Seattle club with Mexican roots is turning kids into bike racers

BURIEN, Wash. – When you’re 4 years old, learning to ride a bike can be scary.

What if you can’t do it? What if someone laughs at you? What if you fall?

David Rios knows how nervous some kids are when they show up to the bike class he leads every summer. He also knows how proud they’re going to be when they start pedaling on their own. It’s why Rios greets each with a smile.

“Cómo estás? How are you?” he said, pointing to a red and black tent decorated with the words TOROS CYCLING CLUB. “Sign up and get a helmet.”

The “bike rodeo” class for beginners is one of multiple programs offered by Toros, a South King County-based nonprofit that focuses on Latino families.

At a park in Burien, Rios shows the kids how to balance. How to coast. How to pedal, brake and steer. The weekly lessons in English and Spanish are free.

Something magical happens when a child learns to ride a bike, said Rios, 48. Their shoulders straighten, their horizons widen and their confidence swells. All of a sudden, they can dream about biking anywhere.

Doing anything.

“I can still remember my first try,” said Rios, who grew up in Mexico’s Nayarit state riding BMX bikes and making jumps in vacant lots with his friends. “The wind in my face riding a bike for the first time.”

Rios mostly stopped biking after moving to Washington as a teenager, finding work and getting married. He didn’t plan to create a cycling club.

But he rediscovered his passion about 15 years ago after taking his sons to a BMX track. They got into racing. He did, too. Pretty soon, Rios was spending almost all of his spare time on bike tracks and trails, partly because it was something he could do with his wife and kids.

Only one thing bothered him.

“I noticed we were usually the only Latino family,” so he recruited other kids and parents to ride, he said. “I wanted more families to know about this.”

That’s how Toros was born. Today, the club’s programs include classes, a BMX racing team and mountain bike outings. Rios has a day job as a detail carpenter; he runs the nonprofit as a hobby.

In Spanish, toros means bulls.

“We used to call our bike handlebars the horns, and bulls have horns, so I thought we could call ourselves Toros,” Rios explained. “It grew from there.”

Bike rodeo

Rios leads his summer bike rodeo class in the parking lot of Annex Park; about a dozen kids came for the final session last month. Before the club started using the lot, it was a magnet for dumping, loitering and vandalism.

Now painted shapes color the asphalt – a blue line, a green zigzag, an orange flower. Rios uses the designs to guide the bikers through new techniques. His wife, Blanca Machorro, sets the kids up with loaner bikes and helmets.

The club renovated the parking lot a few years ago with grant money from the Port of Seattle and has continued to partner with the city of Burien.

“By bringing more families outdoors to the park, they’ve helped clean up and revive that area,” Burien City Council member Jimmy Matta said.

Leticia Sanchez was excited when she ran across the class. Her 9-year-old daughter, Xhunaxi, wanted to bike but Sanchez was at a loss because she didn’t get the opportunity to learn when she was growing up in Mexico.

“I couldn’t teach her and I had no time,” said Sanchez, who runs a small restaurant. “She was happy when she saw this. She wanted to stay and try.”

Sports like biking are good for kids because they promote physical health and mental well-being, said Pooja Tandon, a pediatrician and researcher at UW Medicine who also serves as health director at the Trust for Public Land.

Groups that reduce barriers to access with free programs in multiple languages are extra important, especially when they bring community members together, Tandon added, calling Toros a model for that approach.

“Every person deserves access to physical activities and outdoor recreation,” Tandon said. “Biking is also a lifelong skill for eco-friendly transportation.”

One section of the Burien parking lot is painted like a miniature city block, so the kids can practice biking safely up and down a pretend street. Rios teaches them how to signal turns with their arms and how to dismount at busy intersections. His daughters, 17-year-old Leslie and 12-year-old Tonantzin, lend a hand.

Parents stay during the class and some join in, Rios said, mentioning a mother and daughter who recently learned how to ride at the same time.

Fernando Reyes couldn’t persuade his son to get on a bike until they enrolled in the Toros class. Liam, 8, is a cautious kid and stubborn. Now he’s riding.

“We had to bribe him to come here with candies or doughnuts,” the dad said, as Liam zoomed by. “But the whole environment, seeing the other kids trying, something made him feel he could do it. It’s an achievement for him and us.”

Racing team

On a cloudy Thursday this month, kids in angular helmets rested their bikes against the starting gate at the BMX track in North SeaTac Park.

They tensed their muscles and pointed their eyes downhill, waiting under a sign with the track’s slogan: “Welcome to SeaTac. It’s time to fly.”

Loudspeakers blared a punk rock song. Parents shouted advice and cheered. Then the teal gate dropped down and the bikes leapt forward. The riders pedaled hard, bouncing over bumps and coasting through curves.

This was the scene that captivated 12-year-old Francisco Aparicio when he first visited the park a couple years ago. Although Francisco wanted to participate, he wasn’t sure how. His mom, Veronica Perez, asked around.

“Then I found Mr. David,” Perez recalled. “He said, ‘We have a team.’ ”

Rather than recruit the track’s most promising racers, Rios invites novice riders like Francisco to join the Toros. Each new member gets a green and black jersey with the club’s red logo on the chest and a flag on the sleeve.

The flags represent their backgrounds and include Honduras, El Salvador, Colombia, the U.S., China and Japan. Francisco wears a Mexican flag.

“To support my culture and my heritage while I’m racing,” he said at the SeaTac track after winning a race against other 12-year-olds this month.

The bright shirts are important, Rios said, because they cultivate belonging.

“Some people underestimate the power of a jersey, but that jersey makes a kid feel like they’re part of something,” he said. “Part of a group.”

Each September, the club hosts a Mexican Independence Day celebration with racing, tacos, horchata and piñatas. It’s also a fundraiser for the Toros.

The club’s inclusive ethos is what attracted Jenny Liou and her kids. They wear Chinese flags on their sleeves, said Liou, from Tacoma.

“It’s all about openness,” added Sennet Curtis, whose kids wear U.S. flags.

On Sundays, Rios leads the Toros on mountain bike excursions to places like Issaquah’s Tiger Mountain, leaving the hubbub of city life behind to ride quiet, wooded trails.

There’s an early morning group for adults and a midday group for families. Rios doesn’t get much time to rest, and that’s OK.

“I enjoy it so much,” he said. “I can ride bikes all day.”