Geaux Ride’s downtown biking tours are getting more locals on two wheels

On a warm and humid Thursday night, a blur of laughter, lights, wheels and music navigates the streets of downtown Baton Rouge. This is Geaux Ride, a guided biking tour of downtown led by natives Charles Daniel and Kirkland Pelichet, and it’s getting more locals on two wheels one ride at a time.

Mr. Roy is the purveyor of tunes, with a speaker strapped to the back of his bike and the sounds of Chance the Rapper’s verse in “I’m the One” spilling out. Dozens of riders have joined for tonight’s 11-mile ride, including a group in matching “birthday squad” T-shirts crowded around one woman whose shirt reads “birthday queen.” It’s common for groups to come take a ride to celebrate, Pelichet says—occasions ranging from birthdays to bachelorette parties to divorce celebrations.

The rides, which roll every Thursday, Friday and Saturday, began as a way to get more people active and comfortable biking around the city and quickly grew into a community event. It’s even expanded, with Geaux Ride leading rides in New Orleans and Zachary.

“We bought 10 bikes at first,” Pelichet says. “Then the first ride, we ran out, and we knew it was going to be bigger than we thought.”

Riders can book bikes from Geaux Ride for the 11-mile rides on Thursdays or shorter 3- to 4-mile rides on weekends, though Thursday rides are usually a bring-your-own-bike affair with more regular riders. Anyone with a bike is welcome to join—and chances are you’ll end up filling your spokes with LED lights like the rest of the fleet before long.

The music and lights are lagniappe, though, just something to make the rides more fun. The true purpose of Geaux Ride is to empower people around the community—especially in neighborhoods near downtown, where many may not have other means to get around—to be confident and capable on two wheels. Biking doesn’t just open up doors of accessibility into other parts of the city; it also invites these riders into a community of movement and positivity.

“We just want to impact the community and create a healthier lifestyle for the residents of Baton Rouge,” Daniel says. “A lot of people from different demographics focus on health different ways. So we’re trying to reach out to [all of] those, and also work with those organizations that work with underprivileged youth and give them an alternative.” geauxride.bike

This article was originally published in the August 2017 issue of 225 Magazine.