3 minute read
SILVER STALLION BICYCLE & COFFEE
Silver Stallion continues to make leaps and bounds when it comes to the increase of mountain biking and available coaching opportunities on the Navajo Nation; all that is needed is time and patience to allow for the sport to flourish in a place where mountain biking opportunities were once minimal or non-existent.
“It's going to take some time to raise up that generation so those kids will see Navajo mountain bike coaches like us, teaching and mentoring — and I just want to be a part of that,” said Renee Hutchens, a coach and professional bike mechanic for Silver Stallion.
Hutchens also assists with the free bike repair events and bike education clinics that Silver Stallion offers.
MORE KIDS ON BIKES
Trying to nail down the primary focus of what Silver Stallion does is nearly impossible, simply because they do so much. But at the heart of this nonprofit are the children.
Salabye recalls losing his relationship with mountain biking at a young age due to a broken down bike. With no means to repair his bike, he drifted away from the sport. It wasn’t until he was an adult that he rekindled his love for mountain biking. Now, at the age of 41, Salabye uses his coaching to help young riders maintain the relationship they have with the sport, providing them with the knowledge and skills necessary to stick with mountain biking.
“One thing that (Nydam) and I talk about is creating ridership — building a knowledge base around what mountain biking is, what it can do for you, what it can do for the community,” Salabye said. “The best thing to do is get some kids on bikes. And from that, let's find out where these champions in the community can rise.”
This summer, Nydam hopes to put on more summer camps for kids and provide additional travel opportunities to areas such as Durango, Sedona and Flagstaff, with a primary focus on the NICA mountain bike race program.
“We're fostering the NICA programming,” Nydam said. “That's an endgame to some of this; it's at least a place in a competitive league where kids can apply themselves.”
ROLLING ACROSS THE REZ
A small repair goes a long way in a place that doesn’t have immediate access to bike mechanics or a bike shop. Nydam’s awareness of this issue resulted in Silver Stallions’s mobile bike repair program.
This free service has provided over 400 bike repairs to towns on the reservation.
“There's a lot of intimidation around working on your bike,” Hutchens said. “That's the number one thing I get asked a lot as a mountain bike coach is, ‘How do I even maintain my bike?’ And if
Silver Stallion provides free bike repair and bike education events across the Navajo Nation. photo by Renee Hutchens
there's no shop around, then you're pretty much your own self-sufficient mechanic, especially on the rez. It's really important that we have to train those as an initial step.”
CREATING COMMUNITY
Silver Stallion is built on the concept of community: a group of likeminded individuals working together to improve the quality of life for Indigenous communities through their shared passion for mountain biking.
“This is a nonprofit,” Nydam said. “It requires a dynamic, thoughtful, group effort. Nobody technically owns a nonprofit. It's what we make of it.”
Through Silver Stallion’s current programs and offerings, their goal is to provide access to mountain bike programs for kids and adults — whether this is through the racing circuit, group rides or supporting aspiring bike mechanics by way of their Black Apron apprentice program (coming soon).
Nydam said: “It's just a matter of us adults trying to figure out how to put these puzzle pieces together so that this next generation of youth riders can flourish.”
The Silver Stallion mobile bike repair truck. photo by Renee Hutchens
