The Bike Challenge is a friendly competition with five-member teams making round-trips by bike instead of by car. Team members log each day they bike on their Commute Calendar. This year teams who attend CycleMAYnia events earn extra points. At the end of the competition, the 1st place team and other top teams win a variety of prizes. Businesses can also compete for prizes and glory. The Bike Challenge is open to anyone who lives or works in Santa Barbara County, as well as local businesses. Log-in to your existing Traffic Solutions Online account (or create one) and register your team.
 

Create your own team: Round up your friends, co-workers and family, and come up with a team name. Take some team photos and create your team on Traffic Solutions Online when registration is open in April. You can make your team "Restricted" and invite specific people to join your team or you can "Allow Anybody" to join.

Or join an existing team: Many people will have openings on their teams and will welcome you to join the team online.

Each team must have at least 2 "Converts" to qualify for prizes.
A "Convert" is either:
a)  Someone who hasn't participated in our past Bike Challenges – OR –
b) Someone who doesn't bike for transportation more than once a week on average (i.e. from Jan. 1 – Mar. 31 a convert would not have biked for transportation more than 13 days).

On the 1st of May, you will each begin to track the days you bike for transportation via your personal, web-based Commute Calendar. Registration begins April 11, and the Challenge begins on May 1, 2011.

Basic Bike Challenge Rules:

• Each team has no more than 5 members.
• Each team requires a minimum of two converts to be eligible for team prizes.
• A "Convert" is either:
  a)  Someone who hasn't participated in our past Bike Challenges – OR –
  b) Someone who doesn't bike for transportation more than once a week on average (i.e. from Jan. 1 – Mar. 31 a convert would not have biked for transportation more than 13 days).
• Points are earned for each day a qualifying bike trip is made and logged on your Commute Calendar.
• A qualifying bike trip is a ROUND-TRIP. A qualifying bike trip is a utilitarian trip that might have been made by car but instead was made by bike, e.g. biking somewhere like work, school, a restaurant, or a friend's house to which you would have otherwise driven or taken a bus. Bike rides simply for recreation or training don't count for points as this is a challenge to use biking for transportation.
• All participants earn 1 point per day, regardless of the number of daily round-trips or mileage.
• Each team member must log at least 4 days during the Challenge to qualify for any team prizes.

• Team Photo - upload a team photo and receive 5 bonus points for your team
• CycleMAYnia event participation - if three or more members of your team attend a CycleMAYnia event together (by bike) and sign in, then you are eligible to check the CycleMAYnia 10 point box on your team page. (If there is no sign-in at the event, email Lori at llariva@sbcag.org.)

There are five employer categories (based on size). The winner of each tier will receive either inverted U bike racks or bike lids to install at their office site. The company rankings will be visible here. Contact llariva@sbcag.org for more details on registering your company.

How do I stay in the loop? 

Make sure you're signed up for our newsletters or become our fan on facebook, under Traffic Solutions or CycleMaynia :) You can also visit our Bike Challenge FAQ page or call us at 963-SAVE if you have more questions.

Many thanks to the 2011 CycleMAYnia sponsors who are providing gear and certificates for Bike Challenge winners:

FasTrack Bicycles, Cranky's Bikes, Wheelhouse, VeloPro, Horny Toad, Lezyne and Thule.