August 22, 2025 • 18 mins
Welcome to A New American Town. In this episode, we’re talking all things two wheels and trail-friendly travel with Jeremy Rose, owner of The Bike Inn: a cyclist-focused boutique lodging and experience right here in Bentonville.
The Bike Inn isn’t your typical hotel. It’s designed by riders, for riders, with everything you need to roll in, clean up, relax, and get right back out on the trails. Whether you’re a solo adventurer, a weekend warrior with friends, or a family looking for a low-fuss, high-fun place to stay, this is where Bentonville’s trail culture meets modern hospitality.
Listen to this episode to find out about their special amenities, group tours, events, and more!
A New American Town is here to help you plan your trip to Bentonville, Arkansas. From guides, events, and restaurant highlights. Find all this and more at visitbentonville.com and subscribe to our newsletter. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, and LinkedIn.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Welcome to A New American Town brought to you by
Visit Bentonville.
I'm your host, natalie.
Today we're talking all thingstwo wheels and trail friendly
travel with Jeremy Rose, theowner of the Bike Inn, a
boutique mountain biking hotelbuilt with you and your bike in
mind, right here in Bentonville,arkansas.
The Bike Inn isn't your typicalhotel.
It's designed by riders, forriders, with everything you need
(00:34):
to roll in, clean up, relax andget right back out on the
trails.
Whether you're a soloadventurer, a weekend warrior
with friends or a family lookingfor a low-fuss, high-fun place
to stay, this is whereBentonville's trail culture
meets modern hospitality.
Thanks for joining us, jeremy.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
My pleasure and nice work there.
That was a good intro.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Thanks, I feel like I bring my news reporter voice
out when I do it.
So for someone hearing aboutthe bike-in for the first time,
give me the spiel.
What do you want everyone toknow?
Speaker 2 (01:04):
You pretty much nailed it we are a cycling
destination built with you andyour bike in mind.
It's something completelydifferent from every other
lodging facility here inNorthwest Arkansas.
Your bike kind of comes firstand the people are right there
with them, and we created aspace for you and your bike
where you could be comfortableand have everything you need and
have the supplies you need andget you on the trails as much as
possible.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Yeah, and it is exactly that I was doing some
digging on your website and justthe versatility of spaces that
you have, cause looking at itfrom the road, there's like the
traditional building with theawesome sign.
You guys have a great logo, butthen you also have three van
camping pads and four glampingcabins, which are so fun.
(01:44):
I love that aspect.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
I really want to be.
I want to be affordable enoughfor everybody to come enjoy our
space.
So there's a mountain biking isan expensive sport, or cycling
in general is an expensive sport, right?
So I don't want to keyholeanybody else.
I want the young 19 year oldkid to come have a very cool
place, to come stay and enjoy it.
But I also want the differenttax brackets to be able to come
there and feel comfortable aswell.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
So we are a four-star hotel.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
There's only three of those in town 21C and I believe
one of the Sheridan is theother one and then us, but we're
about $200 a night cheaper thanall of those others.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Yeah, it's like the ideal roll-in roll-out kind of
camping place to stay.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Yeah, it's perfect.
So what kind of vibe do youwant guests to have whenever
they come, once they arrive, andwhy is it in the ideal location
?
Speaker 2 (02:37):
We do a contactless check-in, so everything is ran
through the website.
So when you book a room, youget an email sent to you on your
check-in day that gives you allthe information you need to get
to your room, access theproperty, wi-fi, details about
the property, everything youneed to make your way around.
The website kind of acts as aconcierge as well.
We have all the trailinformation you need there.
(02:57):
You can build your route, youcan plan your route and we also
offer a bunch of amenities thatnobody else offers.
So we offer guide services.
We have our own rental fleets,we have a 24-hour bike shop, we
have a shuttle van and we cansupport any adventure activity
that you want to put together,whether it's mountain biking or
river floats or hiking or justtown tours around town with the
bus.
(03:17):
We can do that as well.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
That is epic.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
That is amazing.
Do you see all of your guestsutilizing?
Speaker 2 (03:23):
that, yes, everybody utilizes it.
I don't get to see everybody,so we don't have an office, we
don't have a staff, so it runsalmost like a virtual type place
and we give our guests a lot ofleeway so we try to treat them
like adults and we expect themto give that in return as well.
Like our bike shop is acomplete honor system bike shop.
Wow like our bike shop is acomplete honor system bike shop.
(03:44):
Wow, you can go in there.
You buy merchandise uh trailnutrition, bike consumables like
uh tubes or tires or chainlinks nice and it's all on an
ipad.
You just check yourself in,check yourself out, and we allow
our guests to do that and forfour years now it runs really
well.
It's really nice when you givethat trust to people and they
give it back to you totally.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Yeah, high tech.
High tech that reminds me ofthe airport, like yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Yeah, red Barn, that real cute little neighborhood
here in town.
