The 25 Best Companies for Cyclists
Our inaugural roundup of the 25 most bike-friendly workplaces in the United States might make you rethink your career choices.
Unless you’re one of the scant few paid to pedal a bike, you may view your job as a series of obstacles to your riding: the hours spent chained to a desk (or on your feet), the lack of safe bike parking, the spandex-phobic colleagues.
But what if you didn’t have to put your bike life on hold during business hours?
At these 25 companies, cyclists aren’t just tolerated, they’re rewarded—with perks including free bike-share memberships, on-site spin studios, and cash benefits for commuting on two wheels. Perhaps the biggest benefit of all: spending your days with like-minded coworkers who will roll with you at lunch (or even across the country), give you kudos on Strava, and at least pretend to listen enthusiastically when you recount your Saturday shop-ride exploits.
To compile our rankings, we started by poring over numerous “best places to work” lists as well as the League of American Bicyclists’ Bicycle Friendly Business award winners. We also solicited submissions from Bicycling readers. Out of this preliminary list, we selected more than 200 companies, and invited their representatives to take our Best Companies for Cyclists survey. We considered only companies with a presence in the United States that employed 100 or more people, and excluded bicycle companies and bike-advocacy organizations, as well as hospitals, schools, colleges, and universities (out of concern that these traditionally bike-friendly entities would dominate the list of winners).
Then we ranked respondents across four major categories—facilities (physical accommodations for cyclists), wellness (programs and policies that support employee health, fitness, and work/life balance), culture (how well a company welcomes and supports cyclists), and activism (employer efforts to spread bike-friendliness beyond its campus).
Here are the workplaces that topped our list—unless specified otherwise, descriptions apply to the company’s US flagship location. Did yours make the cut?
Additional reporting by Gabriel Lodge and Riley Missel
New Belgium Brewing
Employees: 780
HQ: Fort Collins, Colorado, and Asheville, North Carolina
It’s hard to beat a company that gives employees a cruiser bike on their one-year anniversary. Plus there’s the free beer: one 12-pack a week plus a “shift beer” a day. That equal love for bikes and brews has been a core value of this 100 percent employee-owned brewery from the beginning: Cofounder Jeff Lebesch dreamed up the idea for Fat Tire, the label’s iconic craft beer, while riding his mountain bike through the Belgian countryside in 1988.
Today, employees (known as “co-owners”) do hot laps around the Fort Collins cyclocross track at lunch, and they gather for group rides at both locations (Colorado and North Carolina). There’s a fleet of cruisers they can borrow anytime and Worksman cargo bikes in use at the warehouse. The company holds events like Bike to Work and Strive Not to Drive, and offers on-site fix-it stations. Co-owners in Fort Collins can ride inside at the in-house gym. Workers get $200 a year to use for gym memberships, races, or bike tune-ups.
New Belgium’s bike-friendliness extends well beyond its walls. The company puts on the Tour de Fat, a traveling philanthropic beer, music, and bike festival that has raised more than $5 million for bicycling nonprofits since 2000. It hosts two race series a year to benefit the local youth team, Ciclismo. The brewery worked with the city of Fort Collins to expand parking near its facility without sacrificing bike lanes or pedestrian safety, and gifted riverfront land to the city of Asheville to help build a greenway.
Clif Bar & Company
Employees: 1,100 (380 at headquarters)
HQ: Emeryville, California
Clif Bar incentivizes cycling to the next level: It offers employees up to $765 a year in rewards for commuting by bike, $500 toward a bike every six years, and $350 annually to cover race entry fees. Land a job here, and you can borrow a company loaner bike and hit the paved trails near the office or drop into a spin class at the company gym whenever the mood strikes. You get two and a half hours a week to exercise on company time.
Feel free to hang out in your workout gear (or throw it in the washer/dryer) and grab a healthy bite at the employee-run organic café or a free Peet’s Coffee on the way back to your desk. Crank out 80 hours of work in nine days instead of 10, and you can take every other Friday off. (BRB, scanning job listings.) Clif’s cycling culture starts at the top: CEO Kevin Cleary bikes to work regularly and organizes impromptu rides with employees.
