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When folks in Madison, Wisconsin, buy a Trek bicycle this month they’ll wheel out of the local shop with more than a simple receipt. Even before they hit the street, they’ll be card-carrying members of the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin.

For free.

Sure, residents of the Badger State are a bit more inclined toward cycling than the rest of the nation, but Trek and a handful of enlightened retailers aim to spike the ranks of the state advocacy organization by picking up the tab for every buyer’s first-year bike fed membership. Kathryn Kingsbury, communications director, says the idea didn’t come from the federation; it originated with the folks at the Madison shop Machinery Row.

“We’ve been selling Bike Fed memberships for several years and weren’t really making the giant increases we had hoped for,” says Luke Bachelor-Clark, store manager at Machinery Row. “Right now we have a great opportunity in Wisconsin to improve cycling infrastructure. The Bike Federation is the group that will navigate the political scene and make things happen.  Their success rate will improve greatly if they can say they represent more people.  There are tens of thousands of people who are interested in better biking and just don’t know how to get involved and have their voices heard.”

So, this month, anybody who buys a Trek becomes a member of the bike fed, courtesy of the Wisconsin-based bicycle company. At Machinery Row, anybody who buys any bike before the end of the year gets a free membership, courtesy of the retailer, too. And the initiative is spreading: Earlier this week, Willy Bikes, another Madison retailer, committed to purchase a complimentary membership for any bike buyer through the end of July.

The heat is on the Bike Fed to inspire the complimentary members to renew once their free ride expires, but the partnership between retailers and advocates has the Bike Fed pumped. “We’re pretty cranked (excuse the pun),” Kingsbury writes on the group’s blog.

Read more about the initiative here.