Bicycle riding gives a person’s mind a chance to wander. And, wander mine does, to things like how to get more people on bikes, jersey designs, Holland, bike lanes, history, breakfast and where and when is the next beer.
After many such rides, I noticed that others were thinking some of the same things usually about food and brewed drinks, caffeine and beer being high on the list for most cyclists that I know.
A couple years ago I saw that beer festivals were becoming popular in our fair city. I thought, “Wow, wouldn’t it be great to have a bike ride that ends at a beer festival? It’s a natural!” So I spoke to a couple organizers of the brew fest and asked them if they knew that bikes and beer go together. They said, “No.”
“Well,” I thought, “this idea might have legs. Who could I draft to look at it with me?” I thought of Ron Puett, ace bike ride planner and left brain man for KC Bicycle Club and Sarah Shipley, newly arrived in town to work for BikeWalkKC after a stint in DC working for Rails to Trails and the League of American Bicyclists.
About that time we found out about the fabulous stories of KC’s brewing history that include gangsters, Boss Pendergast, immigrants, wealthy family dynasties and other dreamers. We learned about the importance of ice before refrigeration, why breweries are near railroads, and innovations that took breweries from being local to national distribution. What did brewery barons do for fun? They built amusement parks with rail lines to bring the crowds and they played and supported baseball.
Sarah, Ron and I had been working on promoting local bicycling and walking and wanted KC to catch up with cities such as Chicago, Minneapolis, Portland and even Omaha. We wanted to keep the money in the community and use it to promote activities that keep us healthy. We wanted to feature local businesses. To that end we chose BikeWalkKC as our beneficiary and we have many local businesses involved in Tour de Brew KC.
So we saddled up for the wild ride of Tour de Brew KC and we continue to think up more ideas to keep it interesting and more fun!
The Tour de Brew KC Team
Laurie Chipman—Chipman Design & Marketing, Inc.
Idea Mastermind and Woman of Action
Brand wizard
Art Director/Graphic Designer
Marketing, Social Media, Writing, Web Site
Fundraising
Bicycling Geek
Sarah Shipley—BikeWalkKC, BikeShareKC, Shipley Communications
Awesome Event Planner & Manager
Brand Defender
Media, Public relations, Marketing, Writing Dynamo
Crisis Management
Fundraising
Bicycling Expert
Force to be reckoned with!
Ron Puett—Business Consultant
Numbers Guru
Business Strategist
Super-Manager of Bike Ride Events
Eric Rogers—BikeWalkKC
Web Wizard, Consulting
If you need help with an event, we would love to talk with you! Contact us.