Beth Walser
My name is Beth Walser, I live in Minneapols where we are blessed with AMAZING bike infrastructure, paved trails, mountain biking trails, gravel roads, you name it and I love to ride them all.
I don't look like your typical mountain biker, I'm a plus sized gal and quite honestly I don't see a whole heck of people who look like me out riding dirt and that makes me sad, I want to change that! I'm not a racer, I still like to challenge myself and will sign up for a race occasionally but a lot of the role models I see in women's mountain biking are these hard core racers types (which again is awesome!) but it can be intimidating for anyone just looking for a new casual hobby.
Also, along with 2 of my badass best friends (who should seriously honestly also be FWD Ambassadors themselves!) are going mountain biking in Iceland in August to raise awareness for climate change with the The Climate Ride
I like to call myself a converted roadie, I actually started mountain biking by buying a fat bike, because I wanted to find a way to try to enjoy the winter 3 years ago, but I purchased my steel Pugsley beast in October and started riding right away, not waiting for the snow, I was hooked, I loved being surrounded out in the middle of nature, trees, grass, dirt all around me. I am blessed with a huge group of bike riding friends of all types, many who like to race and I got caught up in that for a little while and it turned me off, racing is much more accessible in mountain biking than road riding, which is good but it put a lot of pressure on me, thinking all of my friends are signing up for these rides, why am I so nervous to do so too. But lately I've become more confident in being able to say, yup, I'll sign up for a few but you know what? Tight passes and going as fast as possible through the trees just isn't what I'm in it for all the time. I have a friend whose husband rides and she is scared to death because he comes back and tells her about all the times he crashed, "almost died" or went over the bars. I am trying so hard to convince her that's not what it's ALL about, it can be for some people but just going for a fun flowy ride and throwing yourself a couple easier challenges is also an option many people, who don't seem to be as vocal enjoy about mountain biking. I'm all about bringing the more peaceful less knar side of mountain biking to the hesitant ones!
I like to call myself a converted roadie, I actually started mountain biking by buying a fat bike, because I wanted to find a way to try to enjoy the winter 3 years ago, but I purchased my steel Pugsley beast in October and started riding right away, not waiting for the snow, I was hooked, I loved being surrounded out in the middle of nature, trees, grass, dirt all around me. I am blessed with a huge group of bike riding friends of all types, many who like to race and I got caught up in that for a little while and it turned me off, racing is much more accessible in mountain biking than road riding, which is good but it put a lot of pressure on me, thinking all of my friends are signing up for these rides, why am I so nervous to do so too. But lately I've become more confident in being able to say, yup, I'll sign up for a few but you know what? Tight passes and going as fast as possible through the trees just isn't what I'm in it for all the time. I have a friend whose husband rides and she is scared to death because he comes back and tells her about all the times he crashed, "almost died" or went over the bars. I am trying so hard to convince her that's not what it's ALL about, it can be for some people but just going for a fun flowy ride and throwing yourself a couple easier challenges is also an option many people, who don't seem to be as vocal enjoy about mountain biking. I'm all about bringing the more peaceful less knar side of mountain biking to the hesitant ones!
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