Pocatello’s Tuesday Night Ride makes the sport accessible to all

POCATELLO — Over three dozen cyclists were riding together down Pershing Avenue at the beginning of a short journey. It was Sept. 12, and this is a trip that riders have been making for 13 years.

A variety of people were all on different kinds of bicycles wearing distinct styles of helmets. Some wore casual sporty clothes and others wore bicycle uniforms. They hadn’t even gone a mile yet and they had twenty more ahead of them.

This is the Tuesday Night Ride, hosted by Barrie Ski and Sports. Owner Barrie Hunt himself was riding with the group, along with Steve Stuart; they took up the back to make sure no one was left behind.

Why do we ride?

When the Tuesday Night Bike Ride started, it wasn’t beginner-friendly.

Back in 2010, Hunt wanted there to be a biking activity in Pocatello every week. At that point, they did a mountain bike ride and a regular ride. These were difficult rides for experienced cyclists.

The rides went well for a while, but Stuart’ concern about the accessibility of the rides woke him up one night.

“Why do we ride? Is there a purpose?” Stuart thought that night. After awhile, he realized, “It’s just to change our lives and make friends.”

Stuart approached Hunt with a concern he had.

“Barrie, some of those people are too serious. We have people that want to go … but we’ve got to have it (be) an easier, slower, (more fun) pace,” Stuart said.

Barrie agreed, “and the Tuesday Night Easy Ride (was born),” he said.

Thirteen years later, on the Sept. 12 ride, Stuart counted 36 bicyclists in attendance. There has been as many as 90 participating before. There’s a huge range of people that come on the ride, in life experience as well as biking experience.

“It’s just blossoming every year with little children riding out with the older people,” Stuart said. “We’ve got people in their 80s and over that ride with us occasionally.”

Amber Tingey, a part of the sales staff at Barrie’s, said they have employees who can help people get their bikes ready so they can take part in the ride.

“We’re just trying to create friendships and get people out that don’t feel comfortable riding on their own,” Tingey said.

Crossing paths

Stuart said that he’s seen people make more friends when they’ve gone on the ride with people they wouldn’t have crossed paths with if not for the Tuesday Night Ride.

One person who can ride with the group is Jaime Farnes, a man with a motor skills disability and a mild case of cerebral palsy. He rides a recumbent electric tricycle and he said he’s been coming to the Tuesday Night Ride for a few months now.

Farnes has been friends with Hunt for years and once worked at his store when it was in a different location. In order to get Farnes out on the ride, he borrows the recumbent tricycle from Hunt.

“I wasn’t originally thinking this was something I could do and didn’t really have much of an aptitude for it,” Fares said. “So it’s kind of cool to be able to hang with them as it were.”

Fares thinks he’ll continue biking in the future.

“I don’t think of myself as a real expert, but I think I might have a hobby,” Fares said.

A bicyclist who’s been able to get back into the sport is Ty Sollender. He’s been riding on and off for the last six years.

“I grew up riding bikes all the time in my neighborhood and it’s always been a passion of mine,” Sollender said.

He got back into riding while trying to have a better fitness level. He said he’s noticed biking improves his mood.

“Not only does it help do it, but it’s a fun way of doing it,” Sollender said.

If people are undecided about whether they want to get back into or start riding bicycles, he thinks they should come to a group ride.

“Because all levels can come and they don’t leave anybody behind,” Sollender said.

Everyone makes it

On Sept. 12, after traveling all the way to West Portneuf Road just off Old Highway 91, the bikers turned back onto Pershing Avenue, having completed 20 miles of pedaling.

With everyone being at different skill levels, they arrive at different times, but everyone makes it, all the same.

“So it doesn’t matter your ability level,” Tingey said. “They’ll ride with whoever’s in the back and then we have a group that’ll go out and push the pace in the front.”

The Tuesday Night Ride runs from the first of April to the middle or end of September and they start at around 6 p.m. Sep. 19 was their last ride of 2023 and afterward, they had a baked potato bar.

The Tuesday Night Ride is a no-drop ride. If someone can’t make it the rest of the way, they’ll be picked up in a vehicle or someone will ride back with them.

“There’s something that has (been) instilled in what makes Barrie’s what it is, the camaraderie and to be able to do something for other people,” Hunt said.