Front Range Mountain Biking has a bit of a story to tell, a history that until now has been mostly untold, while I'd have to write fifty more articles to explain it all, here are the cliff notes. It's a lineage that most bikers will be familiar with. I started riding in the late 90's on a Trek Antelope, maybe a 1993 vintage in a very.... lets say proud, neon yellow. I won't bore you with every detail but, that junked out $50 used bike started a trajectory that's had me meet most of my greatest friends, taken those friends and myself to amazing riding locations from Indiana to North Carolina, from Tampa to Utah and many places in between, led me to live in Colorado and even played a huge role in my wedding.
"our people are truly the amazing part."
Mountain biking has impacted my life significantly. This statement doesn't even do justice to the experience of the sport in my life and I can imagine a lot of you feel the same. Lineage, that's what it is to me, it's something thats pushed around the storyline of my life and it effects my family, my friends and its shaped me as a man, a friend and a father.
That's what frontrangemountainbiking.com and the Front Range Mountain Biking group are all about. The celebration of something amazing, a sport that is so much more than the word sport can describe, a lifestyle really.
I had a negative realization a while back though, I hadn't actually done much to give back to the mountain bike community, our trails or the people who maintain them. I decided that some changes needed to be made. I started with trying to become a better steward to the mountain bike groups that I'd built by adding members, posting and pushing a positive vibe to the groups using inclusiveness, encouragement and humor. If you spend some time in the Front Range Mountain Biking group, I do think that you'll see that it's a positive, fun and educational environment. This isn't due to me alone, not by any means, our people are truly the amazing part. I still felt that this wasn't enough, I'd finally joined COMBA and built an amazing group full of wonderful riders, trail builders and advocates but, I was (and still am to some extent) too busy with life to build trails, go to land use meetings or advocate in other ways. I've got a few hours a night and a distaste for much of the content on television, what could I do?
"mountain bikers help each other"
As I looked at the people involved in mountain biking in the Front Range, something clicked; so many of these people had amazing stories, photos, videos and most of all attitudes. Most of the amazing stories, photos and content were on their individual Facebook pages, blogs or youtube channels though, locked in blessed individuality. The thought that these peoples amazing content, beautiful tales and wonderful personalities could be brought to one website that utilized their content in a sleek, simple and beautiful way, to highlight these riders, to show the world how amazing they are, all with a goal of pushing riders towards advocacy, events and trail building... well, seemed a bit far fetched. Mountain bikers are notoriously, fiercely independent.
I decided to go for it anyway. Odds be damned. I'm watching mountain bike videos almost nightly, scouring the web for the coolest mountain bike stuff and checking out the latest awesome mountain biking posts from my friends and advocacy groups anyway so, what would I have to lose by trying. I've been surprised lately by something that I knew somewhere in my mind already, something that I should have been confident in, mountain bikers help each other.
I started floating the idea around to my friends who ride and immediately received support. This kicked things off and a website was born. As the bones were being built, more and more amazing people offered their assistance. Some offered web help, some marketing input, charity assistance, some wrote articles and others provided video and images. These people have helped build a platform and provided a bit of an example for you to expand upon.
This site really is for, about and to benefit you. We need you to help us populate the site. Know a thing or two about teaching your kids to ride, have a great video of Morrison Slide or are you excited about a group, charity or youtube page that we don't link to? Think there's an issue we should write about or that you would like to write about? Let us know! The whole point is to showcase you and we think that will attract people and drive them towards our advocacy partners, our awesome 503 not for profit partner, amazing group rides and fun events. All that good is possible with your help. You don't need to be perfect, as you browse, you're likely to notice imperfections; an occasional typo, an imperfectly written paragraph or an amateur riders GoPro video next to a polished, 4k cinematic masterpiece. That's just how we want it, we aren't asking our users to be seasoned members of the mountain bike media. We like you, imperfections and all and we'd love to show you off!
I hope that while you're here, you'll check out all the stuff we've started with, from our videos to our articles, our local take on news and our calendar. I hope that you'll feel like you know a few of us better and maybe you'll come on a ride or meet us at an event and share a beer. That's really the ultimate goal. Be sure to visit our "Links we love" section too and show some love for our community of advocacy groups.
Thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope you love the site! A lot of people have put volunteer time (and still are) into this little project. Hit our contacts and contribute tabs to contribute something (no, we absolutely do not share your information with anyone) or to give us some feedback. We're trying to make something that you can be proud of and that my daughters can be proud of, win or lose. It's an honor that I've been encouraged to try. Let's see if we can do some good. Stay tuned, there's a lot more to come.
- Matt
