Grade School Mtn Bike Clubs

[coopdad]

Gang, I just got back from meeting with my kids' school pitching the idea for a MTB club. One of the staff asked a couple questions that the other parent or I had not thought of:
1. are there other schools that have mountain bike clubs?

2. if it was a "team" rather than a simple club, would they be competing with other schools in races?

Is it unusual for schools have MTB clubs or is it just our area? If anyone has direct experience with such a club/team, I would love to hear how it works, the pros, the cons, etc.

Thanks!

[4kat]

My daughter has a after school mtb club, they take a winter break from november to march( gets dark) they ride from 3-530 ish on trails, they are grouped based on skill level, the min age is grade 4 students or grade 3 with the parent on the ride. All parents are allowed to ride the trails with the kids if they like. Volunteers ride with the kids, in our case a canadian team fella and teachers who are avid bikers,
There is a race at the end of the with other schools in our area that is very well organized. the only issues i see are parents getting the bike to the school, bikes owned by some not properly maintained and causing issues on the trail, knowing that issues are present with the bike. Some kids not prepared with correct gear, excluding the helmet of course.

[coopdad]

It sounds like in your area there are many schools that have bike clubs/teams. Wish that was the case here. But hopefully we are the first school that gets the snowball started rolling.

Where do you ride? At school trails or meet at area trails?

[4kat]

2 or 3 schools have clubs, small schools as we live in a small community. We ride from the school to a trail network, sometimes volunteers load up trucks and drive to different trails. The teachers at the school and the parents who give their time make it all work.

[Mr.Biker]

Hello Coopdad,

I’m a teacher at a middle school in Massachusetts and I run an afterschool, recreational mountain bike club. Although I have not researched every school in the state, I am sorry to say that I know of only one other recreational school mountain bike club near me and it is at a high school. I’ve heard there are a couple other clubs in the state but I have been unsuccessful in connecting with them. I have not researched whether there are clubs in other states but you might want to look around on the web. If you have not yet done so, do a search for schools with mountain bike clubs in your area. You might also want to check with any local mountain bike clubs, their members may have information regarding school clubs or racing teams for students.

If you are successful in creating a club at your kids’ school, you (and the school representatives who will help you oversee the club) can decide how you want to set it up. I chose to make my club recreational. We have weekly two hour rides on the trails behind the school (weather permitting) or at neighboring public lands that we can ride to. Once a month, we go to a local state park or forest for longer rides. We also help maintain the trails we ride, volunteer at local park trail care days, donate toys and money for charity toy rides, and have basic maintenance clinics.

As you can imagine, there are many “pros” associated to having a school bike club: sharing mountain biking with new riders, teaching students how to fix their own minor repairs, bringing families together for riding events, and providing a non-traditional sport for students. There are unfortunately “cons” too: lack of administrative support, improperly equipped riders, inadequate staff or parent involvement, injury, and inaccessibility to all students to name a few.

I hope this information is helpful. PM me if you have any other questions.

Good luck with your endeavors