If you enter a National Park today, you are told at the gate that you can't use your mountain bike. Then you stay in a traffic jam for the next two hours. We think mountain biking is a good thing. We are getting people away from their TV sets and out into natural settings. In effect we are creating environmentalists.
People love to ride their bikes in natural settings.
Once they have this positive experience they will want to preserve and protect these natural settings. We are enlisting a whole new generation into the environmental movement. Mountain biking is also good for the economy, as it employs over a million people at bike shops and in manufacturing bikes, parts and accessories. I have a vision of a time when the use of trails can become a means to bring users, environmentalists and governing bodies together in a partnership that will help people to become involved citizens. To advance this vision, I have a message for mountain bike riders, the bicycle industry, environmentalist and land managers.