ECO SPEAKS CLE

Come Along for a Ride with Slow Roll Cleveland

• Guest: Kevin Jones • Episode 64

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If you need a reason to love Mondays, Slow Roll Cleveland is it. In this episode, Greg and I join Slow Roll Cleveland and several hundred other cyclists for a leisurely-paced bike parade through our urban streets. Slow Roll Cleveland hosts these ten-mile Monday evening rides during warmer months to highlight Cleveland neighborhoods and bring joy and community to riders and residents alike. Our slow roll took off from Shaker Square and took us through the Shaker, Buckeye, and Mount Pleasant neighborhoods. It was a blast. Hundreds of cyclists on bikes tricked out with bells, boom boxes, and lights shouted "Happy Monday" to excited onlookers waving from tree lawns, porches, and driveways. Slow Roll Cleveland has been hosting these inclusive social bike rides since 2013. Board President, Kevin Jones,  spoke with us before the ride about the mission of Slow Roll, how it was founded, and why these rides are so popular. We also spoke with several participants and members of the Squad, the crack volunteers who ensure the rides run smoothly and safely. Come along with us. There is magic in our neighborhoods, in our people, and in the simple joy of riding bikes together. 

Guest:
Kevin Jones, President of the Board, Slow Roll Cleveland

Resources:
About Slow Roll Cleveland
Slow Roll Schedule
Volunteer with Slow Roll Squad

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Speaker 1:

You're listening to EcoSpeak CLE, a podcast for the eco curious in Northeast Ohio. My name is Diane Bickett and my producer is Greg Rotuno. Together we speak with local sustainability leaders and invite you to connect, learn and live with our community and planet in mind. Hello friends, come along for a ride with us tonight as Greg and I join Slow Roll Cleveland and several hundred other cyclists for a leisurely paced bike parade. Slow Roll Cleveland hosts these 10 mile Monday evening events which traverse the nurks and crannies of our urban neighborhoods and bring joy and community to riders and witnesses alike. Tonight's ride is taking off from Shaker Square, and here to tell us about what to expect with a slow roll is Kevin Jones, the board president for Slow Roll Cleveland. Please stay with us to hear from some of the people we meet on the ride and some of the squad members, the yellow-shirted volunteers who are dubbed Protectors of the Ride and Guardians of the Street. Welcome, kevin. Hello, way to give us a reason to look forward to Monday.

Speaker 3:

Goodness, I look forward to every single Monday.

Speaker 1:

Mm-hmm, yeah, and you're here. What nine months out of the year doing these, unless it's snowing or whatever.

Speaker 3:

We get started at the end of April and then we end our rides at the end of October.

Speaker 1:

Okay, wow. Well, it's a little chilly tonight, but we came prepared. I read that Slow Roll is a mass-happening event and a movement. Can you tell us why?

Speaker 3:

You know, we get a lot of people from different parts of the city who come and join our rides and they come from all walks of life. They come from different neighborhoods, they come from different parts of the community. Inside the city, in the suburban areas, there are people who drive in from other cities and it's just a fun time. It takes you back to your childhood, allows you to get out there and explore something, see something you haven't seen all week. If you get around your own neighborhood, that's wonderful and we love our neighborhoods. But then it's cool to get out into another neighborhood and just see a street you haven't seen, see a friendly face you haven't seen, see kids on another street, see grandma and grandpa on another street. It's all about exploration and having fun together.

Speaker 1:

Wow, that's amazing, so one of the impetuses for this interview. When we first interviewed Bike Cleveland a while back, they mentioned the slow roll and I have yet to get around to participating, but Greg's been on one.

Speaker 1:

I've got a treat in store for you, yeah and I just met a gentleman over there who moved to Cleveland from Georgia two weeks ago and his friend invited him on a ride. So it really is kind of bringing the community together. So tell us a little bit about Slow Roll Cleveland, how it got started and what your mission is.

Speaker 3:

So Slow Roll Cleveland got started in 2013 and there were just a few of us who came out on bike rides. My friend, sam, started the ride, and a friend of mine, mike. He said, hey, you're going to go to Sammy's ride tonight. I said, who is Sammy? He said, oh man, come on, follow me. And so I came to the ride and got hooked. There were like 15 of us riding around and just traversing neighborhoods and just having fun together. Then, before we knew it, there were like a bunch of people coming. So you know, that's, that's when's when, just really took off just tagging along and 15 yeah, tagging along and people you know.

Speaker 3:

Then we became a little bit more official and we started getting more violent. You know volunteers to help out with the logistics of the rides, and so we've just grown from there what?

Speaker 1:

how many people have been on your most populous ride, would you say?

Speaker 3:

about 800. Wow, yeah, we had 800 a few weeks ago at uh, where was it? Lincoln park in tremont, and I think we had close to that at edgewater a couple years back wow, which one did you go on greg?

