Kawehi Kaneaiakala waits for the signal to take a turn maneuvering an obstacle course set up by Sharing Wheels as part of the Youth Bike Club program.
Photo by Jeff Sass
EVERETT — Sharing Wheels, a local nonprofit bike shop tucked in the back of the Broadway Mall at 2531 Broadway Ave., partnered with North Middle School to create a club for students to familiarize themselves with the rules of the road for bicyclists.
Its Youth Bike Club is teaching young cyclists how to ride safely and comfortably, as well as performing bike maintenance. Currently in its second season of class sessions that last eight weeks, the club is hoping to raise awareness so more parents in the area will encourage their children to join.
“Everett is better by having more kids on bikes in the community,” Youth Program Manager Kristen Kosidowski said.
Sharing Wheels was founded “in 2002 by a small band of bike enthusiasts,” it says, and provides “refurbished, used bicycles to thousands of adults and children through our programs and bike sales.”
Meeting after school, the middle schoolers are escorted to the bike shop on Tuesdays from 3-4:50 p.m. Led by Kosidowski, the Sharing Wheels Youth Bike Club staff members and volunteers teach group of six to eight children in general bike knowledge. A new bike is provided for the participants to engage in hands-on repair and riding experiences. As a group, they learn to repair and adjust the components of the bike to understand how to understand how to handle a real-life situation while out riding. They even get to keep the bike if they show up to every meeting.
Maintaining a properly functioning bike is a necessity for safe riding. Brakes are important. Riley Johan, a youth bike club member, said if you don’t have brakes, you won’t be able to stop without ruining your shoes.
Learning how to repair a bike isn’t the only part of owning one.
Obstacle courses in a neighboring parking lot are set-up and the group practices riding straight for future solo, paired or small group riding and effective braking techniques. Observing your surroundings is also taught by having individuals ride past a coach and looking back to identify a colored card chosen at random.
Knowing how your bike operates is a must for cyclists. Changing gears isn’t a feature on every bike, but the bicycles the group learn on have gears. Knowing gears can be a handy skill for those wanting to commute via bicycle in the future.
Inside the garage of the bike shop, the coaches set up stationary stands for the middle schoolers to practice shifting gears while the rear wheel is spinning, simulating an actual ride. This allowed the person pedaling to feel the resistance of each gear and to inspect how the chain shifted back-and-forth from the sprockets.
During one group meeting, the youth cyclists were instructed on the appropriate places to ride. This includes when bike lanes are present, when they must share the road with other users and which side of the road to ride on. Using hand signals was emphasized to keep the riders safe on the road. There was one additional signal specific for cyclists that differed from driving a car — circling a pointed finger toward the ground in the direction of any hazard.
Kawehi Kaneaiakala, a young cyclist in the group, felt that it was important the group learned about the hand signals and riding safely. Others found that the Sharing Wheel’s “ABC Quick Check” was the key to success for cycling. This checklist consists of inspecting your air pressure, brakes, chain, quick release for the wheels and checking your bike along with yourself.
Rachel Longest from the Cascade Bicycle Club is a major contributor to the youth program. She is in charge of the curriculum for the Sharing Wheels program, along with other similar programs in the state for children to learn bike safety. Longest is an avid bike rider and believes “freedom is embedded in riding.”
During a visit to the club, Longest stated that she noticed the group did a “great job embracing the foundational, fundamental skills” needed to ride out in the community.
Eric Andryc, a bike mechanic and coach, emphasized the purpose of the program is to “get them young and teach them as early as possible” to keep more people on bikes.
More people biking can relieve traffic congestion. However, one of the most beneficial outcomes for riding is environmental.
“Bikes are the most sustainable form of transportation on the planet and it is important to support,” coach Kristin “K2” Kinnamon said. Kinnamon is a former board president for Sharing Wheels. Kinnamon previously acted as board president from 2018 through 2022 for Sharing Wheels.
According to a 2022 program report from WSDOT, the “Statewide School-Based Bicycle Safety Education Program, created as part of Move Ahead Washington legislation, includes two programs: One for elementary and middle school students (grades 3-8) to be implemented in school physical education classes and another for middle and high school youth (grades 6-12) to be implemented out of school or after school.” This program is supported by funding from Washington’s Climate Commitment Act and the Sharing Wheels Youth Bike Club is financed through this statewide program and Cascade Bicycle Club.
Kosidowski said she does this work to “get more bikes into kid’s hands” and wants to “not just talk about a safe community, but build one.”
The Sharing Wheels family is always looking for eager volunteers to help teach the next generation of bike riders and donations to provide this service to the community.
“When you see someone bike in a community, it shows it is a safe community,” Kinnamon said.
To learn more, visit: www.sharingwheels.org/youthbikeclub/
