Bike lovers make new friends at weekly Slow Your Roll rides

On Sunday afternoons, many adults are rediscovering an activity they loved as kids but may have all but forgotten — riding their bikes.

“People who come out who had not ridden in years say, ‘This is fun. I didn’t know this existed,’” said Slow Your Roll bike ride organizer Shawn Fitzwater.

The rides, which begin at Patriot Park, offer great health benefits, according to Fitzwater, who says participants can “get off the couch, get outdoors and get great exercise.”

Slow Your Roll draws people back to the joys of bike riding and allows them to discover how satisfying it is to hang out with people from all walks of life who share the same interest. Fitzwater and his wife, Shannon, who are advocates of the bicycle and its social and environmental benefits, said they hope the ride will bring greater attention to the need to improve biking culture and infrastructure in Homewood.

The idea for Slow Your Roll came to Fitzwater when he joined a Thursday night ride in Birmingham sponsored by nonprofit bike shop Redemptive Cycles. “I thought, ‘This is great because it is bringing the community together, and you meet a diverse group of people,’” he said.

The Thursday gathering was not a deadly serious affair for hard-core bicycle racers but “a fun ride,” Fitzwater said.

The event inspired Fitzwater, a land surveyor by trade, to start an event in Homewood that casual riders could join no matter what type of bicycle they own. Slow Your Roll is not a serious biker group but “a casual social group,” Fitzwater said. “We’ve had all ages, from 7 to 60.”

 Slow Your Roll rides average about 8 to 10 miles and follow one of four or five usual routes, often making use of the Lakeshore Trail of the Homewood Shades Creek Greenway. The rides, which begin and end at Patriot Park, last about an hour and a half. The group stops for a 20-minute refreshment break halfway through.

Fitzwater tries to keep the rides mellow. “We take it easy,” he said. “We don’t race around.”

The first Slow Your Roll in May had only four riders, but there were about 30 people on a Sunday in late September, according to Fitzwater. “I am happy the way it’s growing,” he said.

The weekly ride is “social, laid-back and it brings good people together,” said Erik Henninger, a West Homewood resident and Slow Your Roll regular.

Daniel Webb, who lives on Birmingham’s Southside, calls Slow Your Roll a “blast” and says the “core group” of West Homewood residents has been very welcoming. “They have adopted my daughter and me like we were next-door neighbors,” he said.

Biking is “addictive, in a good way,” Shannon Fitzwater said. “It’s just a feeling of freedom… one that makes you feel like a kid again.”

The single greatest challenge facing the Fitzwaters in planning the routes for Slow Your Roll is road safety. “Some of the streets can get kind of busy, and it’s not always bike-friendly,” Shannon said.

They try to stay off heavily traveled roads, such as Green Springs Highway, and the group exercises great caution. “I go by ‘no rider left behind,’” Fitzwater said. “We are going slower and doing a head count. We really stop a lot and let the group stick together.”

The city of Homewood should seek to improve its biking culture and infrastructure, especially because bike riding is becoming more popular, according to Fitzwater. “We need to do a better job with awareness of drivers, and bike lanes would help,” he said.

The Fitzwaters live in West Homewood with their sons, Gabriel, 10, and Noah, 4.

Fitzwater said that he plans to continue Slow Your Roll through the winter months “for whomever will show up” and would love to make it a year-round event.

 Slow Your Roll participants meet at the main entrance of Patriot Park on Sunday at 3:45 p.m. The ride begins promptly at 4 p.m.

For more information, visit the Slow Your Roll page on Facebook.