Lodi Bicycle Summit, Building Bicycle Tourism and the Path Less Pedaled

We don't live in Lodi, but when we heard Russ and Laura, bicycle travel gurus, cycling advocates and bloggers at pathlesspedaled.com would be the keynote speakers at the Lodi Bicycle Summit we knew we'd be going. We'd been reading their blog forever, and much like you think you know your favorite TV star, we felt like we knew them, even though they didn't know us.

But despite that, I hardly recognized them when I saw them because in every photo I've seen of them they're out doing bikeish things, and today they were all spiffed up. They clean up real nice, as grandma used to say.

The event was focused on cycling in Lodi, and even more about how cycling can help Lodi. Russ and Laura's presentation was about how much difference bicycle tourism can make for the economy of small towns. Their presentation was filled with interesting videos, clever explanatory animations and their own interesting stories. You can see some of their delightful work on their Bicycle Tourism 101 page. It's cool stuff even if you don't think you are interested. Trust me, check it out.

Tricia and I realized how much of what they were talking about was what getting businesses and communities to target people like us. We've vacationed in places specifically because of their bicycle friendliness, and as we did, left money behind for local businesses. Heck, almost every time we've been to Lodi was bicycle related, and we sure have purchased a lot of wine there. Even when we didn't ride there, we went because of something we discovered while biking. We've planned trips specifically so we could stay in places like the tiny town of Wallace Idaho and ride Trail of the Coeur d'Alene bike path and the Route of the Hiawaitha, places we'd never have gone if not for their cycling infrastructure. I hope more communities get this message and give me the opportunity to visit them and leave some money there.

I'm impressed Lodi has the vision to realize that bicycle infrastructure will be good not only for cyclists, but for local business and the community as a whole, and even for residents who never ride themselves.

Tricia took part in a short pre-conference ride that featured numerous interesting bikes and people. I saw different types of child carriers, dog carriers, fat bikes, kayak trailers, road bikes  and on and on. I couldn't ride, so I chatted with Laura and Russ while they set up. It was hard not to kidnap and endlessly interrogate them about Bromptons, trailers, gearing, advocacy, touring gearing and all the zillions of other things they have experience with. I did manage to bother them enough to get some information that will help me in the future.

One of the many points they made is that cycling is mainstream and popular enough we see more and more cycling iconography used in media all around us. Surely enough, when we stopped at a winery on our way back there was a large cycle-oriented print for sale in an otherwise non-cycling environment.