By Matthew George

I posted a group update on the FRMB side a while back to show our members “the numbers” and to show the numerical side of the success of the group. I figured that its time for an update (and more to come) and that we should certainly include our Southeast sister group T.A.M.P.A.. Let’s dive right in. I’ll include the more human insights into the numbers to show you the broader picture. Enjoy and thank you for everything that you do. Your posts, conversations, friendships, advocacy and loyalty to the groups and each other is why we are where we are today. - Matt

We started with 7 members.

• We’re over 7,000 members, which is huge considering we are sport and region specific and have never been open status groups.

• We are averaging 330 new members a month, this does not include the declined member applications.

• We are a very diverse group. We proudly support LGBTQ, minority and female riders!

• We are 23% Female and 77% male. Statistically for our sport, that’s very good and we hope to see those numbers even out more!

• Our average member is from the USA with the UK, Canada and Spain coming next in line. We reach 60 countries currently. Our members are most commonly in the Western and Southeastern United States (and growing rapidly from there).

• Our last article was read in 55 countries.

• We’ve endlessly supported local advocacy over the years with no caveats or expectations of return benefits.

• No profit has ever been made from this group(s)and if there ever is a profit model, you can bet we’ll be helping the trails and our local advocacy friends!

• We’ve been on TV twice in the last two years supporting mountain bikers.

• We don’t ban or block people due to disagreements as long as reasonable conduct is shown.

• We average 80,000 comments a year!

• Our biggest age groups (in order) are 25-34, 35-44 and 45-54

• Our members are regular people and well known figures in the mountain bike community. We have pro riders, racers, shop owners, writers for large mountain biking publications, owners / founders of bike companies, owners of the biggest guide services, television producers and photojournalist, mountain bike movie producers, famous Youtubers and many more, all conversing side by side with our average users who range from college student to construction workers, nurses and lawyers.

• We see over 165,000 post reactions per year and 10% growth on that number, month over month!

• We’ve never allowed ads in the groups.

• Monday and Friday are our most popular days.

• Many original members also original members of the TampaBay Area Mountainbike Pedaler’s Association (2,000 members).

• We go to great lengths to ensure that all approved member requests are actual mountain bikers!

• We do awesome group rides!

• Many of our members have met great new friends through the group and group rides.

• Our Admin and Moderator Team is a diverse, talented and patient group that is meant to represent you as best as we can.

• We support other rider groups who are doing good things for the mountain biking community!

• We average 20 individual posts per day, everyday of the year.

• Our biggest posts have had more than 400 comments!

• We have a collection of thousands of photos under the photos tabs, go scroll through! It’ll make you cringe, cry and laugh.

• We have a great (newish) website with stories from FRMBers and brand new Instagram pages for both sides of FRMB. @frontrangemountainbiking and @tampabayareamountainbike

• We post from our site to our groups and multiple other large groups around the country that we’ve secured “posting rights” to. Our stories are generally posted to at least 35,000 mountain bikers!

• We’d like to start working with brands to review products, acquire donations for SWAMP, The Golden Giddyup and COMBA, as well as maybe get some cool stuff for members! Don’t worry though, we aren’t seeing the idea of direct ads to the groups happening anytime soon.

• We have a true community feel due to our wonderful members, thank you for reading this.