Why Join?

Why Join Bikes Belong?

If you're a U.S. bicycle supplier or retailer, Bikes Belong needs your support. We combine bicycle industry resources and focus them on tangible efforts to get more people on bikes more often. Your business benefits.

You probably want to support the effort to improve bike facilities and make bicycling better for everyone. But chances are, you’re often too busy to even think about advocacy or determine the best approach.

Bikes Belong takes the guesswork out of advocacy. We’re a professional, unified effort that is powered by the $6 billion-a-year U.S. bicycle industry. When you join, you add your weight to the collective strength of hundreds of other bike businesses. You can count on us to determine the optimum strategy for investing your membership dollars. We have proven leadership and proven success.

Top Three Reasons to Join Bikes Belong

1. We're helping create better places to ride, which puts more people on bikes.
2. More people riding means more people buying bikes and equipment—and that’s good for business.
3. We maximize the leverage of your membership investment through our successful programs and powerful partnerships.

Bikes Belong is Good For Business

Your membership in Bikes Belong is an investment in the future of your business. By getting more people riding bikes, we’re generating demand for your products and helping increase sales throughout the bike industry. Plus, our work on Safe Routes to School and kids’ riding programs is helping cultivate future generations of enthusiasts.

New and better customers for you

• More people riding means more customers for you.
• The more places there are to ride, the more people will pedal. Our lobbying and grants efforts produce new facilities nationwide.
• Bicycle retailers have told us that their sales increase after new trails are built in their area.
• We help make bicycling mainstream by promoting it in the national media and with advertising campaigns.
• We’re assembling data to help make a strong case for bicycling with community and government leaders.
• We sponsor national conferences and events that provide valuable networking and learning opportunities for you.

Bikes Belong is Good for Communities

We believe bicycling makes America better. Bicycling is a solution to many challenges facing our society today. By helping create safe places to ride and encouraging people to pedal, we’re forming stronger, healthier communities.

Helping improve America

• Our lobbying efforts and Grants Program help develop hundreds of new bike paths, lanes, trails, and programs each year.
• By hosting the Safe Routes to School National Partnership, we’re working to create safe ways for kids to bike to school. This leads to healthier children and lighter traffic.
• Our support of the Bicycle Friendly Community, State, and Business programs (run by the League of American Bicyclists) is inspiring cities, towns, states, and businesses to improve their bicycle facilities and programs.
• The Paul David Clark Bicycling Safety Fund supports projects to improve bicycle safety.
• More and better places to ride inspire more people to pedal.
• We’re getting more children on bikes, creating healthier generations.
• Transforming car commuters to bike commuters reduces polluting emissions, so we can all breathe cleaner air.
• People buying bikes support jobs and businesses.
• Active communities have fewer weight-related diseases and lower healthcare costs.
• When people ride bikes, they get to know their neighbors and neighborhoods, creating friendlier communities.

Some of Our Accomplishments

We helped gain $4.5 billion in federal money

We invested $1 million in a coordinated lobbying effort that helped gain $4.5 billion for bicycling and walking the 2005 federal transportation law—SAFETEA-LU. This money is paying for new bike paths, trails, lanes, and programs nationwide. Learn more.

Our Grants Program creates great places to ride

Since 1999, the Bikes Belong Grants Program has awarded nearly $1.6 million in grants, leveraging close to $550 million in federal, state, and private funding. Our facilities grants alone have helped finance more than 1,630 miles of bike paths and trails that link almost 7,500 miles of trail facilities. Learn more.

We get bicycling in the press

Each year, we contribute to news stories in hundreds of top media outlets throughout the country. This positive press coverage helps make bicycling mainstream and inspires more people to ride. Learn more.