Gears and Beers

Jun 4, 2015 by Paonia Singletrack Society    No Comments    Posted under: Lifestyle

The first of four Gears & Beers Festivals was born from a group of friends passionate about biking and enjoying a beer after a ride. We started with some small bike parties at which everyone would dress up in costumes and parade around town, and that evolved into the full weekend festival experience.

In spring of 2009 Paonia Singletrack Society hosted the inaugural Gears &Beers in the Blue Sage Center for the Arts and featured the first Paonia Fashion Show, which has grown to be one of the major events in the valley. Cruising on bikes from the ‘new’ Revolution Brewing church, riders paraded down Grand Avenue and then, via the back alley, rode right through the Blue Sage on a hand crafted stage supporting our crazy bike rigs and costumes for the fashion show and dance.

The following festivals grew significantly larger and more sophisticated featuring guided Jumbo Mountain trail rides and scenic mesa road rides, professional riding lessons, bike movie shorts, larger beer tastings, bike maintenance clinics, loads of live local music and dancing, and a town wide bike treasure hunt all amongst a comfortable visiting environment for locals and visitors alike.

The original founding volunteer organizers took a break from hosting after the 2011 Gears and Beers creating the opportunity for the current June 2015 renaissance by the Paonia Chamber of Commerce.  Check out this year’s incredible schedule!

Former organizer Jason Jones had to say, “Cycling is fun! Cycling builds community! Cycling is good for your mind body and spirit! These are the reasons behind the Gears and Beers festival. We think that by encouraging the culture of cycling we can make our world a better place. By celebrating simple things such as cycling, locally crafted beer, music, and community, we can take the edge off of what can often be a hectic and overly busy lifestyle.”

Another organizer, Smyth Boone, adds “Gears and Beers is a model festival of relatively small size showing that we can all have fun, gather, party, and parade, experience this beautiful area and promote biking. Our idea is to bring in bike enthusiasts, show them a great time with our thriving community as we share our food, wine, cider, beer, herbs and good times.”

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