Live life on two wheels!
My name is Jake Mastera, and I’ve been riding bikes since as long as I can remember. In fact my earliest bike memory is a painful one. Misunderstanding an instruction from my brother that “if you get good enough you can ride with no hands”, I promptly took my hands off the handlebars and rode directly into a tree. Fortunately, I’ve since learned to ride with no hands, but unfortunately, have not stopped crashing into trees. I love the opportunity that cycling gives a person, a family, and a community – to explore nature, to get active, to engage with your surroundings, and to take the time to slow down and enjoy the ride. Be it road riding, trail riding, gravel riding, mountain biking, or commuting, I’ve always loved the freedom and fun that riding a bicycle provides.
It’s certainly no hyperbole that the invention of the bicycle 200+ years ago marked a significant change in transportation and freedom, especially for women. The impact that the bicycle had on the ability for women and children to travel greater distances with less effort unlocked a personal freedom that had been much harder to come by, particularly for those that didn’t have access to any form of transportation due to several contributing social and legal factors. In fact the bicycle is credited as one of the key symbols of the suffrage movement in America, leading not only to their successful campaign to the right to vote, but swaying public opinion on everything from clothing and jobs to social/political participation.
Having recently become active in both the DEVO and NICA groups here in Lincoln, I’ve found a passion for extending the impact of the bicycle to children. Young children today are shown to have a decreased attention span and increased isolation from peers in a physical context. The current social/political/legal aspects of freedom for children has seen a decline in recent decades. My hope is to show kids the power of cycling – mastering the basics and the advanced, while enjoying the results of hard work and dedication. I’d also love to balance this personal-success based experience with a strengthening of independence and mobility. Providing a safe atmosphere through our parks and trails is a great way to encourage parents and children to get out together, and to encourage parents to grant these freedoms to their children to further strengthen their independent growth. Getting kids to experience their communities on their own terms is a great way to improve buy in, not only for cycling, trails, and parks, but for identifying themselves as part of the larger Lincoln community. If we can get them to feel a sense of personal ownership that we all feel, they would be much more likely to engage in local community events, respect our trails and parks that they use themselves, and become the next generation of cyclists and outdoor enthusiasts to take the reins.
I hope to see you all out on the trail, you’ll always spot me and my son coming in our cargo bike! I love to talk cargo bikes and cycling infrastructure so wave us down and have a chat!