How to Win a Free Mountain Bike

Have you ever wanted to win a free mountain bike, with a trip to California and a helmet cam to boot?  Well, read my award winning essay below for some ideas on how to go about doing just that:

Me riding at Gainesville State College

Hello, my name is Greg Heil, and I am no newbie mountain biker. I have been riding mountain bikes for five years, and have ridden over 120 trails in Montana, Colorado, Wyoming, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Georgia, and South Carolina. I was brought up in the sport by an older rider who had been riding bikes for well over 20 years. Due to his instruction and my expert-level downhill skiing experience, I caught on very quickly and have been able to reach the level of an advanced all mountain/cross country rider.

Riding isn’t just another one of my hobbies. Currently living in the mountains of North Georgia, I have some of the gnarliest terrain in the state located a quick 15 minute drive from my house. I take advantage of it, and get out riding 4 days a week on average. I have just moved here to the city of Dahlonega at the beginning of the year, providing me with a new proximity to the famed trails of Pisgah National Forest, North Carolina. I have not had the opportunity to ride there yet, due to the snowy winter we’ve had in these parts. However, I have a dozen rides researched and I am totally ready to hit the road when the weather warms!

When it comes to producing quality content online, I am no slouch either. In fact, I have been creating and publishing my own content since the 2nd or 3rd grade, and have been doing so online since the 7th. At the age of 21, I have had plenty of time to become well acquainted with the arts of writing and photography, as well as building an online presence. I am an active member of the mountain biking websites singletracks.com and mtbr.com. To really see how my experience with mountain biking works in tandem with that of writing and photography, you don’t need to look any further than my mountain bike blog: http://gregridestrails.com. Yeah, this blog is not even two months old yet, but it definitely is not the first blog I’ve ever written. However, I am especially proud of the direction that I am taking this blog in in terms of the quality of content, and the usefulness and entertainment that it will provide to other mountain bikers.

As with everything, I am writing and publishing on this blog primarily because I have fun doing it! That’s why I mountain bike too: I have fun riding singletrack, so I do it. Sometimes I think people make it way more complicated than it is. Mountain biking is fun, and that’s why we ride! Yes, we get competitive and strive to become the best rider we can, but at the heart of the sport I think mountain biking is just pure fun!

So if you want an experienced mountain biker who just loves to get out and ride singletrack, then sign me up as the next member of Flight Crew!

So if you were looking for some sort of super-secret to getting free schwag, sorry.  But if you ride your butt off, write a lot and keep doing it and don't give up, in the end I bet it will start paying off. 

By the way, I didn't win on my first try.  I've entered other contests before and lost.  I'd just like to encourage you to do what you love, and never give up!