Biking and Building - As a member of Team Bike & Build, you'll experience plenty of each. By the time that you reach the west coast we'll expect you to be both a seasoned cyclist and a committed affordable housing advocate.

By virtue of completing a long-distance bike tour, you will assist and enable affordable housing efforts throughout the nation. As you travel you'll stop to talk with people about your summer, our program, and the housing landscape. You'll take breaks to work on construction sites and give town-hall style presentations to people throughout the country. You'll review, evaluate, and choose to fund grant proposals our organization receives. You'll find that traveling by bicycle - especially on a trip of this magnitude - is a great was to promote the housing cause, and you'll receive publicity and attention that you would not have seen off of your bikes.

Likewise, having an important cause underscoring your trip is powerful motivation for even the longest days on the road. Knowing that each pass you climb and each mile that you ride contributes in a meaningful way to a greater cause will add a dimension to your trip and meaning to your summer.

Bike!
Our participants range from beginner to seasoned cyclists. Whether you've biked cross-country or cross-campus before, we welcome you to be a part of our trip.

We'll do our best to acclimate you to the challenge ahead by easing into the cycling. Before the trip begins we'll send you training materials to help you prepare, and if you're at one of partner schools our trip leaders will organize training rides on campus. During orientation we'll teach you how to care for your bike and make basic repairs. And once the trip begins, daily mileage starts low and builds to an average of approximately 70 miles a day.

On the trip, each morning our leaders will hold a map meeting where they will go over the day's route, distribute cue sheets, and fill you in on what's going on that day. Once you set off you're free to cycle at your own pace, and are able to stop to check out interesting sites that you'll pass. At all times there will be a support vehicle monitoring the group along the route, and each day will have a designated sweep rider whose job is to see that everyone makes it to the destination safely.

Build!
Bike & Build will arrange several days during the course of your trip where you'll trade your bikes for hammers, and work on the construction of an affordable home with a local housing organization. Build Days are welcome breaks from cycling, a chance to contribute to local affordable housing projects, and a great way to reinforce the mission of our program.

The work that you do will depend on the construction timeline and needs of the local housing organization; typically, by volunteering at different sites over the course of the summer, you'll learn about and work on many different stages of building a home - from groundbreaking and excavation to the finishing touches.

Bike & Build groups contribute over 200 labor hours at each site that we work on. With the manpower and energy of our participants - conditioned from many miles on their bikes - riders will see how much of a difference they could make for a project in just one day. Don’t worry if you don’t have much construction experience – the housing organizations that we build with are used to working with unskilled labor. If you do have experience, that’s great – your expertise will be put to use.