Bentonville Arkansas is the so-called “Mountain Biking Capital of the World”. Let’s check out the claim, made by some residents of the town.
What would make a place the capital of anything? Well, the capital is where the president or the governor resides. Maybe even a senator might reside in the capital, or possibly work there. But then we’d have to ask: what exack-ick-ly is the president, governor, or senator of mountain biking? I know plenty of beer-drinking fools who would claim to be the Presidential Elite of Mountain Biking, but giving yourself a title doesn’t necessarily make it fact. Calling your pet dog “Pig” doesn’t make it a pig.
Is there another kind of capital? There’s the kind of capital in which something dominates. Like how France is the cheese-eating capital of the world. Apparently they eat lots of cheese there. I haven’t personally seen any French cheese-eating festivals or competitions or even daily feasts. I’ve only heard through people who have visited, or lived there, that France is where people consume and consume and consume cheese as if they were required by law to do so.
Let’s take that second one into account. The idea that Bentonville, Arkansas has some attribute making it the dominant place where mountain biking exists.
If you have read my recent post on trail names, you’ll already know I claim some authority in the arena. Maybe I am the President Elite of Trail Names—in my own mind.
So, trail names first then. Bentonville has some good ones. There’s Thunder Dome, Victim of Gravity, Schoolhouse Rock, Conjunction Junction, Interplanet Janet, and Dragon Scales. Most of the trail names are mediocre, such as: Master Plan, and Bone Yard. And then they have a lot of lame trail names, like: Bushpush and Tech Hub Connector. Schoolhouse Rock may not even be original or clever, but it’s a refreshing new way to use the overused word ‘rock’ in a trail name.
We’ll grant Bentonville six good/great trail names. That’s not a lot.
In contrast, let’s travel north and west to British Columbia, Canada. We’ll take our bikes along and we’ll look for interesting trail names to determine which trails we ride. We’re not going to ride all of BC, since it’s bigger than Europe, so let’s just focus on Coquitlam. Coquitlam mountain bikers, or at least the people who named the mountain bike trails there, have an obsession with therapy. Some examples: Couples Therapy, Psycho Therapy, Shock Therapy, and Massage Therapy. Those are fun by themselves, but they have more great names that make you want to see what the trails are all about. They’ve got a Mama Bear and a Papa Bear. They have a localized name: Coquitlam Crunch, which I love. They have El Dingo Blanco, Four Lost Souls, Loosey Goosey, Manhandler, Shaloam, Tom Janks, Voltage, Woodburner, and The Dentist. That last one makes me clench my teeth in fear, by the way. But these aren’t even my favorite names. They also have Bullet Dodger and Misery Whip—two trail names that roll off the tongue with sheer frisson.
To sum up, good/great trail names in Coquitlam, Canada: 14; Bentonville, Arkansas: 6.
As far as trail names are concerned, Coquitlam wins twice over and then some. Now we need to look at the actual, physical trails.
We’re already traveling on our imaginary bikes, but we can at least check out some YouTube videos to get a view of the terrain. First we’ll go to Bentonville and see Dragon Scales, then we’ll go to Coquitlam and see Bullet Dodger. Be aware that Bullet Dodger is only part of the second video.
The last video is just a bonus view. It shows more trails in Canada. Now that you’ve seen three trails to make a comparison, you can be as much a part of the judgement as me. What did you think?
For some facts and stats on the trails, Bullet Dodger is around a mile, while Dragon Scales is closer to half a mile. Dragon Scales, according to Trailforks, has a berm, a jump, and a rock garden. Bullet Dodger, again according to Trailforks, has a berm, a jump, a gap jump, a bridge, a log ride, a rock garden, and a skinny. What that means on Trailforks is there is at least one of each of those things. Obvious in the video are, in most cases, multiple instances of the features listed. The steepness of the grade for each is Bullet Dodger: -34 at its steepest, and Dragon Scales: -18 at its steepest. Bullet Dodger is called a double black diamond, while Dragon Scales is called a single black diamond. Bullet Dodger’s elevation above sea level, at its highest, is 1,299. Dragon Scales hits 1,239 feet above sea level.
These comparisons aren’t perfect, but I feel they’re close enough statistically to show whether one or the other could be located in the “Mountain Biking Capital of the World”. I’m going to ignore the black diamond rating since it seems too subjective for any kind of judgement. One person’s black diamond is another’s green. For instance, Bentonville has seven total double black diamond trails. Coquitlam has eight. But if we got into the average steepness of the trails or the number of actual features on the trails we would see that Bentonville is nearly flat, while Coquitlam trails are built like bobsled racetracks. The reality of the difficulty is in the eye of the resident.
What is the point? The totals just don’t add up to let me leave the claim alone, made by someone in Bentonville, Arkansas, boasting Bentonville as the “Mountain Biking Capital of the World.” Naming your dog “Sparrow” won’t make it fly.
Lastly, in case you heard the marketing for Bentonville in which they list the total miles of trails (150+), then you might want to understand Coquitlam has about the same total (153 miles, according to Trailforks). I didn’t even mention Whistler, Canada (’til now), but they have 160+ miles of trails. So if the total miles is how it’s measured, I’m sure Whistler has the upper hand, or should we say, the dominant attribute.
The final word here is definitely undecided since it would take some serious investigation to find the Mountain Biking Capital, but it’s not likely Bentonville Arkansas.
Xenosthesia.com 