Strider Bikes founder set to be inducted into South Dakota Hall of Fame

RAPID CITY, S.D. — For the previous 15 years, Strider Bikes has been fulfilling its purpose of getting youthful youngsters on bikes with two wheels.

After his firm’s efforts and arduous work, Founder Ryan McFarland is set to be inducted into the South Dakota Hall of Fame on Saturday, May 21.

As for what received that enterprise going, it began as a method to get Ryan’s son, Bode, on a motorcycle.

“That bike actually proved out the idea that we might get little youngsters on two wheels and driving at a younger age and so a 12 months later I began the corporate,” McFarland mentioned.

That unique design led to Strider, a Rapid City company that’s sold over four million bikes since 2007.

As for the corridor of accomplishment, McFarland says he’s now taking to time to soak it in, even when it’s for slightly bit.

“You don’t all the time cease and acknowledge how far you’ve come, so it’s been actually enjoyable to simply take a second to, I assume, savor how far we’ve come and all of the individuals who’ve helped get us this far alongside the way in which,” McFarland mentioned.

The accomplishment, half of a much bigger message McFarland says is about staying targeted.

The enterprise is constructed on a precept of one step at a time.

“We simply saved simply saved chunking away at it. You know, simply attempting to make little incremental will increase each day, each week, and you already know, it simply saved rising,” McFarland mentioned.

But as McFarland will inform you, the enterprise takes considerably of a backseat method to its primary purpose, to get youngsters on bikes.

Whether it’s the corporate’s donations for bike parks, or the Strider All Kids Bike Program, it’s all to create a more healthy exercise for youths.

“We’ve received to get youngsters lively, and I imagine a bicycle is one of the best ways to do this,” McFarland mentioned. “There’s a sure sense of mobility and freedom and independence that comes with a bicycle that so much of different actions don’t supply.”