Pedaling Minds was started in 2014 by Mike Friedman — a 2008 Beijing Olympian fresh off a decade on the world tour. It became a 501(c)(3) in 2017. Since then we've taught more than 2,000 kids and adults to ride a bicycle with control and confidence.
Mike Friedman raced bikes professionally for a decade. He represented the United States at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing on the track. He rode the world tour. He retired having lived the dream that almost no one gets to.
In 2014, fresh off the world tour, he started Pedaling Minds as a part-time passion project. The idea came from a single afternoon: Mike taught one kid to ride a bike, the kid's parents told him the bullying at school had stopped, and Mike realized — the riding was the surface; what was happening underneath was the work.
In 2017 the program became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. The team grew. The curriculum got real. The number of kids who came back the next summer kept doubling. Today Mike still coaches every week. He still believes the same thing he did that first afternoon: every kid deserves the "I did it!" moment.
No big bang, no funding round. A passion project that became an organization because the kids kept coming back.
Mike Friedman represents the United States at the Beijing Olympics on the track. Spends the next several years riding the world tour as a pro cyclist.
Fresh off the world tour, Mike teaches one kid to ride. The kid's family tells Mike the bullying at school has stopped. Pedaling Minds starts as a Saturday-morning side project.
A handful of week-long camps run out of a Boulder parking lot. Most riders are referrals from the parents of the first cohort. Word travels.
Pedaling Minds incorporates as a 501(c)(3). Mike steps back from outside work to run the program full-time. The first scholarship cohort rides.
We expand from summer camps into after-school programs at Boulder-area schools. Same curriculum, ongoing cadence.
Our oldest cohorts have outgrown the parking-lot curriculum. We launch off-site mountain and road riding for advanced riders.
Adult riders had been showing up since 2017. We finally build a real curriculum and a real route in for them. First all-adult cohort rides.
One in three riders attends on a scholarship. We serve 450 kids in a single summer. We pass 2,000 lifetime riders taught.
The Pedaling Minds method becomes available on demand — for parents anywhere, teaching their kid to ride. Currently in beta with our existing families.
The method underneath the camps. We teach it to coaches. We teach it to parents. Eventually, kids start teaching it to each other.
Skill is built one rep at a time. We don't let kids skip steps to feel like they're "moving up" — and we don't repeat steps once they're earned. We engineer enough reps for the move to become automatic, then we move on. The result is a rider who looks fluent because they are.
Every coach reads the emotional state of every rider before reading the curriculum. A fearful kid gets a different Tuesday than a confident one. A kid having a bad day gets a different morning than usual. The progression is the same — the path through it is theirs.
We don't stop until the goal is reached. We don't let kids quit just because the move is hard. And we don't let coaches quit on a kid just because the kid is hard. Once your child learns to ride a bike, the skill is theirs forever. So is the lesson about not stopping.
Every Pedaling Minds coach trains under Mike directly, runs sessions with him before they run their own, and reads the same curriculum every cohort starts with. Some of them you'll meet at drop-off. Some of them you'll only see in your kid's stories from Friday.
Founder, director, and still teaching every week. Coaches L5 / L6 trail cohorts personally. Reachable by email or in the parking lot at 8:50am.
Runs our adult curriculum and most private 1:1 work. Patient bordering on saintly. Parents have written thank-you cards.
If your kid is brand new, you'll probably get Coach Sam. Has the highest "kid pedaling by Friday" rate on the team. We don't know how.
Runs the fall + spring after-school cohorts. Knows every elementary-aged rider in Boulder by helmet. Possibly secretly a magician.
We say "everyone" on purpose. Boulder kids on Eisenhower lot. After-school riders in nine schools. Adults learning at 73. Parents teaching their own kids through our platform. The mission is the same in every venue. So is the method.
Want to see how a week looks from the inside? Come watch a session — Coach Mike will host you, free of charge.