They have a little honor system, little grocery stores too.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Except for their like farmer's stand, or whatever.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Yeah, that's cool.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
So what inspired?
You to make the bike in?
Speaker 2 (04:19):
We pulled in town and about three months after we got
here this has been fall of 2020, we saw the motel for sale and
I was absolutely blown away thatsomething like that was still
for sale.
In town was what was happening,and we immediately contacted
sellers and just dove in.
And here we are, four yearslater.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
This is the need.
It needs to be filled and I'mthe guy to do it.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
We knew exactly what we wanted to call it.
We kind of knew the layout, weknew what we wanted to do for it
and we moved here from Oregon.
So we've seen some of theseoutdoor recreation towns, kind
of 10 years down the road andkind of the direction they tend
to go, and we just jumped rightin.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
So who's we when you're talking about?
We, my wife, oh awesome.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Yeah, she's the interior designer, so she did
all the interior design.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
She did a fantastic job.
Oh my goodness fantastic job oh, my goodness, it's beautiful.
She's done a beautiful job.
Yeah, she does a very good job.
I love how people can storetheir bikes.
Is it inside every room?
Speaker 2 (05:11):
all the motel proper.
So the motel proper has eightrooms.
All those and we have a cottageout back all those have indoor
bike storage.
So a single room will have roomfor two bikes, as we expect two
people in those.
Uh.
Double room meaning two beds,all my beds are queens.
A double room we have room fortwo bikes, as we expect two
people in those.
Double room, meaning two beds,all my beds are queens.
A double room we have room forfour bikes.
And then the glamping cabins.
They have exterior bike rackswith locks provided.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Wow, Indoor bikes are like a Benville thing.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
I have recently learned that people, when they
come travel here, are just soexcited and blown away that they
can store their bike indoors.
When I've, yeah, met people andthey're like where do I store
my bike if I come into town, I'mlike what do you mean?
There's like bike valets orthere's places to store your
bike everywhere, and it's justso cool that that's become our
culture.
(05:57):
Were you guys one of theleading members of that, or did
you see that kind of goingaround the community at the same
time?
Speaker 2 (06:03):
I believe we were the first.
That's amazing.
Yeah, I figured we did a lot ofstuff on social media and we
tried to just keep everything aslocal as possible and we put
out a group of likequestionnaires right when we
were getting started what do youwant to see?
And the number one response waswe want our bikes indoor with
us yeah.
And we had the space to be ableto do that.
We worked with the localpartners, Put Up USA.
(06:26):
They created our beautifulmodular bike racks, that's where
we came from.
I love local.
Yeah, me too.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Yeah, actually, before we started this, Jeremy
brought in some awesome localmerch.
Is this some stuff that you canexpect to see at that shop
you're talking about?
It is.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Our hats are done by Doug at Bomb Squad Central Union
.
He does hats, gloves, shorts,jerseys, pants.
He does a little bit ofeverything.
Find a lot of his stuff atBenville Bike Co.
And then our jerseys are doneby Brent over at Flow.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Bikewear.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
He handles a lot of events around here for
individual jerseys as well.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Yeah, got to get the swag.
Yeah, got to get the swag.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
And even our mattresses are local.
They come from Joplin, missouri.
We have a friend with amattress factory up there.
The brand's called Forever Bed.
Our cabins come from Noel,missouri, just up the road 30
minutes.
They're all hand-built by a guyand his workers in a warehouse
just 30 minutes up the road.
Bike racks are local.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
That makes so much sense because it is such a
unique experience at the bikeinn.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Yeah, it's all about staying local.
When you stay with me, yourmoney stays in our community.
If you stay at so many otherhotels, you can't necessarily
say the same thing.
That's even true for ourAirbnbs.
I believe most of our Airbnbslike 60% are outside investors.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Well, so let's imagine the perfect day at the
bike-in, exactly how you areenvisioning it going.
Tell me about it.
What does it look like?
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Perfect day at the bike-in.
You check in, you arrive, youget your email, you show up, you
walk into your room, you putyour bike on the wall, you get
settled.
You make your way around to theback of the motel.
You'll find our sauna, our coldplunge, our hot tub, our
community fire pit.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
All included.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
It's all included, oh my gosh.
And we have hammocks out backby the fire.
You hear birds, you hearinsects, you don't hear road
noise.
It's wonderful.
You get up the next morning andyou take a tour.
This is probably the best placein the world to take a tour on
a bike, because most places yougo to you have a big trail you
(08:19):
do it's called the wholeenchilada or something else.
You're going to go out for thisone ride.
Bentonville isn't really set upthat way.
We have 300 miles a minute longtrails and they're somewhat
hard to navigate.
You're not going to get lostand you're not going to hurt
yourself or go the wrong way.
But there's definitely a betterway to put them all together
and it takes quite a bit of timeto learn how to do all that.
