The BIPOC Bike Adventure Program is an effort to reduce the barriers to bike adventure for BIPOC people.

We recognize that this is a small step in the face of systemic racism and entrenched inequality, but we believe that bicycles and the outdoors are for all, and that everyone should have access to the freedom, joy and self-actualization they provide.

We also know that there are many barriers to multi-day self-supported adventures to be dismantled before beginning to bikepack, such as finances, equipment, confidence, experience, camping skills, and access to routes.

Originally launched in 2020, in 2024 the grant program shifted focus to providing grants from individual trips to supporting BIPOC Community Leaders to host trips, develop gear libraries, and other community building activities. The goal is to develop long-term relationships with these leaders and to support diversity within our Regional Stewards Program.

In our 2024-2025 grant cycle, we gave out 13 adventure grants, totaling over $45,000 in cash and in-kind gear donations. Grant recipients were from 11 states, the grant supported the creation of 8 new gear libraries; and our grantees recorded 65 first time bikepackers taken on adventures in the outdoors! Check out our 2024-2025 BIPOC Bike Adventure Grant Impact Report to learn more.

Get To Know Our Program Participants!

2026 Grant Recepients

BIKEPOCING
BIKEPOCING is an NYC based group focused on making bikepacking (and all things related to the joy of rolling on two wheels) accessible to Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. They organize inclusive group outings and experiences, design free bikepacking 101 workshops, and provide transportation for trips, in addition to maintaining a self-funded gear library for the community.[/vc_column_text]
Black Spoke Society (BSS)
Black Spoke Society (BSS) is a Black and queer led biking community based in Durham, North Carolina, founded to create a welcoming, low-pressure space for Black and brown folks — especially beginners — to come together around cycling and build community. Through bi-weekly rides, learn-to-ride classes, and trips designed to meet people at every experience level, BSS centers collective joy, personal growth, and shared care that extends beyond the bike. In 2025 they hosted their first bikepacking trip and are building a gear library to make future adventures — including upcoming spring and fall trips — as accessible as possible for their growing community.
Brownout Recreation Collective
Brownout Recreation Collective is a San Francisco-based community initiative rooted in organizing alongside communities of color and immigrant populations in the city’s southeastern neighborhoods. Growing out of the Excelsior Bike Club — a pandemic-era bike workshop housed at Casa de Apoyo, a resource hub serving the largely Latino immigrant community in the Excelsior District — Brownout brings a working class multi-generational approach to outdoor recreation and leisure. Their initial bikepacking offering will support a group of beginner-to-intermediate bikepackers who identify as men of color, facilitated in both Spanish and English, with a community gear lending library to ensure equipment is never a barrier to participation.
BSpoke
BSpoke is a grassroots organization dedicated to uplifting BIPOC cyclists in Alaska through community organizing and meaningful relationship-building. They envision community driven cycling spaces that uplift BIPOC cyclists and provide abundant access and opportunities. They work to reduce barriers to cycling, such as cost of gear, familiarity with trails, and technical skills. Through leading community rides that highlight local greenways, hosting clinics about bike maintenance, providing beginner skills clinics, and casual social gatherings, they have been fostering community in Anchorage since 2022.
Kimberly Sambou

Kimberly Sambou is a community leader and member of Southside YMCA and Outdoor Afro Chicago/Northwest Indiana. She is committed to creating safe, welcoming, and culturally affirming experiences for Black cyclists and outdoor enthusiasts. Her work is rooted in equity, expanding access to nature, fostering a sense of belonging in outdoor spaces, and ensuring that Black community members can engage in recreation and adventure without barriers. In collaboration with Out Our Front Door, Kimberly works to offer beginner-friendly bike-camping trips, skill-building workshops, and group rides in partnership with organizations such as the Chicago Park District and Cook County Forest Preserve. With a loaner gear program and supportive trip logistics designed to increase accessibility, members of the community will have less barriers to getting on exploring the world around them on multi day experiences. These opportunities help members build confidence, connect with nature, and experience the joy of outdoor adventure close to home.

Rodadas de Perreo
Rodadas de Perreo is an Indigenous and immigrant-led bike club based in Seattle, founded to bring Indigenous solidarity across borders and nations through cycling. The club centers women of color, non-binary folks of color, and Spanish-speaking communities who have historically been excluded from cycling and outdoor spaces. Rodadas de Perreo offers all information in Spanish and English to make biking accessible to non-English speakers, and hosts intro-to-bikepacking trips designed to give participants the skills, gear, and confidence to experience the freedom of bike camping.

