GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A father-and-son duo is embarking on a journey. They're looking to reach 30,000 miles on their bicycles, and they want you to help them get there.
Nate DeHaan and his dad got their first mile in on Sunday.
"Let's get after it," DeHaan said. "If you're putting 10 miles on a month, like, whatever; we're just kind of trying to bring everyone together and see how many miles we can by bike."
It's part of the Great Grand Rapids Bicycle Coalition's two-week Spokes Up challenge.
"So you could bike five miles; you could bike 1,000 miles. It all goes to the group and helps everyone get to ... the milestone," Dehaan explained.
He adds bikers can track their mileages in Strava, which is a popular app for running, biking and hiking.
"I think as a community, it's nice to just be out there with your friends doing things that everybody likes. At least here in Grand Rapids we have a decent amount of protected bike lanes and infrastructure that we can kind of get places safely," DeHaan said.
Experience Grand Rapids shows the city has 80-plus miles of bike lanes.
"You can bike to the bar; you can bike to eat or down the road or go pick up some groceries or whatever," DeHaan said.
If they reach their goal, all bikers who pedaled on can enjoy discounts from 40-plus local businesses.
"So shop local bikes there, and yeah, hopefully, we'll be getting some rewards," DeHaan said.
He explains that this turnout will hopefully show community leaders the need for more biking infrastructure.
"The more of this there are, like, the more we're going to be asking for safer, safer bike infrastructure, whether protected bike lanes or paint like this, whatever it takes," he told FOX 17.
Last year, they were able to get 900 people to sign up. They hope this year they'll get to 1,000 bikers.
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