Activists comment on magazine editorial

IMBA Trail News
Volume 11, Number 5
November 1998

"Did it occur to anyone that Koeppel wrote the article, and [the top editors of Mountain Bike] allowed it to be printed to stir up controversy to sell more magazines? The heart of mountain biking isn't between the pages of any magazine, nor in ranks of the big names. It is in the ranks of the millions of mountain bikers who enjoy pedaling on the dirt at all skill levels."

- Bill Harris, COPMOBA, Montrose, CO

"When I started riding a mountain bike, it seemed the majority of other cyclists I encountered on the trail were environmentalists by nature. We... had previously been drawn to hiking, or backpacking, and already had a certain backcountry ethic... [More recently] we saw a different rider emerge... often younger and more interested in the thrill involved with a high-speed descent than they were with getting back to a peaceful, blissful meadow or ridge-top. In short, the experience was the ride rather than where the ride took us... I think we now count in our ranks more riders who are less concerned with saving the environment in which we ride than they are with preserving their own opportunities to ride, in some cases to ride anywhere."

-David S. Arndt, CCMB, San Luis Obispo, CA

"Koeppel would also have us destroy the years of work that has been done to build good relationships with land managers at the local, state and national level. He wants civil disobedience. While this may feel good to the mountain bikers involved, the end result would be to piss off land managers and support hikers' and other trail users' arguments that we are irresponsible and should be kicked off the trails. It isn't the Sedona Five that is getting trails opened in places like Grand Canyon. It's IMBA, and the Sedona Five has made the job a lot harder."

-Mark Flint, Tucson AZ

"Much of what Dan writes is based on a misperception of what we and IMBA are all about. Whether we agree with it or not, this (mis)perception is real for the majority of mountain bikers.

It behooves all of us to change our image, bring it into the next century and make our message and actions hip. Bike advocates frequently shoot themselves in the foot by not being able to connect to the very people that they need to reel in. We need to find new ways to communicate to the shredders, the racers and the vast number of people who just like to hammer."

- Philip Keyes, NEMBA, Acton, MA