29ers and Mountain Bike Advocacy

Took the Wily 29er up Switzerland Trail today, the long way around. Did the ride in about three hours from Boulder to home, which is what I can normally do it in when I'm in tip-top shape prepping for zuma. Considering I'm not near that fitness level right now, I'll attribute the pace to the added benefit of the 29 inch wheels. They climb well, they ride well - fuck - they just work. Am I totally sold - not quite yet, but getting there quickly. A 29er would rock the house for something like the Leadville 100 - I wouldn't be surprised if they could notch a 15-30 minute quicker go of it.

Lot's going on this weekend. A hillclimb at Winter Park - always a nice series with a solid derth of bells, whistles and NORBA. A hidden treasure - the Teva Games XC as well. The Vail course used to be my favorite way back in the day, and although I have not been on it in years, it would be fun to give it another shot. Finally, the local mountain bike club BOA is having a trailwork day at Mud Lake. Apparently they are building some trails in and around the lake. While I always get a little nervous when the BOA boys - or specifically a few individuals in the BOA organization - get involved up here, this sounds like something worth checking out. The post for this is at the bottom if you want to get involved.

Now that I'm no longer working officially in mountain bike advocacy, I can speak freely on this issue. My main beef with groups like IMBA and BOA is that they are rather myopic in their approach to this whole mountain bike advocacy dealio. Specifically, it seems a major shift has taken place recently, away from an all encompassing approach which considered environmental and social concerns, in addition to access, to a new viewpoint which emphasizes access at all costs. There are a lot of individuals involved in BOA specifically who are a bit too far on the right wing, NRA, Blue Ribbon Coalition side of things for my liking. And when I get another action alert from IMBA telling me to "Help Protect Trails from Wilderness," I cringe. There are a lot of opponents to Wilderness and environmental protection these days, and it's sad that IMBA has decided - at least to some extent - to go down that path. Look, I live in a town that has a major tract of Wilderness just to the west of us. Can't ride there, but so what? Would I rather have it open to riding, but also open to development, extraction, motos and a whole host of other activities? Hell no. The place is sacred...so what if I can't ride my bike there.

It's not just IMBA's fault though. As much as I hate to admit it, there are an awful lot of short sighted mountain bikers out there. I used to preach that biking brought people closer to nature - made them defenders of the planet. I'm not so sure anymore. More and more, I see cyclists who don't give a fuck about anything except for the "lack of access." They bitch and moan to the magazines, to IMBA - since IMBA is a member based organization what are they supposed to do? Compromise their values and the foundation of our sport to pay the bills. Can't really blame them for that. Somewhere along the line though, we...and I mean we as the sport of mountain biking...lost our way.

Oh well, I could write a diatribe on this stuff - that was just a surface scratch - and probably will sometime. Besides, what do I know - Saturday is National Trails Day and BOA is doing some good stuff in our neck of the woods. Check it out:

A New Trail System at a new
Boulder County Open Space Park! 
Come help construct new trail at
Mud Lake Open Space Park!
 
On Saturday, June 4, BOA teams up with Boulder County Parks & Open Space to expand the riding opportunites in the Nederland area.  We will be working on sections of what will be three new loops at this new open space park.
 
Registration is required…. Please contact Mary Wiener at 303-441-1647 or mwiener@co.boulder.co.us .  We need to know how many will be attending to ensure we have enough crew leaders, tools, and of course there’s lunch that will be provided by B & F Mountain Market in Nederland.
 
Coffee (from Happy Trails Bike shop) and bagels (from Einstein’s) will be waiting for you at 8AM. 
 
For those of you that wish to carpool, meet at the Boulder County Justice Center parking lot at 6th & Canyon at 7:30AM.  Directions to the event will be given to you when you register with Mary Wiener.
 
We hope to see you there!

Comments

Hi Dan!
I'm with you! 29ers rock - love mine.
And I'd rather have Wilderness and not ride there than have the same area logged to nothing with trails to ride.
Lunch soon.
:)