Jason Reser advocates for accessibility and equality through biking and outdoor spaces
Jason Reser is passionate about biking. He loves the way he feels when he rides; it puts his mind at ease. He loves connecting people with the perfect bike of their dreams. He loves advocating for trails and bike infrastructure.
To put in plainly, Reser loves biking and everything involving it. It’s not just a hobby for him either. Reser has owned Reser Bicycle Outfitters for the past 22 years and is the Trail Development Director for Cincinnati Off-Road Alliance (CORA). Throughout his work at CORA and Reser Bicycle Outfitters, he’s consistent about the same thing: promoting a healthy and accessible lifestyle through biking and increasing trails.
Reser Bicycle Outfitters
Reser had been racing bikes and going mountain biking for a long time. He worked at a local bike shop for around five years before deciding to open his own shop. In 2000, he did just that, debuting Reser Bicycle Outfitters as Newport was transforming into a modern, urban destination.
At his shop, Reser doesn’t just sell his customers a bike—he sells them a bike that is perfect just for them.
“Instead of being like, ‘Oh, you want to bike? Well, this is a great bike.’ It’s a lot of asking questions, finding out whatever kinds of activities they do. Maybe, learning a little bit more about their personality and what their dreams are and what they envision,” Reser says.
Reser works with each customer to figure out their needs for the bike—asking them what trails they plan on using, how long they’ll be on their bike and space preferences.
“Are you gonna use a credit card and stay in motels, or are you going to carry all your tent and everything with you and rough it?” Reser says. “No two people are the same. It’s very much just getting to know the customer and learning all we can about them, and then bringing our expertise and try to help them make the best choice.”
Reser doesn’t just sell bikes; he also repairs them. No matter the customer or bike, Reser repairs all bikes equally.
“We work on… could be an $8,000 bike one day, and the next bike we’re working on is fixing up a flat tire for someone that you know is basically using it to go to work and might not even, necessarily, have a home,” Reser said. “So, big swing of our very diverse customer base. And that’s the thing, it’s really cool because bikes are for everyone.”
Cincinnati Off-Road Alliance
Making biking accessible to everyone is one of the main goals behind CORA, a group of dedicated volunteers who want to build and advocate for more miles of off-road trails in Cincinnati and beyond.
In the late ‘90s, mountain bikers in the Tristate region wanted more off-road trails to explore and enjoy, which led to the founding of CORA in 1996. CORA is currently working to build trails in underserved communities. Reser says the alliance just finished a 5.25-mile trail off West Fork Road and Mount Airy Forest, which is one of the largest urban forests in the country.
CORA is also working on building a Skills Park and Flow Trail at Mount Airy to allow for biking newcomers to practice their skills and try out obstacles they might face out in the field.
“It’s an on-ramp for anyone to get into cycling or mountain biking. It’s going to be built out in a field and it’s just obstacles that [are] similar to what [people might] find in the woods,” Reser says. “There’ll be logs to ride over and different drops and ramps and things so that folks can learn in a controlled environment how to negotiate and build that lexicon of skills, so that when they go in the woods, it’s just so much easier.”
CORA is working with Cincinnati-based Adventure Crew to create programs that allow high school students to gain outdoor experiences and try biking. However, for Reser, it’s more than just biking. It’s about giving people a lifelong activity that can keep them healthy, help them focus and even prevent substance abuse.
“Some people are those big risk takers, and they might get into different vices or different substance abuse later to get the endorphins and stuff that they like,” Reser says. “But if we can maneuver those at-risk kids into mountain biking, then hopefully they’re gonna get that endorphin rush from mountain biking and not get into substance abuse issues.”
Reser cited studies from the Outdoor Industry Association that suggests that kids who engage in outdoor activities—like biking, hiking or boating—when they’re younger are likely to continue on with that hobby into adulthood.
“We see that as a way to connecting more kids and—especially in our urban area—to the outdoors, close to home for them,” Reser says. “Meeting people where they are makes a huge difference.”
Increasing Green Spaces
Despite what some may think, urban spaces are where trails and nature are needed the most, Reser says. New research suggests that in urban development having visible trees, green hillsides and sightlines makes people happier.
“Knoxville or Chattanooga. Bentonville, Arkansas—even Louisville, to a degree—make these trails in the green spaces through their cities. It’s making a huge difference in the livability. Trying to get more jobs to town and hire companies to come in and locate instead of just trying to do tax breaks and whatever—that might get them to come for a couple years—to really show them a very livable city and high quality of life,” Reser says. “We’ll get folks to move here much easier.”
Reser says CORA wants to help make Cincinnati a “much more competitive” city.
“Some of the cities that have the trails now, they don’t have the big museums, the Reds and the Bengals and the sports and as many restaurants and breweries and everything that we have to take advantage of,” Reser says. “We think that it, basically, will put us just over the top—over the tipping point as the best place to live in the U.S.”