(08:39):
So you take a tour, I put youon an e-bike, I have Intercom
helmets by Senna the Intercombrand.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Oh yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Yeah, so we're going to ride around on e-bikes, we're
going to be able to chat witheach other.
I can point out history andtrail names and art and take you
around crystal bridges and hitthe trail.
We'll hit dirt, we'll hitpavement.
We'll go to Kohler, we'll go toBella Vista, we the rest of
your trip.
You can go back and cherry pickall the stuff that you really
(09:07):
want to find.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
I want to go back there, yeah, oh, I want to
explore more in the trails wedidn't get to see over here, but
now I know how to get back homeand all of the routes.
Yeah, because Benville is kindof a huge maze.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
It really is.
It really is.
Yeah, there's not one hole in.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
Chilanda.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
You're never more than a couple hundred yards from
a house, but it feels likeyou're 50 miles into the woods.
It's really really incrediblewhat they've done here, True.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Yeah, so that experience I imagine is super
customizable depending on ifyou're a mountain biker, a road
cyclist, gravel Do.
Most of your guests typicallydo all three experiences?
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Most of them come here with one discipline in mind
and actually they usually havean idea of the planned route
they want to do to or certaintrails they want to try and hit.
You know we have a lot of famoustrails, like Berm Creek, built
by Backyard Trail Builder andpeople like that.
So they have an idea and thenyou get them out on the bike and
I build.
Every tour is custom built forthe guests I'm riding with.
I usually start out on theledger building because it's
(10:06):
beautiful, it's unique, it's afun ride up and I can get a good
idea of your ridingcapabilities by how you handle
those 180 degree turns comingdown and then I kind of base my
tour off there and then we'llstart dropping in and whether
you want to stay on pavement orget a little bit of dirt, A lot
of my tours are usually oneperson can ride pretty good and
whether it's a spouse or a kidor something else isn't quite as
good.
(10:26):
But when you put that intercomon someone's ear and you can
talk them down a trail or tellthem what's coming and
everything else, it reallylowers the whole experience and
makes it much easier foreverybody involved.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
Wow, I imagine that our progressive trail design
really helps with those tourstoo, because maybe someone wants
to go on a blue with you, butthe other person wants to stay
on the greenway.
You guys can just meet up atthe end of it absolutely and I'm
glad you brought that up.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
You know we get a lot of flack for our claim of being
the mountain bike capital ofthe world and I will stand by
and argue that point that that'sthe hill I'll die on, because
there's an I've.
I lived in bend oregon.
I lived in River Oregon Twohuge mountain bike meccas.
You're never going to see afamily, five generations, deep
out on a mountain bike ride inBend Oregon.
It's just not set up for it.
(11:13):
Here it is.
You can go on a ride withliterally you don't have to have
any experience at all and bewith somebody who can ride
double black diamond trails andeverybody can have fun with an
eyesight of each other.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
It doesn't exist anywhere else.
That was amazing.
I love that.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
They've done a really really good job.
Yeah, they have.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
That's great.
Yeah, we love when ourcommunity jumps on and agrees
yeah, cause I die on that hilltoo.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
We are the mountain bike capital of the world, and
I'll say it forever yeah, itdoesn't mean you have the single
best trail or the longest trailor the most Epic trail, but it
means you have the bestinfrastructure and availability
for everybody to ride a bike.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Yeah, wow.
So what are some moreadditional perks that you want
to talk about that?
Maybe we haven't hit on aboutthe bike-in.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Oh, man One.
You're coming here to be innature.
You're coming here to ridebikes and be in nature.
That's kind of how we're set up.
I'll tell you our Wi-Fi code,because people aren't sitting in
my parking lot stealing Wi-Fi,so it's not a big deal.
But the Wi-Fi code is getoutside, because that's what we
want you to do.
Get outside and go see somestuff, go have some fun.
So you're going to show up.
(12:18):
Most people aren't in the room,charlie at all.
My place looks pretty empty midon the trails.
You come back in the eveningtime and all of a sudden you're
around 20 or 30 other peoplethat are there for the same
reason you are.
It's almost like a hostel vibe,like you have this common
heartbeat.
Out back around the fire pitthere's an outdoor kitchen.
There there's a keg ritter ontap, everybody's hanging out in
the hot tub or the cold plunge.
(12:38):
Or you're mingling and you'retalking to other people that are
here for the same reason andyou're talking about other
trails.
Maybe you find out aboutDevil's Den Park or Hobbs State
Park or something up in BellaVista you haven't heard about.
I've got, I think, 10 big trailmaps all around the exterior of
my property so you can walkaround and you can point to the
trails you rode.
Or talk to a new friend youjust met over a beer and talk
(13:00):
about what you want to dotomorrow, or make some new
riding buddies.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Wow, yeah, that's awesome.
It's like the perfect setup forindividual travel so you can
meet people, or renting out thewhole place, which you guys also
do.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
We do Huge groups.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
That sounds like so much fun, like family reunions
or retreats.
