By Chantelle Tuitele
As the snow melts in Utah and warm spring weather moves in, ski and snowboard rentals at BYU”s Outdoors Unlimited are taking a back seat to mountain bike sales and rentals.
“Through the whole ski season up until the middle of March, we usually sell two to three bikes,” said retail sales manager, Ikang Davis. “But from March 15 to now, we”ve sold about 10 to 15 bikes – we”re talking about an entire winter of sales in about 20 days.”
In September, business was slow at Outdoors Unlimited because biking season was over and skiing season had not yet started, said rental technician Jessica Madsen.
Davis said equipment rentals and purchases are becoming more frequent as some BYU students try to make the best of what is left of the skiing season, and other BYU students move on to mountain biking.
“This is our craziest time of the year because the ski resorts are open, yet it”s warm,” he said. “But the snow at all the lower areas around here is melting so we also have a lot of mountain bikers coming in.”
Stephen Sidwell, 26, a senior from Modesto, Calif., majoring in geology is one of those mountain bikers.
“This is kind of a transition time because you still can”t bike on most of the trails because of the snow, but then the snow isn”t that great at the ski resorts,” he said. “So a lot of people are heading down south where they can ride most of the trails there.”
People still rent mountain bikes from Outdoors Unlimited when they travel to places like Moab, Grand County, so business should continue to do well, Davis said.
Madsen said BYU students often choose Outdoors Unlimited because it is located right on campus and the prices are lower than other stores.
“Our ski and snowboard rentals are fairly competitive,” she said. “They”re probably one of the best prices you”re going to get around here.”
Madsen also said it is convenient for students who ride their bikes to campus to go to Outdoors Unlimited to get their bikes tuned up.
Because Sidwell has expensive taste in mountain bikes, he said he bought his bike from Outdoors Unlimited where it would cost less.
“Right now there are a lot of bikes on sale because it”s early season,” he said. “A lot of times you can find good deals here.”
Busy hours at Outdoors Unlimited nowadays are 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. when most people rent the equipment, and 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. when they return it.
“During those hours we have about 40 to 80 people come in,” Davis said. “It varies from day to day, but that”s a lot of people for us, in two hours.”
With Utah ski resorts closing for the season, mountain biking will grow in popularity, Madsen said.
“We don”t even have our full rental bike line out yet because we don”t have room for them,” Davis said. “But the bikes we do have out are gone every day.”
