Kids’ Confidence Soars at Beijing’s EagleHub BMX Club

Look out parents, because BMX and mountain bike riding has finally arrived in China, with more kids picking up the skills and confidence that go hand-in-hand with the sport every day. Here in Beijing, Eagle Hub is a small company running a variety of off-road bike riding related training and tracks across three outdoor locations in Beijing.

Eagle Hub was founded by Beijing local Eric Li back in 2017, and his story is one of a father making a dramatic life change for his two boys, now aged 11 and 8.  As a child, Li rode bikes to school, but cycling wasn’t considered a fun activity for kids and definitely not a sport. Fast forward to 2016 and the then avid road cyclist took his family to Boulder City in Colorado, US for the summer holidays.

A future BMX superstar?

Boulder is famous for adventure sports and while initially looking for a road cycling club that he and his boys could join, Li discovered a trail biking camp where children could learn the skills for mountain biking, BMX jumps, and other skills for riding bikes off-road. He signed the boys up for one week of camp, which quickly turned to three, with the boys riding from morning to night, loving every minute of what for most back in China would have been considered a “wild” adventure holiday.

Eagle Hub can accommodate kids from two to twelve years old

Upon his return to China, Li decided to quit his online advertising job and start Eagle Hub to give his boys a place to ride. He opened their first location in Changpin as a casual drop-in type space, but quickly found that it didn’t work well as guests tended to come once, try the bikes and never return. The idea that this type of off-road bike riding could be a serious sport for children wasn’t really being embraced by parents. Meanwhile, other bike clubs for kids tended to focus on very young kids, and teach them how to push themselves around on kick style bikes, without pedals. “Once kids turned six, they get too busy with schoolwork, so no other clubs bothered teaching older kids real bike skills” Li explains.

In 2018 Li decided to re-think his model and launched a club and coaching style program where families become members of the Eagle Hub, and children attend regular lessons to develop skills and progress over time. The model proved a success and has allowed Eagle Hub to grow over the last few years to include two more venues in the CBD, and Shunyi.

“Wheels up!”

Despite the success, Li says that it was still a challenge to help parents understand that off-road bike riding can actually be a fun and safe sport. “This kind of off-road bike rising isn’t popular at all in China. Most parents only let kids ride bikes inside apartment compounds as the roads are too dangerous these days. Moreover, actually doing jumps on bikes is considered to be the domain of stuntmen, not for normal children”. To ensure safety, Eagle Hub insists that all riders wear proper pads and helmets when riding.

Zipping around the dirt track

The day I visited the Eagle Hub’s facility in Tuanjiehu kids across all ages were zipping around the tracks, following coaches, and even trying out jumps while parents proudly snapped cell phone photos for their WeChat moments later that night. According to Li, parents quickly come around the understand the benefits of the sport. “An unexpected outcome for many parents is that their kids experience self-development through the training and become braver by learning to go down the hills and pump tracks by themselves on the bike”.

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Eagle Hubs venues have a variety of different bike tracks ranging from junior pump-track courses to more advanced jumping courses where the aim for students is “to get the wheels off the ground”. They also offer a range of courses with coaches teaching different skills to children from ages two to twelve.

Eagle Hub is planning to conduct summer courses at its Tuanjiehu location, and – the COVID-19 situation permitting – hopes to also conduct longer camps in the Chongli mountain resort, where the Beijing Winter 2022 Olympic games will be held.

Look out for the ice riders!

For more information about Eagle Hub and how to sign your kids up, find them on WeChat with ID: eaglehub, or scan the QR code below for the directory listing.

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Images courtesy of Eric Li / EagleHub, Unsplash, giphy