There’s a funny saying common among members of the Chattanooga Bicycle Club (CBC). “Some of us joke that we are an eating club with a riding disorder,” says long-time club member and retired CPA Gray Fletcher.
“We ride to get biscuits. We ride to get ice cream,” chimes in Jennifer Kreafle, a psychology teacher at Walker Valley High School in Bradley County and one of the younger members of the club.
As one of Chattanooga’s oldest outdoor-sports collectives — it was formed in 1967 — the Chattanooga Bicycle Club has had decades to cement its reputation as a fitness club, friends group and assembly of travel buddies. The club’s culture — which includes an aversion to political chitchat that might strain friendships — is what keeps it rolling midway through its sixth decade.
Covid, which hurt other groups, actually provided the bicycle club a shot in the arm — pardon the pun. Membership has grown markedly since the pandemic’s onset in 2020, says CBC president Tom Hand, a retired United States Foreign Service worker. “I joined the board in 2020,” he says. “We had under 200 members. Now, we have almost 300. We’ve almost doubled our membership.”
How?