Revelstoke’s 2024 bike season stretches on

Revelstoke’s 2024 bike season featured an early start and few interruptions due to wildfire smoke, offering cyclists keen on hitting the trail ample time to send it in the bike park. This early start, which made up for the lackluster winter for many, may have also contributed to a downtick in visitors toward the end of the season, Jake Stanfield, Revelstoke Cycling Association (RCA) director-at-large of events and Cycle Logic store manager theorized.

“We’ve now actually seen a bit of a decrease, and we’ve had a slower September and October than we typically would have,” he told Revelstoke Mountaineer regarding rentals and service calls. “I do think that’s just due to the seasonal shift of maybe a month or two earlier.”

Tourism and retail 

Stanfield can’t comment on Revelstoke’s tourism numbers this summer, but lower rental numbers and gear sales seems to speak to lower tourism for Revelstoke’s 2024 bike season. That lack of gear sales could also reflect online shopping trends and riders trying to find the best price possible. For that, he suggests folks ask local shops to price match online retailers to help support Revelstoke stores.

“I really do think that local retailers would be grateful for your business.”

RCA and Cycle Logic are both learning to focus less on the traveling bike scene and tourism numbers, and are instead putting efforts behind supporting Revelstoke’s local biking community. Whether that’s tuning up bikes, a service Stanfield said is always in demand around town, or supplying gear and accessories that support all styles of biking.

Year-round biking and volunteerism 

“This is a town that bikes all year round,” Stanfield said, noting not just the commuter cycling that pushes through all four seasons in Revelstoke, but the recreational fat tire biking on the Greenbelt trails thanks to the Illecillewaet Greenbelt Society’s volunteer work to keep the trail groomed and ready for biking, walking and nordic skiing once the snow settles in.

Volunteer work also helped Revelstoke’s Bike Fest knock out another successful year, nearly doubling in number of attendees at the weekend-long event. With expectations that next year will see similar growth, Stanfield is already putting the call out for volunteers.

“For anyone that wants to get involved in Bike Fest, reach out to myself or JF [Bigras] over at Skookum,” he advised.

RCA has been slowly shifting focus from just supporting the mountain biking infrastructure in town – maintaining current trails and building new ones, such as this year’s Sisyphus’ Revenge – to also working with the city and other organizations to support Revelstoke’s overall biking infrastructure. Plans for a pump track in Revelstoke in the near future will bring more recreational biking opportunities to Revelstoke. 

Regarding community complaints that RCA has put focus on catering to Revelstoke’s biking tourism instead of the locals who use the trails and infrastructure year round, Stanfield encouraged current, previous and future RCA members to come to annual general meetings and local events to voice concerns and possible strategies or fill out the 2024 RCA survey.

“Tell us what’s good, tell us what’s bad. We’re here to listen.”