On Tuesday Oct. 21, leadership members of Radical Adventure Riders meet at Wild Garlic. They regularly meet at the restaurant. Five of them are tucked away at a corner table while they talk to a potential new member of their leadership team. The five are also going over the rides and events they’ll have in November.
Radical Adventure Riders or RAR is a national organization that was founded in 2017. It works to get as many people from diverse backgrounds involved in cycling and the outdoors.
The Reno chapter was started in 2020.
Sue-Ting Chene, a mother of two young children, helped start the Reno chapter because it's important for her to have a space where she can be a mom and get her kids involved.
“We really try to provide a welcoming and inclusive community for beginners and non beginners to ride together and have fun," said Chene.
RAR hosts mountain rides as well as social rides around the city where they’ll stop at a restaurant to eat and talk.
The organization also wants to make sure everyone feels comfortable and welcomed — regardless of who they are.
Sam Ashmore, said they belonged to another biking group before joining RAR that didn’t feel very inviting.
“I didn't feel comfortable disclosing my pronouns, or just didn't fit the vibe of the group," they said.
Fellow leadership member, Lauren Brilliant agrees with Ashmore.
“As someone who identifies as queer, I've been in a lot of spaces where it's been very uncomfortable and anxiety inducing to show up as my authentic self, and it's really important to me to help people be able to show up authentically as comfortably as possible," she said.
Biking can be expensive, but RAR works with people to address these financial barriers.
The group has what they call a gear library where people can borrow items like bike pumps, but there are items like bike tubes that people can keep, said Chene.
These resources help members be more active bikers. This was the case for Ashmore. RAR members helped Ashmore fix up their personal bike.
“It's been a really reliable bike. I like to joke that before hills where I felt like a snail going up a hill, and with this bike, I feel like a snail on turbo going up a hill," they said.
After RAR’s help, Ashmore participated in their first extensive bike ride — the AIDS/LifeCycle event. They traveled 550 miles from LA to San Francisco.
