Bike Buzz: 17th Anniversary / Bike Month 2026 edition

We biked in to city of Monterey on May 23 for a special event: the ordination ceremony, at First Presbyterian Church, for Cory Pina, Curator for Spiritual Life at All Saints Day School in Carmel Valley. We appreciate that Cory has helped make Bicycling Monterey’s 17th anniversary (May 2026) possible, by volunteering time in 2019 and beyond to boost our WordPress skills.

Hmmm…Pina, Pina, where else have we heard this name on bikemonterey.org? You must have seen our post back when the U.S. Transportation Secretary was welcomed to our county by local bike advocates, including Cory’s dad, Roy Pina.

Another highlight of our May 23 ride came from swinging by Cali Roots to see just how packed the bike valet station was (surprise—not full at all). But the joy of that stop was meeting Carlos (pictured above), who was doing Cali Roots volunteering nearby. He does road and mountain biking and is also a bike-to-work commuter, using the Monterey-Salinas Transit as a bike-and-ride option to make it feasible to bike to work from his Soledad home. We chatted a few minutes about e-bikes, e-motos, and more. We encouraged Carlos to consider becoming more active in bike advocacy by serving as a voice for Salinas Valley residents on Transportation Agency for Monterey County’s bike-ped committee.

The ease of pausing to chat with people who bike, and others, is one of the many benefits of bicycling. That same day, we also enjoyed meeting Sam at the front of Portola Hotel, who was eagerly awaiting his next stop: his wedding that afternoon to Lindsay! Next we pedaled down the coastal trail, where we had the opportunity to say thank you to a girl whose family, from Hollister, was helping reduce carbon emissions and holiday weekend traffic congestion by biking; meeting Olivia and Chris, who moved up from Santa Barbara in recent years and enjoy local bike shop AMG Cyclery of Seaside’s social rides.

Biking the coastal trail, we also met Carol, who has been to First Presbyterian Church of Monterey for music in the past and is interested in our May 31 Bike train to Bluegrass Sunday at FPC.

Maybe you’ve heard of Bike to Worship events for Bike Month — biking to church, mosque, satsang, synagogue, or other place of worship. That inspired our May 31 events!

May 31 Bike Month events: Bike train to Bluegrass Sunday; and Bike Chat

You’re invited to our free Bike Month events on May 31: a bike train to Bluegrass Sunday at FPC-Monterey—an inclusive Presbyterian Church USA congregation—followed by a bike chat.

Participate in any or all of the following with us on May 31:

• Bike train to FPC.*
• Free pancake breakfast there, 10-11am.
• The 11am-noon Gospel Bluegrass service. (There’s a 9-10am service too, which is also Gospel Bluegrass on May 31, but we’re biking for the 11am service.)
• An outdoor bike chat at 12:15pm, in the Jay Bartow Memorial Garden at FPC.

*To participate in the bike train / bike ride portion, please phone us by noon on Friday, May 29, so we can best plan the pick-up “train stations” and station departure times. See all details in May 31: Bike train to Bluegrass Sunday.

About the May 31 bike chat / social time

Bicycling Monterey plans to host a short “bike chat” in the Jay Bartow Memorial Garden at FPC on May 31 at about 12:15pm. Anyone—of any age—is welcome to the bike chat, even if they didn’t bike to FPC. In fact, for people who drive, we can include a little Q&A about bike-friendly driving tips.

Other topics we might chat about will probably be based on what’s most of interest to participants. It’s possible we’ll include bike laws; local cycling resources; and more.

At the bike chat, we’ll have a few FREE giveaways too, i.e., energy chews and such, misc stickers, and three youth helmets for the first three teens who show up and say they need a new helmet.

Bike-and-Ride tips

ICYMI: The Monterey-Salinas Transit (MST) FREE #Monterey Trolley service for summer 2026 began on Saturday, May 23, and will operate daily from 10am to 6pm through Labor Day, Monday, September 7.

Among other service changes announced by MST on 5/19/26 (https://mst.org/news_items/monterey-salinas-transit-mst-service-changes-go-into-effect-beginning-saturday-may-23rd/):
“Line 84 (King City – Paso Robles): Major schedule updates will improve connections to San Luis Obispo RTA Route 9 in Paso Robles. All southbound Line 23 (King City) trips will continue to Paso Robles without requiring a transfer. Service to Bradley will also be restored.”

See our tips for taking bicycle aboard trolley or any large or small MST bus— with the exception of MST’s ADA Paratransit (RIDES) buses.

Show some Bike Love—on this 17th anniversary, or year-round

We cut those flowers from our yard May 16 to take to a friend’s 80th birthday celebration. Wish we could likewise take some to Kathleen Jones and Nancy Baker, in gratitude for their May 2 and May 5 donations. These faithful donors—they pitch in every month!—are so appreciated.

Fundraising isn’t our thing, and as of May 25, those two women (one a Monterey County resident, one a visitor) are the only 2026 donors!

PLEASE be a change-maker in that regard: Support this grassroots volunteer effort with a donation in any amount today.

See how to donate, plus FAQs: https://bikemonterey.org/about/financial-donations

Grateful for Mother Earth

As we posted on social media (Mastodon) on April 20: Pedaling off under a rainbow, pedaling home with raindrops kissing our tongue as we sing—plus the many glories of nature in between. So thankful for our bicycle and how it keeps us close to the earth!

What we’re riding now

ICYMI, in 2024, when our old bicycle’s design wasn’t right for us anymore, a physical therapist recommended we look at Tern bicycles. The PT & his spouse have Tern bikes for transporting their children nearly everywhere. Nice! Altho not a doable purchase for our own meager budget. Then, thanks to 💚our adult kids’ generous support for our bike advocacy for the previous 15 years, we were blessed to receive a Tern NBD P8i (low-to-the-ground, wide step-thru Type 1 e-bike—no throttle, requires pedaling, top assisted speed of 20 mph).

Tern (https://www.ternbicycles.com/en/bikes) is among e-bike brands available from Monterey Bay locally owned bike shop Current eBikes (https://currentebikes.com/local-ebikes/).

Who is this woman who biked to the farmers market ?

Find out who she is by reading our related Mastodon post https://sfba.social/@bikemonterey/116422535768338999

Yes, we made it to the 2026 SOC. See two of the Expo vendors we met in our Sea Otter intro post — plus other April news — in https://bikemonterey.org/2026/04.

More buzz

There’s lots more buzz to share, but we’ll stop for now. Why? Because we’re celebrating this 17th anniversary by giving ourselves the gift of less screen time and more saddle time!

We hope to post more spring buzz—through June 19—here, including more SOC photos too. Meanwhile, catch more buzz by following us on Mastodon (or by connecting with us at the ride or chat on May 31. Hope to see you then!

This edition of Bike Buzz is dedicated in memory of Linda Theresse Munoz of Salinas.

https://sfba.social/@bikemonterey/116253817885527660