Diné Bike Project

The Dine’ Bike Project is a rez-wide project to promote biking and community wellness on the Navajo Nation.

The Dine’ Bike Project was created with the goal of encouraging fitness and family togetherness through biking.  There are several aspects of the Dine’ Bike Project:

Our Bike Exchange program is an ongoing effort of NavajoYES to promote fitness at the grassroots level by providing bikes to local families, schools and communities as a means of surrounding our youth and communities with an “infrastructure of wellness”.

Through the program, NavajoYES acquires decent used bikes of all types that we then restore, with the assistance of local volunteers, schools and community groups. Our “Bike Repair & Share” days are fun times, with lots of cool people doing good work, enjoying good food and getting lots of bikes ready for action. The first phase of the project was initiated in fall 2015, when over 80 bikes found their way in to homes. Since the program’s inception, we have provided hundreds of bikes to families and groups in Red Mesa, Aneth, T’iis Nazbas, Cove, Sweetwater, Shonto, Red Valley, Leupp, Shiprock, Cameron, Dennehotso, Monument Valley, Round Rock, Chinle, Rock Point, Tuba City, Navajo Mountain, Chilchinbeto, Beclabito, Kayenta, Steamboat, Kirtland, Rattlesnake, Farmington, Black Mesa, Crownpoint, Tsahbiikin, Ganado, Kaibeto, Lukachukai, Pinon, Hogback, Lechee, and Tohali.

The bike exchange is a way for folks to do good deeds and earn a bike. Bake cookies for the senior center, chop chiizh for an elder, pitch in on local trail work, or help restore bikes…there are lots of ways to earn a bike and improve our communities. If you are interested in doating bikes, and /or volunteering your time and skills to help restore bikes, please contact Tom Riggenbach at 928-429-0345 or Rygie Bekay at 505-686-2300.

It all started with the Tour de Rez in 1991, an epic multi-sport adventure for youth around the Nation. Over the past 30+ years, TDR has evolved into the Tour de Rez Cup, which is a series of bike rides/races across the rez throughout the year.

The Tour de Rez Cup Series includes the following events across the reservation.

The Chuska Challenge is our largest bike event, bringing bike enthusiasts to the Chuska Mountains each fall. There are races, tour options, kids activities, live music and awesome camping and food all weekend in the highcountry between Red Valley and Lukachukai.

Hashkeniinii was a Dine’ legend during the Long Walk era, and the grueling, long-distance Hashkeniinii Bike Race at Navajo Mountain honors his legacy on an alternating road and dirt courses.   There are 50-mile and 10-mile events for riders.

The Monument Valley Bike Race offers a short (13-mile) fast dirt road race among the iconic formations of the tribal park.

The Asaayi Bike Race is a road race in the southern Chuska in late summer, offering riders a fast flat ride through scenic red rock country before the climax: a 2000-foot vertical ascent of Narbona Pass.

The Chil-town Bike Classic kicks off the Tour de Rez Cup Series with a scenic dirt road race in the early spring in the community of Chilchinbeto, south of Kayenta.

The Dine’ Bike Project has been a driving force in bringing the national Cycle Kids program to schools on the Navajo Nation.  Cycle Kids is a school-based program that offers a curriculum designed to promote skills and safety on bikes among elementary students, while also promoting overall healthy living and good nutrition.   You can find out more about Cycle Kids at www.cyclekids.org.

Competitive youth mountain biking has come to the Navajo Nation, as students from several Dine’ communities are taking part in the Arizona Interscholastic Cycling League through NICA-sanctioned, rez-based teams.  These efforts are the dream of Dine’ bike advocate Cloudia Jackson, retired pro cyclist Scott Nydam, and Hopi master mechanic/coach Manny Chavarria, who have collaboratively promoted these efforts.   Youth take part in races across Arizona throughout the fall season, and many compete in TDR Cup events in the spring and summer months.