Bentonville Outerbike is the Ultimate MTB Experience.
A first-timer’s trip to Bentonville Outerbike the biggest bike demo on the planet in Bentonville, Arkansas, the mountain bike capital of the world.
Experiencing Bentonville Outerbike for the first time was like imagining your entire city built around a mountain bike park full of every type of mountain bike you’d like to try, seamlessly linked by an expertly crafted network of singletrack trails and well-maintained paved bike paths, bustling with happy mountain bikers, but it wasn’t just your imagination…it was real. From babies on tricycles to parents, grandparents, dogs, and couples, everyone seems to be cycling, and if you’re not, you likely wish you could join in. I was so excited to experience Bentonville Outerbike, I traveled about 3,000 miles by plane, checking two major things off my MTB bucket list at once, Bentonville and Outerbike!
This is Bentonville, Arkansas, the setting for my first visit to Bentonville and Outerbike. The experience exceeded all my expectations, especially as I explored it through the lens of Outerbike 2024. Ashely Korenblat and Mark Sevenoff truly understood the vision when they launched Outerbike six years ago in this enchanting mountain biking paradise. I find it hard not to label it MTB Utopia because that’s exactly how it felt. Riders of all ages, from families to children, had a fantastic time cruising down the family flow trail while enjoying coffee at the communal hub – a model that other towns should aspire to replicate. It doesn’t have to revolve around mountain biking; it can be any shared activity that fosters a sense of community and culture among everyone.
Bentonville, Arkansas, The Mountain Bike Capital of the World
The story of how Bentonville became the mountain bike capital of the world is actually quite an interesting one. After all, who would expect a relatively flat corner of the southern USA to gain such a title? At first, the self-proclamation was met with skepticism from industry leaders. Truth is, they are certainly doing some impressive and innovative work with trails that have positioned Bentonville as a top MTB destination.
The Trails of Bentonville
The trails of Bentonville offer something for every rider including gravel roads, paved bike lanes, plus easy, intermediate, expert, and double-expert singletrack trails, plus an incredible playground of expertly designed pump tracks. The first trail system was developed about 15 years ago with the active support of Walton family members who wanted to give back to the community.
Outerbike Day 1: Coler – Family Flow & Thunder Dome
I raced to the registration table where a kind and smiling Outerbike leader, Brandon, helped me get my press pass just a minute before Mark Sevenoff co-founder of Outerbike, made his big announcement at the grand opening where he released the hounds to get their demo. It reminded me of images and videos I’ve seen of the racing of the bulls or running of the bulls in Spain racing to get the bikes they wanted to try; the excitement was real and a bit of a rush. I headed over right to the Yeti line and made some friends right away in the typical MTB culture no matter where you go on the planet.
Ah, Yeti! You made Outerbike so much fun. A bit like the Running of the Bulls in Spain, except the mountain bikers were the bulls, and the demo bikes were being chased, a flood of frantic but fun riders made their way to the lines to get the choice of acoustic or e-bikes to rip around one of the world’s best trail systems at the biggest bike demo events on the planet.
I was lucky and honored to meet Big Joe a 30-year veteran at Yeti who set me up with my first demo Bike. I asked the Yeti guys to give me your heaviest bike so they gave me the Yeti SB 165 mountain bike, which I’ve never ridden on before, let alone the heaviest bike I’ve ever tried to balance and pedal on.
All the guys were incredible at Yeti, And all the guys and girls at Outerbike regardless of being on the bike brand teams or attendees. It may go there for the first time, especially as a female, less daunting and super friendly right off the bat.
There’s a common bond we have with each other and a code of kindness and health and happiness towards each other. I got the chance to interview a few outer bikers on what bike they’d like to demo, check it out, then I headed over to pick up my bike. I’m not sure what I was thinking, but I said something like give me your heaviest bike, so I ended up with something a bit too aggressive and heavy for me, that Yeti SB 165 Enduro mountain bike. I introduced myself to Big Joe, and he told me all about the bike and its amazing capabilities, especially the huge Fox 36 fork that I’d never tried before. There were so many fun people to meet and talk to at Outerbike, and I was lucky to form a group right off the bat, about 6 to 8 riders, and rode off with them in the morning session over on the left side of Applegate at the family, flow bike, park and list others list the name of it. It was such a fun group of people, many of them are from California like me, but further south; I’m from Northern California in Sonoma County. It’s like the first thing we say is where do you ride? It’s almost more important than what’s your birthday or how old you are, cause that stuff doesn’t matter when you’re 10 years old for life on your bike; all of us became 10-year-olds flying around the fun floaty pump tracks.
