Outerbike is first and foremost a bicycle demo event. Some demos happen indoors at convention centers on concrete “test tracks” but the best ones happen in places with great trails. Places that are worthy of your next dream bike. Amazing places, like the red rock landscapes of Moab, UT where we started Outerbike 10 years ago. Or in this case, one of the birthplaces of mountain biking in North America: Crested Butte, Colorado.
All the Outerbike locations have world class trails or we wouldn’t choose them in the first place. So why choose Crested Butte over any other destination? My answer goes back nearly 30 years when I first rolled into CB one afternoon in the fall of 1991. I had just graduated from college in VT, with a “degree” in skiing and mountain biking, but I needed one winter of “real” skiing before heading back to CT to get that “real” job.
Well everyone knows how this story ends and it was the classic “move here for the winter, stay for the summer” thing that bit hard and kept me there for nearly ten years. It wasn’t the biggest mountain – I’d ever skied, or the best bike park – heck the bike park wasn’t even around back then. It was the town. And of course the people! Certainly the 700+ miles of trail didn’t hurt! But the reality is there’s fantastic riding all over the world. Today’s mountain bikers live in an amazing era of trail building and bike acceptance that the pioneers were not privilege to. The real difference in my eyes is how welcome I felt when I came to Crested Butte. How people smile and wave! How, if you’re a cyclist you’re part of the gang – a local for the weekend, and part of the tribe.
I met my wife there, and we take our family on vacation there as often as possible. While some of the friends I met there in the early 90’s have moved on, many are still there and to this day, and I continue to meet new ones on every visit. That’s the main reason every mountain biker should experience Crested Butte. So yes, you should definitely come to Outerbike-Crested Butte for the riding (and of course all those amazing new bikes) but you’ll come back for the people and the town.
And in case you’re still on the fence, the wildflowers are off the charts this summer! That new Baxter Gulch loop is ride ready – OMG! And then there is that cool new restaurant with the patio bar, and….. the list goes on.
See you there!– August 16-18, 2019.
Mark Sevenoff – Western Spirit Cycles