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*** Mountain Biking climbing with new demographics ***
Boulder Co ( AP ) -- 03/17/2003 To be sure, mountain biking has its share of gonzo enthusiasts,
riders - largely young guys - who have no qualms about pedaling off a 12-foot cliff or riding over
Bunyanesque logs.
But that, said Tim Blumenthal, executive director of the Colorado-based International Mountain
Bicycling Association, is more the adrenaline-pumping exception to the mundane rule.
"I think there's this whole dynamic behind being out and going slow and enjoying the experience,"
said Sig Hutchinson, a 50-year-old Raleigh, N.C., resident who has been riding for 15 years.
"There's an inverse relationship with me between speed and enjoyment."
He's 50 and he mountain bikes? you ask in wonder. Go out on public mountain biking trails and you
may be surprised to find that most of the riders you see look more like Hutchinson than young
athletic bikers from television commercials.
"The demographics have never been broader," Blumenthal said of mountain biking.
When mountain biking got its start in the hills of California's Marin County in the late 1970s, it
was the domain of the young, rugged - and male. Early bikes were heavy, had few gears and were
better designed for riding on flat roads than up the sides of mountains. You had to be willing to
put up with a lot.
Today, it's a different story.
The steel bikes of yore have been replaced by lighter aluminum and titanium frames, most bikes have
27 gears, brakes are more reliable and shifting gears is done with a flick of a finger.
That technology spurt is part of what helped drive mountain biking's phenomenal growth in the 1990s.
The National Sporting Goods Association, which tracks sales and participation figures in about 60
indoor and outdoor activities, didn't even begin monitoring mountain biking until 1993. That year,
the association reported that 4.6 million Americans had ridden a mountain bike off-road at least
once. Within three years, that number had nearly doubled, to 8.1 million.
Guys like Hutchinson - older guys who, as Hutchinson puts it "don't like to get hurt" - helped fuel
that increase.
Bill Haste of Cary, N.C., said he doesn't like to get hurt, either. But Haste and Hutchinson are
different as night and day when it comes to riding.
Haste, who is 52, rides with a loose-knit group of mostly 35 and older riders who are something
of a wild bunch. In a cloud of dust, the 15 or so riders who make up the so-called Cooper Group
roar past.
"Are we aggressive?" Haste asks. "A lot of people who don't ride with us might say we're very
aggressive."
That aggression - and need for speed - helped keep another demographic out of the picture during
mountain biking's early days: women. A bigger reason women didn't ride was the bikes themselves.
"You can blame the equipment for the late rise (in female riders)," said Heather Hicks, who
coordinates special events for REI in Cary and started riding in high school in Charlotte in 1989.
"Everything initially was sized for men, the bike frames, the shoes."
In the last several years, manufacturers have begun making smaller bike frames and designing them to
fit a woman's smaller torso.
As a result, whereas it was hard to find a woman on the trail in the mid-1990s, figures from the
sporting goods association put the number of female riders in 2001 at 2 million, or nearly a third
of all mountain bikers.
Broad as the demographics have become, Blumenthal quickly acknowledges they haven't grown broad
enough. The sport is having trouble attracting the very people the media has built mountain biking's
image around - the young.
According to Bicycle Retailer and Industry News, a California-based trade magazine, the number of
Americans ages 7 to 11 who rode bikes in 1990 was 11.8 million; as the '90s drew to a close, that
number had dropped 15 percent, to 10 million. If kids don't take those baby steps on that first
Huffy, it's doubtful they'll discover mountain biking.
Another demographic in short supply on the trail, and one evident throughout the outdoor adventure
realm, are people of color. Mountain biking has been and remains a white sport.
"There's nowhere near enough diversity," Blumenthal said. "It's a huge issue.
"And it's not just a philosophical issue, it a practical thing. Governments (in the form of parks
departments) will support what people want. If mountain biking doesn't have broad support, it won't
be on the list of things to be supported."
It's a practical thing, too, in that the boom mountain biking enjoyed in the 1990s is over. The
sporting goods association's figures for 2001, the latest year for which numbers are available, show
the number of mountain bikers declined 10.7 percent from the previous year, to 6.3 million. The
activity needs to find new markets.
Listen to ardent riders, though, and the decline defies explanation. For some, the sport's endorphin
boost is a cheap alternative to Prozac. For others, it's simply a chance to escape the realities of
adult life once or twice a week.