WTFNB El Paso
WTFNB El Paso is a community-led bikepacking and cycling collective rooted in the El Paso-Juárez borderlands, centering women, trans, femme, nonbinary, and BIPOC riders. They create safer, affirming spaces for first-generation cyclists and first-time campers to build skills, confidence, and connection to land. Through workshops, practice rides, mentorship, and supported trips, the group makes bikepacking more accessible and community-centered. In partnership with Bici Sin Fronteras and Critical Mass El Paso, they are building binational solidarity through a women’s bikepacking initiative on both sides of the border and a shared gear library to reduce barriers to outdoor access.

2024 Grant Recipients

All Bikes Welcome

At All Bikes Welcome, their mission is to use recreational cycling to foster personal growth and meaningful community for marginalized folks through low-cost programming, education, and events. As one of the few organizations working at the intersections of race, gender, class, and ability, their number one priority is to provide equitable access to the outdoors in a safe and welcoming environment. As they continue to grow, their aim is to provide new opportunities and initiatives to support community-centric programming.

To that end, they aim to implement a gear library accessible to the public. With the implementation of a gear library, All Bikes Welcome aims to expand their programming to include beginner-friendly bikepacking trips.

Ariel Marlowe

Ariel is based in Austin, TX and dove headfirst into bikepacking in 2022. He is a co-leader and volunteer coordinator of Black History Bike Ride, a ride leader and safety officer at Bikes or Death and spends his time collaborating with non-profits and other BIPOC organizations around the country to provide leadership and community organizing experience.

We are thrilled to support Ariel as he builds up a gear library to begin hosting a range of beginner to intermediate trips locally in Austin, as well as collaborating with others in Texas to lead trips so that more leaders can be empowered to create spaces for people to learn about and experience bikepacking.

Black Trans Bike Experience

Founded in 2019 as the flagship program of Black Transcendence, Black Trans Bike Experience (BTBE) has grown into a Black, Trans, Womanist, and emergent community. The vision of BTBE is threefold:

1) to strengthen connections between Black, trans & queer people and their broader communities,

2) to celebrate & affirm growing Black youth, Black women, & Black Trans people, and

3) to demystify and increase access to the multi-faceted activity/sport of biking as a way to grow a lifelong sense of belonging in bike-healthy communities, and the cycling industry at large.

We’re grateful for the opportunity to support BTBE as they develop a local gear library to lead trips for the community.

Black Transport Project

Founded by Maxx Aguilar, Black Transport Project (BTP) is an initiative that organizes community events and gives away bikes to Black trans people in the Chicago area. Eligible people who do not have a bike can apply for free, then they are entered into a raffle system, and matched applicants will be paired with a bike that fits their size. Aguilar spearheaded this initiative to fix used bikes and distribute them to Black transgender individuals in the Chicago community, distributing over 65 refurbished bikes since 2020!

In the last year, BTP has focused on hosting community events and supporting new cyclists by teaching them basic mechanic skills and on-the-bike commuting skills. BTP has plans for a bikepacking retreat to introduce recipients who have demonstrated interest in bikepacking with bikes they have received from the giveaway program. As of April 2024, BTP has made headway on the Summer 2024 giveaway goals and welcomes this opportunity to include bikepacking in BTP programming for 2024-2025.

Chanel Mitchell & Diverse Terrain Collective

Based in St. Louis, Chanel Mitchell is a STL Regulator working with Diverse Terrain Collective to lead a 260-mile trip along the Katy Trail. The Katy trail is a frequent gravel ride that few BIPOC individuals get to experience due to the lack of educational resources, camping gear, and security feeling on the trail.  From this ride, Chanel hopes to have more frequent outings and travels with peers to do bike-packing trips in the surrounding area. Her goal is to inspire individuals to learn how to camp and attend events to increase their adventures in other states.

Her vision is to get more BIPOC folx from various communities to learn more about bike packing. As security and safety is a concern, her goal is to build a community where groups are larger in numbers and able to venture outside of St. Louis without fear. By increasing the number of people with the skills, tools, and resources to bike pack, she can increase the distance and areas they visit.

Chanel believes that breaking the status quo of what cycling, adventure touring/ riding look like, requires representation, such as myself to show up and create opportunities for others. Her goal is to be a visual representation to promote and encourage more BIPOC individuals to explore this side of cycling.

Color the Valley and RAR Champlain Valley

Color the Valley LLC is a Queer, BIPOC & Women-Owned outdoor guiding company based in Burlington, Vermont. They specialize in bikepacking, backpacking, and hiking trips with an emphasis on Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) and Queer communities.

