More Grassroots Racing
Cy Whitling
Tee shirt brands are a dime a dozen. It’s awfully easy to slap homemade logo on some shirts and style yourself as a “lifestyle brand.” My goal with Be More Stoked’s apparel line has always been to avoid that trope. Instead I want to use affordable clothing as a tool to let people wear illustrations that I enjoyed making. Which is why, in a roundabout way, I’m announcing this new project.
Every year I run a bike event at our tiny local bike park. It’s a whole bunch of fun, great sponsors donate gear, and I raffle it off to racers and their parents and families. Usually I make a few hundred bucks which pays for the event fees, snacks and chocolate milk for the racers, and then some new tools to maintain the park. In 2022, the raffle made $500, and I decided to try to use that money to “sponsor” some young and first-time mountain bike racers instead. So, I solicited applications, and then hooked up a few riders with full or partial race entry fees. No strings attached, no requirement to tag me on Instagram or try to sell your friends, just an entry fee, go make the most of it.
The result was awesome. A bunch of young people got to enter their first ever gravity races. One of them podiumed in his first ever DH race against a stacked and experienced field. I can’t imagine a better way to spend that $500.
I didn’t grow up in a mountain sports culture. We were heavily into team sports with no time for skiing or riding. I accidentally found mountain biking, and I remember vividly how much time and energy I put into convincing family members to drive me to the trails. When the grassroots DH race series came through town I signed up for my first ever bike race. I blew my shock in practice, crashed three times in my race run, and came away hooked, not just on racing, but the whole experience, the culture. A bunch of disparate people came together to throw a huge party in the woods. I felt like I was part of something bigger, surrounded by like-minded people for the first time. Now, almost a decade and a half later, I’m still passionate about grassroots mountain bike racing. It’s the absolute best! I want everyone who enjoys riding their bike to at least get to try it.
Sure, NICA XC racing is fine, but so often the presence of a NICA league functions as an excuse not to put on any other style of racing. And acting like NICA XC is a fair portrayal of the wide and varied world of mountain bike competition is like defining all of football by player’s 40 yard times. It reduces the sport to some of its least interesting (and most elitist) elements. So, I want more opportunities for young people to compete on bikes, going downhill, hitting jumps, pushing themselves. This is my stab at creating them.
Money (hopefully) comes in via shirts I sell. I’ve created a whole apparel line with designs that reflect my love of lighthearted, weeknight racing. You can purchase them here. All of the proceeds from those sales will go into a fund to support young mountain bikers.
What sorts of folks do I want to support? Most sorts! Ideally, I’d like this fund to be a middle ground between the sponsors who are happy to throw you some free product in exchange for a bunch of social media promotion, and a full factory ride that pays for your gas, medical bills, and everything else.
Support will always be no strings attached. You don’t need to tag me in everything you do, or try to “promote” my stuff in any way. Sure, we appreciate it if you do, and we’ll throw in a free shirt with any financial support, but there’s no obligation to wear it. Instead, please just be a good person who builds others up and builds the sport.
As far as support, I’m open to a lot of of models, but here are some ideas I’ve had:
Can’t afford entry fees, travel costs, or lift tickets at an event? I’d love to help
Had some sort of catastrophic bike or component failure that you can’t afford to fix and race? Holler!
Want to try a different discipline of racing, and need help renting a bike to do so? Awesome!
Maybe you don’t race, but you’re trying to follow some sort of freeride track, and you want to pay a videographer to help you make a sick edit? YES! I’d love to help you pay creatives!
Get injured racing and need help buying a brace or covering your copay? I’d love to help (although my budget is tiny and healthcare costs in this country are absurd, sorry)
Whatever else you can think of. Be creative, pitch me!
The guidelines for application are simple: Be a good person. Priority will always go towards youth (U18) applicants. I might not be able to cover your entire costs, but I’ll do my best to help. DM me on instagram, or fill out this form to apply.
Bikes are fun. Racing bikes is fun. Let’s do that more.