The Associated Press
CC to - alt.mountain-bike
Geneb...Wenatchee,Washington-USA All Things Northwest in BMX! ***** Gene`s BMX *****
http://www.genesbmx.com
Boulder Co ( AP ) -- 03/17/2003 To be sure, mountain biking has its share of gonzo enthusiasts,
riders - largely young guys - who have no qualms about pedaling off a 12-foot cliff or riding over
Bunyanesque logs.
But that, said Tim Blumenthal, executive director of the Colorado-based International Mountain
Bicycling Association, is more the adrenaline-pumping exception to the mundane rule.
"I think there's this whole dynamic behind being out and going slow and enjoying the experience,"
said Sig Hutchinson, a 50-year-old Raleigh, N.C., resident who has been riding for 15 years.
"There's an inverse relationship with me between speed and enjoyment."
He's 50 and he mountain bikes? you ask in wonder. Go out on public mountain biking trails and you
may be surprised to find that most of the riders you see look more like Hutchinson than young
athletic bikers from television commercials.
"The demographics have never been broader," Blumenthal said of mountain biking.
When mountain biking got its start in the hills of California's Marin County in the late 1970s, it
was the domain of the young, rugged - and male. Early bikes were heavy, had few gears and were
better designed for riding on flat roads than up the sides of mountains. You had to be willing to
put up with a lot.
Today, it's a different story.
The steel bikes of yore have been replaced by lighter aluminum and titanium frames, most bikes have
27 gears, brakes are more reliable and shifting gears is done with a flick of a finger.
That technology spurt is part of what helped drive mountain biking's phenomenal growth in the 1990s.
The National Sporting Goods Association, which tracks sales and participation figures in about 60
indoor and outdoor activities, didn't even begin monitoring mountain biking until 1993. That year,
the association reported that 4.6 million Americans had ridden a mountain bike off-road at least
once. Within three years, that number had nearly doubled, to 8.1 million.
Guys like Hutchinson - older guys who, as Hutchinson puts it "don't like to get hurt" - helped fuel
that increase.
Bill Haste of Cary, N.C., said he doesn't like to get hurt, either. But Haste and Hutchinson are
different as night and day when it comes to riding.
Haste, who is 52, rides with a loose-knit group of mostly 35 and older riders who are something
of a wild bunch. In a cloud of dust, the 15 or so riders who make up the so-called Cooper Group
roar past.
"Are we aggressive?" Haste asks. "A lot of people who don't ride with us might say we're very
aggressive."
That aggression - and need for speed - helped keep another demographic out of the picture during
mountain biking's early days: women. A bigger reason women didn't ride was the bikes themselves.
"You can blame the equipment for the late rise (in female riders)," said Heather Hicks, who
coordinates special events for REI in Cary and started riding in high school in Charlotte in 1989.
"Everything initially was sized for men, the bike frames, the shoes."
In the last several years, manufacturers have begun making smaller bike frames and designing them to
fit a woman's smaller torso.
As a result, whereas it was hard to find a woman on the trail in the mid-1990s, figures from the
sporting goods association put the number of female riders in 2001 at 2 million, or nearly a third
of all mountain bikers.
Broad as the demographics have become, Blumenthal quickly acknowledges they haven't grown broad
enough. The sport is having trouble attracting the very people the media has built mountain biking's
image around - the young.
According to Bicycle Retailer and Industry News, a California-based trade magazine, the number of
Americans ages 7 to 11 who rode bikes in 1990 was 11.8 million; as the '90s drew to a close, that
number had dropped 15 percent, to 10 million. If kids don't take those baby steps on that first
Huffy, it's doubtful they'll discover mountain biking.
Another demographic in short supply on the trail, and one evident throughout the outdoor adventure
realm, are people of color. Mountain biking has been and remains a white sport.
"There's nowhere near enough diversity," Blumenthal said. "It's a huge issue.
"And it's not just a philosophical issue, it a practical thing. Governments (in the form of parks
departments) will support what people want. If mountain biking doesn't have broad support, it won't
be on the list of things to be supported."
It's a practical thing, too, in that the boom mountain biking enjoyed in the 1990s is over. The
sporting goods association's figures for 2001, the latest year for which numbers are available, show
the number of mountain bikers declined 10.7 percent from the previous year, to 6.3 million. The
activity needs to find new markets.
Listen to ardent riders, though, and the decline defies explanation. For some, the sport's endorphin
boost is a cheap alternative to Prozac. For others, it's simply a chance to escape the realities of
adult life once or twice a week.
The Associated Press
CC to - alt.mountain-bike
Geneb...Wenatchee,Washington-USA All Things Northwest in BMX! ***** Gene`s BMX *****
http://www.genesbmx.com
