Kellams: Fayetteville's upper Ramble will see some more foot traffic this weekend, and plenty of those feet will be accompanied by a pair of wheels. Ozark Gravel Cyclists is hosting the second Ride Your Damn Bike Festival, today through Sunday. It will take participants through the city and into the countryside to explore the region's gravel roads. There are casual group rides, a beginner-friendly community overnighter to Lake Wedington, vendor expos and workshops, plus a challenging ultra circuit for serious cyclists.
Ozarks at Large's Jack Travis caught up with presenting sponsor Experience Fayetteville CEO Ryan Hauck to talk about the weekend. Hauck says bikepacking — or overnight camping on your bike — has become a highlight of Fayetteville's offerings, and this festival is an opportunity to showcase some new trails. Jack started his line of questions with a simple one about the festival's name.
Travis: Why is it so aggressive?
Hauck: Honestly, it's aggressive because it's exactly what it means — get out and go ride your bike. You don't need a $5,000 bike to go get out there. You don't need to find the perfect trail for your skill level. Just get out there and go ride your bike and do your darn thing. We're one of the few places in the country where you can just leave in minutes from downtown. You can be on amazing, world-class paved trails, soft trails, right in the Ozark National Forest. We just have it going on. Hopefully it's encouraging people to get out there and just experience life on their bike.
Travis: This seems to be happening in tandem with some big press for the Fayetteville Bikepacking Route Network. Can you tell me about that?
Hauck: What's so exciting about this specifically is that Northwest Arkansas in general has phenomenal mountain biking. Bentonville has their stuff going on. Rogers, Springdale, Eureka, obviously Fayetteville — we have our stuff as well. What nobody can touch us on, though, is our bikepacking network. Fayetteville really is the perfect hub for these networks. Bikepacking, just like backpacking, is where you have these overnight trips and you get to experience these back roads of the Ozarks. It's phenomenal. Not only do they exist, but they make it very accessible for anybody looking to get out there and experience them. We have GPS routes, we have maps in our office. Fayetteville is obviously the home base for all these routes, but it gets you into these smaller communities as well and gets you to the back areas of the Ozarks. What's cool about Ride Your Damn Bike Fest is that they actually have some group-guided rides that are going to be part of this thing. So if you've always wanted to try this thing, try to experience what they look like, but have never really wanted to try it out yourself — this is your opportunity to get out there, have some experts guide you and actually get to experience what that can look like for you. It's pretty cool.
Travis: Let's talk a little more about that. They're beginner-friendly. How is that possible? Bikepacking being beginner-friendly?
Hauck: It is beginner-friendly. There are two things that are growing in this country right now — it's pickleball and bikepacking. It's crazy how much gravel biking specifically has really been growing in this country, especially in an area like this where cycling is so prevalent. These are going to be what they will call lower-distance rides. They're still going to be close to that 80-mile trip, but they're going to be a little bit flatter, not so heavy on elevation gain or descending, not going to be super rocky or technical. You can get out there with just your basic gravel-type bike. You do need to bring some stuff — it is going to be an overnight trip — but they're going to be there to help with your food, to help with kind of that glamping situation to make it comfortable for you overnight. They're guided, so you don't have to guess on where these trails are or the best route to take. They're going to take you on the most beginner-friendly option that's available. It's pretty cool.
Travis: What else is happening this weekend besides these community overnighters?
Hauck: It is happening May 21 through the 24th. One of the things I'm really excited for is the Friday Expo. It's going to be right here on the upper Ramble where we're at right now. They're going to have featured workshops, gear vendors, community partners, and there are going to be opportunities to meet other riders and creators from across that bikepacking world. They just want to make sure that people are having the chance to get out and ride these networks that we've tried so hard to make available for everybody and just get people out on the trail and riding their bikes.
Travis: The rise of gravel cycling specifically in Fayetteville — why invest so heavily in that? What's the benefit to the tourism bureau?
Hauck: For us, it's a growing market. It's one of those huge emerging markets where Fayetteville is going to naturally win. We have so many gravel roads that start right here in Fayetteville and go off into the Ozarks. Where we have a lot more effort to try to build these big mountain biking trail systems, the gravel roads are already there. They're already ready to rock. We have the infrastructure now — it's just us promoting it and making sure they're accessible for everybody. It's that low-hanging fruit for us to lean into.
