I help run a small charity that provides an after-school program for inner-city kids. We have developed a two-month curriculum that teaches the participants how to put together each component of a bike and at the end of the training, the bike they’ve worked on is gifted to them along with new safety gear.
I’m trying to help raise the profile of our activities so that we can grow the program and not have to turn-down as many qualified applicants each session. In order to do this, one idea we’ve had is to approach a prospective celebrity ambassador who might be able to lend a hand.
Can anyone think of a celebrity who is connected to the cycling community? Ideally not someone who participates in competitive cycling but rather an actor, musician or even athlete as long as they aren’t Lance Armstrong
David Byrne, if the kids know who he (and Talking Heads) are these days. He bikes everywhere, designed a few bike racks for New York City, and just put out a book about cycling.
From what I understand, Robin Williams is a huge fan of cycling, and travels to France for the Tour, as well as cycling regularly, and having 60 bikes in his garage. So, you can definitely tell the kids that bicycling will put hair on their chests.
And here’s Jared Leto doing some biking. Google has plenty more images, so it appears to be something he does regularly.
John Waters is somewhat known for commuting by bike during his summers in Provincetown. Although explaining who John Waters is to kids might lead to uncomfortable questions.
Matthew McConaghey. He rides with Lance in Austin. Google “Malibu Mob.” It is a group of athletes and celebrities who work out together in Malibu. They do a lot of mountain biking.
John Leguizamo the actor commutes all over NYC by bike. He has a few videos of him riding, out there somewhere. Too busy to search. Good luck, I run an after school mountain bike program for middle-schoolers, it’s awesome.
The English rock band Muse – they buy cheap bikes on tour for the exercise, then give them away rather than ship them halfway across the world back home. In 2004 they made a game of it, with anagram clues and the like to tease fans with a scavenger hunt, leading them eventually to where the bikes were hidden. (They left one suspended under a bridge or underpass in Austin, Tx.) Generally, they ride adult-sized bikes, but recently drummer Dom Howard took up with a BMX bike as well, riding around in Milan’s empty San Siro stadium while their stage set was being assembled.
None of them live in the USA, but frontman Matt Bellamy (gtr./vocals/keyboards) visits NYC frequently. He’s also dating Kate Hudson, who lives on the Upper West Side, IIRC, so he’ll probably be spending more time in New York than before. The real estate rumors include Matt’s considering buying Christina Aguilera’s house in L.A., and Dom’s thinking of buying a place in Chicago, so who knows? (You didn’t specify where your inner-city program is, BTW.)
If you’re interested in photos of the band biking, there’s quite a few of them freely available on their website and elsewhere, several of which are quite funny. (I can help you with this; just P.M. me.) There’s pics of the bike they left hanging in Austin, of Matt biking inside a store, and of Dom on the BMX in San Siro, among others, and a pic they Twittered just four days ago of Dom and Matt on bikes at a street kiosk in Riga, Latvia, with Matt holding a large oil painting he’d just bought… and probably wondering how he was going to schlep it back to their hotel.
Would you consider BMX riders as competitive cyclists? Honestly, if I was a kid, I’d think Mat Hoffman or Dave Mirra would be way cooler than most actors.
That’s who I was going to mention. I remember hearing once that he’d ridden in RAMROD (Ride Around Mt. Rainier in One Day); 154 miles, 10,000 feet of climb.
May have already been mentioned, as I can seldom recall actors names, but the fellow that plays McDreamy on Grey’s Anatomy was on the cover of a cycling magazine a few months back.
