For Turkey’s Don Quixote Cycling Collective, biking is not only a way of transportation but also a means of social activism. The embryo of this cycling group was formed in 2013 with Turkey’s Gezi Park events, which started initially when a small group contested the government’s urban development plans and then turned into a wide-scale protest movement to push for civil liberties and secularism. Some of the founding members have met under tear gas and pressurized water as police brutally tried to quell the protests.

“We define ourselves as activists who cycle,” Emre Tepe, one of the founders of the movement, told Al-Monitor.

“We are against the culture of consumerism, and we advocate sustainability, pro-environment policies, liberties, human rights and social inclusion in our manifesto,” Tepe said. “To us, cycling is a manifestation of all the things that we advocate: an environmentally friendly life where we consume fewer resources and enjoy more freedoms.”

The group, which takes its name from Cervantes’ hero who fights windmills, has a high social media profile due to its biked presence in major demonstrations. Its members cycled through the Gay Pride march in Istanbul on June 19 and biked with banners that called for disability-friendly cities in May for Global Accessibility Awareness Day. Last month, they pedaled in a parallel route in the Justice March of the Republican People’s Party leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, as he walked in Maltepe on the Anatolian side of Istanbul.