RAR Champlain Valley is a regional chapter of Radical Adventure Riders (RAR), which encompasses the Adirondacks, NY and Northern, VT. RAR creates networks and programs to support femme, trans, women, non-binary folks and BlPOC folks in the cycling and outdoors scene.

The two groups are working together to provide build a community gear library and to have gear to help facilitate trips for their communities.

Friends of Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks

Sarah Renteria is the Youth Program Coordinator at Friends of Organ Mountains Desert Peaks (OMDP). Eloisa “Elo” Torres is a high school history teacher and sponsors the Outdoors Club on campus. They are both on the Board of Directors for Southern New Mexico Mountain Biking (SNMTB). Their focus is getting youth on bikes and on their local trails, and they both help coach an after school mountain bike clinic at Centennial High School in Las Cruces, NM.

Friends of OMDP assist in organizing the Dangerbird Adventure Ride on the Monumental Loop. The 250-mile ride spans the ~500,000 acres of Organ Mountains Desert Peaks National Monument. This event also includes an alternate option, the beginner-friendly Safetybird – a 30-mile, one-night ride that provides an introduction to bikepacking.

The high school kids in their programs have expressed a deep and genuine interest in bikepacking. Over the past few years, they have built up a solid MTB fleet, helmets, lights, water bottles, and cages. This grant will support the group to host the Babybird, an adventure bikepacking ride with the youth in their after school program, as well as develop a community gear library and to provide their youth and community with essential bikepacking gear.

Kim Turner & Olive Koffer

Kim is a bicycle education contractor with Avanti High School and Inner City Transit Walk N Roll, as well as a community organizer in Olympia, Washington. Kim has been working on bikes for over 3 years and has been running a twice monthly trans bike ride locally. These rides have ranged from gravel cycling to beginner mountain biking rides to skill building classes. She’s engaged with a lot of new and first-time gravel cyclists.

Kim is drawn to community building in the area due to the lack of diversity she’s seen in the outdoors in her region, and now works to create more inclusiveness and increase representation in the outdoor and cycling communities. Kim is currently working on a burgeoning gear library and sees this as a path to their next steps of facilitating other outdoor events, classes, bikepacking and camping trips, and a myriad of guided adventures.

Olive (they/them) is a community organizer and environmental advocate living in Olympia, WA on the unceded land of the Coast Salish Peoples. Olive’s love for the outdoors began in childhood and blossomed into a passion for backpacking and biking as an adult, thanks to friends who generously shared their knowledge and gear.

They believe in the transformative power of nature and work to remove barriers to outdoor recreation by leading hiking trips, skillshares, and co-facilitating a gear lending library. In their free time, Olive enjoys ceramics, gardening, and foraging for mushrooms. They are passionate about mutual aid, harm reduction, and trans joy.

Outdoor Inclusion Coalition

The Outdoor Inclusion Coalition (OIC) is an organization based in Pittsburgh, PA focused on supporting the outdoor exploration of underrepresented community members through free and minimal-cost resources, activities, and events such as skiing, snowboarding, climbing, and camping. They’ve partnered with local bike shops to facilitate community rides on the Great Allegheny Passage, experiencing a growing interest in multi day rides and multi activity trips like riding the GAP to Ohiopyle, camping, and climbing before returning to Pittsburgh. They’d like to support the community in this effort while adding the bike-packing gear to a gear library for community members to utilize at their will and expand the offerings we can provide to public schools and community bike groups.

In addition to the utilization with the immediate Pittsburgh community, the OIC is partnering with Boyz N the Wood to host a black men’s retreat for 12 participants, September 16-22 featuring a GAP and C&O Canal trail ride to Washington, DC, with a group of men, utilizing bike-packing as a restorative space for black men to heal and forge connections with other black men, nature, and themselves.

SoCal Regional Gear Library

A coalition of bicyclists representing four grassroots groups rooted in the Southern California region. This coalition works to create access and cultivate community connectedness in their neighborhoods through bicycling, social ecology, and art.  Their goal is to create a regional, mobile bikecamping gear library and to mobilize the library throughout the region.

Cumbia Bike Club is a decolonial and anti-imperialist bike collective of and for BIPOC femmes, gender-expansive, and queer folks to reclaim their power and feel safe riding in urban spaces through music and art. They formed out of the need to foster safe and welcoming bike rides with a message of using bikes as a tool for collective liberation in intersectional movements.

LA VACAcicleta: Based in the San Fernando Valley since 2021, Los Angeles Valley Arts and Community Alliance mission is to mobilize resources and amplify expressions of system impacted populations through a multidisciplinary approach to media arts and education. Rooted in mobility justice, they travel with their cargo bike and take up public space to connect and build community in the San Fernando Valley.

