Atlanta’s Off-Road Families

print email

If the family that plays together stays together, these local clans are in it for the long haul.

Mountain biking is often a solitary activity, but for several Atlanta families, it’s a sport meant to be shared. Riding at high speeds is the ultimate bonding experience for these three households.

Chris, Brigette and Norah Dusack  When Chris, 34, and Brigette, 37, first met, their shared love of mountain biking helped seal their relationship. So it’s little wonder that today, their 2-year-old daughter Norah considers a bike stroller her second home. “Norah has logged well over 50 hours in a Burley Stroller being pulled by a bike,” Brigette, a project manager with Assurant, says proudly.

What’s more, Norah serves as lead support for her parents during their six-hour races. “We all participate – Brigette and I take turns riding laps and Norah cheers us on and helps prepare our food and drinks,” says Chris, who’s a Bank of America portfolio manager.

What motivates them to pack up the family car and head for the hills? “We enjoy the exercise, nature, doing things together and the positive experiences for our child,” Chris says.

They also have fun dreaming about the day Norah will ditch her training wheels and tackle the trails with them. “While we don’t want our little sweetie to grow up too fast, we look forward to the day when we can enter a three-person team and have her on the bike, too,” Chris says.

Alex, Kim, Stephanie, Trace & AJ Nutt  It isn’t easy for a busy family of five to carve out time to spend together, but the Nutts (Alex, 46, Kim, 41, Stephanie, 18, Trace, 13 and AJ, 11) manage just such a feat. 

“I’m the biggest daredevil; I’m always trying to do stunts that nobody else tries,” brags Trace, who also races in the Georgia State Mountain Bike Championship series.

For Stephanie, “seeing wildlife along the trail is amazing… it’s wonderful to be surrounded by green growing things,” the competitive mountain-bike racer says.

Alex, owner of MTBTandems.com, a tandem mountain-bike supplier, says sharing his love of mountain biking with his family has been  hugely rewarding. “We’ve watched our kids grow up on bikes, and they’ve learned some great life lessons from it,” he says. “Perseverance… reward versus effort… self-sufficiency… as parents we try to teach our kids such things, but in the context of something as fun as mountain biking, the kids really understand what we’re saying – even if they won’t admit it!”

Eddie and Namrita O’Dea  It isn’t a huge surprise that Eddie, 32, and Namrita, 31, ride their bikes together at least four times a week; after all, these two are co-owners of 55nine Performance, an Atlanta-based bike-fitting service.

Eddie also races competitively at the national level, and he directs the Fool’s Gold Mountain Bike Races and Festival (which will be taking place in Dahlonega Aug. 15-17). Still, the pair says that when they head off-road together with their bikes, it is never about business.

“It’s a good way to spend time together,” Eddie says. “We both enjoy riding and racing, so we train together and ride for fun.”

Plus, zipping through the mountains on two wheels is so much more relaxing than crawling down the highway on four, anybody would agree. “I love being in the woods,” Namrita says happily.

“It’s a nice getaway from the city and its traffic.”

Comments & Feedback

Leave a Comment

Name: Email:  do not notifynotify Title: Comment: Code: Please input the code from the image above (case sensitive). Click image to generate new code.

3.26 Copyright (C) 2008 Compojoom.com / Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."