{"id":117242,"date":"2014-10-13T22:48:51","date_gmt":"2014-10-14T04:48:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/hardcores-invade-moab-for-outerbike\/"},"modified":"2014-10-13T22:48:51","modified_gmt":"2014-10-14T04:48:51","slug":"hardcores-invade-moab-for-outerbike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/hardcores-invade-moab-for-outerbike\/","title":{"rendered":"Hardcores invade Moab for Outerbike"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Anthony
Anthony Diaz of Durango rides a sandstone wall on Amasa Back during a skills clinic for Outerbike, where more than 100 companies were set up to let attendees take their bikes for a spin and sample other products.<\/span>Brandon Mathis\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It seemed simple. Round up as many mountain bike manufacturers as she could in the Utah desert, then invite the pedaling masses to come out for new bikes, a little rambunctious festival behavior, and beer \u2013 lots of it.<\/p>\n

Meet Outerbike. In its fifth year, its wheels are turning. In fact, three Outerbikes \u2013 spring and fall for Moab, and one next summer in British Columbia \u2013 are already in the works for 2015.<\/p>\n

Last weekend, over 1,000 people from all over the place showed up to ride next year\u2019s bikes on the incomparable trails of Moab. When the demos began, at the gates it was like a running of the bulls.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople start lining up at 7 a.m.,\u201d she said. \u201cThe gates don\u2019t open until 9.\u201d<\/p>\n

Korenblat, a former pro racer, previous International Mountain Bike Association president and current trail advocate, is well versed in introducing people to mountain biking culture.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, we can be kind of cliquey in the bike industry,\u201d Korenblat said. \u201cA big part of what we\u2019re doing here is saying, \u2018Hey, everyone\u2019s invited, everyone\u2019s welcome \u2013 if you know a lot about bikes that\u2019s great, if you don\u2019t know a lot about bikes, that\u2019s great\u2019 \u2013 so we\u2019re working hard to invite everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

The demo format is easy: Pay the $162 entry fee and demo as many things as you can in three days. The 30 miles of Moab\u2019s Brand trails accessible a few feet away from the event perimeter were good for all skill levels, and shuttle vans loaded with bikes and riders left in waves for world-class riding.<\/p>\n

While over 100 companies set up attendees with everything from bikes to backpacks to apparel to wheels, there were instructional clinics on bike packing, suspension tuning, trail riding and more.<\/p>\n

Famed athletes were turning screws and rubbing elbows with people who came from far and wide. Durango was well-represented, with Osprey Packs, Durango Bike Co. and a slew of mountain bike enthusiasts.<\/p>\n

Daniel Rodriguez, an engineer from Puerto Rico living in Seattle, was trading temperate rain forests for desert moonscape.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe heard really good things about it, and we wanted to try different types of riding on the new bikes,\u201d Rodriguez said. \u201cWhat else can you ask for?\u201d<\/p>\n

With 1,000 extra people during an already busy tourist season, campsites and hotels were crammed. On the fringes, more than a few people slept in their cars or under the stars.<\/p>\n

Josh Klute and David Rau sacked out in the sand near the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe spent the first night in (the desert) and then decided to crash in the parking lot,\u201d Klute, an EMT from Colorado Springs, said. \u201cIt was a great night. Nice and clear.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kim Churchill came from Michigan to find a bike and then get lost. She said she was impressed with the good vibes, but should have trained a little more.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe great attitude that people have out here, everyone\u2019s in a good mood,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ve just got sea level lungs.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not only the bikes that are new. Moab\u2019s local trail advocacy group, Grand County Trail Mix, has built 50 new miles of trails in the last five years. And there\u2019s more on the way. (Trail Mix recently helped Durango construct its progressive Snakecharmer Trail in Horse Gulch.)<\/p>\n

Trail coordinator Scott Escott said it\u2019s a streamlined but tough process to negotiate with land agencies, work with a small budget and coordinate volunteers. He called the actual building of a trail the last step.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re on page 499 of a 500-page book and that\u2019s when you\u2019re building the trail. No one has much of an idea of how much goes into it,\u201d Escott said.<\/p>\n

Korenblat said maintaining a good relationship with land agencies and gas and oil companies is vital for the future of Moab\u2019s recreational tourism economy, which is exactly what Outerbike is.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe trails don\u2019t have protection,\u201d Korenblat said about a current natural resouce boom in the area. \u201cRight now, the oil company that we\u2019re working with is a great corporate citizen, but if it was some other company, they might say, \u2018Sorry, the law favors us, get out of our way.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody\u2019s aware,\u201d she added. \u201cYou\u2019ve got all of these businesses investing in a recreational economy with the assumption that the recreation assets are going to be there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, a growing line for the shuttles stretched through the parking lot, this time heading to Captain Ahab, a Trail Mix masterpiece on Moab\u2019s Amasa Back in Kane Creek Canyon. The loading area was like a desert space station \u2013 people decked in riding gear, crawling into machines with exotic eyewear, helmets, elbow and knee pads, sitting next to someone from the other side of the planet, their bikes floating up to waiting hands on the roof as pilots prepared for takeoff and headed out into another world.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know why,\u201d Korenblat said, \u201cbut everyone is like, \u2018This is the greatest weekend ever.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

bmathis@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anthony Diaz of Durango rides a sandstone wall on Amasa Back during a skills clinic for Outerbike, where more than 100 companies were set up to let attendees take their bikes for a spin and sample other products.Brandon Mathis\/Durango Herald It seemed simple. Round up as many mountain bike manufacturers as she could in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":117243,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5770],"tags":[977,121],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-117242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-high-school-sports","tag-mountain-biking","tag-utah"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117242\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117242"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=117242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}