The long row of billboards ends at the crest of the hill and – after the real estate ads and Save-On Foods signs – a beautiful lakeside city comes into view. Blessed with the Okanagan’s hot, sunny summers, Kelowna is a city surrounded by water, deserts and mountains. Cycling in the area is as diverse and distinct as the geography.

Driving into town on the 97 Harvey Highway, a pair of road bikers on a touring tandem are the only cyclists in view. In fact, they are the only riders on the highway, but theirs is not the only bike. There are plenty of bikes stacked, strapped and tied on to any number of vehicles. They are mostly mountain bikes. This image is something of a “Kelowna-ism.”

Michael Cambridge, a bike mechanic at Kelowna Cycle, explains: “It’s Kelowna culture. You know, like guys with board shorts and no t-shirts walking around the bike shop in flip-flops, driving giant diesel trucks,” he elaborates. “Kelowna-ism.”

Board shorts and flip-flops are like a uniform on the beachside bike path, where the beach cruiser is becoming king. Cambridge says that in the last four years, his shop has seen a huge increase in both beach cruisers and commuter bikes; and a new breed of biker. “The beachside is perfect for cruising; it’s flat and easy. Riding along there feels good, you do it for fun,” he says. “The cruisers might not even realize they’re part of anything like a ‘bike culture’.”

Other bikers are not so independent.

Early Sunday morning in front of the Bean Scene Coffee House is another Kelowna-ism. The sidewalk is piled high with road bikes and racing bikes, as riders come together, finish their coffees and clip-clop into their clipless pedals for the weekly group rides. On a warm summer weekend at 10 am, there are more than 20 bikes ready to hit the road.

With the “most extensive bike network in Canada per capita,” the city of 109,000 has an active bike coalition and 240 kilometres of bike lanes providing the growing commuting community with access to almost all areas of the city, without touching the eight-lane highway that runs through it.

Damian Ritchie, who began mountain biking when he was a child, is among the commuter-converted.

“Last winter was my first as a commuter cyclist,” he says. “Biking is just a better way to commute, there’s nothing to think about, no parking issues or cost, no worries about drinking and driving,” he adds, laughing.

Finally, the one Kelowna-ism that brings all these cyclists together: the Sturgeon Hall Pub. On Friday nights in the summer, you will be lucky to find space along the patio railing for one more bike. Every variation of two-wheeled contraptions can be found.

The Kelowna Area Cycling Coalition meets on the first Thursday of every month at the Bean Scene Coffee House.