We recently sat down with Tracy Hoose to hear the story behind BikeBoards, a company whose mission is to provide innovative equipment for winter sports. Originally adding boards to bike wheels for the newest way to bike in the snow, BikeBoards has grown to be an asset to the adaptive sports community. Below, Tracy shares key features about BikeBoards and its contribution to the winter sports scene.
Give us a brief bio of yourself and what you do.
I have been a part of the BikeBoards team for almost four years and a business partner for three years in Colorado. I grew up in Tennessee (no, not much snow there), where I earned a Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology, and later I earned a Master’s in Business Administration in Oregon. I am an archaeologist, so I’ve enjoyed many opportunities to travel, explore, and appreciate the outdoors in ways I never would have outside of my job. Also, I spent many years working for companies in other industries, such as retail, insurance, disaster preparedness, and homeland security, where I gained insight into a variety of business practices. BikeBoards is a new venture my partners and I have been developing outside of our full-time jobs.
Where did the idea of BikeBoards come from? How did you get involved?
The idea of BikeBoards originated with David Bach, who is the founder and “common denominator,” as I like to call him, that brought the team together very much by chance. Each of us has gone through major life transitions over the past few years. I think we were all looking for something positive to put our energy into.
The team includes David and his twin brother, Fran. Both are originally from upstate New York and work as general contractors doing remodels and building custom homes, so they struggled during the economic downturn. Both grew up skiing and are avid mountain bikers as well. The fourth is Nick Conda, a retired military vet and native of Colorado who David happened to ask for help while biking past Nick’s house. Nick was outside pushing a swing, and David just went up to him and asked if Nick could help him with his idea to add a ski to a bike wheel. Nick didn’t just help; he became fully committed to seeing it through. When I met David, he shared his challenge of mountain biking in the snow and his various ideas on how to begin to solve this problem. He was tired of struggling to ride or push his bike through the snow. He didn’t mind the snow; he just wanted to be able to ride farther in the time he had. I knew he had a unique passion to make his idea a reality and that he was really asking for help.
I also knew that helping in any way would be a memorable adventure I couldn’t pass up, and it attracted my attention as a great way to put my energy into something positive. We all believed in the potential and wanted to make the idea a reality. It served the purpose of helping David reach his own goals, but we quickly realized we could use it for much more if we pushed the limits and put in the work. Solving the problem was the first goal. When the idea became a real product that worked, it was a dream come true! But all of a sudden we wanted to do even more and apply the idea in new ways. We realized that if we could share what we have, it could go beyond what we alone could bring to it.
How do you see this new snow activity changing the winter sports scene?
We never stop dreaming! For me, at first it was so much fun to just get the bike out of the garage, ride around the neighborhood, and go to the local sled hill. It took practice, like the first time I tried snowboarding, when I found that the hardest part was standing up. With the BikeBoard the hardest part is letting yourself trust the ski. BikeBoards has grown from taking the BikeBoard to the trails through deep powder to developing it to ride downhill like ski bikes, to side-gliding, to wanting to jump and create events. It is also in the plans to apply them to motocross bikes. Motocross riders are already using studded tires for icy conditions. We want to try everything, and where we have limits, we hope some talented riders will have the vision. We would love to see what we could do in a playground with chutes and moguls. We don’t have that kind of access yet. We may have to build our own.
For now we’ll just keep adding #Redbull to our tweets and Instagram photos until they notice. We take all of the pictures and put together the videos ourselves because getting the idea out there is so important to us. Some may say that Dave is a bit obsessed with the videos and postings, but that is his passion, and his energy never stops for it. He loves doing it. But we still need help. We are expanding our team, finding riders just as excited as we are who are willing to push the limits, like Danny Wilson in the UK and Fred Bonnefille in France. Danny refuses to ride just one board. He was on two boards from the start. But he’s that talented as a rider. Fred was the first to take a few jumps without a second thought. But there is a purpose in finding riders with this enthusiasm. It’s not about extreme sports or doing crazy things. Pushing the level of performance is inspiring. It shows us that what was once extreme is now attainable.
Some have been riding bikes in the winter for generations, but a broader idea of winter biking is growing and communities are forming around it. For some just riding in the snow was extreme, but now it can become so commonplace that the idea of your bike being in the back of the garage all winter will seem odd. The snow is now a new landscape that is acceptable to explore. No matter what your level, you can begin to take new steps to explore winter biking, or if you are already an avid winter biker you have another tool to do more. Winter races that were for dogsledding have expanded to biking and even foot travel. I am also a runner and have thought about foot travel in winter and using the BikeBoards on equipment I already have. We have received interest in using them for trailers and handcarts, basically converting them easily to sleds without having to remove the wheels. Karl Bushby (@bushby3000) has spent decades attempting to complete a mission to walk around the globe and is using the BikeBoards on the wheels of his handcart, “The Beast,” as he completes his walk across Russia. That is the dream for us: To see it applied so someone can complete a journey or have a new experience, no matter what it is.
How has BikeBoards impacted the adaptive sports community?
