Biking in a controlled environment
By Sal Ruibal, USA TODAY
Ray Petro got fed up trying to ride his mountain bike in Cleveland's wintry
conditions, so he took the mountains indoors.
The result is Ray's MTB Indoor Park, a 66,000-square-foot playground that
gives snow-challenged riders an opportunity to hone their skills on a
remarkable structure that looks more like a wooden roller coaster than an
Alpine trail.
"Way back in the fall of 1996, I got frustrated with the bad riding
conditions here," he says. "So I started looking for a big, clean place with
low rent."
He finally found such a place - a vacant building in the Walford Industrial
Park near Lake Erie - in September and began laying the groundwork for his
dream.
"I thought about trucking in a lot of dirt, but soon discovered that it
would be a lot cheaper to build it out of wood instead," he says.
He set up a Web site to let other riders know of his plans. To his surprise,
a dozen eager cyclists showed up to help him design and build the course.
That group of volunteers - they worked for food, soda pop and the right to
ride for free - sawed, hammered and nailed nearly every day since September.
The serpentine structure is more than a quarter-mile in circumference and
was inspired by structures built by "freeride" mountain bikers in British
Columbia's rain forests.
Riders negotiate a wooden maze that can narrow to just a few inches, then
suddenly drop several feet to a platform that leads to a see-saw contraption
or a pile of real boulders.
The indoor mountain has different sections for skill levels that range from
rank beginner to pro racer.
"It may not look like it," Petro says, "but you can get in a hard workout.
After an hour or 90 minutes, you're beat."
Injuries have been minor, "just nine stitches," Petro says. More experienced
riders help school newbies and assist with equipment problems.
The park's Web site (www.raysmtb.com) has received more than 1.5 million
hits, and about 800 riders have paid the $10 daily fee, with more expected
as Cleveland accumulates its yearly average of 50 inches of snow.
Petro has received inquiries about building similar parks in other cities,
but he prefers to stay true to the volunteer spirit that built his dream.
"I'd be glad to get paid to help someone start up a facility in, say, New
York City," he says. "I have to make a living. But I don't want to become
the Burger King of mountain biking."