About MBO
“MBO is the best thing to happen to mountain biking in years.
Bike events and companies focus too much on racers, but MBO is an event for everyone”
—Bike company rep
MBO GIVING BACK
Mountain Bike Oregon is all about community. Two weekends a year we create a community of mountain bikers who come together to share the same passion—a love of singletrack. But we could not host these events without the support of the Oakridge/Westfir community. To show our appreciation, MBO has given or helped raise over $50,000 for local charities or groups.
Groups that are (or have been) supported by MBO:
City of Oakridge Park Fund. Greenwaters Park is home base for MBO, and we feel it is important to give back to the local parks fund.
Moose Lodge. The Moose are our breakfast chefs. Some of these funds help children’s charities and other local events, such as our annual 4th of July Fireworks Show.
Sports Teams. The MBO setup and breakdown staff are members of the local sports teams. This is a way for young athletes to raise money for their teams.
Track Resurfacing Project. We donated money to help the high school running track get resurfaced. Oakridge has a long and strong track and cross country program that has produced many team and individual state champions.
Trails Fund for GOATS (Greater Oakridge Area Trail Stewards). The majority of the GOATS funds are raised at MBO. The GOATS help build and maintain our local trails.
Kiwanis. The Kiwanis were our dinner chefs in the early days, and although we outgrew their staff abilities, we still donate to them. The Kiwanis have used these funds to buy over 400 helmets for local kids and to support other projects that benefit the community.
Oakridge Library. Oakridge is getting a new library five times the size of our current (very small) library. Grant funds cover the cost of the building, but the library relies on donations in order to purchase more books. We are so proud to be able to contribute to this fund!
Booster Club. These funds are used to help teams and activities—everything from band to football. Kids who benefit from this, volunteer for us at MBO.
Grad Night. Grad Night is the high school seniors’ final trip—a safe and fun get-together. Teen and parent volunteers involved with Grad Night have volunteered with us since 2006.
Preschool. Sadly our preschool has lost summer school funding so the preschool parents will help MBO this summer to help keep the school open year round.
Homeless School Children. We donate to a program that provides supplies and helps feed homeless school kids in our community.
Police Reserves. The Police Reserves handle our security. Some of the officers are mountain bikers themselves. As reserve officers, they pay for their reserve supplies from their own pockets. Our donation helps cover those costs.
THE MBO STORY
For years Randy Dreiling had kicked around the idea of starting a mountain bike tour company. Finally, in 2002 as Oakridge started to be recognized as a mountain biking destination, the time seemed right. Randy moved to Oakridge and started Oregon Adventures, conducting small tours limited to 12 people. But he had a much bigger vision—he knew that with the right support, a mountain bike event in Oakridge could be a great success.
After years of trying to sell people on how great Oakridge was, Randy finally got Porter Childs, the owner of Good Sport Promotions, a Portland-based event coordination company, to come and experience the Oakridge area trails. Porter was instantly hooked, and in 2005 went into partnership with Randy to create Mountain Bike Oregon. In 2010, Randy became the sole owner of MBO but would like to thank Porter Childs and his staff for their help—this event could not have become what it is today without them.
The very first Mountain Bike Oregon had only 34 people sign up—there were more guides than riders. But the riders from over 10 states had a blast, and went home and told all their friends. The MTBR website got a lot of traffic on the message boards and the news spread like wildfire.
In 2006, the event came into its own and sold out with 300 riders from 20 states. In 2007 we added a second weekend, but we are committed to always keeping our numbers small. We recognize that MBO is special because of the community that comes together to ride, and we want to preserve that awesome atmosphere. We also feel it is important to respect the trails and keep our impact to a minimum.
Because of the success of Mountain Bike Oregon, both the City of Oakridge and Lane County Oregon gave us tourism grant funds from room tax funds which supported earlier events.
We’d like to send out a special thank you to the Disciples of Dirt for guiding riders all weekend long, and for helping maintain the trails all year long. Thanks too to our staff and volunteers who drive shuttles, serve meals, and generally make MBO tick. We couldn’t do it without them all!
We hope you will make this event your annual tradition and we look forward to seeing everyone this summer on the trails!
Sincerely,
Randy Dreiling
(and Team MBO, the camp counselors of Mountain Bike Oregon)