Speaker 5:

I did the edgewater one a couple years back, when I remember somebody saying it was the most people at the time that had ever been there wow.

Speaker 1:

So how does that work when you get 800 people? I'm assuming slow roll is a slow ride.

Speaker 3:

It's about eight to 10 miles an hour. We try to average about eight miles an hour so that we can appeal to a little bit of everybody. I mean, we've got kids who come, we've got families and we don't want to leave anyone behind. So we try to make sure that we're at a pace that's reasonable. And so that ride was a little challenging because we were very, very spread out Okay. So we had to really manage that ride.

Speaker 1:

Did you have someone to run sweep to make sure no one gets left behind?

Speaker 3:

Oh, we've got multiple sweepers and we've got a sag. We've got a car that rides behind the ride and follows the ride and makes sure that people don't get left behind. Usually, if we have problems with a flat tire or something like that, we have our sag crew, our support and gear crew, to stop and help them out with fixing their inner tubes, patching it up or putting a new one in. Okay, something like that.

Speaker 1:

Are there other slow roll organizations other than Cleveland?

Speaker 3:

Absolutely there's excuse me, there's a slow roll Detroit, which was the original slow roll. Then Cleveland came next, then Buffalo, new York came next and there's been other ones. There was a slow roll Chicago. I'm not sure if they're still operating, but there was them and so I mean I've gone to. I was in at slow roll Detroit a few weeks ago and they had about about the same as our ride at this point mm-hmm.

Speaker 1:

So it is a movement. And what's your mission?

Speaker 3:

our mission is is bridging communities through inclusive bike rides. So we take our map, the maps of our rides, at the end of each season and we want to make sure that we've rode around the whole city. So we'll overlay the maps and make sure that we're not, uh, missing a part of the city. So we try to get people to. We encourage people to go out and meet their neighbors in other parts of town. So we may, we'll be in Tremont this week, we'll be in Glenville the next week. We may be in Camps Corner the next week. We may be in Waterloo the next week and next, next week. From now we'll be downtown in Mall B.

Speaker 1:

Okay, and that's the bike with the mayor, right.

Speaker 3:

That's the bike with the mayor.

Speaker 1:

Mayor Bibb coming out for that.

Speaker 3:

Mayor Bib Bibb's gonna come out. He rides. We rode with Mayor Bibb last year at the opening of the trails ride so we supported that ride and it was pretty cool. He seems to be really bike friendly.

Speaker 1:

Good, good. What have been some of your favorite rides this summer?

Speaker 3:

One of my favorite rides this summer was the Glenville ride. We had some young people who came and joined the ride and they came up popping wheelies and whatnot. And so we said, okay, well, how do we make use of these young people? And we asked them to help out with our squad work. So they actually helped to keep the ride safe and after a few blocks they were asking us OK, where do you want us to go next?

Speaker 3:

And it was just a really organic connection with kids in the neighborhood. These are teenagers who are just literally riding their bikes around exploring the neighborhood and when they came along and saw us they said oh wow, we're riding with y'all, that's cool, that's cool.

Speaker 1:

Do you have a way for people to borrow bikes or do you have a way for loaners out there?

Speaker 3:

Well, we don't. Slow Roll Cleveland does not have loaners, but any bike pretty much will do. Just show up with a. You know, it could be any big box bike that you've bought, or it doesn't have to be. You don't have to go spend thousands of bucks to come ride with us. We're riding at a slow pace. Just get something that's comfortable for you and come along. Some people have gotten bike, share bikes and ridden on our rides, so a lot of those are around town. So maybe check an app for that. Tonight we happen to have a sponsor for this ride providing bikes with a. You know, as long as you have a driver driver's license, you can get a bike tonight on the slow roll cleveland ride that's supported by the st luke's foundation oh, that's great.

Speaker 1:

Okay, and um people can also get bikes from ohio city bicycle co-op too yes, the so, the so.

Speaker 3:

St luke's's Foundation is supporting the rentals from the Ohio City Bike Co-op tonight. I see, and so those bike rentals are coming for free to people in the neighborhood. First come, first come basis.

Speaker 1:

Okay, Greg. What did you think about the slow ride you went on? What did you get out of it?

Speaker 5:

Well, like I said, it was the most populous one at the time, so there was a lot of people there. The most populous one at the time, so there's a lot of people there. Edgewater is already, you know, a pretty chaotic place to ride, so it was nice to have structure and be among fellow cyclists and, you know, there's always a couple people who are looking to cause trouble with cyclists on the road. So it's nice to, you know, feel like your pack mentality not in danger on the roads. Cleveland's not necessarily a totally bike friendly city in all places, so it's nice to get the awareness out there, show people that people are using the roads for cycling and when we all work with because there are people who come up with cars on cars in cars and they'll pull up and say what is this?

