Bend nonprofit Dirty Freehub marks 10 years of creating route guides for gravel cycling

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Dirty Freehub, a Bend-based 20+ employee and volunteer based nonprofit organization that creates route guides for gravel cycling, is celebrating its 10th anniversary.

Celebratory events include an online party and in person ride on one of their original routes, Water and Lava, that will take place on Saturday, Aug 19. Details of both events will be announced on their Facebook page on Friday, August 11. 

In 2013, gravel cycling was the latest craze in cycling, and Dirty Freehub co-founder Kevin English put together his first route guide and posted it on a website. “I just wanted to share routes with people because a few of my friends were getting into gravel cycling and nobody knew where to ride,” he said. 

Ten years later, the nonprofit, which Kevin co-founded with Linda English, boasts over 12,000 miles of highly curated gravel route guides across the Western United States, including Canada.

The company also hosts a podcast channel, gravel biking camps and a Read & Ride program designed to encourage cyclists to read a book connected to a specific route, as well as the Dirty Roads Crew, which focuses on maintaining gravel routes around Central Oregon.

The Dirty Freehub site receives 15,000 unique visitors per month. The company is funded by sponsors, individual donations, grants and licensing. Some of their sponsors include Visit Bend, Oregon State Parks, Visit Eastern Oregon, Deschutes Trails Coalition, and Wahoo Fitness. 

Dirty Freehub’s free route guides provide downloadable maps, current comments from other cyclists, points of interest, and stories about the area. Both five star routes and development routes are included in the searchable database. 

With education being a major focal point of the company’s mission, Dirty Freehub offers up a wide range of topics that are rolled into their route guides. 

“We interviewed a rancher in Joseph so cyclists can learn about ranching, the leading expert on rattlesnake bites so cyclists understand the risk with snakes and what to do if they get bit, a geologist on the formation of the Wallowa Mountains so cyclists can learn about why the Wallowas are so special, and the leading expert on Sonoran pronghorns so cyclists will learn about their impact on wildlife,” said Kevin.

Dirty Freehub also includes stories about history. “When you are riding a route and realize that it was part of the Oregon Trail or the gold rush, it means so much more,” added Kevin. “The Amanda story in Yachats Oregon, for instance, is tragic; we have a podcast about how this statue represents the coastal Indigenous people.” 

As part of its social mission, Dirty Freehub is focused on economic development in rural areas. For example, in October, Dirty Freehub is having a small bike camp at Churchill School in Baker City, Oregon.  And currently, they are working on route guides for Antelope, Oregon that will be in sync with the reopening of the Antelope Market. According to Brandie Mc Namee, the owner of Antelope Market, “we want cyclists to feel invited to come ride in our area. Dirty Freehub helps us both understand and reach the cycling community.’  

“We think drip tourism is a big win for small towns. We can inspire cyclists to consistently visit rural areas so we think that’s a very sustainable model for the locals. We also love that we can use the infrastructure that already exists. The Western United States has endless miles of quiet roads that are a combination of logging roads, farm roads, and forest access roads. These roads are perfect places for people to ride bicycles as long as the people feel invited to use them and the cyclists know where to ride,” said Linda, Executive Director.