In September 2025, QuikrStuff proudly partnered with Roam Fest, an all-women, femme-centered mountain bike festival held at the world-class 18 Road Trails in Fruita, Colorado. This experience profoundly shifted our perspective on cycling events and the immense potential for inclusivity and diverse rider representation.
Roam Fest is all women, so Randee and daughter Amy “manned” the QuikrStuff tent for three days. Here they are dressed in neon for “the happiest hour” and the neon dance party in the desert.
To illuminate the very essence of this extraordinary festival, we had the privilege of interviewing Sam Ryan from the Roam Fest team.
Sam Ryan contributing leis to the fun at Roam Fest.
Q: Roam Fest mountain bike festival is so.many.things. How do you sum up the nature of the event and the culture and vibe that’s been nurtured over the years?
Roam Fest is first and foremost a bike party. It was created by Ash and Andi Zolton in 2017, a wife/wife duo who wanted to create a fun-first, femme-centered event that allowed folks to enjoy biking with friends. At Roam, you won’t find any competition, coaching, or clinics, just good pure biking fun with other folks that quickly become life-long friends. Roam Fest has always worked hard to cultivate a strong sense of belonging for folks who have felt excluded in the mountain bike or outdoor community as a whole: women, femmes, queer folks, BIPOC (black, indigenous, and people of color) folks, para and adaptive athletes, deaf folk, etc. As the event has grown over the years and more and more femmes have found their way to Roam Fest, the event has expanded to include intentional programming for those who continue to feel marginalized in the mountain bike community.
With the awareness that inclusion efforts cannot be passive or presumed, Ash and Andi hired a larger team including Dr. Rachel Olzer, Brooke Goudy, and Alexa Everson to create more of a sense of welcoming for people who don’t have all the layers of privilege that others have. After 15 festivals, we now hear regularly from our brand partners (who are traveling the world going to bike events) that Roam Fest is the most inclusive mountain bike environment they’ve witnessed.
Roam Fest attendees visiting the QuikrStuff tent during Happiest Hour.
Q: What’s your role with Roam and how does that fit in with the other key players?
My role with Roam Fest is Director of Operations and Partnerships. I came in after Ash and Andi and many friends had been running Roam Fest for years. I began by holding the partnerships side of things which was my favorite because I came from the Mental Health world, and partnerships are all about relationships. I love people. I also helped with operations as we built up our team. We are now a team of about 11 that work year-round on the planning team, and we ramp up to 40+ staff during the event. It’s a massive crew, but to run a festival of 1000 folks, we need a large team.
Group photo during Happiest Hour at Roam Fest Fruita 2025
Q: What advice do you have for other event organizers or clubs for intentionally creating space for and building community with nontraditional riders?
Alisha Zellner from SRAM said it best on our 2024 SHREDTalks panel: you have to hire folks that come from the communities that you want to include. You cannot build community for someone and then invite them in afterwards and expect it to feel authentic. Once you have an actual diverse staff–representative of the communities that are typically excluded–elevating those non-traditional folks into positions of leadership with decision-making power is vital. On the marketing side, ensure that you have actual diversity in who you are hiring as storytellers, as photographers, videographers, and content creatives. Acknowledging the role that racism, classism, ableism, ageism and so many oppressive forces play in our society as a whole is an important first step, and then actively working to dismantle it in your organizations is crucial. From that place, I think organizations have a real chance at creating a genuinely inclusive event.
Many thanks to Sam Ryan for sharing profound insights into intentional inclusivity, and for illuminating the purpose, culture, and sheer enjoyment of Roam Fest. As I mentioned to Ash while QuikrStuff was packing up, the only downside of Roam is that it’s going to make every other event in the bike industry feel, well, just so ordinary by comparison.
Angelina Martinson won a QuikrStuff bike rack at Roam Fest Fruita 2025.