That'd be so, so cool.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
We've got a group of 100 coming out this fall All
gravel riders 100 people.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
How many people do you sleep?
Speaker 2 (13:25):
I can't sleep.
All of them.
We have a big block me.
The red roof in behind me isgetting a bunch of them, and
then a lot of them are just kindof spreading around town.
Okay, andy chastain is doingthe route, programming for them
got it and they're just going totravel all over.
We're catering all their mealsin, so we got event tables for
them, event tents and chairs setup all in the backyard and
their meals are going to come ineach evening and they're all
(13:46):
going to come together and sharemeals and then break out and do
different rides.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
The perfect landing pad.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
Yeah, the full book out's a fun part, because we
have 13 rooms, 16 beds and threeRV spots and for $17.25, you
get access.
It's all yours, private, andthen at that point there's no
client hour.
You can do what you want.
We've had live music back there.
We've had live music back there.
We've had magicians back there.
We've got a slip and slide haveyou had weddings.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
We have had weddings.
That sounds like a fun weddingwe had two ladies.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
They met at the bike-in and they came back a
year later and got married inthe backyard.
Oh, wow, yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
That's so cool, Just how you've been able to make
your own community at thebike-in as an extension of the
Bentonville biking community Wow.
So for visitors that are comingto Bentonville, they're coming
to stay at the bike-in.
What are your favorite?
Speaker 2 (14:35):
trails that they should keep in mind.
My favorite trail if I had onetrail just to ride here, it
would be Fireline at Kohler.
It's a little bit of everything.
It's fast, it's slow, big burns, big jumps.
You can wear yourself out on itand it's also smooth enough
that newbies can kind of pick itup and make their way down it
as well.
I think our prettiest trailhere is Cars Loop out at Hobbs
State Park, so you're out inRogers a little bit, so it's
(14:58):
about a 40-minute drive, but itis spectacular out there and
that's a trail you can ride inthe pouring rain and a lot of
people don't get to do that andtalk about taking you back to
your childhood when you ride abike in the pouring rain like a
nice warm summer rain splashesthrough the puddles.
There's nothing like it.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
My husband and I were in France last year and rode
e-bikes through the rain forabout four hours and we were
just giddy the whole time.
It was so much fun.
I agree, I love riding the rainand Benville has so many paved
trails or all weather trailsthat you can do that in.
Is that how that one trail?
Speaker 2 (15:33):
is that?
One is yeah, you can rideanytime.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
You don't have to worry about mud or ruining the
trail or anything.
Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Well, how do you feel like the bike ingrains itself
in the Bentonville community.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
We're tied in about as deeply as you can be itself
in the Bentonville community.
We're tied in about as deeplyas you can be.
So I'm fortunate enough that I,you know I get to support other
local brands like Bomb Squadand Flow Bikewear here.
I push people to all the localeateries because they're not
competition for me.
I don't have really havecompetition.
I'm very unique and that's myfavorite place to be because I
want to share everybody.
I want people to go eat localfood airship coffee, you know.
(16:08):
Go get a pastry in the morning,go to Ozark Mountain Bagel and
get a bagel before your ride.
It's just a wonderful place tobe because I can push everybody
in every direction.
I also get to support everyevent, whether it's a mountain
bike event, a downhill series,an enduro series, or the Hill
Camping Fondue that's cominghere in the fall, or the Big
Sugar gravel ride or the hillcamping fondue that's coming
(16:29):
here in the fall, or the bigsugar gravel ride or the little
sugar mountain bike ride.
I get to support all thosethings and usually I'm tied in
and sag vehicle support to a lotof those big rides.
Um, bike fest, bike-a-paloozais coming up with brett.
He's putting that together.
That's a really fun event yeahand I'm fortunate that I get to
take part in all of thosedifferent events.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
There is a lot.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
And there's a lot coming up too.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
It's about to be Biketober, so I bet I'll be
seeing a lot of you around yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
It's hard to keep track of there so much.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
That is true.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
Yeah, I would like to throw a little shout out there.
We have a new group called NWABike Calendar.
They do a very good job onsocial media putting out what
group rides are, and that'ssomething hard to keep up.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
It's hard to find.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
It's hard to keep up, yeah they do a fantastic job of
putting out what what weeklygroup rides are coming up each
week wow, that's a great plugI'm gonna go and follow them too
.
Nwa bike calendar cool.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
Well, um, thank you so much for joining us on the
podcast today.
It was so amazing to divedeeper into the bike in and what
you're doing and really howyou're getting the word out
about our community and themountain biking capital of the
world.
How can people get connectedwith you and come and stay or
learn more about the bike-in?
Speaker 2 (17:39):
The website's the best place.
Thebikeincom is the best placeto go.
You can make reservationsanywhere Airbnb, VRBO, Expedia
but all those those third partywebsites and apps always charge
20 more.
That's how they pay forthemselves.
So your best rate is always atthe bike incom and we have lots
of resources on there.
