Flow Riders – Kids Mountain-Bike Club

By Alex Kochon

Imagine a world where kids convince their families to get outside for some healthy recreation, where they encourage their parents to dust off their 20-year-old bikes, and take them on weeknight or weekend adventures.

That’s exactly what’s happening with the Bethlehem-based Flow Riders, a free mountain bike program for elementary and middle school-aged boys and girls that started this spring. In its inaugural season, the group grew to more than 100 members, and actually had to cap participation to ensure they weren’t overloading the trails and their coaching capacity.

Ranging from ages two to 13, the kids in the Flow Riders program have been primarily riding in North Bethlehem Park on Monday and Wednesday nights since April. Their spring season ended on June 30, but they’ll continue meeting casually for pickup rides throughout the summer, and resume their formal get-togethers in early fall. 

They also ride in Thacher State Park in Voorheesville, Albany Pine Bush Preserve, and SKYHIGH Adventures in Averill Park, and are looking to explore other trail systems – and expand their participation and offerings – this fall.

While the Flow Riders were inspired by the Saratoga Shredders (November 2020 issue) all-girls mountain bike group north of them, they differ in that they encourage girls and boys alike to ride together. “We’ve seen the girls like being competitive with the boys in a friendly way,” said Flow Riders founder Ryan O’Donnell of Delmar. “It’s certainly a non-competitive environment. The key is just developing individual skills, and the purpose of that is just to get kids riding bikes more and making friends and building relationships.”

In February, Ryan, who has three kids of his own ages seven, nine, and ten who ride, decided it was time to get the wheels in motion for an elementary-aged mountain bike program in the Bethlehem and North Colonie school districts area. His wife Staci and daughter Lilli (10) are involved with the Saratoga Shredders, and Ryan had experienced firsthand what a cycling community can do for one’s psyche. He began road biking in 2014 and joined the Capital Bicycle Racing Club (cbrc.cc) as a means of getting healthier.

“I think the community piece is what kept me going, and now I think of cycling as wanting to hang out with my friends,” he explained. “It just became something I looked forward to as sort of a lifestyle thing, and then that turned into riding bikes with the kids, and that quickly turned into riding mountain bikes with kids because it’s a lot easier to take the kids out for a ride on the trail than it is on the road.”

Now, cycling is his family’s main sport, and they usually get out four to five times a week to ride.

With the help of Stacy and Jay Wozniak of Delmar, as well as Shredders founder Anna Laloë, Ryan was able to share this passion with his local community. He sent out a survey to parents to gauge interest in a youth mountain bike program and immediately received about 16 “yes, please!” responses. From there, they came up with the Flow Riders name, created a Facebook group, and began accepting registrations. They also became a 501c3 nonprofit and gained support from key sponsors, including CBRC, Bountiful Bread, Steiner’s Sports and Breslin Law Group, to pay for necessities like insurance, backpacks, and first-aid kits, and keep the group free and accessible.

“A few of our kids were able to benefit from the generosity of mentors who had bikes to spare (I think John Slyer of SKYHIGH personally loaned three or more bikes out),” Ryan wrote in an email. “But I’d love to have a more structured program to keep an inventory of bikes for kids to use as needed!”

This spring, 41 volunteer coaches, or “mentors,” assisted the program. Each sub-group, or “team,” was divided into six to eight kids based on skill level and age. The program held an open registration so that families could register for one or both nights, and then assigned teams.

“The first thing we try to do is match skill level and that really enables the group to stay together when they’re riding in the trails,” Ryan explained. “The second priority when grouping the kids is by year level or peer group, so we try to get kids that are similar grades and similar ages so that they make friends and they bond as a team, and then we try to make sure that there are at least a couple of girls or couple of boys together in any one group so that everybody’s got a buddy.”

The group rode from 5:30-7pm twice a week, beginning with a warmup of 10 to 15 minutes, which involved skill drills or focusing on one element to practice each night. After that, the teams would break off and ride trails, with a ride leader (experienced mentor up front) and a sweep (mentor in the back to keep the kids together). “Really anybody who can keep up with their kids can help out and be a mentor,” Ryan said.

This fall, the Flow Riders are planning a cyclocross-focused season to take advantage of the Capital Region’s affinity for cyclocross, a fall and winter sport that’s a cross between mountain biking, cross-country running, and criterium racing.

“I’ve talked to a number of the promoters of those races, and they like the idea of us being able to incorporate kids races into the cyclocross events,” Ryan explained. “If we can prepare kids for those events and give them something to do on a Saturday or a Sunday and be a further part of that movement, that would be really cool.”

They’ll continue to meet twice a week, with one night focused on cyclocross riding/skills and the other on trail riding, bike handling and group riding. They also plan to team up with CBRC’s new junior team to link up junior racers with younger riders who are interested in racing.

For the Flow Riders, it’s all about getting kids excited about different ways to ride their bikes. The overarching goal is to help them build confidence and have fun riding local trails while making friends. It also serves a niche of elementary to middle school-aged kids who are new to riding or looking to develop racing skills, before joining a National Interscholastic Cycling Association team.

“It’s been so rewarding to see the kids develop and fall in love with it over the course of the season,” Ryan said. “To see kids who were struggling just to ride their bike down a trail, and now see them rolling around berms and over logs, and high-fiving their buddies that they made on the team. This is it; they’ve figured it out.”

“I’ve heard stories from parents that the kids convinced them to go a trail system and ride their own bikes,” he added. “The parents are like, ‘I haven’t ridden a trail in a couple decades, but we’re doing it now!’ I think it’s pretty cool that kids are encouraging their parents to go on bike rides with them.”

Alex Kochon (alexkochon@gmail.com) is the executive director of the Common Roots Foundation in South Glens Falls, a freelance writer and editor, and outdoor-loving mom of two who enjoys adventuring in the Adirondacks.