Photo Credit: Global Jet

If your bike is sitting in your basement/garage collecting cobwebs and you are looking for an easy way to motivate yourself to get outside and bike more—Join a group!

Setting recurring plans with reminders (like, in your google calendar) will help you add it to your mental list of actual to-dos. Once your rides reside in your calendar they will take on more importance; they morph from ideas into actual concrete plans. Inviting a few friends to join you on a recurring ride ups the ante even more as you’ll be able to keep each other honest from ride to ride.

However, as the years go by and friends like that become more few and far between, check out Meetup.com as tool to fill the gaps and find a group to ride with in your area. Whether it’s mountain biking or road biking, there are loads of greats groups just waiting for you to join them. You could join a group near your house or look for one that rides somewhere between where you work and where you live. If you are lucky, you’ll find a ride that is on your way home and that leaves at a time you can make it to right after leaving work. How’s that for motivation to leave work on time? And if you need an extra incentive, you’ll be shocked how many of these rides end at a pizza place for pies and pitchers.

By the way, don’t see a ride that fits you as perfectly as you’d like? Start one.