Radical Adventure Riders (RAR) – Southern CA Chapter: The Southern California chapter joined RAR in 2023, with core groups in San Diego and the San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles. They are dedicated to creating space for BIPOC women, Queer and Trans folks interested in beginning their journey cycling in the outdoors.

Roots In Motion: Their mission is to foster intergenerational health and resilience through diverse ancestral wisdom. Their educators are deeply rooted in Los Angeles and believe in the power of peer education in building community and access to the outdoors. This approach underlines their commitment to providing culturally relevant services that resonate with BIPOC communities and instill empowered everyday solutions.

Tia Moore

Based in the DMV area, Tia is a WABA instructor, league certified cycling instructor, and a member of Black Women Do Bike DC and DIVA Cycling. Her inspiration for building community around bikepacking is to enhance accessibility for individuals of color, noting that education, cost and exposure are the biggest barriers for individuals. In addition, she wants to create a safe space that allows others to share, heal and grow as individuals. She believes that by providing opportunities for others will enhance the demand for experiences. Within her community, she knows that advocacy is the founding principle to inform others and improve demand.

Tia is starting a local gear library with plans to lead 3-5 overnight bikepacking trips over the next few months to allow individuals to get experience bikepacking without the pressures associated with longer trips and with the aim of providing meaningful positive experiences for folks to learn appropriate skills and build confidence.

Wild Wolf Cycling Collective

Wild Wolf Cycling Collective (WWCC) is an intentional space for women and gender-expansive riders in Los Angeles County and surrounding communities, focused on expanding pedal-powered access to the outdoors and nature. Given that Los Angeles is a diverse city with primarily BIPOC residents, WWCC strives to center the leadership and vision of BIPOC women and gender-expansive folks to address the historical harm that has excluded these riders and contributed to the “nature gap”—a phenomenon where BIPOC residents have had the least access to nature, including parks and preserves. By offering low-to-no cost entry into the world of bikepacking, WWCC continues to build community and create opportunities to access natural spaces via bicycle. We’re delighted to support WWCC in adding bikes to their extensive gear library, removing the largest cost barrier, enabling them to offer programming at no cost to the most marginalized riders in their community.

Xanich

Xanich is is an emerging tribe nurturing land through an indigenous lens of reciprocity & gratitude. Members of Xanich have come together to conserve and enhance flora, fauna, land and collective biographies for future generations. Their tribe is intergenerational, they represent various places across Abya Yala and the world, and their gender and sexuality expression is rich with diversity. Xanich is starting a gear lending library with plans to offer two branches of bikepacking tours, Spirit Bicycle Runs and Educational Metal Buffalo Journeys.

2021-2022 Recipients

Anna Stegall

I live in Augusta, Maine with my son Oliver. I started a lot of new things in the last year that I really did not know existed. Biking was one of those things. I am growing my interest and confidence and want my kid to grow with me. I want to show him he can do hard things and learn about the rewards of biking earlier than I did.

Annijke Wade

Annijke Wade’s outlook on life has been changed by mountain biking. Through it, she has found more balance, the ability to work through challenging situations, a wonderful community, and traveled to many awesome locations and trails.

In 2021, Annijke experienced a life-changing spinal cord injury from a horrible mountain biking accident. She is now entering the adaptive mountain biking (aMTB) world. One of her recovery and recreation goals is to figure out how to bikepack with a spinal cord injury.

Annijke is committed to using her position to amplify BIPOC, LGBTQ+ and Disabled voices and will be using her privilege to empower folx in the community. Annijke is using the grant to go on a one-day bikepacking adventure with her friend Fanny in Golden, Colorado!

Brenda Perez

Brenda is a southern Latina living in Nashville, Tennessee, the Cherokee/Muscogee lands. My bikepacking adventure will take me to four beautiful state parks, starting with the Obed Wild Life and Scenic River, where the Milky Way is visible to the naked eye, and ending at Percy Priest Lake. In her own words, “Southern lands carry a history of violence on people, reclaiming the outdoors for BIPOC communities is a way to reclaim our future and reimagine our existence with these beautiful lands.” I am excited to document this journey, learn from the experience and bring others along to see the beauty of the southern United States.