You can build routes, you canfind routes.
You can find um the currentweather, a little bit of
(18:00):
everything on the website.
So much not just booking notjust booking.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
That's awesome, well cool.
Thanks so much.
If you guys are looking tolearn more about visiting
Bentonville and or anything elsein our town, go to
visitbentonvillecom or follow uson social media at
visitbentonville or atbikebentonville.
Thank you so much.
Bye.
Welcome to A New American Town brought to you by
Visit Bentonville.
I'm your host, natalie.
Today we're talking all thingstwo wheels and trail friendly
travel with Jeremy Rose, theowner of the Bike Inn, a
boutique mountain biking hotelbuilt with you and your bike in
mind, right here in Bentonville,arkansas.
The Bike Inn isn't your typicalhotel.
It's designed by riders, forriders, with everything you need
(00:34):
to roll in, clean up, relax andget right back out on the
trails.
Whether you're a soloadventurer, a weekend warrior
with friends or a family lookingfor a low-fuss, high-fun place
to stay, this is whereBentonville's trail culture
meets modern hospitality.
Thanks for joining us, jeremy.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
My pleasure and nice work there.
That was a good intro.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Thanks, I feel like I bring my news reporter voice
out when I do it.
So for someone hearing aboutthe bike-in for the first time,
give me the spiel.
What do you want everyone toknow?
Speaker 2 (01:04):
You pretty much nailed it we are a cycling
destination built with you andyour bike in mind.
It's something completelydifferent from every other
lodging facility here inNorthwest Arkansas.
Your bike kind of comes firstand the people are right there
with them, and we created aspace for you and your bike
where you could be comfortableand have everything you need and
have the supplies you need andget you on the trails as much as
possible.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Yeah, and it is exactly that I was doing some
digging on your website and justthe versatility of spaces that
you have, cause looking at itfrom the road, there's like the
traditional building with theawesome sign.
You guys have a great logo, butthen you also have three van
camping pads and four glampingcabins, which are so fun.
(01:44):
I love that aspect.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
I really want to be.
I want to be affordable enoughfor everybody to come enjoy our
space.
So there's a mountain biking isan expensive sport, or cycling
in general is an expensive sport, right?
So I don't want to keyholeanybody else.
I want the young 19 year oldkid to come have a very cool
place, to come stay and enjoy it.
But I also want the differenttax brackets to be able to come
there and feel comfortable aswell.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
So we are a four-star hotel.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
There's only three of those in town 21C and I believe
one of the Sheridan is theother one and then us, but we're
about $200 a night cheaper thanall of those others.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Yeah, it's like the ideal roll-in roll-out kind of
camping place to stay.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Yeah, it's perfect.
So what kind of vibe do youwant guests to have whenever
they come, once they arrive, andwhy is it in the ideal location
?
Speaker 2 (02:37):
We do a contactless check-in, so everything is ran
through the website.
So when you book a room, youget an email sent to you on your
check-in day that gives you allthe information you need to get
to your room, access theproperty, wi-fi, details about
the property, everything youneed to make your way around.
The website kind of acts as aconcierge as well.
We have all the trailinformation you need there.
(02:57):
You can build your route, youcan plan your route and we also
offer a bunch of amenities thatnobody else offers.
So we offer guide services.
We have our own rental fleets,we have a 24-hour bike shop, we
have a shuttle van and we cansupport any adventure activity
that you want to put together,whether it's mountain biking or
river floats or hiking or justtown tours around town with the
bus.
(03:17):
We can do that as well.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
That is epic.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
That is amazing.
Do you see all of your guestsutilizing?
Speaker 2 (03:23):
that, yes, everybody utilizes it.
I don't get to see everybody,so we don't have an office, we
don't have a staff, so it runsalmost like a virtual type place
and we give our guests a lot ofleeway so we try to treat them
like adults and we expect themto give that in return as well.
Like our bike shop is acomplete honor system bike shop.
Wow like our bike shop is acomplete honor system bike shop.
(03:44):
Wow, you can go in there.
You buy merchandise uh trailnutrition, bike consumables like
uh tubes or tires or chainlinks nice and it's all on an
ipad.
You just check yourself in,check yourself out, and we allow
our guests to do that and forfour years now it runs really
well.
It's really nice when you givethat trust to people and they
give it back to you totally.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Yeah, high tech.
High tech that reminds me ofthe airport, like yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Yeah, red Barn, that real cute little neighborhood
here in town.
They have a little honor system, little grocery stores too.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Except for their like farmer's stand, or whatever.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Yeah, that's cool.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
So what inspired?
You to make the bike in?
Speaker 2 (04:19):
We pulled in town and about three months after we got
here this has been fall of 2020, we saw the motel for sale and
I was absolutely blown away thatsomething like that was still
for sale.
In town was what was happening,and we immediately contacted
sellers and just dove in.
And here we are, four yearslater.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
This is the need.