Ultimately, the BikeBoards can assist anyone on wheels trying to do more or go farther in the snow without having to alter their vehicle. For someone who has lost the use of his or her legs or who has an injury requiring rehab, Sit Skis are available at resorts. They’re incredible of course but still limited to one activity, downslope riding, and are really available only at resorts. It is not an affordable or accessible vehicle to anyone. BikeBoards in its development has never been so narrow minded as to be just about bikes. It was about providing a tool that gives assistance to wheels in the snow. The creative part is making new adventures and challenges. We immediately wanted to apply the BikeBoards to wheelchairs because just as a bike is very personal to the rider, so is a wheelchair to the person it supports.
First, we wanted to make it easier for a wheelchair to get from point A to point B, just as David did on the trails with his bike, and now we want to expand the fun in winter sports overall. David had a friend growing up who was an avid skier but who had an aneurysm causing him to lose his mobility. Skiing was what David and his friend enjoyed most, and David never forgot what his friend lost. I also have a brother-in-law who suffered a stroke and has partial paralysis. He is not an athlete but being outside and enjoying snow is incredibly nostalgic for almost anyone.
Our motivation to apply the BikeBoards to wheelchairs and to try something new in adaptive sports is the same as it is with biking: so anyone can go farther. A wheelchair should be someone’s access to freedom, not an anchor. Businesses have a pattern of passively allocating 5 to 10% of resources in the form of a donation to help non-profits or people in need that fit in some way with their organization. Often this is the “community” part of the business which is separate from the core business.
Many businesses make incredible donations, but not enough businesses even do this. I think this notion, however, has been applied by businesses in the wrong way when it comes to adapting products for differing abilities. Anytime a product can be made more accessible to more people is good for the broad market. Every disability has different degrees, and we are all most likely going to experience some level of permanent or temporary loss of physical abilities in our lifetime, at least from aging.
To some companies, allocating more than 10% to community contributions suggests that a business is not staying on target with its core development. I disagree and have made a point from the beginning, as have my partners, to emphasize that this is as much a priority in our development as any use of our product. Could sticking to bikes take us away from our “core” or “target” competency so that our resources are spread too thin? If we are spread too thin it’s because we are only four people, not because community contributions don’t fit into our business model. The point of the BikeBoard is to go farther on whatever vehicle with wheels you like and to use it more often. I believe it is beautiful to be able to say, “Look what I did in my chair,” just as anyone would say, “Look what I did on my bike,” without necessarily having to get out of a chair and into another vehicle. A wheelchair is for mobility and freedom, and the goal of BikeBoards is for a wheelchair, just like a bike, to be able to go farther and do more in the snow.
Where do you see innovation in adaptive sports going in the future?
I hope to see a bridge in the gap that says there is equipment for people of all abilities and other equipment for people who need assistance. Very little sensitivity or attention is given in product development to make more universal products for all degrees of use. More people are pushing themselves to do more. Some are meeting the demand in developing new adaptive sports equipment today that is pretty amazing. For instance, Trikes can now cross difficult terrain and are so much fun. But the price tags are terrifying. We are a generation of people for whom new sports have been created and made more accessible, and we are willing to ignore this thing called age and keep pushing ourselves to do more and to try new things. Whether by pushing too far or from accidental injury and limits due to age or illness, people still want to be more active and want more products to help them adjust for injuries, wear, tear and limits on their bodies. We are inspired by the incredible athletes in adaptive sports who have pushed the limits to show what is really attainable.
With BikeBoards we have focused on the fact that bikes are very personal to their owners, just like a wheelchair or a car. Everyone has personal preferences. We want people to be able to maintain that choice and do more with what they have. It is inevitable, I hope, that more crossover products will be developed. Everyone should use a wheelchair for a day during disability awareness to think about what it would be like to be missing out on things he or she would like to do because of being confined to a wheelchair. I imagine a real opportunity to dilute the divide in product development. Equipment developed for disabilities can be more mainstream, and more mainstream equipment can be adapted for disabilities.
This is already evident in fat tires being applied to hand-cycles. Hand-cycles, trikes, and tandem trikes are examples of sports products that are used if you have a bad back that isn’t up to being hunched over your handlebars anymore, if you’ve had a severe back injury, or if you’d just rather ride in different position. I would like there to be a point where it is commonplace for people with abilities and disabilities to be using much of the same equipment, so those with disabilities feel part of the mainstream and less isolated by participating in more activities available for everyone. Many people may not realize just how expensive adaptive sports equipment can be and what a barrier it can create. The more universal and mainstream the equipment becomes the more affordable it will be. BikeBoards is only beginning to spread the awareness so we can keep pushing our development in adaptive sports, but we know we will keep discovering new adventures.
Anything I didn’t ask that you want to mention?
Yes. I’d just like to mention that all of us, at some point in our lives, want to do more than we thought we could, whether it’s something simple or extreme. It can be hard to stay motivated and have the passion to follow through. Don’t be discouraged if it doesn’t happen today or tomorrow or another day. If someone else shares his or her passion with you and needs help, be willing to help. You can be the difference in that idea becoming a reality. By helping someone else reach a goal, you are a part in setting an example of what is attainable.
For more information about BikeBoards, please visit www.bikeboards.net.