The company also sponsors cycling events (including the California Enduro Series and Downieville Classic), bike charities (such as the International Mountain Bicycling Association), and teams (including the Clif Pro Team, which was founded in 2001 to create more opportunities for women in sports). Clif celebrates Bike to Work Month in May, when teams of 10 to 12 employees compete for highest mileage. The company makes donations to cycling organizations on behalf of the top two teams—who earn mad respect from their coworkers, no doubt.
Garmin International, Inc.
Employees: 12,000 (3,500 at headquarters)
HQ: Olathe, Kansas
Garmin employees can park their bikes indoors—at their desks. The daily “Garmin lunch rides” (so popular that even riders who don’t work there show up) are broken into groups so no one gets left behind on the nearby trails and bike-friendly streets. And, yes, employees get to try all the company’s products. Read: Trick out your ride with a bike computer, power meter, headlight, and action cam.
In fact, they’re encouraged to so that they understand how everything works. Spandex is welcomed in the building, which houses lockers, showers, a ping-pong room, and a gym that offers free workout classes to employees, many of whom participate in the charity rides Garmin supports throughout the year. Employees also occasionally get to meet athletes from the nine pro cycling teams the company sponsors.
Salesforce
Employees: 28,000+ (7,000 at headquarters)
HQ: San Francisco
Many of the employees at this cloud-computing company pedal through San Francisco’s extensive network of bike lanes to commute to the Financial District headquarters, where there’s also a free on-site bike share operated by Zagster. Employees can take out a bike to ride during work hours or borrow over the weekend. Workers log their commute miles (and other physical activity) through the app Movecoach as part of the company’s 4 Million Miles Challenge to earn Salesforce swag and gift cards to local merchants. Other amenities include barista-staffed cafés and locker rooms complete with showers, soap, shampoo, and towel service. Plus, employees get reimbursed up to $100 a month for fitness activities, nutritional counseling, massages, and more.
ViaSat
Employees: 4,500 (2,400 at headquarters)
HQ: Carlsbad, California
When we surveyed readers about bike-friendly perks at their workplaces, the most enthusiastic response came from employees of this satellite broadband company. ViaSat’s bike love runs deep: Its cycling team won the 2017 Race Across America from California to Maryland. Tryouts are fierce. The eight fastest riders on a 22-mile route up and down Palomar Mountain make the cut. But you don’t have to possess superhuman endurance to enjoy the company’s fitness-forward amenities, which include cash reimbursement or gear rewards for employees who exercise at least eight times a month, an on-site health clinic, and a campus bike fleet of more than 100 beach cruisers. Got a Peloton stationary bike? ViaSat will subsidize the monthly fee for employees who do at least eight classes per month.
SunPower Corporation
Employees: 7,000 (550+ in the Bay Area)
HQ: San Jose and Richmond, California
Employees at this solar power tech company earn $20 a month for commuting by bike at least three times a week. Several of its execs ride—including CEO Tom Werner, who has climbed Alpe d’Huez, Col du Galibier, and the Tourmalet. The company participates in the Bay Area Bike to Work Day and also holds a commute competition for its North American offices each May. SunPower sponsors Alto Velo, a premier local racing club, and matches funds raised by employees who participate in the Bike MS: Waves to Wine ride.
REI
Employees: 12,000 (1,500 at headquarters)
HQ: Kent, Washington
REI’s year-round bike commuters don’t mind slogging through freezing rain en route to the office in January: Electric drying racks in the locker room get their kit dry and toasty before their return trip home. Employees head out every day for hour-long lunch rides on the bike paths and farm roads around headquarters, about 30 minutes south of downtown Seattle. Tuesday and Thursday are fast days, while other days are no-drop. And, of course, working for a specialty outdoor retailer comes in handy when you need to do some shopping: Employees get 30 percent off everything the company sells, plus 50 percent off REI-branded gear. And you gotta love a company that donates 70 percent of its profits back into the outdoor community, including initiatives like the Rewilding Project, a 20-year plan REI launched in Washington, DC, with the Capital Trails Coalition and Washington Area Bicyclist Association to link existing routes and create one of the largest trail networks in the country.
