Bike Month is taking on a new look for 2022 - we have tweaked the format to make it more social and effective than ever before. Over the past 15 years we have refined our campaigns and tested out various concepts, and the social teams challenge is the next permanent fixture to be added to our Ride 365 program.
Social team challenges aren’t new to Love to Ride; we’ve piloted them around the world and seen great results. From the US to Scotland to New Zealand we’ve given riders the chance to create their own social teams and engage in friendly competition by riding their bikes.
What is the Bike Month Challenge 2022?
The Bike Month Challenge is a social team challenge that’s easy to participate in and a great way to kickstart your biking season! Taking part is easy, riders are invited to create teams of up to 10 people - they can invite friends, family, co-workers, neighbors, their dog walker - whoever they like.
In May, teams will compete and earn points by riding their bikes, and by encouraging other people to saddle up as well. They will also be able to see where they sit on local and national leaderboards.
Excitingly, in 2022 'new riders' will earn DOUBLE POINTS for all their riding. This is to provide both additional motivation for new riders, and to help level the playing field and foster more friendly competition.
As with all our campaigns, participants will be entered into prize drawings for some amazing prizes.
Why a Social Teams Challenge?
- A social teams challenge is a good contrast to our workplace challenge in the autumn. These two major biking encouragement programs help to bookend the main bike riding season.
- The team challenge also diversifies the ways in which we engage people - for example, it might appeal more to social bike riders in your area, and groups of friends, teeing them up to then recruit their workplaces in the fall.
- A social challenge is a great warm-up for a workplace challenge. Getting people biking in small teams of friends, family, neighbors, and co-workers is an ideal opportunity to build confidence ready to join with their workplace for Cycle September or Biketober. With working from home becoming more the norm, our clients benefit from different approaches to engage their communities in their Love to Ride program.
- Smaller groups = more accountability. We know accountability drives people to achieve more. Mini leaderboards (aka Pools) of 10 teams give every team a real chance of getting a podium finish (thus helping to drive competition and engagement in the program).
- Competing in pools of 10 puts the top spot within reach for all the teams, driving them to ride more. The efforts they make to ride more often, whilst encouraging others to do the same, have a more tangible impact on their team’s standing on their pool's leaderboard.
- Like all our campaigns - we don’t want to see regular riders run away and take the win. Points for encouraging other people to ride will always trump points for frequency and distance - and that is in everyone’s wheelhouse. For our team challenges, we also wanted to encourage regular riders to diversify the makeup of their teams which is why we added the double points incentive for new riders.
Bike Everywhere - Washington
One great example of a social team challenge is Love to Ride Washington. For their 2019 Bike Everywhere Challenge, they used the social team format.
- 9,301 riders took part and enjoyed pedal-powered camaraderie
- 4,373 were new to Love to Ride Washington, registering and taking part in a challenge for the first time
- 1,433 new riders logged a ride
If you're interested in getting more people riding bikes, more often, and for transportation then get in touch, we'd love to hear from you: hello@lovetoride.net