There’s Something About Bikes

Many of us grew up riding bikes. They represent freedom, courage, adventure, health, and focus...but who can afford one now?

In an earlier post, I delved into our mission of getting more people on bikes, and identified three main challenges:

• Access to equipment

• Perception of risk

• Knowing where to go

Obstacles to Bike Access

The standout obstacle is the first one—access to bikes. In the US, the prevailing mindset is to buy bikes; it's ingrained in our market culture. When we opened our doors, everyone walked in saying, "I want to try this. Which bike should I buy?" Bikes, unfortunately, are often viewed as mere toys, but riders see them as sophisticated pieces of machinery with advanced technology. This creates several issues:

• The belief that buying a bike is a prerequisite to trying the sport.

• The minimum cost for a capable bicycle for most activities ranges from $1500 to $3000.

• The confusion over the multitude of bike types (gravel, mountain, road, etc.); which one to choose?

• Lack of awareness that bikes require expertise and maintenance similar to motor vehicles.

• Logistics challenges—storage in apartments, transportation, and cleaning.

These hurdles hinder the adoption of biking and narrow down the potential audience for the sport. The industry tends to focus on existing riders, neglecting a vast pool of outdoor enthusiasts who loved biking as kids but no longer find it accessible. A recent article in Singletracks points to new research by the Sports and Fitness Industry Association (SFIA) suggests that among core riders, enthusiasm may be waning this points to a decline in the core riders and growth in more casual ridership.

Trail building is a vital activity for mountain biking, involving land access, grants, volunteers, safety, and community engagement. Communities embracing biking have a more engaged population, but diversity and participation rates are still limited.

The Line aims to change this inequity by making biking an easily accessible weekend or evening experience, akin to hiking. We want to integrate bike rental and availability into the core language of sport expansion. Our vision is for bikes to be an integral part of any project involving trails, including pump tracks, bike paths, skills parks, downhill parks, hotels, resorts, businesses, transportation hubs, and community centers.

Point of Use Bikes

The Line Experience Center and The Line Trailhead are two of our solutions, placing the right bikes at the point of use. This eliminates the need for bike ownership, making bikes available without the hassles of logistics, high costs, or maintenance. Our Trailhead units, self-contained and strategically placed, come with knowledgeable staff versed in coaching techniques and bike setup. The bikes are carefully selected for the terrain, with sizes ranging from XS to XL, ensuring inclusivity for anyone who wants to ride.

We launched Trailhead #1 at Snoqualmie Point Park in partnership with the City of Snoqualmie. This trailhead unit sits in a large park adjacent to the Raging River State Forest trail system, which boasts 40 miles of trails ranging from green to double black. There is also an interesting dynamic between the park and Raging…people who ride don’t know that 50 yards away is a large open green space park, and often people who frequent the park don’t know its 50 yards from one of the best mountain biking zones in the state.

We plan to bridge that gap. So far, the reception has been amazing. We commonly hear people exclaiming they have always wanted to try mountain biking, and more often they are not stereotypical mountain bikers.

Over the coming weeks we will introduce some new offers – intro to the sport clinics, Suspension set up clinics and coaching, an amazing intro to mountain biking package including a bike and a membership to Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance (evergreenmtb.org). All of these clinics and offers are to help with the next two main hurdles…which I’ll cover in my next articles.

Check us out at theline.bike and sign up for one of our intro classes – or give a lesson as a gift to someone you want to ride with you!