Ever since spending early years in the mountain trails of North Carolina, freshman Lachlan Collis has been an avid member of the biker community, as well as a cross-country racer and trail builder.
“We used to live in North Carolina,” Collis said. ‘We had some mountain bike trails right by my house.”
At the age of three, Collis was introduced to the world of biking by his dad, who brought him out to North Carolina’s trails.
“My dad is really into biking,” Collis said. “So that’s where I learned how to ride a bike.”
After moving to Seattle, Collis dove deeper into his fervor for all things bikes; inspired by various films.
“Influential films like New World Disorder opened my eyes to this other culture of biking,” Collis said. “I started riding more, going to all these new spots and meeting a bunch of people; that’s why I’m so lucky that I moved here.”
One of the few things that Collis may be even more passionate about than biking is the community that biking cultivates.
“You all get to go and build this sense of community around it,” Collis said. “It’s the perfect escape from what you’re doing outside of biking, where things can feel a lot more cold and you’re kind of on your own.”
Biking promotes the development of strong and dependable communities. The sport brings people with vastly varying experiences together in a way that is deeply valued by each individual of the community.
“There are all these people that I’ve met at different places who all have different skill sets,” Collis said. “There’s just such a diverse group of people who bike.”
One of the most inspiring aspects of biking to Collis is the opportunity to connect with uniquely incredible people.
“They’re also just super nice people,” Collis said. “There are never any people in biking that are actually mean or rude.”
The sport paved the way for him to meet a vast diversity of people within the community who offer support and the excitement of racing through Washington’s flourishing trails.
“In every state there are usually trail spots, but not like here,” Collis said. “It’s just so much—there’s one every few miles, it’s insane.”
Additionally, biking opened up a world of creativity and self-expression for Collis through the meticulous art of trail building.
“A lot of people end up going into the forest and building things and that breeds this element of creativity into it where anyone can go and build any sort of trail without feeling any judgement.” Collis said. “When you have your own spot, you can just do whatever; that’s why a lot of the people who build trails are really secretive.”
Despite the friendly community of bikers, a portion of trail building emphasizes the importance of secrecy. Collis considers himself one of the more secretive trail builders, despite having abundant friends within the biking community.
“There are only a few people within my school group that know about my trail spots,” Collis said. “It’s nice because I know I’m going to be completely unbothered and I just get to do something that I like.”
Creating a personalized trail is a shockingly gargantuan task, whether it is a team project or individually tackled.
“I had a spot that I worked on for four years,” Collis said. “Then I have a spot that I’ve been working on for almost two years now.”
Collis can see the reason for secretive trails, but he acknowledges the restrictive nature of the practice as well.
“I feel like it’s needed,” Collis said. “But it also creates a really big barrier of entry for the sport and the culture.”
That certainly doesn’t mean that biking is impossible to get involved in.
“I went on bike rides everyday for my first couple years of riding,” Collis said. “That’s how I built this foundation of being comfortable on a bike.”
Resilience and having the patience to build trust in a bike is vital to the success of bikers.
“You become more connected to your bike,” Collis said. “You feel like you can do anything on it.”
Getting into racing is more accessible than trail building, especially to beginners or people who aren’t yet immersed in the community of biking.
“Cross-country racing is super open and friendly to beginners,” Collis said. “You can go and just do a race for fun and you don’t really have to care how you place.”
The independent aspects of biking and trail building became a form of escapism for Collis.
“When you’re alone in a space where you’re completely disconnected from everything, your mind can create these ideas that you want to bring to life,” Collis said. “It sounds corny, but it’s like an art.”
