About the NCC.
The Nelson Cycling Club is a voice for cycling interests in the Nelson and surrounding area.
Since our inception in 1995, the Nelson Cycling Club has focused on community events like the annual Kootenay Fat Tire Festival, which includes cross-country, downhill, freeride, trials, and kids events. We are also associated with community bike events such as NRG’s Triple Crown—where riders both climb and descend over 7000 feet in a single day—and Baldface’s Cherry Top Challenge. Starting a few years ago (2008), the club and local businesses and bike shops began hosting toonie rides. Sacred Rides Kokanee, Gericks Mtn Stn Enduro, etc
Nelson has an extensive network of bike trails that were built by local community members with a strong passion for biking. As the sport of mountain biking grows, so has the need for trail maintenance. In 2004, the Club initiated a program to improve Trail Maintenance and Stewardship in the Nelson area. With a paid crew who do maintenance throughout the summer and special volunteer trail blitzes, the NCC is making sure the trails stay fun and fresh!
Nelson Cycling Club History
Nelson’s mountain bike trail network has historically been a volunteer driven initiative. Dedicated riders have fueled the evolution of bike trails in this area and across most of British Columbia. As the sport has grown in popularity, so too has the need for organized stewardship of these valuable recreational assets.
Mountain biking began in the Nelson area in the late 1980s when the original trails were built. The first Nelson based organized mountain bike group began in 1995 to create the Fat Tire Festival. It became “official” in 1998 with the creation of the non-profit Kootenay Fat Tire Society. Most of the early activities revolved around the festivities, but as the need for organized land management and trail stewardship became evident, the Kootenay Fat Tire Society evolved into the Nelson Cycling Club Society in 2002.
NCC activities continue to promote mountain biking. The NCC is still the parent organization for the Fat Tire Festival, but much of the work has turned toward the trails. Volunteers and the paid trail crew clear over 1000 fallen trees from the trails every year. They rebuild and repair trail features, remove large rocks from the trails, beat the bush back from the edges, and add new trail features to make trails more fun. The NCC typically has about 500 paid members each year.
Masterplan 2019-2021
Wondering what the club has been up to? You can follow along with our project work by viewing the Masterplan using the link above.