Outerbike Moab is in its sixteenth year of pulling off something that only looks simple from the outside: dozens of brands' newest bikes, some of the best trails in the country, and a weekend where riders get to test gear they'd otherwise have to buy first and hope for the best. None of that happens on its own. Getting that many bikes, that many trails, and that many people lined up and running smoothly for three straight days takes a serious amount of work from the people who put this event on every year, and this year we're part of making it happen. From October 2 through 4 at the Bar M trailhead just north of town, we're not just showing up. We're running the shuttle.
TerraGnar is the official bike rack shuttle partner for this year's event. In practice, that means three of our trucks, loaded with our own rack system, running riders and their demo bikes out to the trailheads and back all weekend. Slickrock on Friday, Navajo Rocks on Saturday, Mag 5 on Sunday, shuttles rolling out most mornings and returning by early afternoon. It's the same job our racks do every weekend for regular customers, just at a bigger scale and on a tighter schedule: load a bike, close the tailgate, get to the trail, do it again a few hours later with a different rider and a different bike.
It's honestly the kind of test we couldn't script if we tried. A demo event means dozens of different bikes over the course of a weekend, different sizes, different weights, loaded and unloaded over and over by people who've never touched our rack before and don't have time for a learning curve. If there was ever a stretch of days built to expose a weak point, three trucks running back-to-back shuttle loops at a bike demo is it.
Jess will be at our expo tent on site for the full weekend, so if you're at Outerbike and want to see the rack in person, ask a question, or just say hello, that's where to find us between shuttle runs. We're not there to sell you something you can't already see for yourself. We're there because we think a rack that has to work this hard, this many times, in front of this many people who'd notice if it didn't, is the best advertisement we could ask for.
If you haven't been to Outerbike before, the format is simple: register in advance, show up, and you've got a weekend of test rides on current-year bikes from more than 40 brands, plus the usual demo-event extras, group rides, happy hours, a kids' bike build session on Saturday afternoon, and a lot of people who love this stuff talking about it in one place. Shuttles run in the morning and get you back with time to spare, so it's a real trail day, not just a parking-lot pedal around the block.
We'll have more to share after the weekend, including what three trucks and a lot of demo bikes taught us that a driveway never could. For now: if you're headed to Moab October 2 through 4, come find the trucks. We'll be the ones with a tailgate down and a bike already loaded.
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