Pedal Power Prevails
Biking with Jennifer Drinkwalter
Red Lodge, MT
Written by Cyd Hoefle
Photography contributed by Jennifer Drinkwalter
When warm weather finally melted the last of the snow from the mountains around Red Lodge and thoughts turned toward the upcoming bike season, Jennifer Drinkwalter already had several bike events planned for the season.
She’s passionate about biking. Weather permitting, she rides as much as possible, even year-round. She owns several bike styles, but the Red Lodge woman’s favorite is a mountain bike.
“I love mountain biking,” she said. “It’s challenging. You’re constantly thinking about pedal stroke, what gear you’re in, where your hands are – the terrain, the elevation, the rocks, the descent, the line of sight, is there a bear around the corner? You’ve got to have it together when you mountain bike.”
UPCOMING EVENTS
June 14 -15 24 Hours of Elk Basin is a fun weekend of biking, running, camping, friends and family together for 24 hours of fun in the beautiful Elk Basin Recreation Area.
Aug 16 Rough Cut Trail Fest Mountain Bike Race where the race starts and finishes at Red Lodge Mountain.
Aug 18 Beartooth La Femme a women’s only bike tour in August when 75 ladies will ride 62 miles round trip up and back the Beartooth Pass.
Aug 24 Big Sky Gravel is a 22, 50 and 100 mile gravel race from downtown Red Lodge
Jennifer is not only an avid biker, she made a career as a director of cycling and outdoor events. At the Greater Yellowstone Coalition’s Cycle Greater Yellowstone, based in Bozeman, she led a week-long bike tour taking cyclists through some of the most scenic and challenging routes in Montana and Wyoming. She’s directed running races, bike races and triathlons, including as commissioner for the Big Sky State Games where she did her first mountain bike race at age 15.
In her racing career, Jennifer has competed in dozens of races all over the country. Early on she signed up for an Iron man race – a triathlon in which an athlete swims 2.4 miles, bikes 112 miles and runs a marathon - 26 miles. She’s competed in several.
“I wasn’t a runner until I signed up for that,” Jennifer laughed. “I spent the next 18 years running, but my knees showed it. I wasn’t too disappointed to give up running because I never loved it like I love cycling.”
In 2020 Cycle Greater Yellowstone was cancelled because of Covid and Jennifer was forced in a new direction. A year later, she founded Montana Tour and began offering multiple race and tour events around Carbon County. Her events have brought hundreds of bikers and their families to Red Lodge, which brought another need to the community and another idea to Jennifer.
Following the model of several community bike centers, or bike kitchens, Jennifer envisioned a bike shop that would be an asset to the community. Last year, her dream came to fruition when the Red Lodge Bike Center opened in the Roosevelt Center in town.
The non-profit offers a mechanic-for-hire and trained volunteers to help guide bikers through tune-ups and maintenance of bikes. They operate on funds from biking events, donations, and the sales of bikes and bike parts out of the shop. Their purpose is not only to help people maintain their bikes, but to make bikes accessible to kids as well as those in the community that rely on bikes as their sole form of transportation.
“Biking creates freedom and transportation,” Jennifer said. “It teaches kids about being healthy and staying healthy, but kids are hard on bikes. They skid the tires and ruin the brakes. We can fix that. They outgrow them fast too. Kids need bikes.”
In their first 18 months, the organization gave 104 kids’ bikes away and helped area residents that were not able to afford a bike to own one.
“People that can afford to pay for a bike typically donate,” Jennifer continued. “The main thing is: we have to cover our rent, insurance, education, and make ends meet.”
The Bike Center is adamant about recycling and extending the life of a bike as long as possible. The shop shows people how to break down a bike, even if it’s rusted, and recycle the parts.
“Cycling can be a sustainable piece of a community,” Jennifer continued. “The bike hasn’t been reinvented. If we can keep replacing parts and maintaining it, it will last for years.”
When Jennifer isn’t training for her own races, she’s either with family, on the river, skiing, working as the Events Director at the Roosevelt Center, volunteering at the Bike Center, or directing bike races. This summer she’s in charge of four races - one in June and three in August.
“I’ll always be involved in biking,” she said. “Whether it’s riding, building trails, or working at the shop, keeping people riding, using trails and a healthy community is important to me.”