Bentonville Bikefest 2025
Our annual trip to Northwest Arkansas (NWA) is now complete! We kicked things off with a stop at Howler Bike Park, which is conveniently located on our way to Bentonville, and we always enjoy riding there. This time at Howler was particularly rewarding! The dry conditions, beautiful weather, and lack of slippery rocks meant Kelli avoided crashing. That’s right—she kept it rubber side down and tackled many features with confidence. Meanwhile, Steve continued to excel on the first feature of Taco Cat A, hoping to gather enough courage to attempt the second feature later this season.
After a fun day at Howler, we headed south to Bentonville to our amazing Airbnb. This year, we chose a new location right off A Street on Erika Court. Chris and Amy have added onto their home to accommodate bikers and travelers. They did an excellent job—the place is perfect and even includes a good-sized locked room for our bikes and biking gear, which we really appreciated. Check out their Airbnb here.
On Friday, we began our day by riding all of our favorite trails, including Dragon Scales (which is Kelli’s favorite), Jesse’s Last Stand, and All American, among many others. The conditions were excellent, and the weather was perfect! In the afternoon, we headed over to the Bentonville Bikefest to check it out. We were only able to spend a few hours there as the weather took a turn, and storms were predicted in the area. Luckily, the storms mostly missed Bentonville, which we were very thankful for! We ended our day at Bentonville Brewing Company, where we enjoyed food from Señor Shreddy’s taco truck. His tacos and nachos are amazing!
Saturday started off wet, which was a bummer! We rode our bikes over to Coler for coffee and to explore the paved Greenway. We got to see the beginning of the kids' enduro race, which was exciting. Eventually, we made our way to the top of Coler to check out Bikefest. We met up with one of our newest Brand Ambassadors, Thornton. We talked bikes and trails for a while and planned a ride for the following day. We were mesmerized by the trials riders; watching them practice was incredible. The amount of strength and confidence they demonstrate is extraordinary.
We also watched some professional BMX riders perform tricks on the main stage and caught the warm-up for the Straight Rhythm P/B BMX & Hyper Co. riders. Additionally, we explored the various vendor tents and decided that we should participate next year too! We hope to figure that out in the near future.
Saturday night ended once again at Bentonville Brewing and this time we tried their nachos, which were a hit! We highly recommend Senor Shreddys to everyone, they are the best!!!
These nachos are SOOOO GOOD!!!
Sunday started off rainy, so we decided to head down to Rogers to check out the Railyard for the first time with Thornton and his crew. It turned out to be a lot of fun, and we will definitely add it to our list for our next trip! Jumps aren't our strong suit, but the Railyard has a great progressive jump area perfect for practice. They also have a solid drop practice area, which we explored towards the end of our riding time.
Steve tackled the drops without any issues, and Thornton did well too. Kelli, however, was low on energy and had a near miss on the drop she attempted. Thankfully, she has a great sense of humor and was able to laugh at herself. You’ll even get to see her near-miss on Steve’s video. Steve and Thornton thought I was going to crash hard, but I ended up landing the fail and laughing at myself because my body didn’t cooperate with what my brain was telling it to do. Once again, I was saved by my bike! Check out the video here.
As you probably guessed, we ended Sunday with tacos at Señor Shreddys. I’m telling you, they are the best! You can find their information here. If you decide to give them a try, tell them hi from us!
Until next time, Feel the fear and send it anyway!
-Steve & Kelli