Patagonia
Employees: 2,100 (1,050 at headquarters)
HQ: Ventura, California, and Reno, Nevada
Casual dress code that allows you to wear your favorite cycling tee to work every day: Check. Pro deals on bike brands: You got it. Indoor bike parking on site: Yup. The outdoor clothing and gear company offers employees $2 for each trip they make to or from work by bike. Loaner bikes and helmets are available for travel between company buildings or around town. Patagonia celebrates Bike to Work Week with free breakfast and repairs, as well as prizes. Other perks include on-site day care, yoga classes, free coffee and tea, and local and organic eats at the cafeteria.
Kimberly-Clark Corporation
Employees: 42,000 (3,200 at headquarters)
HQ: Neenah, Wisconsin
The personal care products manufacturer hosts an annual Get Up and Ride event for employees, retirees, and family members as part of the National Bike Challenge, an initiative the company cofounded with the League of American Bicyclists in 2012. Local mechanics come to the event to tune up bikes for the 10-, 20-, or 50-mile rides. For everyday use, there’s also a company fleet of road and fat-tire bikes available to rent for up to five days at a time, on or off campus. The company Exercise Center offers massages and indoor cycling classes; there’s also a sauna, whirlpool, and a 25-meter heated saltwater swimming pool.
Meredith Corporation
Employees: 4,000 (800 at headquarters)
HQ: Des Moines, Iowa
Employees of this media and marketing company can drop into one of the daily on-site indoor cycling classes—and bring their spouse or partner for free. There’s also a BCycle bike share station outside the HQ’s main door, where workers can grab a bike for a lunch ride on the Meredith Trail (a 5.2-mile asphalt path sponsored by the company). Employees can earn up to $725 a year toward gym dues, $240 a year to cover bike commute costs, and $100 each for things like personal training and race entry fees. If they attend company wellness events, they rack up Well-Bucks, which they can use to buy workout gear or massages, or even get reimbursed for a pedaling desk
Red Hat, Inc.
Employees: 11,000 (2,000 at headquarters)
HQ: Raleigh, North Carolina
This open-source software company had us at margaritas: the ones employees whipped up on a bike-powered blender to raise money for a company-sponsored American Diabetes Association Tour de Cure ride. We also like their Quick Spin free bike-shareprogram, where employees can borrow a bike during the workday to take a ride through town. For every three Quick Spin rides an employee takes—upload a selfie or it didn’t happen—they get a $5 voucher for the company cafeteria. Workers also get 15 percent off at local shop Trails End Bikes, and discounts to gyms like Anytime Fitness and barre3. Other plusses: office delivery from The Produce Box (a local grocery service) and weekly guided-meditation classes.
Ameriprise Financial Inc.
Employees: 13,178 (4,931 at headquarters)
HQ: Minneapolis
Ameriprise offers an in-house gym, as well as accommodations for bike commuters—its underground bike corrals are equipped with bike tools and a pump. Kiosks for the Twin Cities’ Nice Ride bike share program are within a block of headquarters—and there’s a new bike lane out front, too. The firm’s employee bike club volunteers with the nonprofit Free Bikes 4 Kidz, fixing up donated bikes to give to children as Christmas gifts. Club members also organize employee participation in the local Bike to Work Day each May.
Tableau
Employees: 3,400 (about 1,700 at headquarters)
HQ: Seattle
Fourteen percent of this software company’s employees bike to work and park their rides in secured, ventilated bike rooms, each equipped with a fix-it stand and bench. Eight loaner bikes can be checked out to use around town or between office locations. The company offers free bike tune-ups during its fall transportation fair and Bike 101 classes that cover basic maintenance. During Bike to Work Month there are team competitions, prizes, and free jerseys. Seasoned riders act as Bike Month Ambassadors, helping novices find routes and answering questions about gear selection and maintenance. Newbies can also find camaraderie on the company’s internal bike listserv, wiki page, and chat room—whose members organize frequent rides, such as a recent excursion to a company-sponsored baseball game downtown.
