Biking is more than just a mode of transportation - for many it's a lifestyle.
The first Chico Cycling Chautauqua will take place from 3 to 7 p.m. Sept. 28 at City Plaza, where people will come to promote Chico's growing bicycle culture, said Laurie Niles, a member of the Butte Bicycle Coalition and a Chico Cycling Chautauqua engineer.
A chautauqua gathering, made popular in the 1920s, is an entertaining and educational forum, which features speakers, teachers, musicians, entertainers, preachers and different specialists, Niles said.
Chico Cycling Chautauqua will be an opportunity to network and bring together the different, and sometimes rifted, subcultures of biking, said Ryan Laine, founder of Wheeled Migration, an organization collaborating with the chautauqua.
"We lose touch with what the bike means to other people," Laine said. "We want to see the different biking groups break down some of the walls that divide them."
It's a chance for people to come and show their stuff, Laine said.
"We have people bringing out couches and we're going to set up an outdoor living room in the downtown Chico plaza," he said.
Laine, 29, a Chico State student, refers to himself as, "a perpetual senior," he said. He is a special major in outdoor leadership and outdoor education.
The Wheeled Migration project is a statewide cycling event that unites students, educators, innovators, activists, organizers and entrepreneurs of the environmental justice and green economy movements, according to wheeledmigration.org.
Admission is free and there will be food from the Sicilian Cafe sold at the event.
Tune-ups will be available and in the evening there will be a night ride to Bidwell Park, so participants should bring bike lights, Niles said.
Chico bike culture has gotten huge, she said. And with the rising gas prices, there have been a lot more bicycles on campus, so they are expecting a pretty high level of interest in the chautauqua.
"The cost of driving could have a lot of students more interested in biking," Niles said, "and the sustainability department is soliciting Chico as a bike-friendly town."
A few hundred people are expected to participate over the course of the event, Niles said.
"And people don't need to stay the whole time, they can just come check it out for as long as they'd like," she said.
Senior Kyle Hughes, manager of the Adventure Outings bike cart on campus, said he and his co-workers are interested in coming to the event.
Hughes is hoping to attend and repair bikes, he said.
The event will run late into the night and will be open to people of all ages, Niles said. Donations are not required, but they will be accepted.
But it's about more than raising funds, Laine said.
"The purpose of this event is to honor the cycling culture, it's for anybody who rides a bike," Laine said. "We're going to have people on cruisers, racing bikes, mountain bikes, lowriders, fixies - this is for all the people who love their bicycle."
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