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National Bike Challenge

Kimberly-Clark and The League of American Bicyclists asked Vector to build The National Bike Challenge, with the ambitious goal of recruiting 50,000 riders to cover 30 million miles in five months.
Launch Site

SITUATION Create a Responsive Website That Engages Cyclists

Each year, The League of American Bicyclists and partner Kimberly-Clark sponsor The National Bike Challenge, a nationwide five-month long event that encourages thousands of new riders and veteran cyclists to simply ride more. In their most recent year, they hoped to recruit 50,000 competitors. Vector Media Group was tapped to build a new responsive website that would attract a new group of riders and entice previous competitors to return by integrating with the APIs for Endomondo, Moves, and MapMyRide.

TASK 2 Construct a Community Space

The National Bike Challenge is more than just a competition; it’s a way for bicyclists across American to be part of a national community. Although riders are able to compete individually, competitors are encouraged to form teams through their school, work, and other community organizations. To help The National Bike Challenge reach the goal of recruiting over 50,000 riders, the Vector team built a highly interactive site. Custom leaderboards and team pages were created to foster both competition and collaboration. Each element was designed to easily sync to different social media platforms. In addition, National Bike Challenge stakeholders were thrilled when our dev team was able to create a custom commenting tool with a number of challenge-specific features, saving them the cost of paying a third party and cutting a week's time off the project schedule.

RESULT Record-Breaking Engagement

The National Bike Challenge stakeholders were ecstatic when the website launched. With new rider recruitment as a top priority, the record-breaking registration numbers exceeded expectations. The harmonious integration of the three most-popular mile-tracking apps and custom mile-tracking tool was key to meeting the goal of increased engagement. Only a few days into the competition, the National Bike Challenge was on track to surpass its goal of enlisting 50,000 cyclists. Our development team continues to manage The National Bike Challenge's server infrastructure and has successfully maintained the site through record-breaking traffic and mile-syncing activity.

TASK 1 Develop a Beautifully Stylized and Responsive Site

Site stakeholders wanted a modern website that matched the needs of the modern bicyclist. Our solution, built on top of the Laravel PHP framework, set the stage for a contemporary and broad website that exceeded their vision. Working closely with the talented designers from The Language Department, our developers brought the site's visual elements to life. We also stayed dedicated to consistent and regular communication between all decision makers, especially to help make sure the site transitioned flawlessly between various screen sizes and devices while keeping important functionality accessible.

TASK 3 Build a More Convenient Mile-Tracking Tool

During the five-month competition, riders compete to pedal the most miles. To track the distances, the event's previous website partnered with Endomondo, a mile-tracking app. However, the single app integration limited the scope of their user base. To attract more riders, our dev team seamlessly integrated with the APIs for three iPhone and Android tracker apps. Now riders currently using Endomondo, Moves, and MapMyRide (the top three mile-tracking apps) can easily log their miles. For new riders not already using a mile-tracking app, the Vector team developed a custom, easy-to-use tool that allows all competitors to manually upload their miles.

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