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Your Time: Bay State Bike Week

The Daily Hampshire Gazette. May 22, 2014. Photos and text by Jerrey Roberts and Kevin Gutting.

Bay State Bike Week — an annual celebration for bicycle lovers across the commonwealth — was marked with events and festivities in the Pioneer Valley.

At a commuter breakfast, held May 14 on the lawn at the Hampshire County Courthouse in Northampton, cyclists picked up Bike Week T-shirts and bumper stickers and indulged in bagels and fruit at booths set up by MassBike and the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission.

That afternoon, during the Amherst Farmers Market, Parker Ramspott, owner of Laughing Dog Bicycles, and Willem Sytsma, owner of Hampshire Bicycle Exchange, offered a bike care workshop where they answered questions, demonstrated tire replacements, and handled quick adjustments for those who stopped by.

Nearby, Dorie Goldman, owner of Backyard Bakery, passed out samples of her artisanal bread while standing in front of her Organic Transit ELF, a solar/pedal/electric trike she uses to transport her products from her home to Amherst markets.

On Spring Street, by the Amherst Common, children from Crocker Farm Elementary School went to a bike rodeo for kids, organized by Jeff McQueen and Victoria Shaw, co-owners of the Morse Hill Outdoor Education Center in Shutesbury. McQueen said he hoped the rodeo would expose kids to the joy of coasting along on a bike and inspire those who had never ridden before to give it a try.