Letter from the President
Alex Gibson
It’s hard to believe yet another year has passed as the Santa Fe Tire Society (SFFTS) continues to work tirelessly to strengthen the local mountain bike community and help make Santa Fe an even better place to ride. Founded in 2010, we’ve now been serving our community for over 15 years! Thank you to all the riders and volunteers who in one way or another have helped to foster another great year out on the trails.
Our volunteer efforts are still going strong, with members engaging in 1,540 hours of service for the community, including clearing 273 trees from our local trails this season. The weekly ride program enjoyed excellent attendance this year, with more than 130 group rides bringing people together to share the joy of trail riding.
Youth programming continues to be a cornerstone of the SFFTS agenda and the Atalaya Flyers were the stars of the show this past year. These weekly rides for youths 13 and under consistently had attendance of 30 or more people, with multiple rides drawing 50-70 young ones and parents to get out on the trail! Shout out to club member Julian Garrett and Board Secretary David Grafe for keeping this program going strong. We also supported another Girls Ride Series this past fall, led by club members Teague Douglas and Kim Massey, helping all young people feel comfortable on our local trails. We want to continue investing in our youth and have some exciting ideas for how to enhance these programs in 2026.
The Santa Fe Fat Tire Society is now the official host of the 6 Hours in the Basin race at Galisteo Basin Preserve (GBP) and we had a successful first year running the event, with 150 racers lapping the GBP trails to help raise $7,500 for Commonweal Conservancy. These funds help maintain this amazing network and came in need after heavy monsoon rains caused severe damage to some of the trails. Get excited for this year’s race on April 18th because we’re improving the event with a food truck and a professional announcer. We hope to see you out there!
Amid some of the ongoing threats to our public lands, SFFTS released an Environmental Statement to help guide our actions as stewards of the land. Although this type of advocacy is a new area of activity for the club, we are doing our best to evolve so that we can better serve the local mountain bike community. The board is always looking for more help if this is an area in which you’d like to contribute.
In an effort to continually improve the ride experience in Santa Fe, we donated weather stations to Glorieta and GBP so that trail users can be better informed about trail conditions, especially in relation to the spottiness of summer rains. Check out the GBP station here, and spread the word to your fellow riders. Twenty-four-hour precipitation totals will be one of the most helpful metrics.
The club is currently finalizing designs for trail markers to label all fourteen bridges on the Winsor trail corridor, helping with wayfinding for users less familiar with the area. I’m grateful every time I ride over those bridges–it gives the lower portion of the Winsor descent much better flow!
SFFTS helped organize the grand opening of the Picuris Pueblo bike park, built by local company Rocket Ramps, which proved to be an awesome summer weekend of jumps and smiles on the expertly crafted lines of the new pedal-accessed bike park. This was a huge step forward in making mountain biking more accessible to indigenous youth and the park is an enormous asset to the northern New Mexico bike community. If you haven’t had a chance to ride it yet I encourage you to get up there in the spring!
Led by Board Member and Trails Committee Chair Carl Gable, we continue to work behind the scenes with the Forest Service to enhance the Arroyo Hondo recreation area, hoping to utilize a Federal Legacy Trails grant to make infrastructure improvements that will make it a better area to recreate. We’re always on the lookout for new trail building opportunities and the club has done some scouting at the US Army Core of Engineers property at nearby Galisteo dam where there’s the potential for another fun desert riding area.
Board Treasurer Jennifer Bevers detailed in our end-of-year financial report that total expenses for the club were $87,655, with 92.3% directed to program services. That includes $62,000 invested in trail projects, largely funded by a grant from the New Mexico Outdoor Recreation Division (NMORD). As an organization, we also contributed $9,500 to Commonweal Conservancy and $1,000 to Picuris Pueblo. The financial standing of the club is sound, with the capacity to continue supporting our mission in the year ahead.
SFFTS has plenty of irons in the fire heading into the new year including a multi-day stage race that’s in the works for September 2026 that would showcase the amazing trails we have in the region. The board is also currently collaborating with the city, county and Santa Fe Conservation Trust to have Santa Fe designated as an International Mountain Bike Association (IMBA) Trail Town, further proof of the world-class mountain bike scene we are fortunate to have here. Board Vice President and Membership Committee Chair Helene Minot has her hands full with exciting events for the year ahead, reach out if you’re interested in contributing.
We have an influx of new board members motivated to support the Santa Fe mountain bike community including Todd Baribault, Jason Kearns, Knox Kinlaw, Marisa Ortiz, and Stacey Schultz.
How many of you were able to join in the ride to La Tierra with Danny MacAskill?! It was great to see so many mountain bikers out enjoying the beautiful fall day together. The ride momentum was drawn to the so-called “Trash Pits” where Danny acted as a top-notch role model to a slew of young local riders. But the trash pits may need a new name by the end of next year…
We are now in the clear to begin Phase 1 of the Frijoles Jump Park upgrade project in which Rocket Ramps will be installing fabricated ramps on many of the take offs and making several much needed improvements to the area including signs and a trail map so that riders know what they’re getting into! The goal is to make the jump trails more fun, more accessible, and more sustainable so that our community can have the best ride experience possible. Phase 1 is in large part being funded by a generous grant from NMORD however there’s far more work to be done, so stay tuned because we’ll be having a fundraiser in the spring to generate the remainder of the necessary funds. And of course we’ll throw a party next fall to celebrate the improvements!
Thank you again for being involved in the Santa Fe mountain bike community. The smiles and laughs we share together on the trail are priceless moments that enrich each other’s lives. May the trails sleep well this winter, and we hope to see you on the trail next spring!
Alex Gibson
SFFTS President