It needs to be filled and I'mthe guy to do it.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
We knew exactly what we wanted to call it.
We kind of knew the layout, weknew what we wanted to do for it
and we moved here from Oregon.
So we've seen some of theseoutdoor recreation towns, kind
of 10 years down the road andkind of the direction they tend
to go, and we just jumped rightin.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
So who's we when you're talking about?
We, my wife, oh awesome.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Yeah, she's the interior designer, so she did
all the interior design.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
She did a fantastic job.
Oh my goodness fantastic job oh, my goodness, it's beautiful.
She's done a beautiful job.
Yeah, she does a very good job.
I love how people can storetheir bikes.
Is it inside every room?
Speaker 2 (05:11):
all the motel proper.
So the motel proper has eightrooms.
All those and we have a cottageout back all those have indoor
bike storage.
So a single room will have roomfor two bikes, as we expect two
people in those.
Uh.
Double room meaning two beds,all my beds are queens.
A double room we have room fortwo bikes, as we expect two
people in those.
Double room, meaning two beds,all my beds are queens.
A double room we have room forfour bikes.
And then the glamping cabins.
They have exterior bike rackswith locks provided.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Wow, Indoor bikes are like a Benville thing.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
I have recently learned that people, when they
come travel here, are just soexcited and blown away that they
can store their bike indoors.
When I've, yeah, met people andthey're like where do I store
my bike if I come into town, I'mlike what do you mean?
There's like bike valets orthere's places to store your
bike everywhere, and it's justso cool that that's become our
culture.
(05:57):
Were you guys one of theleading members of that, or did
you see that kind of goingaround the community at the same
time?
Speaker 2 (06:03):
I believe we were the first.
That's amazing.
Yeah, I figured we did a lot ofstuff on social media and we
tried to just keep everything aslocal as possible and we put
out a group of likequestionnaires right when we
were getting started what do youwant to see?
And the number one response waswe want our bikes indoor with
us yeah.
And we had the space to be ableto do that.
We worked with the localpartners, Put Up USA.
(06:26):
They created our beautifulmodular bike racks, that's where
we came from.
I love local.
Yeah, me too.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Yeah, actually, before we started this, Jeremy
brought in some awesome localmerch.
Is this some stuff that you canexpect to see at that shop
you're talking about?
It is.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Our hats are done by Doug at Bomb Squad Central Union
.
He does hats, gloves, shorts,jerseys, pants.
He does a little bit ofeverything.
Find a lot of his stuff atBenville Bike Co.
And then our jerseys are doneby Brent over at Flow.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Bikewear.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
He handles a lot of events around here for
individual jerseys as well.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Yeah, got to get the swag.
Yeah, got to get the swag.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
And even our mattresses are local.
They come from Joplin, missouri.
We have a friend with amattress factory up there.
The brand's called Forever Bed.
Our cabins come from Noel,missouri, just up the road 30
minutes.
They're all hand-built by a guyand his workers in a warehouse
just 30 minutes up the road.
Bike racks are local.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
That makes so much sense because it is such a
unique experience at the bikeinn.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Yeah, it's all about staying local.
When you stay with me, yourmoney stays in our community.
If you stay at so many otherhotels, you can't necessarily
say the same thing.
That's even true for ourAirbnbs.
I believe most of our Airbnbslike 60% are outside investors.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Well, so let's imagine the perfect day at the
bike-in, exactly how you areenvisioning it going.
Tell me about it.
What does it look like?
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Perfect day at the bike-in.
You check in, you arrive, youget your email, you show up, you
walk into your room, you putyour bike on the wall, you get
settled.
You make your way around to theback of the motel.
You'll find our sauna, our coldplunge, our hot tub, our
community fire pit.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
All included.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
It's all included, oh my gosh.
And we have hammocks out backby the fire.
You hear birds, you hearinsects, you don't hear road
noise.
It's wonderful.
You get up the next morning andyou take a tour.
This is probably the best placein the world to take a tour on
a bike, because most places yougo to you have a big trail you
(08:19):
do it's called the wholeenchilada or something else.
You're going to go out for thisone ride.
Bentonville isn't really set upthat way.
We have 300 miles a minute longtrails and they're somewhat
hard to navigate.
You're not going to get lostand you're not going to hurt
yourself or go the wrong way.
But there's definitely a betterway to put them all together
and it takes quite a bit of timeto learn how to do all that.
(08:39):
So you take a tour, I put youon an e-bike, I have Intercom
helmets by Senna the Intercombrand.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Oh yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Yeah, so we're going to ride around on e-bikes, we're
going to be able to chat witheach other.
I can point out history andtrail names and art and take you
around crystal bridges and hitthe trail.
We'll hit dirt, we'll hitpavement.
We'll go to Kohler, we'll go toBella Vista, we the rest of
your trip.
