Most weekends, Corey Biggers drives an hour and a half to ride the Continental Divide Trail in national forests in southwest Montana. His full-suspension mountain bike, weighing 27 pounds and made of carbon fiber and aluminum, allows him to climb the trail’s roughly 3,500 vertical feet to its summit.
Bikes like his, and where they allow riders like Biggers to go, are the driving force behind a United States Forest Service effort that aims to keep mountain bikers off hundreds of miles of trails, and possibly thousands, including parts of the Continental Divide Trail.
As the number of mountain bikers has soared in recent years, the bikes have become lighter and more nimble — to the benefit of riders and the detriment of forest lands recommended for wilderness designation, said Dave Bull, the director for recreation, minerals, lands, heritage and wilderness for the Northern Region.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/11/sports/11bikes.html
Bikes like his, and where they allow riders like Biggers to go, are the driving force behind a United States Forest Service effort that aims to keep mountain bikers off hundreds of miles of trails, and possibly thousands, including parts of the Continental Divide Trail.
As the number of mountain bikers has soared in recent years, the bikes have become lighter and more nimble — to the benefit of riders and the detriment of forest lands recommended for wilderness designation, said Dave Bull, the director for recreation, minerals, lands, heritage and wilderness for the Northern Region.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/11/sports/11bikes.html