My ride group did it about three or four times and then headed over to another area of the park called the castle to fix the name, and we met up with my other group of friends, which I’d end up riding with later on in the daytime. We ended up all together anyway, coming back as a big group of about 15 to 20 people. Mountain biking encourages my social process. I love making new friends and learning about new people and new rides to do with them. The castle was interesting because it looked like a wooden medieval castle, and all the names of the trails were marked as such. I was a little nervous about going down some of them, but I braved them even on the Yeti 160E. Day one was pretty adventurous and fun. We headed back around 4 PM and started drinking and eating all the great food that was laid out for us and listening to some inspiring talk by Outerbike leader Mike sent off Mark Sevenoff, and some of the local sponsors and the giveaways. I was so happy that the group from Southern South America won a Western Spirit trip. Western Spirit owns Outerbike co-founded by Mark Sevenoff. I was gonna hang out longer and explore the city of Bentonville, but I was pretty exhausted from flying the day before from California to Arkansas and decided to give myself a break and just head back to my hotel. Here is the first-timers issue at Outerbike in Bentonville at Applegate. Don’t expect any of the Ubers or Lyfts to find your GPS. It would’ve taken a miracle, so I had to use a taxi instead, and luckily, I found the same taxi that rushed me from my hotel to the start of Outerbike in the morning, that I could feel like I could trust and rely on him to find me at Outerbike. There is a distance of about a quarter of a mile from the main road Second Street into Applegate, and no one could seem to find where that was. Exhausted, I headed back to my hotel at the Four Points Sheraton in Bentonville and recovered from all the day’s fun.
There was no issue getting Lyft to come pick me up and find the hotel; however, I couldn’t get anyone to find Outerbike at Applegate, so I got there alright got into the start line, and rushed through all the excited Outerbikers scrambling to find their demo bikes. I had a chance to talk to a few more waiting in line, and this is what they said.
Outerbike Day 2: Slaughter Pen & Esthers’ Trail
The next morning, I arrived at Outerbike and made my way to Ari Bikes, but I ended up returning to Yeti and demoed the Yeti SB135 instead because they didn’t have enough acoustic bikes in my size. I was glad. It ended up being my favorite bike to demo because it matched my cross-country riding style more than the others.
Fate would have it that I ended up with my same group of friends the next day and rode with them in the morning with the girls. I met Jen and Jessica and their guys and headed over to the Slaughter Pen Trails. This 23+ mile mountain bike system is for beginners, intermediate, and advanced riders jam-packed with features including log rides, drops, and jumps.
My new MTB friend group and I made our way from Applegate over to Slaughter Pen through a crowded farmer’s market in the middle of Bentonville Town Square. Slaughter Pen was a perfectly crafted, well-marked bike park full of drops, and jumps, plus a free ride area and downhill flow trail with table-top jumps and wall rides.
After getting back from my co-ed group ride, I got the chance to chat with Outerbike Co-Founder Mark Sevenoff to learn about how he and his wife Ashley started Outerbike in 2010 in Moab, Utah. The couple went to a bike tradeshow in Las Vegas and thought of opening up mass bike demos to consumers opening it up to everyone, not just the bike companies. And, now this is the 6th year at Bentonville. Mark’s favorite part about Outerbike is meeting more of the Outbike family, the people coming from all over the planet to try out new bikes. He loves coming to Bentonville every year.
The vision behind Outerbike was to put cyclists at the heart of the experience. The goal was to create an environment where each rider could discover the perfect bike tailored to their needs, all within a laid-back and fun place. For those wanting to ride a specific bike before making an online purchase or visiting their bike dealer, Outerbike is a unique mountain bike event that makes that possible.
Bentonville is a model for other cities and towns around the world to follow with the most important benefit being the heightened sense of community. No matter where you go on the planet we speak a common language of mountain biking and we’re forever bonded by the great culture it brings. Outerbike was no exception. It is the model. What a great place to just hang out with people who love to ride in a non-competitive environment where we’re one of the biggest groups on the planet.
Ed (shown above), an Outerbiker I interviewed said it well. Ed said,
“You know what’s better than all the bikes? It’s the company. Meeting all the people from the Bay Area, and you. Making friends. The bikes are just the conduits in which we bond.”
If you haven’t yet experienced Outerbike yet, I definitely recommend putting it on your list for 2025. Here’s the lineup of 2025 Outerbike events:
2025 Outbike Dates:
Bentonville: Oct 17-19 2025
Crested Butte: Aug 15-17th, 2025
Moab: Oct 3-5, 2025
About the Author
Liz Donahey is Northern California mountain biker focused on empowering personal and business growth through the transformative principles of mountain biking. She is also a member of Hella Mello Racing, the North Bay’s leading women’s cycling team. Liz is a professional coach and speaker who provides personal and business coaching, speaking engagements, and collaboration opportunities. Liz inspires and engages her followers through her authentic and relatable content, focusing on travel, lifestyle, and personal growth.