Caitie Kimura

“I’m from the Big Island of Hawai’i, the land of the Kanaka ‘Ōiwi, and grew up biking on Mana, the dirt road that circles the beautiful Mauna Kea. I’ve been living in the PNW for over 12 years now and have recently discovered gravel riding here in Washington and how similar it feels to riding while growing up. When I was in the 7th grade we rode around Mauna Kea in 3 days, camping along the way. While I would love to ride that again, due to the pandemic I haven’t been home in over a year. So, I would like to create a ride in WA that connects where I’m from (Pacific Ocean) to where I’m currently living (Seattle, WA). I plan to ride across the Olympic Peninsula, West to East, avoiding most highways in attempt to connect many different forest service roads from Twin Rivers beach, on the ancestral land of the Coast Salish and S’Klallam people, to the Kingston ferry, and ending in Seattle, on the ancestral land of the Coast Salish and Duwamish people.”

Elisha Bishop

Elisha Bishop is a husband, father and a member of the Gila River Indian Community. He organizes bike rides for the community in Gila River, where he met Mario and his son Isaac. Elisha used the grant to embark on his first bikepacking trip with Mario and Isaac along portions of the Western Wildlands Route and Arizona Trail from Flagstaff to the Grand Canyon.

In 2024, Elisha continues to grow as a community leader and is hosting the inaugural RezGravel: an Indigenous-Led Adventure Ride to support the Hopi Composite Youth MTB Team and Sii’Hasin Bike Project.

Emmanuel Portillo

Emmanuel Portillo was born and raised in Koreatown and South Los Angeles. Emmanuel has worked in education for the last 10 years, working closely with educators, youth, and families to support educational opportunities that cultivate and advance critical and creative thinking, racial equity, and social transformation. An adventurer at heart, Emmanuel is excited about bikepacking through the San Gabriel/Tongva Mountains to connect with the rich, complex, and erased hxstories of native/indigenous people, plants and fauna of the region. Further, some of his long-term goals of this trip is to leverage that experience and knowledge, to develop deep connections with people of the region and support other BIPOC, especially youth, interested in bikepacking.

Ester Fonseca-Patriarco

Ester is a purpose-driven Afro-Latino woman from Brazil who lives in Syracuse, New York. She works in the climate and energy sector, and in her free time you can find her biking and being a cat mom.  She got her first bike seven years ago to commute to college and since then she has never owned a car. Biking has always been her main way of transportation. She is also a passionate, lifelong motorsports fan, advocating for for diversity and inclusion in the male-dominant sport.

Ester is using the grant to tackle the 585+ mile Adirondack Trail Ride (TATR) bikepacking race in fall 2022, and preparing for the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route in 2023.

Jaimie Morales

Jaimie Morales is a Puerto Rican mother of two boys who applied for the grant along with two friends, Shannon Evans is a Native American single mother and Latonya Nicholson is an African American woman and mother of four. They used the grant to complete an adventure on the Great Allegheny Passage Rail Trail, also know as the GAP trail.

Keren Bennett

“I am Inupiaq Native American! I plan on traveling throughout Colorado and I LOVE bikes. I was a cyclist for about 7-8 years and I competed all around the nation, I even placed nationally multiple times! I haven’t been on the bike in a long time, but this would be a great chance for me to get back on and truly enjoy the sport of cycling. Lots of love to all my other BIPOC cyclists out there!!! “

Martha Espinoza

Cycling is a wonderful sport. It can be a solitary ride, or it could be with a small group of riders who become your friends. I love cycling because you get to breathe in fresh air outside and see how nature has changed through the seasons. You’ve heard of fish stories will it’s the same thing with cycling. We like to discuss our adventures. My dream is to bike and camp the KATY TRAIL in Missouri. I biked this trail 20 years ago. It’s time to go back and enjoy the beauty of biking next to the Mississippi River.

mónica teresa ortiz

mónica teresa ortiz was born and raised in Texas and is a novice adventure cyclist focusing on political geography and ecology in the Southwest, marginalized communities impacted by environmental racism, and hopes to improve conversations on sustainability and solidarity.

Navjyot Gill

The vision of our trip “Womxn Warriors for Land, Liberation and the Struggle” is to honor the sacred, historic lands in California, while building community and challenging our bodies physically. More specifically, during this trip, we will visit numerous BIPOC places and memorials to pay our respects to the land and its peoples.

