Lifelong educator and cyclist who led by example and changed lives along the way Marin 2025 Bike Champion: Chuck Ford

Help us kick off Bike Month by celebrating Marin’s 2025 Bike Champion of the Year! We asked you to nominate someone who inspires you and others to ride a bike. We’re excited to share Marin’s 2025 Bike Champion with you: Chuck Ford. Read on to find our recent conversation with Chuck.

Getting to know Chuck Ford – Marin’s 2o25 Bike Champion of the Year

Chuck Ford didn’t set out to become a biking role model. But for the hundreds of young people who passed through his programs over the years, that’s exactly what he became.

Chuck spent most of his career with the Tamalpais Union High School District’s TEAM program, an alternative high school focused on outdoor learning through activities like rock climbing, kayaking, hiking, and mountain biking. He modeled an active, values-driven life, regularly commuting 27 miles round-trip by bike from Lagunitas to Larkspur, rain or shine. As Chuck explained, he he didn’t talk about exercise, he just did it. He modeled the activity and hoped others would join in. He wasn’t a “do as I say, not as I do” kind of teacher. Having experienced too much of that growing up, he chose instead to lead by example, Through his actions, he introduced countless students to cycling not just as a means of transportation but as a source of confidence, independence, and joy.

In the early 1990’s, Chuck played a quiet but pivotal role in the launch of Trips for Kids, the now-national program that connects underserved youth with mountain biking. “They couldn’t get insurance,” Chuck recalls, “But I had insurance through the Sierra Club’s Inner City Outings (ICO) program, so Marilyn Price and I made all the early trips ICO trips.” That allowed Trips for Kids to get rolling, and Chuck was one of the leaders on the very first ride.

Among their many community service projects, TEAM students built one third of the Paradise Royale Mountain Bike Trail in the King Range National Conservation Area and have worked to maintain the Tamarancho trail system.

Chuck also helped build community among adult riders. After his retirement in 2013, he joined a Friday group ride with a few friends, Today, that ride still lives on as the Old Spokes, a welcoming, mostly retired crew that rides together and shares a post ride snack or lunch. Chuck likes to say, ”The Old Spokes have perfected the art of turning a three hour ride into a six hour ride.”

Now in his late 70s, Chuck still bikes several times a week, often on an e-bike since undergoing chemotherapy and cancer surgery, “if I wasn’t in the shape I was in when I was diagnosed, I don’t think I could have handled the treatment.” he says. “Cycling helped me get though it.”

Chuck’s vision for the future of cycling? More kids walking and cycling to school. Safer routes in underserved neighborhoods. More support for programs that connect youth to the outdoors.

For his decades of steady leadership whether riding to work before it was common, helping Trips for Kids get started, or shaping the lives of hundreds of young people through outdoor education, we’re proud to honor Chuck Ford as Marin County’s 2025 Bike Champion.