Watch This Very Cool Video Of Roosevelt Island Bike Ride - Then Join The Roosevelt Island Cycling Enthusiasts In The National Bike Challenge

Hop on the back seat and enjoy a very cool bicycle ride with Tony Aldo around Roosevelt Island. Start on Vernon Boulevard in Long Island City, pedal over the Roosevelt Island Bridge to Lighthouse Park, down to the Tram Plaza, up the Helix Ramp and back over the Roosevelt Island Bridge.

A @Rooseveltisland bike ride. https://t.co/aPGiRYNCP9

— Mark Lyon (@markhlyon) April 21, 2016

Click on the full screen icon for a great view.

That was fun.

Would you like to do some real bicycle riding, have fun and meet some of your Roosevelt Island neighbors? Here's how you can do it.

Image From National Bike Challenge

Roosevelt Island resident and bike enthusiast Kent Kurkiewicz reports:

To all Roosevelt Island residents:

We’d like to invite you to join the National Bike Challenge, which runs annually from May 1 through September 30. The National Bike Challenge is a friendly competition to get participants to ride more often, ride more miles, and burn more calories. It is free and open to anyone … you don’t need to be an expert cyclist to join and log miles. The National Bike Challenge awards prizes monthly to randomly selected participants at all point levels. We hope that once you join, it will create an automatic incentive for you to ride more often, and to compete for points with yourself and other riders.

To join the National Bike Challenge, go to NationalBikeChallenge.org and create a profile for yourself. Provide your name, email address, zip code, birth date, etc. Using our local zip code (10044) automatically puts you into the NYS/NYC challenge. Once you’ve created your own account, you can join a team. You will be prompted to create or join a team after you register, or you can defer and then go to “Manage Groups” on your National Bike Challenge profile page. You can search for an existing team to join, or create a new one. A team for our Island, RICE (Roosevelt Island Cycling Enthusiasts), has already been created and we’d like you to join us.

It’s easy to log miles. Anyone with a smartphone can use one of three apps to track their miles: Strava, MapMyRide, or Endomondo. Whichever app you choose, make sure it’s authorized in your National Bike Challenge account (“Manage Settings”). Each time you ride, start the app, and when your ride is done, make sure you stop it. If you don’t have a smart phone and/or prefer to do so, you can sign in to your National Bike Challenge account and log your miles manually. The Challenge awards 20 points each day you ride, and 1 point for each mile you ride.

There is a lot more information available on the National Bike Challenge website.

Thanks and keep riding for enjoyment, exercise, and for a greener planet!

As previously reported, Yawa,

 Bike NY 2014 Learn To Ride Team Winner Yawa Image From Caitlin Goodspeed

a Roosevelt Island resident, was the 2014 winner of Bike New York's Learn To Ride National Bike Challenge Team.