Renee Hernandez-Mireles

“I’m craving the desert trails for my future adventure and couldn’t be more exciting about this opportunity. I’m so grateful beyond words for Bikepacking Roots, they are paving the way for BIPOC adventurists like myself who have an enormous amount of love for the cycling and the outdoors. I hope my adventure inspires other organizations to invest in our BIPOC cycling community to allow other people just like myself, to have their own experience of a lifetime. “

Roxy Robles

Roxy Robles is a cyclist, urban planner, sewist, and Filipinx food enthusiast living on the ancestral lands of the Duwamish (Seattle, Washington). She started bike touring after realizing that bike touring was not that different than hauling groceries up and down Seattle hills on a bike. In Seattle, she organizes with Friends on Bikes (a community for people living at the intersections of trans, two-spirit, women, intersex, gender nonconforming and Black, Indigenous, and other people of the global majority identities), and volunteers with The Bikery & Outdoors for All. She has conducted introductory bike touring courses with Seattle Colleges, Adventure Cycling Association, and Swift Industries.

Roxy is passionate about supporting new cyclists and spreading her love of bikes and bike touring. She thinks tarot cards are an essential item on any packing list and loves to talk about feelings. You can get her book, An Introduction to Bike Touring to get started on your cycling journey! Roxy is using the grant to lead a group from Friends on Bikes Seattle to occupied Nimiipuu and Shohone-Bannock territories in colonized southeast Idaho for a 80-mile loop near Warm Lake. The route includes climbs, views from the Boise National Forest and HOT SPRINGS!

Sarah, Devin and Olivia

Sarah is a cycling commuter turned-on to bikepacking and exploring the off-roads of Georgia. She is excited to traverse the North Georgia mountains with the folx that helped make the South her home away from home. This adventure is important to her because it not only frees her from the stresses of the city, but she hopes this opportunity will heighten representation of the BIPOC cyclists in the Southeast, as well as contribute to the gear library that will serve as a resource for BIPOC womxn cyclists to fuel their own bikepacking adventures.

Selena Feliciano

Selena Feliciano is an artist, strategist and half of the Borikén Bicycle Tour, based on occupied Chochenyo Ohlone territory (Oakland, CA). She spends most of her days dreaming of how to deepen connections to the biosphere on a mass scale, and how to reverse the effects of capitalism, white supremacy, and centuries-long destruction of indigenous roots under colonialism.

She finds the intersection of bicycles and art ripe with possibility for deepening our ties to our beloved Earth; She is an avid bicycle tourist and contributing performer with Agile Rascal Bicycle Touring Theatre Company, as well as a 2022 athlete with the Ride for Racial Justice Gravel Team.

Selena and her collaborator, Jackie Rivera, are using the funds to embark on the Borikén Bicycle Tour in the spring of 2023, across the island of Puerto Rico, creating art, memories, and reflection from the inevitable inspiration of our ancestral ecology and genetic ties to Taíno lands and waters. Find out more at www.selenafeliciano.com

Shawnee Dez

Shawnee Dez was born and raised on the South Side of Chicago. She is the founder and organizer of the Black JoyRide. In June 2020, Shawnee and friends organized a mass Juneteenth bike ride to promote Black joy, wellness, and to take up space in the second most segregated city in the United States, Chicago. This ride is a symbol of liberation and mobility.

Shawnee’s work centers youth and community advocacy. When off the music stage, she activates spaces for creative youth to express unapologetically. The mission of the Black JoyRide is to get as many Black folks on bikes as possible!

Shawnee will be bringing the Black JoyRide to Leimert Park, Los Angeles to host the very first Black JoyRide in California on August 25th, 2022. Their goal is to connect with Black folks throughout the diaspora, domestic and abroad, to promote liberation, wellness and joy through biking!

Suzanne Alexander

Suzanne Alexander developed a passion for endurance sports after a three-day, 60-mile walk in support of breast cancer research. Her love for biking grew when training for and completing her first sprint triathlon. Suzanne is a member of the Atlanta chapter of Black Girls Do Bike and enjoys biking on trails around Atlanta.

Suzanne is thrilled to plan and complete the inaugural “Tubman Trek”, a multi-day bike adventure along the 125-mile Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway. She plans to expand the trip to include others in future years. The trek will facilitate freedom from pre-conceived notions of limitations based on age, sex or race, from personal doubts about physical or mental ability, and to experience, enjoy and protect the richness and beauty of nature.

Will, Silas and Sukho

Will Cortez, Silas Sanderson, and Sukho Viboolsittiseri formed BikePOCPNW to respond to the community need for cycling spaces for BIPOC folks in the Portland Metro area. They are actively creating a brave space for BIPOC folks to ride bikes, build community, forge life-long friendships, and challenge the status quo. They do this while holding themselves accountable for behaviors that may replicate or uphold any and all forms of oppression.

Since its inception in January 2021, the group has hosted an AAPI Solidarity Ride, monthly rides for all disciplines of riding (party pace, mountain bike, gravel, etc.), clinics, and trained riders interested in competition.

