Photos by Patty Valencia
The Kona Team recently spent a magical three days at Roam Fest in Fruita, Colorado. If you haven’t heard of Roam Fest, it’s an MTB focused event where women and non-binary folks are invited to play on bikes surrounded by an attitude of positivity and low pressure environments. In one short weekend, the team saw people’s confidence levels progress whether it was in their riding, their technical knowledge, or their inner narative.
Our Endurance Athlete Rebecca Fahringer joined in on the fun and got out to experience some new scenery and led rides for participants along with Ambassador Bella Roeleveld. Bella’s Northshore B.C. tech riding experience and Becca’s insight to professional athleticism and sustaining long, hard rides were the perfect combo to give advice to all types of riders.
The event itself is only three days long, but wow, can the organizers of Roam Fest pack a schedule… There were workshops and group rides everyday, film screenings, a costumed dance party, and the Happiest Hour – which was full of signature cocktails and delicious snacks from every brand. For Kona’s workshop, the team came together with Becca Fahringer to talk about The Power of Self Hype. Each workshop, an impressive and engaged group of Roam friends joined in to explore the idea of positive self talk within cycling – because however much mountain biking is physically based, it is equally mental.
Becca shared stories about the race realm of cycling and how she combats negative self talk to push herself further.
We had all the ingredients for a good time, all weekend long…
Polaroids, manual machines, belly laughs, fog horn, our signature Kona Paloma cocktail, and TEENY TINY TACOS….
On Saturday, the Kona team tapped into the glitter spirit within each teammate and applied specks of visual stimulation to participants for hours. This resulted in the gift that keeps on giving… glitter. In. Everything. It was completely worth it to see this Roam crew come alive as their faces started sparkling.
Kona Sales Rep Amanda Bryan transformed into Paloma, a glitter expert who shared her glow up with a line of participants.
We hosted manual instruction all weekend long with our cool rigs from Sender Ramps. The vibes were infectious and pretty soon people were lining up to hop on and give it a go! This will be a staple on each of our Demo Tour Deluxe stops, come check it out!
Each person who headed out on one of our demo bikes received a meticulous setup process to ensure they had the best possible time they could have on their Kona bike! This event’s mechanic Erin Sleppy of Belllingham’s Kona Bike Shop (and Wrench Coach for Sleppy’s Cycles) ensured the demo rigs were running smoothly all weekend and was there to help answer any technical questions people had about their bike set up or working on their bikes themselves.
During the Shredtalks panel, the Kona crew and Roam attendees received the pleasure of listening to Kona rider Kate Herrick Madden speak about her cycling experience– including going from a casual mountain biker to competing in a 60 mile gravel race!
If you’re experiencing FOMO about this event, don’t stress! We have a few more demo stops on our tour this year and more Roam stops in 2023! Come hang with our crew, make some #KonaMemories, and get your butt on a Kona!
