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The Freeride Zone comes to Greensboro
For the past few years freeride has been one of those activities that has garnered a lot of attention — the Red Bull Rampages, Crankworx, the Monster Park Slopestyle — have provided manufacturers with great marketing vehicles to sell their product to the public.
Unfortunately, when it comes down to finding places to ride their big bikes, unless a person lives in a freeride friendly area, the spots accessible for riding are severely limited. In places where access is difficult, riders often go ahead and ride where they can; frequently this means illegal trails on private or public land, a situation that puts bikes in direct conflict with land managers, landowners, and other user groups.
Part of the solution is for individuals to form an activist group that represents riders in their area. In my area, volunteer groups like the North Shore Mountain Biking Association and the Fraser Valley Mountain Bikers Association do their best to act as intermediaries between riders and land managers, politicians, and bureaucrats. The membership numbers of these groups lend authority to the biking community’s commitment to their sport and show those in the know that the group has the backing of a large number of people. Affiliation with international cycling organizations like IMBA furthers the credibility of such organizations and provides them with a great support network.
Once established, local cycling organizations can become advocates within the community at large for their activity. In some cases, this means that the cycling group can push for stewardship of local trails while in others it means that the group can work with local officials to create a designated place for mountain biking.
In Greensboro, North Carolina, cyclists, together with the city have worked to create the Freeride Zone. While it’s undoubtedly no Whister Bike Park, it IS a place where local riders can go for a rip without fear of angering any other members of the community. What’s especially interesting to me is that the cost involved in creating the facility are relatively low: aside from the land costs, the two acre bike park cost between $5000 and $6000 (along with lots of volunteer labour) to put together.
So, why aren’t more communities stepping up and creating places for people to ride? The short answer to this question is liability. Due to the general perception of ‘freeriding’ as being an excessively dangerous activity, most towns and cities are hesitant or unable to procure liability insurance. This is where the cyclist organizations need to step up; they need to educate the general populace (or at least the bureaucrats and politicians) that mountain biking is no more dangerous than other ‘extreme’ sports like skiing or snowboarding. Cyclist advocate groups need to make their presence felt at the political level and do PR work to make things like the Freeride Zone possible.