They are using the grant to build BilePOCPNW’s bikepacking gear library. The gear will be used to for bikepacking trips to Stub Stewart State Park, the Deschutes River State Recreation Area, and more.

박 (Pak)

Mentor & Former Grant Recipient

박 (Pak) is a first-generation Korean American video editor, director, and dirt-chasing cyclist based out of Seattle, WA. The BIPOC Bike Adventure Grant supported Pak’s 2021 bikepacking trip from the border of Mexico to Canada along The Great Divide Mountain Bike Route with his 17-year-old brother and childhood best friend. This trip inspired the Award-Winning Film Pak directed called Riding Han.

Review Committees & Mentors

2026 Review Committee
Eric Arce

The son of Mexican immigrants, Eric (he/him) is a freelance photographer and writer based out of Albuquerque but originally from the Antelope Valley, California. He loves photographing people of color on their bicycles and is passionate about highlighting diverse stories within cycling. He first started bikepacking in 2020 after the loss of his father, who used to horse pack in Durango, Mexico. He helped cofound Pedal2thepeople, an online collective seeking to increase representation in cycling and to build community. 

Kai Addae

Kai (they/them) discovered their romance with bikes in New Haven, CT and has spent the better part of the last decade building community, fixing bikes, and leading rides and bikepacking trips across the US. As a cheerleader of all things bikes, they currently co-lead the Radical Adventure Riders New Haven Chapter, serve on the board of a local bicycle non-profit, the Bradley Street Bicycle Co-op, and are a founding member of the Safe Streets Coalition of New Haven. They are obsessed with exploring and connecting with the world through cycling, and work to continue to develop ways for folks of all kinds to do so. 

Río Oxas

Río (they/them) was born in Yaanga Village (Echo Park, Los Angeles). Their mother is from Kuxkatan (El Salvador) and father from Guatemala. Río is the Co-Visionary and Principal of RAHOK, a Two-Spirit family-owned business that illuminates the interdependence of Roots, Ancestors, Health, Outdoors and Knowledge to cultivate loving Eco-Hoods. Their work is focussed on Mindful Mobility, Conscious Real Estate and Racial Justice and Equity. Rio Oxas is a national bicycle safety coach and has been a bicycle educator since 2002. Rio is also part of a land collective called Xanich located in Tule Yokut lands. Last year Xanich lead their first intergenerational overnight spirit bike training in the foothills of the sierras.

2024 Review Committee
Ana Fajardo

Ana Fajardo (she/they) is all about finding joy and connection with others on two wheels. She started riding bikes while going to college in Gainesville, FL, and fell in love with the way that cycling transformed her experience of the outdoors and the community that surrounded it. Ana works as a bike mechanic in Asheville, NC and is involved with the local Radical Adventure Riders chapter. She is passionate about the southeast cycling community, long and short adventures on bicycles, and creating space for marginalized folks in the industry. She also loves making food, playing in dirt, and naps with her cat.

Andrea Molina

Andrea Molina (she/her) is a school teacher, community organizer and urbanism enthusiast. After 3 years of bikepacking in Latin America, she returned to her native El Salvador, where she’s building community around bikes, walkable cities and forest conversation.

Jon Yazzie

Jon Yazzie (he/him) is a school administrator in the Arizona public school system. Additionally, Jon owns and runs a bike packing company on the Navajo Nation, with tour proceeds from being used to bring bike packing programming, to the reservation.

2022 Mentors
Antonio Miranda

Mentor

Antonio Miranda is from Modesto, California. He says “Cycling has been my main mode of transportation until from about 2008-2020 when I submerged myself into adventure cycling culture. I toured From Virginia to the edge of Ohio and multiple remote parts of Puerto Rico and Northern California. Bikepacking has played a huge role in my development as a cyclist.⁠

I want to change the faces in adventure cycling and encourage more POC to join the outdoor adventure community and embrace those spaces. I want others to join me and help them realize they can do this as well without the fear of physical harm or death that shadows our community. I want to continue to strengthen the bonds of local outreach and build a larger community of adventure cycling that becomes more accessible and encourages personal growth.”⁠

Sam Scipio

Mentor

Sam (she/her) is a designer and bike mechanic living and working in Detroit, MI. Her love of bikes came out of necessity – a commuter to start after her car broke down. Now she rides and races everywhere she can. Sam loves riding in the mountains, sand, and dirt; and wants to create space for more people of color to do the same. In 2020 she founded Jubilee MFG, a custom framebuilding and small bicycle components company.

