Bikepacking Roots Names 2026 BIPOC Bike Adventure Grant Recipients, Awarding $35,000 in Cash and Gear

Bikepacking Roots has selected seven new grant recipients for the 2026 cycle of its BIPOC Bike Adventure Grant. In total, over $35,000 in cash and in-kind gear support was awarded to recipients, thanks to the support of generous contributions from a myriad of individual donations and brand partnerships.

Now in its 4th cycle, the BIPOC Bike Adventure Grant aims to reduce barriers to bike adventure for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. The grant has awarded a total of 40 grants amounting to more than $140,000 in cash and gear donations since its inception in 2020, making it the largest and longest running program of its kind.

Noelle Battle, Executive Director of Bikepacking Roots reflects, “It was inspiring to read all of the applications and discover the breadth of amazing work being done by BIPOC leaders across the US and Canada to support their communities. We are excited to uplift their work and build long-term partnerships to support diversity in the bikepacking community.”

These new grants will build on the momentum from our last round of grant funding that supported 13 BIPOC Community Leaders to host trips, develop gear libraries, and other community building activities. A group of 12 cyclists – including 8 first-time bikepackers from 6 states – traversed 110 miles of the Katy Trail in Missouri, high school students bonded through an overnight bikepacking adventure on the Monumental Loop in New Mexico, and the Xanich community in California launched a gear lending library for their tribe and led two bikepacking training tours for 18 participants, including 5 elders and 6 youth.

Awardees in the latest cycle include a women and gender expansive group organizing at the border in El Paso, a BIPOC community cycling group in Alaska, a Black and queer led community in Durham, a working class, multi-generational collective supporting Latino men in San Francisco, and more.

“It’s an honor to help lead this program as someone who was part of its very first class of grant recipients. Supporting BIPOC leaders who are organizing on bikes and building gear libraries for their communities is more urgent now than it has ever been, and the record volume of applications we received this year reflects that reality. This grant is one of the few remaining lifelines for that work, and I hope the cycling and outdoor industries recognize the value and are able to continue to support it.”

The 2026 grant recipients include:

BIKEPOCING is an NYC based group focused on making bikepacking (and all things related to the joy of rolling on two wheels) accessible to Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. They organize inclusive group outings and experiences, design free bikepacking 101 workshops, and provide transportation for trips, in addition to maintaining a self-funded gear library for the community.

Black Spoke Society (BSS) is a Black and queer led biking community based in Durham, North Carolina, founded to create a welcoming, low-pressure space for Black and brown folks — especially beginners — to come together around cycling and build community. Through bi-weekly rides, learn-to-ride classes, and trips designed to meet people at every experience level, BSS centers collective joy, personal growth, and shared care that extends beyond the bike. In 2025 they hosted their first bikepacking trip and are building a gear library to make future adventures — including upcoming spring and fall trips — as accessible as possible for their growing community.

Brownout Recreation Collective is a San Francisco-based community initiative rooted in organizing alongside communities of color and immigrant populations in the city’s southeastern neighborhoods. Growing out of the Excelsior Bike Club — a pandemic-era bike workshop housed at Casa de Apoyo, a resource hub serving the largely Latino immigrant community in the Excelsior District — Brownout …