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By DEIRDRE FLEMING, Staff Writer Sunday, July 20, 2003

The teenage boys from Old Orchard Beach got ready for their second run down the Sunday River trails - even after one of them had already taken a head-over-heels spill. Ski season was long over on the mountain. For these lads, the radical rush was in the mountain biking action they were after.

During the first run down, Tyson Desrochers hit a deep pothole, sending him over his handlebars. He walked away laughing and unfazed - despite the huge crack in his bike helmet.

"A mere flesh wound," Desrochers said, with Monty Python-esque jocularity. One thing is certain about biking (or riding your brakes) down the mountain: There is no way to share in the thrill gotten by the regulars without risking injury.

"If you let off the brakes, you go flying. You definitely need shocks. Or you get rattled," said 13-year-old Joe Cote, who was riding on the mountain last weekend with his two friends. "You're pretty much thrown no matter what you do. But that's the fun in it. That's why you see $2,000 bikes here."

Sunday River opened its lifts to mountain bikers in the summer of 1990, making the resort the first one in the East to do so.

This year, for the first time in 13 years, the resort scaled back on the mountain bike services it offered.

Until now, Sunday River ran its chairlifts for riders from Memorial Day until Columbus Day.

Now, rather than staying open for stump-jumpers for 20 weeks, the mountain is open to them 10 weeks.

The resort not only scaled back, it raised prices, said resort spokesperson Susan DuPlessis.

Now biking on the mountain for a full day costs $32; a half-day costs $27. To get a lift ticket and rent a bike and gear for a full day of riding costs $77. At those prices, you could go skiing.

"We didn't have the volume that we did during that early season and late season. Our expenses were bigger than our revenue," DuPlessis said.

Thirteen years ago, the sport was expected to catch on like kayaking. DuPlessis said that never happened.

Even among mountain bike racers, numbers have dropped in Sunday River's racing series, called the "Big Old Mountain Bike Downhill Series," DuPlessis said.

Oddly, racers, passionate followers of head-over-handlebars downhill action, say numbers are on the rise. And riders from the Boston area rave about Sunday River - even though it's three and a half hours away.

"This is very technical, one of the most technical in the Northeast," said Alexis Wruble of Burlington, Mass., who was at a race on the mountain last Sunday. "Free riding is on the rise. Six percent among mountain bike riders, road riding has stayed flat."

Those who have a look at the sport from the sidelines, however, say it's in decline.

Chris Jodrey has worked the chairlift at Sunday River since 1999. He said the number of riders started to drop last year. The resort had three lifts running in the summer then. Now it's down to two lifts, Jodrey said.

A rider himself, Jodrey has no idea why others have lost interest.

What remains constant, he said, is the amount of antsy anticipation riders show before heading up the chairlift, whether they're frightened first-timers or veterans of the dust and dips.

"I would say 95 percent rent body armor. Those that don't, I kind of just give them a 'yikes' look," Jodrey said.

Bob Messier came a week ago from Bedford, N.H., with his son, who was competing in a Sunday River race the next day. He only had on partial body armor, but, as an avid black-diamond skier, this novice was enjoying the danger.

"This is cool. I was a little nervous, but it's easier the second time," Messier said. "I'm just sticking on the baby trails. The kids ditched me, but that was a given. I'd do this again. If you're afraid to ski, you'll be afraid of this. I love it. It's the same thing as going downhill on skis. I'm outside. It's beautiful."

Beautiful from the chairlift. But Messier said with roots, ruts and rocks beneath those shocks, he never looked up on his way down.

"Maybe next time I'll look around more on the chairlift," he said.

The Old Orchard Beach boys said they'd make as many as 15 runs down the mountain before heading home, more than two hours away.

The 15-minute ride up the chairlift takes time because the lifts run slower than they do during skiing season. Staff working the lifts have to load the mountain bikes on large hooks hanging off some of the chairs. Riders sit in chairs behind their bikes.

The lift is slow, but even teenagers from Old Orchard Beach can appreciate the views here of the Biglow Mountain range, the green hills and treetops. That is, when they're not wondering about the chances of wrecking their $700 bikes.

"We make fun of him. He's so in love with his bike," Cote said of Desrochers. "We're like, `Tyson, imagine if it fell off the lift.' "

On a nice summer day, the mountain breeze makes the trail riding a bit less of a bug bath than a ride through a marsh or lowland area.

The view is always lovely, even if the price to enjoy it is steep.

But, at Sunday River, the drop-off in interest is not a concern. Now it's just a question of marketing another popular outdoor activity.

DuPlessis said when the resort's golf course is finished next July, more tourists will be drawn to the mountain for that activity. Then with more attention on the mountain, perhaps the flailing daredevil summer sport will make a comeback there.

"When families come, parents will golf and kids will want to try something else," DuPlessis said. "Hopefully, we'll continue the (mountain bike) operation."

Staff Writer Deirdre Fleming can be contacted at 791-6452 or dfleming@pressherald.com.