박 (Pak)

Mentor & Former Grant Recipient

박 (Pak) is a first-generation Korean American video editor, director, and dirt-chasing cyclist based out of Seattle, WA. The BIPOC Bike Adventure Grant supported Pak’s 2021 bikepacking trip from the border of Mexico to Canada along The Great Divide Mountain Bike Route with his 17-year-old brother and childhood best friend. This trip inspired the Award-Winning Film Pak directed called Riding Han.

Program Leadership

Devin Cowens

Current BIPOC Program Consultant

Devin is an avid bikepacker and gravel cyclist. She is a connector, community organizer, event planner, and advocate for BIPOC folks in cycling. In 2019, Devin founded the Atlanta chapter of Radical Adventure Riders (RAR ATL). Through RAR ATL, she leads regular bikepacking trips, monthly happy hours and community rides, skillshare sessions, and co-facilitates the groups impressive gear lending library. Devin and three friends were recipients in the first round of Bikepacking Roots BIPOC Bike Adventure Grants in 2021.

Brooke Goudy

2022 BIPOC Program Coordinator

Brooke Goudy is an athlete, bicycle advocate and owner of Rowdy Goudy, a health and wellness organization dedicated to introducing cycling to women of color, and redefining what it means to participate in active living. She has a love for cycling, but her greatest joy is introducing cycling to women of color as a co-leader of Black Girls Do Bike Denver. As the community events manager for VIDA MTB Series, she co-leads an Impact committee that works to eliminate barriers to make mountain biking more inclusive, equitable, and diverse. Her love for biking extends to conservation and advocacy for trails. She has served as a member of the Board of Directors for Boulder Mountain Bike Alliance and co-leads the Women’s Colorado Mountain Bike Association Program as their Program Marketing Manager.

Interested in supporting the BIPOC Bike Adventure Grant Program?

Donate to the Grant

Thanks to our amazing partners who are supporting the grant!

Are you a brand or maker of bikepacking bags or camping gear interested in supporting?
We’re still looking for additional partners to provide in-kind gear donations for grant recipients — please reach out!

Note: Applications for the grant are current closed. 

Are you a community leader who is interested in taking a group of individuals on bike adventures? Do you wish you had bikepacking gear to lend in support of your community programming? Do you identify as Black, Indigenous, or a Person of Color? Then this grant may be for you!

Please review the criteria below before completing an application.

Who

  • Individuals who identify as Black, Indigenous, and/or Persons of Color.
  • Reside in the United States (including Puerto Rico) or Canada.
  • Have bikepacked before (Bikepacking is defined as minimalist camping and biking: like multi day backcountry hiking, but with the range and thrill of riding your bike. This can include bike touring and sometimes is used interchangeably with bike camping).
  • Have some experience leading groups on bike adventures (this could be urban/rural, day rides or bikepacking specific).
  • Would benefit from support in order to pursue a community-focused bikepacking initiative.
  • Individual bikepacking leaders or Community Groups can apply.
    • We are open to both formally and informally organized groups (i.e. 501c3’s and LLCs may apply, as well as grassroots community groups).

What

  • Grants will be given to support the following activities (ideally both):
    • A community-building focused bikepacking initiative, ideally within and around one’s local community/state.
    • Starting or growing a bikepacking gear library, with the intent for it to be an ongoing community resource with gear lent out regularly, not a one-off or pop-up.
  • Grants will include in-kind gear donations and/or cash to support:
    • Gear donations include bikepacking bags, racks, lightweight camping gear, and more. (Subject to availability. We want to make sure folks get gear that they actually need so we will do our best to match applicants to companies based on requests.)
    • Up to $2,000 cash per award to supplement in-kind donations and support the bikepacking initiative, such as covering travel, food, lodging and other associated costs.
  • Recipients will receive mentorship from previous grant recipients and other BIPOC leaders.
  • We anticipate awarding between 6-12 grants in this grant cycle.

When: Any adventures taking place in Summer 2026 to Spring 2027 or programs set to launch during this time.

Where: Adventures can take place anywhere within the United States (including Puerto Rico) or Canada.

Why: To support the community of current and future BIPOC bikepacking leaders and help to reduce barriers as folks define what bike adventure means to them.

  • Recipients will be asked to write a brief report and share a few photos from their bikepacking initiative to inspire potential applicants and support future fundraising for the program.
  • Recipients are encouraged to join the Bikepacking Roots’ Regional Stewards Program for ongoing support of their community-building efforts (this is a volunteer community of bikepacking leaders from around the country, with opportunities for stipends and other support from Bikepacking Roots).
Still have questions? Email Devin Cowens, BIPOC Program Consultant for more information.