Nvidia
Employees: 10,000 (4,000 at headquarters)
HQ: Santa Clara, California
Company employees can bike to the office without worrying about getting stranded. The tech company will pay for an Uber or Lyft ride if there’s an emergency and you need to get home fast. One prominent bike commuter: chief scientist and SVP of research, Bill Dally, who recently completed his 16th Death Ride—a 129-mile road cycling event through the Sierra Nevadas that includes 15,000 feet of climbing. Nvidia’s bike club has 300 members, holds after-work mountain bike rides, and has its own office, where it keeps tools and pumps for anyone to use. Employees have built bikes for kids during team-building volunteer activities and created company-branded kits for Bike to Work Day. Last year the company spread its bike love to the community by contributing to a campaign to upgrade bike trails in Santa Clara County.
General Mills
Employees: 40,000 (3,000 at headquarters)
HQ: Minneapolis
There are plenty of bike paths and trails near the Twin Cities offices for commuting or lunch rides. But come the frigid Minnesota winter, employees may prefer the company’s indoor cycling classes—including ones that incorporate strength training, HIIT, or even yoga. In June, the company fields a team for the Bike MS ride—150 miles from Duluth, Minnesota, to the Twin Cities. Riders who need help dialing in their setup can visit the on-site physical therapist, who hosts periodic bike-fitting sessions.
Allen Institute
Employees: 400
HQ: Seattle
The bike committee at this nonprofit bioscience research organization doesn’t mess around: Its Wednesday-night rides have visited more than 50 local breweries since May 2016. Bring your panniers or trailer to stash camping gear—excursions are occasionally overnight, complete with beer, s’mores, and serious discussions of neuroscience around the campfire.
VMware
Employees: 19,900 (4,000 at headquarters)
HQ: Palo Alto, California
This tech firm has been recognized by FlexJobs as a top 100 company for its flexible work arrangements. For $20 a month, its 24/7 fitness center (“Club vFit”) offers meditation, indoor cycling, and other fitness classes. There’s also a squash court, free-weight area, and strength-training machines—plus an outdoor grass sports field and a gymnasium for basketball, volleyball, and badminton. Fresh fruit is delivered to break rooms three times a week and there’s a quarterly on-site farmer’s market. The three cafés—which are partially subsidized—are so popular that they have their own Yelp pages.
Edward Jones
Employees: 43,000 (5,000 at headquarters)
HQ: St. Louis
The financial services firm is the presenting sponsor for Pedal the Cause, a charity ride with six distances that raises money for the St. Louis Children’s Hospital to fund research to cure cancer. The company sponsors an employee team and also partners with local bike shop Big Shark Bicycle Company to offer special rental packages for employees who want to participate. More than 85 employees came out to the annual Fix Your Bike day that Big Shark hosted at the company last June.
Lexmark International, Inc.
Employees: 10,000 (1,550 at headquarters)
HQ: Lexington, Kentucky
Cyclist-friendly amenities at this printing, imaging, and software company include bike maps with on- and off-campus routes (the 12-mile asphalt Legacy Trail runs through company property), as well as indoor and outdoor covered bike storage. Its most enviable benefit, though, is the unlimited vacation policy. Employees need to give their manager a heads-up, natch, but days off aren’t tracked—good news for cyclists who’d like to ride extra long on nice days, travel to weekend races, or finally plan that Banff mountain-bike excursion or two-week ride through Croatia.
Urban Engineers, Inc.
Employees: 450 (235 at headquarters)
HQ: Philadelphia
When you’re a design and construction support services company, you make your building bike-friendly. The firm worked with its landlord to create a private storage area with 30 spots for bikes (one is occupied by a company loaner bike), as well as lockers. Employees also designed bike racks for all of the building’s tenants to use. And the company renegotiated its office lease to get its workers access to the building’s gym, locker rooms, and showers
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