BIKEIOWA exists to help promote Iowa and it's world-class bicycle-friendly communities, trails and events and to educate cyclists and non-cyclists alike on what Iowa has to offer for cycling.
BIKEIOWA is home to the most comprehensive list of Iowa Bike Rides and Events and we are dedicated
to keeping cyclists up-to-date on:
In addition to providing a one-stop-shop for cycling in Iowa, the users of BIKEIOWA can contribute site content;
Did You Know...?
- BIKEIOWA opened its web doors in March of 2001 and has experienced growth month-over-month since then.
- BIKEIOWA has always been updated daily. Fresh content brings visitors back frequently.
- BIKEIOWA has more than 8,000 News items, Features, and Links.
- BIKEIOWA has over 1,100 events posted to the Event Calendar each year.
- BIKEIOWA has more than 70,000 unique visitors per month. 13,000 visitors visited
the site more than once. More than 2,200 of those visitors are actively
registered (Figure as of as of August 2008).
- BIKEIOWAs
monthly Ride Reminder goes out to more than 4,000+ unique opt-in e-mail
addresses. These readers have requested the Ride Reminder and are
hungry for cycling related information.
The Meat & Potatoes
BIKEIOWA
is headquartered near Des Moines in Ankeny, Iowa. The site lists over a thousand bike rides and events each year, hundreds of news items and features, and
thousands of Ride photos.
This
site design is the 4th layout for BIKEIOWA. Each is getting a little
better and much more efficient and minor site updates occur regularly.
BIKEIOWA's "meat & potatoes" is the Event Calendar.
The goal is to house the most comprehensive listing of Iowa Bike
Rides, Races and Events so you don't have to hunt elsewhere. Any member can
post an Event. Events are monitored closely to ensure all information is
valid.
BIKEIOWA highly believes in freedom of speech. The Comments an Reviews
are open and the tongue flows freely. BIKEIOWA also preaches "freedom to
ride" as well.
As the costs to maintain the site increase over
time, BIKEIOWA will seek out more sponsorship with hopes of promoting
more rides and more involvement with trail development, advocacy, etc.
Help Support the site and support the Sponsors!
BIKEIOWA
has gotten some positive press via the Des Moines Register and
Bicycling Magazine. Its rides and news are featured regularly in the
Cityview and events are listed in many other places.
Long Live
Biking in Iowa. We sometimes take it for granted that 20,000+ bikers
flock to this State each July to ride across this great State. A third
of the State's population rides on the trails years year. And we wonder
why someone would come to vacation in Iowa? In short, enjoy life here
and ride when you can.
About Scott - the creator and lead mule
Greetings readers, my name is Scott. I’ve been an avid cyclist and web and application developer for years. I've ridden about every kind of ride and race that is out there. I grew up in Iowa and and after all thee years, I still love to put my passion into BIKEIOWA to make Iowa a better place to ride your bicycle.
Back in 2001, I took my developer skill-set and created a simple 'Iowa bicycle ride list' website for Iowa.
Why? because the only place to get ride information was from your local bike shop's bulletin board, word of mouth or a paper newsletter from the bicycle club you belonged to.
Remember this is before cell phones, texting, Google, and 3 years before Facebook was launched. Fast forward and BIKEIOWA has become a trusted resource for many and houses the largest cycling event calendar in the Midwest.
As time went by, the site developed into much more than an ride list and the scope became much larger where specific town and city portals were added for a granular level of detail. BIKEIOWA LLC is now the entity under which we operate.
We still work full-time so most of what you see here gets added during the nights and weekends or by our trusted members of the BIKEIOWA community. Again, we wouldn't do it if we didn't still have the passion.
We hope you like what you see.
Bike Iowa... we do.
Ride Safe!
Scott Sumpter