding with our joyful posts.

But all the same, nothing beats having an IRL friend to ride with.

No way! We hope that April is just the beginning of your adventures and that you'll end the month prepared to take your bicycling life to new heights.

One year, our motto was "Can't stop won't stop," and that applies beyond April as well.

In our home state of Minnesota, USA, where this all began, April is the confluence of many seasons. You can get snow, rain, sunshine, or all of those all at once! It brings together the colds of winter, with the pleasantness of summer and the urgency of spring.

We believe that if you can bike every day in April, you can bike every day of the year. There’s no stopping you.

No minimum distance. You can ride however far you want! That could mean around the block or around the Earth. It’s up to you.

Absolutely. Outside is where the adventures are, but we understand that riding outside just doesn’t work for everyone, because of health concerns, bad weather, and more. That exer-bike definitely counts, especially if you’re traveling and in a hotel with a gym!

This article from Minnpost tells our origin story really well!

In March 2010, during an especially balmy and bright Minneapolis spring, two best friends bonded around a social media beast named 30 Days of Biking. The 30 Days of Biking pledge was simple: Ride somewhere every day for 30 days, then share your adventures online.

The friends promoted 30 Days of Biking on Twitter throughout March, enlisting their pals to ride through April. But as their crew discussed 30 Days of Biking, other Twitterers noticed and made the pledge, too. People from not only Minneapolis but all around the world joined in—until 300 cyclists had made the pledge to ride 30 days in a row.

Word spread, then spread some more. And just like that, 30 Days of Biking blew up.

A signed-up cyclist was thus devoted to biking throughout April, in a communal celebration of bicycling. Your daily jaunt could be of any length (20 miles, to the store, around the block), on any bike. Some participants already rode every day, “365 days of biking is my life!”, so 30 Days of Biking requested they go further, 100 miles a day if need be, in the mud, on a single-speed, barefoot.

The point was to challenge yourself, to tell stories and write poems about your rides, to post photos and videos, to share what you love about bicycling with a community forming before your eyes. The movement was powerful because it could be shaped to fit any cyclist. And it still is.

The response 30 Days of Biking has received has been staggering. People love bikes and want to ride every day. The movement just gave their desire a name—and a month.

We want you out there, pedaling alongside our community, whether virtually or for real. We want you to remember how riding around your neighborhood felt when you were a kid, when a bike was your only transportation and you loved it.

We want you to feel the freedom and joy bicycling offers. The happiness, the independence. These things aren’t lost to the ages or the past. They’re still available, and only as far as your saddle.

It's free and always will be. We're here to break down barriers to biking, not set new ones up. That said, if you want to support our advocacy efforts, check out our 10th anniversary fundraiser.

For sure! Whether and how much you post is up to you. We've heard from some riders that sharing their daily ride on social media is actually more challenging than the riding itself. You do whatever works for you!

Heck no! We humans give ourselves enough reasons to feel bad, and we don't want 30 Days of Biking to be one of them. We’re doing this for the joy of it.

So, if you miss a day, don’t feel bad, just pick up where you left off, go for some bonus rides, or ride a few extra days in May. But don't give up!

Tell everyone you know about it, especially folks you know would enjoy biking every day in April! Organize a ride and invite all your friends. We recommend ending with a treat for everyone, whether it be a beer, an espresso shot, or a donut.

Yeah! Pick up the official 30 Days of Biking T-shirt from our friends at the Banjo Brothers.

Our 2020 spoke card is coming soon. Stay tuned.