Travis: I went and looked at the Fayetteville Bikepacking Route Network, and it's cool that it highlights a lot of the local businesses that are available along the trail, and even some places to stay along the trail. Do you see a lot of economic impact from these bikepacking networks?
Hauck: We do. What's cool about being Fayetteville is we are the hub. We get a lot of the economic impact that comes from these trail systems. But what's also nice is that we can incorporate some of these smaller communities that usually don't see a lot of economic impact through tourism. We get their hotels, their attractions, their restaurants as one of the main stops throughout these trail networks. And they get some love from it as well. It's kind of helping Arkansas as a whole get a little bit of love from this whole thing.
Travis: How does Experience Fayetteville and you as CEO navigate being a tourism bureau for Fayetteville, but also attempting to support other communities around Fayetteville?
Hauck: We're obviously Fayetteville-minded first, but what's good for Arkansas is good for us. Helping these smaller communities out is just going to make us bigger and better as a whole, as well as a state and as well as an industry. We're always trying to fight to make sure our industry is as prevalent and thriving — with the second-largest industry for the entire state, and stuff like this is why.
Travis: What is the tourism industry in Arkansas?
Hauck: Tourism and hospitality. It's the second-largest industry for the entire state. It produced $10.3 billion just last year alone for the state of Arkansas. It's the No. 1 employer for the state as well. It's big business — it isn't some sort of trend that we're just trying to navigate. This is a robust industry for our state. Our electeds, including our own governor, lean in hard for everything that is tourism. Outdoor rec is a huge reason for that.
Travis: It sounds like this weekend would probably be a destination weekend for some. Do you expect people to be traveling out of state, within state, to this weekend?
Hauck: For sure. For cycling, for a lot of destinations, it's kind of a niche business. For Fayetteville specifically, it is huge business. We have Centennial, which brings in lots of competitions all throughout the year. We have Kessler, we have Bentonville doing their thing as well. Cycling for Northwest Arkansas is a huge deal. Stuff like this — people know that they want to come to Fayetteville anyway, this gives them a reason to come even more so than usual.
Travis: You've got a lot of other reasons to come to Fayetteville this summer. Do you want to highlight some of them?
Hauck: Tons and tons going on. It's a big anniversary year for tourism. First off is FIFA — FIFA is going to be absolutely phenomenal. Obviously no games here specifically in Fayetteville, but Club América had their game in March. We're going to have games in Kansas City and Dallas, so Fayetteville is going to be a great international hub. We have watch parties happening all throughout the FIFA World Cup, either on the upper Ramble and a lot of our bars and restaurants on Dickson and the square as well. Big FIFA year, obviously. Then the other one is going to be America's 250th — a huge national effort celebrating everything that is America's birthday. July 2, July 3 and July 4, we'll have all sorts of activations. The most popular are going to be July 4, where we have the fireworks happening up at Northwest Arkansas Mall. Super excited for those. It's going to be a good summer.
Travis: It's already started — Strawberry Fest. Can you talk about any stats from there?
Hauck: We usually have to wait a few days after the event to really pick up on those stats, but just the eyeball test — a lot of smiles out there, a lot of people out there. The vendors had huge lines. The stores had a lot of success with that as well. I heard last year it was as successful, but the rain kind of cut it short. This year: great weather, great music. Kelly Rich, Chloe Bell and the Downtown Fayetteville Coalition team did a phenomenal job on that this year. Really proud of the work that they did, and we're always proud to be a sponsor of that as well.
Travis: What do people need to know about this weekend? Is there anything I forgot to ask?
Hauck: I don't think so. Just like the name says, get out, ride your bike. You don't need the biggest, best bike to make it happen. Get down here to the upper Ramble, learn about what we have here in Fayetteville and why this place is so special for cycling specifically. It's going to be a fun weekend.
Travis: All right. Thanks, Ryan.
Hauck: Thank you.
Ryan Hauck is Experience Fayetteville CEO. He talked with Ozarks at Large's Jack Travis. The Ride Your Damn Bike Festival starts tonight in downtown Fayetteville. Passes for the community overnight rides on Saturday start at $75. More information and a full lineup for the weekend are available at ozarkgravelcyclists.com/rydb-fest.
Ozarks at Large transcripts are created on a rush deadline and edited for length and clarity. Copy editors utilize AI tools to review work. KUAF does not publish content created by AI. Please reach out to kuafinfo@uark.edu to report an issue. The audio version is the authoritative record of KUAF programming.