You can go back and cherry pickall the stuff that you really
(09:07):
want to find.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
I want to go back there, yeah, oh, I want to
explore more in the trails wedidn't get to see over here, but
now I know how to get back homeand all of the routes.
Yeah, because Benville is kindof a huge maze.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
It really is.
It really is.
Yeah, there's not one hole in.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
Chilanda.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
You're never more than a couple hundred yards from
a house, but it feels likeyou're 50 miles into the woods.
It's really really incrediblewhat they've done here, True.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Yeah, so that experience I imagine is super
customizable depending on ifyou're a mountain biker, a road
cyclist, gravel Do.
Most of your guests typicallydo all three experiences?
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Most of them come here with one discipline in mind
and actually they usually havean idea of the planned route
they want to do to or certaintrails they want to try and hit.
You know we have a lot of famoustrails, like Berm Creek, built
by Backyard Trail Builder andpeople like that.
So they have an idea and thenyou get them out on the bike and
I build.
Every tour is custom built forthe guests I'm riding with.
I usually start out on theledger building because it's
(10:06):
beautiful, it's unique, it's afun ride up and I can get a good
idea of your ridingcapabilities by how you handle
those 180 degree turns comingdown and then I kind of base my
tour off there and then we'llstart dropping in and whether
you want to stay on pavement orget a little bit of dirt, A lot
of my tours are usually oneperson can ride pretty good and
whether it's a spouse or a kidor something else isn't quite as
good.
(10:26):
But when you put that intercomon someone's ear and you can
talk them down a trail or tellthem what's coming and
everything else, it reallylowers the whole experience and
makes it much easier foreverybody involved.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
Wow, I imagine that our progressive trail design
really helps with those tourstoo, because maybe someone wants
to go on a blue with you, butthe other person wants to stay
on the greenway.
You guys can just meet up atthe end of it absolutely and I'm
glad you brought that up.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
You know we get a lot of flack for our claim of being
the mountain bike capital ofthe world and I will stand by
and argue that point that that'sthe hill I'll die on, because
there's an I've.
I lived in bend oregon.
I lived in River Oregon Twohuge mountain bike meccas.
You're never going to see afamily, five generations, deep
out on a mountain bike ride inBend Oregon.
It's just not set up for it.
(11:13):
Here it is.
You can go on a ride withliterally you don't have to have
any experience at all and bewith somebody who can ride
double black diamond trails andeverybody can have fun with an
eyesight of each other.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
It doesn't exist anywhere else.
That was amazing.
I love that.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
They've done a really really good job.
Yeah, they have.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
That's great.
Yeah, we love when ourcommunity jumps on and agrees
yeah, cause I die on that hilltoo.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
We are the mountain bike capital of the world, and
I'll say it forever yeah, itdoesn't mean you have the single
best trail or the longest trailor the most Epic trail, but it
means you have the bestinfrastructure and availability
for everybody to ride a bike.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Yeah, wow.
So what are some moreadditional perks that you want
to talk about that?
Maybe we haven't hit on aboutthe bike-in.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Oh, man One.
You're coming here to be innature.
You're coming here to ridebikes and be in nature.
That's kind of how we're set up.
I'll tell you our Wi-Fi code,because people aren't sitting in
my parking lot stealing Wi-Fi,so it's not a big deal.
But the Wi-Fi code is getoutside, because that's what we
want you to do.
Get outside and go see somestuff, go have some fun.
So you're going to show up.
(12:18):
Most people aren't in the room,charlie at all.
My place looks pretty empty midon the trails.
You come back in the eveningtime and all of a sudden you're
around 20 or 30 other peoplethat are there for the same
reason you are.
It's almost like a hostel vibe,like you have this common
heartbeat.
Out back around the fire pitthere's an outdoor kitchen.
There there's a keg ritter ontap, everybody's hanging out in
the hot tub or the cold plunge.
(12:38):
Or you're mingling and you'retalking to other people that are
here for the same reason andyou're talking about other
trails.
Maybe you find out aboutDevil's Den Park or Hobbs State
Park or something up in BellaVista you haven't heard about.
I've got, I think, 10 big trailmaps all around the exterior of
my property so you can walkaround and you can point to the
trails you rode.
Or talk to a new friend youjust met over a beer and talk
(13:00):
about what you want to dotomorrow, or make some new
riding buddies.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Wow, yeah, that's awesome.
It's like the perfect setup forindividual travel so you can
meet people, or renting out thewhole place, which you guys also
do.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
We do Huge groups.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
That sounds like so much fun, like family reunions
or retreats.
That'd be so, so cool.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
We've got a group of 100 coming out this fall All
gravel riders 100 people.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
How many people do you sleep?
Speaker 2 (13:25):
I can't sleep.
All of them.
We have a big block me.
The red roof in behind me isgetting a bunch of them, and
then a lot of them are just kindof spreading around town.
Okay, andy chastain is doingthe route, programming for them
got it and they're just going totravel all over.
