Local Mountain Bike Club Finds Fun Training, Riding Together

By Dave Woods • dwoods@OfficialKidsMag.com • Photos by Brian Huntley

A few years ago Greg Pool, a Bentonville dad, decided he wanted to spend more time with his family and stay active while doing it. The answer: Hit the trails. Soon, friends of his kids and their adults started showing up to ride the trails with the Pools. It wasn’t long before the local mountain bike club, now known as FAST Kids was born. Now, years later, dozens of local kids and adults show up during the season to race, ride, gab, and share their love of mountain bikes and the joy of hitting the trails.

• Mission: FAST Kids is a club and competitive race team focused on skills development, community, family, mountain bike advocacy, and having fun. This club is a group of young men and women age 5 to 17 who enjoy mountain biking, serving in the community, mentorship, and training to become better riders. Anyone with a bike, a love of riding and a positive attitude can be a FAST Kid. To join the group you must join the Friends of Arkansas Single Track (FAST) organization. The group meets to ride on Thursday evenings between time changes at the west end of Slaughter Pen Trail.

• Vision: To grow mountain bikers for life.

• About FAST Kids: The FAST Kids’ mission is to promote a love of mountain biking through team rides and competition in younger riders.

• Search FAST Kids Bentonville on Facebook to learn more about FAST Kids, Check out local mountain biking events and photos of some FAST Kids in action. You won’t be disappointed.

Chloe Pool

Age: 10
Grade: Home school, Bentonville.
Nickname: Chlo.
How long in fast kids: Ever since I was three.
What should kids know about FAST Kids: FAST Kids is just really fun. You can ride and there are a bunch of great people in it. It’s a good training program.
What kind of bike do you ride: Titus. It’s fast and easy to handle.
Favorite mountain biker: My dad.
Favorite trail: Slaughter Pen and Armadillo’s Last Stand.
Favorite move: When you are going down a trail and there’s a hill and you can pop your wheel up.
What makes it fun: When you are going down the trail and just having fun. You feel the wind in your hair and have a great time.

Connor Pool

Age: 6
Grade: Home school, Bentonville.
Nickname: Sea Bear.
How long in FAST Kids: Pretty much always.
What should kids know about FAST Kids: It’s cool. It’s Hard.
What kind of bike do you ride: Early Rider from FOX
Favorite mountain biker: My dad.
Favorite trail: Seed Ticks.
Favorite move: A Wheelie and stand up peddling.
What makes it fun: It’s going fast is the best part and hanging out with friends Jack, Joel and Patrick.

Cade Wilson

Age: 8
Grade: Home school, Bentonville.
Nickname: None.
How long in FAST Kids: Two or three years.
What should kids know about FAST Kids: It’s fun.
What kind of bike do you ride: Trek
Favorite mountain biker: None.
Favorite trail: Angus Chute.
Favorite move: Down hill.
What makes it fun: Speed.

Patrick Wilson

Age: 10
Grade: Home school, Bentonville.
Nickname: Nope.
How long in fast kids: For about three years. Me and my dad heard about this club and came and tried it one night.
What should kids know about FAST Kids: That riding is really fun and they should come and join FAST Kids.
What kind of bike do you ride: Scott Scale Contessa. It’s really light and really fast.
Favorite mountain biker: Danny McKaskill.
Favorite trail: I don’t really Know. I have tons of favorite trails all over the country including a double black diamond in Colorado.
Favorite move: I like doing a tail whip.
What makes it fun: The challenge.

The A, B, and C’s of Mountain Bike Slang

air n. space between the tires and the ground. (Both tires must be off the ground or it isn’t “air”.) Said to be caught or gotten.
bacon n. scabs on a rider’s knees, elbows, or other body parts.
cyclephernalia n. the parts used to upgrade/dress-up a mountain bike.”
death cookies n. fist-sized rocks that knock your bike in every direction but the one you want to proceed in.
engine n. the rider.
foot fault n. when a rider can’t disengage his cleats from the pedals before falling over.
gear masher n. someone who always rides in too high a gear, stomping on the pedals.
hammer v. to ride fast and hard. n. someone who hammers.
IMBA n. International Mountain Biking Association. An organization for trail advocacy.
John boy’ed v. when a riders face gets covered with spots of mud, making him look like “John Boy” on the Waltons.
kick-out n. a bunny hop in which the rider pushes the back tire to one side.
lid n. helmet.
mantrap n. hole covered with autumn leaves, resembling solid earth and effective at eating the front wheel of the unsuspecting rider.
NORBA n. National Off-Road Bicycling Association.
organ donor n. someone who rides without a helmet. Also called a “metal head”.
potato chip n. a wheel that has been bent badly.
QUICK, Someone come up with a word for “Q.”
rag dolly v. to wreck in such a way that one’s person is tossed like a flimsy scrap of cloth.
sneakers n. tires.
taco v. to bend a wheel over on itself, in the shape of a taco.
unobtanium adj. describing a bike or accessory made from expensive, high-tech material.
vegetable tunnel n. a singletrack that is heavily overgrown with foliage.
washboard n. small, regular undulations of the soil surface that make for a very rough ride.
XGames, n We just hope they mountain bike at them.
yard sale n. (from skiing) a horrendous crash that leaves all your various “wares” — water bottles, pump, tool bag, etc. — scattered as if on display for sale.
The Zone n. a state of mind experienced while riding. You don’t think, you just do.

Source: got.net/~landauer/mtb/slang