Speaker 3:

Why are you riding around my neighborhood?

Speaker 3:

And then we say well, we'd like you to come out. Do you have a bicycle? Please join us. We're not here to run your neighborhood, we're here to ride with you, we're here to bring joy to you. And it's just so wonderful when you ride around a neighborhood and you see kids playing, and then they normally come out. The kids come out first and they start pointing towards the bike and they start jumping up and down and you just see their smiles, you know, just because they're saying, oh my goodness, and some of them will go, actually get on their bikes and go along as far as their parents will let them go.

Speaker 3:

Oh, that's great you know, if they can't go off the block, they'll go to the edge of the block and then they'll wave and like we're like. Oh, tell your mom and dad to come to the ride next time.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, this woman, sandy, who's in the Cleveland Hiking Club with me, was saying you me, was saying you just got to come out because that there's so much joy seeing people come out of their homes and they're waving. You know people are coming out of their houses and waving and seeing their community. You know 500 bikes just show up on their street. It's got to be pretty cool, I would think it's also a fair share of people who you know pretty eclectic characters.

Speaker 5:

Some people like dress up and oh really yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yeah, we've got a we've. We've got people who some are on rollerblades, some are on electric unicycles. There's, there's. Lately we've had an individual on a unicycle. He's juggling and riding a unicycle at the same time.

Speaker 4:

I'm pretty amazed at it.

Speaker 1:

I'm a little concerned at times I'm concerned at times times, but he seems to keep it together.

Speaker 5:

So, uh, hey, like yeah like seeing the guy in the predator, the full predator get up.

Speaker 1:

Yes, yeah, he's pretty amazing greg's got all his guardians gear on tonight, so division series. So I'm really excited to get out there tonight for the first time and do you have any? Tips. Thank you. Do you have any tips for newcomers or people? How do people learn more? How do we get signed up, get the schedule? But any tips like for me for slow rolling? Tonight I'm wearing a bright fuchsia color jacket.

Speaker 3:

I'm kind of worried about being visible because it'll be dark by the time we're done right on nights, when we have dark rides, we always suggest to wear, wear bright colors, because that that promotes people actually seeing you, versus darker clothes clothing where they don't see you. Also, come with your bike with, with your air, properly inflated brakes working, if possible.

Speaker 3:

We want you to be able to stop test your brakes before and making sure that your chain is lubricated, and those are just the basics. If if you have a breakdown, we're there to help out. To find out about our schedule and whatnot, you can go to our website, which is wwwSlowRollClevelandorg. That's wwwSlowRollClevelandorg, and you can find us on social media, on Instagram at Slow Roll Cleve, s-l-o-w-r-o-l-l-c-l-e, or on Facebook. You can find us as well. We post our schedule on all of those.

Speaker 1:

Okay, and all the rides are free. You just show up. Do you have to sign up ahead of time or sign a waiver? How does that work?

Speaker 3:

If you haven't ridden with us, we encourage you to go onto the website and do the waiver before coming to the ride, or you can do it when you arrive at the ride.

Speaker 1:

Okay, cool. Now what about volunteering? If someone wanted to be one of the yellow squad participants volunteers, how would they do that and what do they actually do?

Speaker 3:

So we've got our squad. We have about 40 to 50 squad members who volunteer to do different aspects of the ride, from blocking streets to making sure the riders stay to the right, to leading rides, to driving a chase car that goes behind the ride, to our support and gear crew and other other roles as well within the organization. If someone wants to volunteer, you can go to our website and fill out the form on the website okay, again at slowrollclevelandorg and or just talk to someone on the ride. I mean, I started volunteering from just riding and I just asked someone, hey, can I help out with the rides? And they said, sure, uh, are you sure you want to do that? Or you know, I said, of course I want to do that I want to be.

Speaker 3:

I don't want to just be a participant, I want to volunteer. So just talk to someone or hit our website and someone will get back to you and we'll be glad to have you okay, and where are we going tonight?

Speaker 1:

we're leaving Shaker Square. What's the general route?

Speaker 3:

I don't have the general route. I'm not the ride leader tonight. Deidre is our ride leader tonight, but but we will most likely be going around the Larchmere area, Shaker area and Mount Pleasant neighborhood.

Speaker 1:

Okay.

Speaker 3:

So it'll be a 10-mile loop coming back, ending here at Shaker Square.

Speaker 1:

Awesome. Well, is there anything else you want our listeners to know before we head out?

Speaker 3:

I just want to say come out, join your neighbors and family and friends in other parts of town, Enjoy yourselves. This is all about fun. This is all about community. This is all about diversity and making sure that you have a good time and stay safe and are noticed out here on bicycle safe and are noticed out here on bicycle. And I like what you said earlier about you know being a kid again, remembering what it's like to have fun on a bike.

