Yamaha Bicycles Funds Santa Barbara’s First All Kids Bike Program

In October, our friends at Yamaha Bicycles sponsored Ride Santa Barbara 100, the premier century bike ride on California’s Central Coast. Through its sponsorship of the event’s Electric Bike category, Yamaha also donated $5,000 to provide the city of Santa Barbara, California with its first All Kids Bike kindergarten PE program. Students at the recipient school, Harding University Partnership School, will receive bikes in early December 2021.

“Yamaha has been the pioneer in e-Bikes for more than two decades,” said Rob Trester, who leads the Yamaha Power Assist Bicycle group in the U.S. “Through our involvement with RideSB100, we enjoyed connecting with cyclists and seeing how many of them are embracing power assist bikes for recreation and fitness.”

At the event on October 23, Yamaha presented RideSB100’s e-Bike class, open to all class one and class three power assist bicycles, and provided demo opportunities for riders interested in trying a Yamaha bicycle on the course or at the event expo. A number of RideSB100 cyclists borrowed Yamaha e-Bikes for the 34-mile and 100-km routes. During the podium ceremonies at the end of the day, Yamaha presented Harding University Partnership School with a $5,000 check to bring the All Kids Bike program to Santa Barbara for the first time.

The All Kids Bike program is a national movement led by the nonprofit Strider Education Foundation to place Kindergarten PE Learn-To-Ride Programs into public schools for free using donations from individuals, businesses and organizations. Developed to be a plug-and-play program for public schools that aligns with SHAPE America National Physical Education Standards, the All Kids Bike program includes an eight-lesson Kindergarten PE Learn-To-Ride Curriculum, teacher training and certification, and a five-year support plan. The All Kids Bike program is now in 350 schools in 45 states, with another 50 schools currently in training that will have the program by the end of the year.

If your school is interested in the program, or if you’re interested in donating to get programs installed in schools, reach out to All Kids Bike here.

We interviewed Ryan McFarland on our podcast about his founding of Strider, All Kids Bike, and more, which you can listen to here or wherever you listen to podcasts.