Pride Bike Ride Houston started with passion for cycling and community. Fun fact about our great city: Houston has an ultra-diverse cycling community! There is a plethora of cycling groups for all different levels of fitness, bicycle types, all parts of town, themed rides, and the list goes on and on. Being part of such a vast community of groups, I couldn’t help but notice there was one thing missing…. LGBTQ+ representation.
Starting our group on paper was easy. Make a Facebook group and invite everyone you know. Literally everyone I invited to the group was a friend I made while on a bike ride, family, and friends that wouldn’t touch a bike with a ten-foot pole. After building a small presence on the Facebook group (about 20 members), it was time for the next step. Make a Facebook event and hope someone shows up! After making the event and meeting everyone at a local meetup spot (at the time was Market Square Park), I was pleasantly surprised that people showed up. A whole six people.
Being used to local social rides with twenty folks or more (at times, hundreds), seeing such a low number of attendees never discouraged me. In fact, it inspired me to continue with the job. With time, patience, and sticking to our scheduled weekly rides, our ride grew. Not only in numbers, but in presence. Four years later, we have evolved to a well-known group that is established, empowered, and a symbol of what community really is. I personally would like to give a big thank you to the Houston Eagle for allowing their establishment to be Pride Bike Ride’s HQ. Thanks to them, our group has a home, the word gets out, and their friendship with our group has been tremendous for exposure and growth. So again, a million thanks to everyone who works hard for our group on Tuesdays!
Pride Bike Ride Houston is a friendly, empowering, and fierce group of friends who share a passion for cycling, good times, and exploring Houston on two-wheels. Our group has individuals from all walks of life, and we have created a bond that is so strong, it’s really hard to detail and can be summed up into one word. BikeFam.
It is with hopes that I bring not only fun, but inspiration to our riders. Aside from our weekly Social Rides, we now have long distance rides from Houston to Galveston, we participate annually on the MS150 as a team (From Houston to Austin and now Houston to College Station), and so many more rides that challenge even the seasoned cyclist. Guess what, our riders challenged themselves by doing long-distance rides, and not only did they kill it… but they want more!
Since we started in 2018, things have changed. Our Facebook group now has 2.4K members. We now meet at the Houston Eagle for our Tuesday Social Ride with a sharp roll-out at 7:30PM. Our weekly attendance has been a constant 40+ cyclists and we hope that by you reading this article, will come out and join us! Feel free to join our Facebook Group for all the tea, events, and community: Pride Bike Ride Houston