Speaker 6:

Absolutely, this is like my most childlike day of the week.

Speaker 3:

Like I got done with work and I'm like okay, I get to go to slow roll Awesome.

Speaker 1:

Well, thank you so much for joining us for this quick interview.

Speaker 5:

And, yeah, we're going to have a good time tonight. What brought?

Speaker 8:

you out to Slurrell tonight. If I'm being honest, I try to get a ride in before the summer end. My guy, Dennis, has been inviting me out the whole summer and I just wanted to get one in before it got too cold outside. I'm an avid bike rider so I wanted to come out and enjoy a fun ride For sure.

Speaker 4:

Slow road, yeah, for sure. What are you looking forward to most?

Speaker 8:

Actually, I'm just looking for experience.

Speaker 3:

I see what it's like on.

Speaker 8:

Facebook. I just want to know what it feels like to ride with the guys and just experience it and be part of the team.

Speaker 2:

I started volunteering for Slow Road because of its mission to unite communities through inclusive bike rides, but also to show how to share the road with bicyclists and help keep bicyclists safe and increase that awareness. But also, it's a great event to meet other folks that you don't normally meet and to ride together as a community.

Speaker 2:

There's a lot happening in Cleveland a lot of new developments metro, parks, trails neighborhood development that you don't know about or don't see about. So, when you come and hang out for Slow Road different community. Every Monday night at 7 pm you get to see all of this and make hundreds of new friends, literally.

Speaker 5:

Literally. I'm going to ask you your favorite part, but it sounds like all of it. Yes, that's all of this. And make hundreds of new friends. Literally, literally, literally. I ask you your favorite part, but it sounds like all of that yes, that's all of it.

Speaker 2:

All of it. So I love volunteering and getting free cookies from from you.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, thank you. Thank you always about the cookies. Thank you so, sandy. How are?

Speaker 2:

you doing, I'm doing. Well, it's happy Monday day.

Speaker 1:

What brings you out to slow roll again?

Speaker 6:

So I love making people feel good. We ride around areas and all the kids run to the end of their tree lawn and they wave and they say hi to us and it's just a real good feel good feeling on a Monday.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and you said it gives you a reason to love Mondays again. Right, it does.

Speaker 6:

Yes, it's a happy Monday. And somebody had asked me. They're like what's your political agenda? I go, there's no agenda, it's just making everybody happy on a Monday.

Speaker 1:

Sweet, and your name is. I'm Dave. Hi, dave. What brings you out tonight?

Speaker 7:

Out for the fun, like Sandy said, to put on some entertainment for the kids. Every week we trick out our bikes a little more with lights and horns.

Speaker 1:

Do you really have you been doing this all summer?

Speaker 7:

Pretty much. I started mid-summer, so this is about my sixth time.

Speaker 1:

Oh, awesome. Okay, what do you want people to know about Slow Roll and why they should come out?

Speaker 7:

It's an incredibly diverse group of people, incredibly diverse group of bikes. Everybody just gets along great, has a good time.

Speaker 6:

My name is Lisa and today's my first time biking in this slow roll. So excited, so excited to be here. This is Mike.

Speaker 2:

I'm Mike and this is my first biking on the slow roll as well, and I'm excited to be here.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and it's my first time too, and they've been doing this since 2013. I think we're a little late to the party but, how did you hear about it?

Speaker 2:

From our hiking club Okay Cleveland. Hiking Club. Yeah, there are a whole bunch of Cleveland Hiking Club people that we're joining here tonight.

Speaker 1:

Okay, I'm also a member of the Cleveland Hiking Club, so yeah, Sandy probably dragged us all out here tonight.

Speaker 7:

I like the night rides because you can see all the bikes lit up and people have spokes that are lit up and going around and it's this big group going down the street and you turn around oh my God, when you see 800 people behind you.

Speaker 3:

This is like a train.

Speaker 4:

It's a bike parade, awesome. What's your?

Speaker 1:

name Gary, Hi Gary.

Speaker 7:

Be aware of your surroundings Talk, laugh, enjoy the night.

Speaker 4:

We hope you've enjoyed this episode of EcoSpeak CLE. You can find our full catalog of episodes on Spotify, apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes are available the first and third Tuesday of each month. Please follow EcoSpeak CLE on Facebook and Instagram and become part of the conversation. If you would like to send us feedback and suggestions, or if you'd like to become a sponsor of EcoSpeak CLE, you can email us at hello at EcoSpeakCLEcom. Stay tuned for more important and inspiring stories to come.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Diane Bickett

Host
Head Shot

Greg Rotuno

Co-host