Boulder mountain bike news: Not good
Just when everything seems to be rocking, Superior Bike Park is used as a reason to limit trail access, and a bootleg DH trail is found dropping into the sacred heart of Boulder.
“No bikes on West TSA”
Boulder Mountainbike Alliance has been fighting hard to get limited bike access to open space on the west side of Boulder. Some community members DO NOT want bikes in that area.
Boulder Daily Camera: Guest opinion: No bikes on West TSA
“At a recent City Council meeting, earnest members of the high school mountain bike race teams testified that they need the West TSA to ‘train in.’ Users of the newly opened Superior bike park stated for this newspaper that the park helps them practice mountain biking aerial skills for later use in the open space. These statements remind us of the very reasons for which the West TSA was closed to mountain biking 20 years ago.”
I’ve said publicly that SBP is a great place to learn skills that apply to trail riding. I, of course, am referring to the control you gain by learning to pump. You never know how someone will use your ideas. Lesson learned.
“Angry Ranger Trail”
Years ago there was a bootleg DH that came off the top of Flagstaff Mountain and dropped just outside downtown Boulder. That trail was found and closed. Turns out another trail was built in the same area. With all the West TSA fighting, this is a bad time for more bad MTB press.
Boulder Daily Camera: Boulder discovers illegal, ‘extreme’ mountain bike trail on Flagstaff
Yes, we need more places to ride. Yes, we need to be mindful about what we say and do.
Know more. Have more fun!
Join the leelikesbikes mailing list:
Can’t you just ship all those nut jobs off to Marin, CA? They have an entire county over there that they can run around and preserve. Also… how does mountain biking prevent golden eagles from humping? Did someone do a study on that?
In all seriousness illegal trails do more harm then good for our sport because it gives the opposition ammunition to justify restricting access. Using the bike park as a reason to restrict access is just plain dirty.
I agree it’s a bad time for bad MTB press… BUT… we can’t control the press responding to absurdity, and there’s no good press when the US Forest Service refuses to work with MTB riders who need more technical challenge.
I was a member, then President, then Board member of our local MTB group, an IMBA affiliate, and I spent a lot of time working with the local USFS office for trail construction that would accommodate my town’s significant population of skilled MTB riders. We had plenty of beginner and intermediate trails, none above intermediate. The USFS consistently has stonewalled, claiming “insufficient resources” — though repeatedly, I and others have offered free trail construction and maintenance and a willingness to build trails that are sustainable.
At a certain point, people will build what they need regardless of what “authorities” say. These are the times when the “authorities” are finally forced to reckon with what is needed from the user population… the USFS is inactive and often regressive in most places around the USA. Exceptions exist in OR and WA but they are just that — exceptions. It’s rare to find cooperating USFS staff. Very rare.
When that’s the landscape, all press regarding any MTB activity above the weekend warrior, intermediate-at-best riding population is destined to be bad press, because the USFS is biased against advanced and expert level users, and against trails designed and built for such users.
“Bad press” is also hard to prevent in an era when people tweet and post pics and vids as soon as they happen upon something. There’s no limit on content bias, lack of context, or fair presentation. It just gets out there.
I find it a sad irony that Boulder spent 20 years promoting itself as an outdoor athlete’s haven, then as a result grew so big with “lifestyle” people who aren’t athletic that now the only outdoor activity approved now is distinctly non-athletic, off-the-couch sedentary stuff… like bird-watching.