KINGSTON TWO-WHEELER TIME
YMCA offering bicycle programs for both young people and adults
With the return of warm weather, more people will be taking to area roads and trails on their bicycles.
And for adults and youngsters who might want to improve their confidence on two wheels, or refresh themselves about the rules of the road, the YMCA of Kingston and Ulster County offers several bicycle education programs and events.
“You don’t have to be any particular kind of person to ride a bike,” Tom Polk, bicycle educator for the YMCA of Kingston and Ulster County, said this week.
Through the YMCA, young people and adults can become more confident in their biking skills and be able to enjoy the activity more, Polk said. He said the programs are for people who already know how to ride but might want to improve their skills and learn about safety and the maintenance.
Among the programs offered by the YMCA is the “Bike It!” youth bicycle education program, which already is underway. Polk said the program runs eight Saturday mornings and serves children ages 10 to 14. The program includes bicycle safety and maintenance education, as well as rides, he said. Polk said the rides go “pretty much
all over Ulster County,” including on city streets and area rail trails.
The children who participate in the program learn about the rules for riding on roads, how to start and stop safely, what hand signals to use, how to change gears and which ones to use, what kind of clothing to wear, and how to deal with common hazards, Polk said. He said the kids also play various games on their bikes, so they end up learning without realizing it.
Polk said the program gets a fair percentage of returning students.
“They’re learning something and it’s something they enjoy doing, so they keep coming back to it,” he said.
The Y also if offering bicycle programs after school hours at J. Watson Bailey Middle School and the Everette Hodge Midtown Community Center, both in Kingston. Polk said both programs have the same kind of educational and riding activities as “Bike It!” but are only an hour long and the riding portion is
shorter.
“They still have a good time,” Polk said of the participants. He said the after-school programs are supported by grant funding, but there is a separate charge for “Bike It!”
There also is a summertime bike club program at the Hodge center that takes place over five days, Polk said. He said it is for children who attend the center and features longer rides than those in the after-school program.
“This is a very special opportunity for our children to learn important skills and enjoy experiences that they would otherwise not have, including visiting areas in and outside of Kingston,” Megan Weiss-Rowe, the city’s director of communications and community engagement, said in an email. “It’s really a great program!”
Thera also is a mountain bike camp for youth ages 12 to 15 at the Y’s Camp Seewackamano in Shokan, Polk said.
“It is entirely off-road riding skills, safety and maintenance,” aimed at young people who have some experience riding on single-track trails and who want to develop to a higher level, Polk said.
There is a fee for the
mountain bike program, though scholarships are available, he said.
The YMCA also has a bicycle education program for adults, as well as the “Lend a Wheel” bike donation and reuse program, Polk said. He said the Y accepts donated bikes that are in “fairly decent shape,” fixes them up and then donates them to Family of Woodstock.
“We try to get the bikes into the hands of people who will use them for everyday transportation,” Polk said.
For fixing bicycles, the YMCA has its “Midtown Mechanics” program, in which students learn bicycle mechanics, Polk said. He said each student is a given a used bike and, with the help of instructors, is taught to clean it, strip it down, replace broken parts, repair parts that can be fixed and adjust equipment.
At the end of the eightweek program, the students take a ride on their new bicycles to celebrate, Polk said.
For more information about the bicycle programs, contact Tom Polk at (845) 338-3810, ext. 102, or tpolk@ ymcaulster.org.