FAT-TIRE FUN SHIFTS INTO HIGH GEAR

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, April 12, 1993                   TAG: 9304120285
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN OUTDOOR EDITOR
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
FAT-TIRE FUN SHIFTS INTO HIGH GEAR
MOUNTAIN BIKING has become a sport for everyone. Well . . . almost everyone.\ Gunnar Shogren's name is displayed predominantly on the back of his Avenir bicycle helmet, an apt location, because that's the view most people get of this Morgantown, W.Va., bike shop operator.
If you stage a mountain bike race anywhere within reason, Shogren is the kind of guy who will oblige you by showing up to take your money. He is the one to beat. The pro.
It's no different at the Virginia State Championship Mountain Bike Series, a three-race event scheduled for completion Sunday with a dash through Holy Land - Holy Land in Bedford County, that is.
Shogren is one of about 15-million fat-tire riders pedaling the crest of interest in mountain biking in the United States. Lean as a Zoom stem and a part of the twentysomething generation, he represents the go-uphill-hard-and-fast segment of the sport. That's one extreme.
The other is seen in Lanny Sparks, a furloughed environmental biologist from Dublin who in January opened a mountain bike shop near New River Trail State Park at Newbern.
Sparks is 51 - "old enough to know better" - and prefers the flatness of a rails-to-trail grade, a 4-mph pace and plenty of stops along the way to enjoy the scenery. He wonders about the people who have a head-down, flat-out approach to the sport.
"I'd say if you are going to do that, you might as well get on a stationary bike at home while watching `Donahue.' "
Sparks will rent you a mountain bike for $18 a day, offer you shuttle service and even guide you along any portion of the 57-mile park trail that stretches from Pulaski to Galax (703-637-4269). That's the other extreme.
It is diversity that makes mountain biking such a delight, whether you are aboard a $400 or $4,000 bike, believes Kyle Inman, a fat-tire fan since 1989. You choose the pace and the degree of difficulty, and who's to say whether its more fun to ride laid-back or flat-out?
Discovery is a big part of the passion for Inman, who works for K-92 radio. He delights in studying forest and park maps, searching for off-the-beaten-path roads and twisting mountain trails to challenge his biking skills.
About a week ago, 150 bikers were pedaling one of Inman's discoveries, something bikers have named Dragon's Back. It was the first event of the inaugural Virginia championship series. The second, the Rowdy Dawg leg, was held Sunday in the Brush Mountain/Poverty Creek section near Blacksburg.
The Dragon's Back course started along the Jefferson National Forest's Broad Run Road in Craig County, then took a sharp climb up Deer Trail, crossed a rocky portion of North Mountain Trail and dashed down Turkey Trail back to Broad Run Road.
Using terms like "technical acuity" and "slow grinding" to describe it, Inman promised the competitors that the North Mountain section of the trip would remined them of the "armor plates and scales of a dragon." Some came back with bloody knees and shins as proof they had challenged the monster.
The winner was Shogren, aboard a Diamond Back that sported 24 gears, a titanium frame and a $4,000-plus price tag. Even a pit stop to change a flat didn't keep him from crossing the finish line 3 minutes ahead of the nearest rival. On a couple of the steepest pitches, the heart monitor mounted on his handlebars climbed to the 190 point, like a tachometer reaching toward the red line.
Watching the event with more than casual interest were a couple of U.S. Forest Service personnel and Hal Cantrill, president of the Roanoke Appalachian Trail Club.
When the Forest Service posted a scoping notice on the race, the trail club requested that a permit be denied.
"Our concern was damage to the trail," said Cantrill. "We have backed off that to say, `Let's look at it and see what happens.' "
For several years, the Appalachian Trail, which is off-limits to mountain bikes, traced the crest of North Mountain on its Georgia-to-Maine journey. Then it was relocated to a permanent home on Catawba Mountain with God-like views off McAfee Knob and Tinker Cliffs. The club still maintains the North Mountain Trail, and hikers sometimes link it with the Appalachian Trail for a weekend loop.
So there are outdoorsmen who ask, "Why spoil a hike by pushing and pedaling 40 pounds of tubing and tires through the woods?"
"There are so many aspects," said Inman, given the task of justifying the concept of merging human power and skill with just enough technology to penetrate the sanctity of the wilds. "There is the wildlife aspect. I have seen seven bears since last September."

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB