How to grow a bicycle culture!

Was It Really That Easy?I live in a small town of 17,000, bicycling has never been the in sport in this community. I grew up in east Tennessee and cycling was my passion at the age of 14 when I completed my first century in 6 hours and 42 minutes. Soon I started racing and in 1989 won the Tennessee State Road Race. A couple of years racing against professionals like Alex Steida, "First North American to where the yellow jersey", and Jim Copeland had me in the best shape of my life. Tragedy soon happened, when my mother found out she had lung cancer, she was my biggest fan; she died October 17, 1994. The only thing that kept me going was that earlier that year I became a father. I took Hunter for long rides in his baby seat thinking he would soon be hooked on cycling. I bought Hunter his first racing bicycle when he was 9. Two years of racing and he had lost interest. None of his friends rode bicycles or their bicycles were broken. In 2006 I got permission to build 10 miles of mountain bike trails on private property. I finished in 2007 and helped the landowner with two National Calendar 12 hour Endurance Races. Tinker, Nat Ross, and 600 mountain bike racers converged on Fayetteville to ride the trails I built for my kids. Still no success, kids just were not riding their bikes. Then in August of 2008 I figured it out. I would open my own shop; fix all the bicycles in Fayetteville, start kids group rides on the weekend, and work with local school administrators to offer incentives to kids who rode their bike to and from school. Well let's just say it worked, I opened a shop in my garage, fixed 15 bicycles the first week,” kids 16 and under are free", took 15 boys on a group ride with my son Hunter, I'm shooting a bicycle safety and repair video for all the kids that attend schools in Lincoln County, and on October 3rd I'm working with two bicycle companies to give incentives to kids who ride their bicycle to school on that day. Was it really that easy? It really was, I had tried everything from cutting 10 miles of mountain bike trails to making my kids ride with me. All I had to do was fix their bikes and take them on an adventure that was easy. The 6 boys I took on a 15 mile bike ride this morning were still riding this afternoon, they’re hooked. Success!
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