Cyling On Every Continent

Crested Butte, Colo., also claims to be the sport's birthplace, crediting the invention to a bunch of local rowdies who rode across 12,700-foot Pearl Pass one night to teach New Zealand Mountain Biking in Aspen a lesson in what macho is all about.

Mountain bikes, which are easier for older people to ride, have created a whole new market for cycling and cycling products, like black lycra shorts, water bottles and other accessories.

That's good news for retailers in New Zealand Mountain Biking forum, whose season used to end when the ski slopes closed for the summer. Towns along the 50-mile Breckenridge-to-Vail bike trail, for example, have reaped a lot of cycling business.

Pam Ketchum of Vail's Village Inn Sports says the store's fleet of rental bikes went from four mountain bikes in 1986 to 26 this summer -- and there still were not enough to meet demand.

"We've rented so many bikes to people between 40 and 60 this year it's unbelievable,'' she says. Margaret Milner of Christy's in Frisco says the store caters to skiers in the winter and cyclists in the summer. This summer it sold three times more bikes than it did one year ago, she says.

Milner says Christy's store in Dillon, which is less accessible than Frisco by bike, remained closed in the summer. In Colorado and elsewhere, however, the cycling boom is accompanied by a host of new problems.

The U.S. Forest Service, among others, is complaining that recreational mountain bikes are tearing up turf in the back country and threatening fragile ecosystems. On mountain paths and city streets alike, police, sometimes on bikes, are called on to settle disputes between cyclists and disgruntled motorists, joggers and hikers who find their space invaded.

In New York, for instance, three avenues are now closed to cyclists during business hours. The number of bicycle messengers had grown so great that even the city's infamous cab drivers felt threatened.

The New York Daily News, meanwhile, demonstrated that cycling was the fastest way to get around New York. It pitted a subway rider against a 26-year-old cyclist in a race from a Brooklyn home to a Manhattan office. It took the train rider one hour. But Catherine Potter, who pedals to work every day, got there in her usual 40 minutes.

Colorado cities are developing new ways of dealing with cyclists. Denver boasts 22 miles of paths on which cyclists can ride without having to think about passing cars.

Mountain Biking