Every September we get in gear with biking events at Standing Stone Brewing Co. Our motivation this month stems from the Bicycle Transportation Alliance’s Bike Commute Challenge, encouraging employees at workplaces all over Oregon to bike to work and log collective miles. We participate annually and come up with a few incentives and events of our own to make September one of the best biking months of the year!

Here’s how the Bike Commute Challenge works: Anyone can register their workplace for free at btaoregon.org. Participating employees log their trips and miles on an online calendar, which keeps track of totals and automatically enters members into weekly drawings. Businesses and groups can challenge each other to log the most miles, and at the end of the month the BTA ranks businesses by percentage of bike commutes and announces the winning companies at a big After Party in Portland in October.

We have all our Standing Stone Commuter-riding coworkers signed up, and we’re celebrating in a few ways of our own, too. For the month of September you’ll see brewery servers in our signature “Powered By Beer” bike tees. Come get one of your own to show your love of biking and beer! We’re also holding a weekly in-house raffle for employees who ride round-trip to work, and throwing a big grand prize drawing at the end of the month. Sorry, fans, employees only!

We’re also thrilled to announce we have seven new bikes coming to employees this week. These coworkers have been with Standing Stone for the minimum 1,000 total hours and promise to ride their new Trek bikes to and from the brewpub at least 45 times in the first year. After that, the bike is theirs to keep. This brings our total fleet to 57 bikes, growing from just 17 when we launched the program in 2009.

Lastly, our chef, Eric Bell, has recently been trained as a League of American Bicyclists certified instructor. All our new Standing Stone Commuter bike recipients will go through a required training with Eric later this month, and all employees wanting a refresher course will join the group as well. We’re looking forward to having on-site knowledge about safe biking practices and we’ll be sure to tap Eric’s brain for tips and ideas for biking around town.

Join in the fun by biking with us all month long! September weather makes for great riding conditions almost any time of day, and our latest specialty beer – Commuters Gold Ale – makes a great finish to any biking trip. We think the physical, psychological and environmental benefits of commuting by bike make it the preferred method of transportation for our coworkers, so expect to see lots of us two-wheeling it to and from the brewpub and using the big, yellow bike rack out front.