We're catering all their mealsin, so we got event tables for
them, event tents and chairs setup all in the backyard and
their meals are going to come ineach evening and they're all
(13:46):
going to come together and sharemeals and then break out and do
different rides.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
The perfect landing pad.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
Yeah, the full book out's a fun part, because we
have 13 rooms, 16 beds and threeRV spots and for $17.25, you
get access.
It's all yours, private, andthen at that point there's no
client hour.
You can do what you want.
We've had live music back there.
We've had live music back there.
We've had magicians back there.
We've got a slip and slide haveyou had weddings.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
We have had weddings.
That sounds like a fun weddingwe had two ladies.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
They met at the bike-in and they came back a
year later and got married inthe backyard.
Oh, wow, yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
That's so cool, Just how you've been able to make
your own community at thebike-in as an extension of the
Bentonville biking community Wow.
So for visitors that are comingto Bentonville, they're coming
to stay at the bike-in.
What are your favorite?
Speaker 2 (14:35):
trails that they should keep in mind.
My favorite trail if I had onetrail just to ride here, it
would be Fireline at Kohler.
It's a little bit of everything.
It's fast, it's slow, big burns, big jumps.
You can wear yourself out on itand it's also smooth enough
that newbies can kind of pick itup and make their way down it
as well.
I think our prettiest trailhere is Cars Loop out at Hobbs
State Park, so you're out inRogers a little bit, so it's
(14:58):
about a 40-minute drive, but itis spectacular out there and
that's a trail you can ride inthe pouring rain and a lot of
people don't get to do that andtalk about taking you back to
your childhood when you ride abike in the pouring rain like a
nice warm summer rain splashesthrough the puddles.
There's nothing like it.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
My husband and I were in France last year and rode
e-bikes through the rain forabout four hours and we were
just giddy the whole time.
It was so much fun.
I agree, I love riding the rainand Benville has so many paved
trails or all weather trailsthat you can do that in.
Is that how that one trail?
Speaker 2 (15:33):
is that?
One is yeah, you can rideanytime.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
You don't have to worry about mud or ruining the
trail or anything.
Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Well, how do you feel like the bike ingrains itself
in the Bentonville community.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
We're tied in about as deeply as you can be itself
in the Bentonville community.
We're tied in about as deeplyas you can be.
So I'm fortunate enough that I,you know I get to support other
local brands like Bomb Squadand Flow Bikewear here.
I push people to all the localeateries because they're not
competition for me.
I don't have really havecompetition.
I'm very unique and that's myfavorite place to be because I
want to share everybody.
I want people to go eat localfood airship coffee, you know.
(16:08):
Go get a pastry in the morning,go to Ozark Mountain Bagel and
get a bagel before your ride.
It's just a wonderful place tobe because I can push everybody
in every direction.
I also get to support everyevent, whether it's a mountain
bike event, a downhill series,an enduro series, or the Hill
Camping Fondue that's cominghere in the fall, or the Big
Sugar gravel ride or the hillcamping fondue that's coming
(16:29):
here in the fall, or the bigsugar gravel ride or the little
sugar mountain bike ride.
I get to support all thosethings and usually I'm tied in
and sag vehicle support to a lotof those big rides.
Um, bike fest, bike-a-paloozais coming up with brett.
He's putting that together.
That's a really fun event yeahand I'm fortunate that I get to
take part in all of thosedifferent events.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
There is a lot.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
And there's a lot coming up too.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
It's about to be Biketober, so I bet I'll be
seeing a lot of you around yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
It's hard to keep track of there so much.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
That is true.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
Yeah, I would like to throw a little shout out there.
We have a new group called NWABike Calendar.
They do a very good job onsocial media putting out what
group rides are, and that'ssomething hard to keep up.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
It's hard to find.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
It's hard to keep up, yeah they do a fantastic job of
putting out what what weeklygroup rides are coming up each
week wow, that's a great plugI'm gonna go and follow them too
.
Nwa bike calendar cool.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
Well, um, thank you so much for joining us on the
podcast today.
It was so amazing to divedeeper into the bike in and what
you're doing and really howyou're getting the word out
about our community and themountain biking capital of the
world.
How can people get connectedwith you and come and stay or
learn more about the bike-in?
Speaker 2 (17:39):
The website's the best place.
Thebikeincom is the best placeto go.
You can make reservationsanywhere Airbnb, VRBO, Expedia
but all those those third partywebsites and apps always charge
20 more.
That's how they pay forthemselves.
So your best rate is always atthe bike incom and we have lots
of resources on there.
You can build routes, you canfind routes.
You can find um the currentweather, a little bit of
(18:00):
everything on the website.
So much not just booking notjust booking.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
That's awesome, well cool.
Thanks so much.
If you guys are looking tolearn more about visiting
Bentonville and or anything elsein our town, go to
visitbentonvillecom or follow uson social media at
visitbentonville or atbikebentonville.
Thank you so much.
Bye.
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