A Brief History of Bicycle Clubs in Stillwater

Told to the editor by Mary Cash,
Cooper's Bicycle Center

The Sunset Racing Club was active in the early 1970's in Stillwater for several years. As with many organizations in a university town, the core organizers of the club graduated and the club faded away.

In the early 1980's the Stillwater Bicycle Association was formed under a charter with the Stillwater Parks and Rec Department. The founders were interested in BMX racing and had previously built a track along Stillwater Creek near Ninth Street. This was an excellent track and was on the Summer Redline Tour in 1980. The club lost this track when the city widened the creek. Stillwater offered a replacement area near Sanborn Lake in the northern part of town, but the track never seemed as good as the original. Interest waned and another incarnation of the club passed away.

In time, adults began joining the club. Membership grew from Stillwater and surrounding towns and the club name "Red Dirt Pedalers" was coined to reflect its diversity.

Two regular bicycling events encouraged the club's growth in the mid and late 1980's. Stillwater was on The Oklahoma Grand Prix Series, a bicycling, swimming, and volksmarching event. The Red Dirt Pedalers also began holding yearly NORBA sanctioned mountain bike races. The Grand Prix Series has long died, but the yearly mountain bike race lives on.

In the early 1990's the club began its latest incarnation around a growing core of road fitness and touring riders. Although most social events of the club involve road riding, the Red Dirt Pedalers is committed to encouraging bicycling of all kinds and by riders of all ages and fitness levels.

The Red Dirt Pedalers host two cycling events: The Tour of Payne on July 4th for road cyclists, and the Lake McMurtry Challenge on the four MTB trails in early April.

Anyone interested in riding or bicycling issues in the Stillwater area should contact the Red Dirt Pedalers bicycle club through the editor of this web site*, the editor of the Wheel Issues newsletter, Cooper's Bicycle Center, or call the president of the club, Bill Burke, at 405-372-3825, or call Mary Cash at Cooper's Bicycle center at 405-372-2525.