4RESCUE
05-22-2008, 03:47 AM
What is it about riding bikes that just turns on that switch in my soul? I don't know if all of you folks are exactly like me, but I can bet that since were all here checking out some stoke material dedicated to the sport we love that we've got at least one thing in common... We LOVE to ride.
I can still remember my first bike. I was about 4 or maybe five and my cousin "big" Dave got a sweet new GT BMX and I was given his old steel framed, rattle canned late 70's who knows who made it and who cares special... My dad got it home and put training wheels on it for about 3 hours untill I decided I wanted to try it without. See I had gotten the feeling that I could lean the thing to make it steer better and I wanted to try out my theory. So the old man obliged, the trainers came off. I mastered the standing on the curb start since I was pretty short for the bike, and I was off. Sure enough you could steer the bike better whith the trainers off, and it sure did lean. To the tune of a skinned knee and my mom yelling at my Dad for "Letting me try that". BUT, I was hooked. Add to that the BMX track at Alpenrose Dairy and the discovery of a little film called RAD and it was, as I belive the kids are still calling it: ON.
Some years later, I spent $500 and bought myself a Rockhopper Comp FS. It was, actualy IS since I still have it, a chromo HT with the Big S's own version of the original Rock Shox Judy Elastomer suspension fork. For reference, $500 was alot of a 13 year old kid, and was more than I spent on my first car some years later. That bike was and still is a great riding bike that makes me loathe aluminum hard tails because of the suppleness steel. However, I found myself missing the BMX track and the jumps. So I got a short stem for it and a set of rise bars. Got some sweet V-Brakes (hey, this was 1990 so...) and found some 26x2.0 tires that closely resembled my BMX's tires. I then thought to myself: "Self, this bike can go faster and in theory because of the suspension, land rougher than your BMX can...". Sure enough, when taken to the top of my favorite big hills, and when ridden on jumps around the neighborhood the new bike just made it all faster and, to me, more fun. Again, it was on.
Not everyone saw the fun I was having and alot of my friends who were also riders couldn't figure out why I wanted to sit so upright and why I was always trying to jump off everything. O well, some folks just don't get it eh.
It was a few year later that while over at a friends party in highschool that I saw what I had been dreaming of in my head all these years. I saw my first "free-ride" mountain biking movie. Turns out I wasn't alone in my insanity, and from the first scene, I was hooked.
A few years later, and I found this great comunity called NSMB. Even though I'm American, I am from Oregon so everything I saw of the shore just looked exactly like my back yard. Next thing I know the sport is picking up speed and I'm seeing riders everywhere. I feel like I just blinked and I'm almost 30 and this thing we call riding has balooned into a full blown industry within an industry.
Turns out everyone rides too. I work in an ER and after 6 months I fond out that 3 of my Docs are guys who helped build Post Canyon here in Oregon, and my Neighbor has a secret stash of DJ's that I've been fortunate enough to ride. I for one couldn't be happier.
I've got a busy life, and I can honestly that I've been on a bit of a riding hiatus the last few years, but BOY O BOY when I threw a leg over my rig again a few months ago... Those old feelings came on flooding back. And what great feelings they are. My rig may not be the newest or the blingest, but man does it ever work miracles. Laying it over and just trusting the tires. poping off a little lip into oblivion... Whatever it is, whenever I'm on my bike hauling ass and just floating over the trail or boosting off a lip, I can't be happier. that whoosiung sound of wind that get's louder and of a different tone the faster you're going. That split second where you're not sure of the line but you know you're going too fast to stop now and you pull it out. Coming back and stomping that jump/drop/whatever that kicked your ass last time. There's nothing better.
So, whatever it is that get's you personaly out there. Keep doing it cause when I look around at what we've built and where we've come, I'm impressed. I hope to someday meet alot of you folk and get to ride with you. untill then, take comfort in the fact that were all in it together, and where ever I am, I'm stoked on riding, so I've got that particualr area covered...
Cheers and No Worries
Dave
The thing that get's me stoked...
http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j309/4x4Rescue/PICT0672-1.jpg
I can still remember my first bike. I was about 4 or maybe five and my cousin "big" Dave got a sweet new GT BMX and I was given his old steel framed, rattle canned late 70's who knows who made it and who cares special... My dad got it home and put training wheels on it for about 3 hours untill I decided I wanted to try it without. See I had gotten the feeling that I could lean the thing to make it steer better and I wanted to try out my theory. So the old man obliged, the trainers came off. I mastered the standing on the curb start since I was pretty short for the bike, and I was off. Sure enough you could steer the bike better whith the trainers off, and it sure did lean. To the tune of a skinned knee and my mom yelling at my Dad for "Letting me try that". BUT, I was hooked. Add to that the BMX track at Alpenrose Dairy and the discovery of a little film called RAD and it was, as I belive the kids are still calling it: ON.
Some years later, I spent $500 and bought myself a Rockhopper Comp FS. It was, actualy IS since I still have it, a chromo HT with the Big S's own version of the original Rock Shox Judy Elastomer suspension fork. For reference, $500 was alot of a 13 year old kid, and was more than I spent on my first car some years later. That bike was and still is a great riding bike that makes me loathe aluminum hard tails because of the suppleness steel. However, I found myself missing the BMX track and the jumps. So I got a short stem for it and a set of rise bars. Got some sweet V-Brakes (hey, this was 1990 so...) and found some 26x2.0 tires that closely resembled my BMX's tires. I then thought to myself: "Self, this bike can go faster and in theory because of the suspension, land rougher than your BMX can...". Sure enough, when taken to the top of my favorite big hills, and when ridden on jumps around the neighborhood the new bike just made it all faster and, to me, more fun. Again, it was on.
Not everyone saw the fun I was having and alot of my friends who were also riders couldn't figure out why I wanted to sit so upright and why I was always trying to jump off everything. O well, some folks just don't get it eh.
It was a few year later that while over at a friends party in highschool that I saw what I had been dreaming of in my head all these years. I saw my first "free-ride" mountain biking movie. Turns out I wasn't alone in my insanity, and from the first scene, I was hooked.
A few years later, and I found this great comunity called NSMB. Even though I'm American, I am from Oregon so everything I saw of the shore just looked exactly like my back yard. Next thing I know the sport is picking up speed and I'm seeing riders everywhere. I feel like I just blinked and I'm almost 30 and this thing we call riding has balooned into a full blown industry within an industry.
Turns out everyone rides too. I work in an ER and after 6 months I fond out that 3 of my Docs are guys who helped build Post Canyon here in Oregon, and my Neighbor has a secret stash of DJ's that I've been fortunate enough to ride. I for one couldn't be happier.
I've got a busy life, and I can honestly that I've been on a bit of a riding hiatus the last few years, but BOY O BOY when I threw a leg over my rig again a few months ago... Those old feelings came on flooding back. And what great feelings they are. My rig may not be the newest or the blingest, but man does it ever work miracles. Laying it over and just trusting the tires. poping off a little lip into oblivion... Whatever it is, whenever I'm on my bike hauling ass and just floating over the trail or boosting off a lip, I can't be happier. that whoosiung sound of wind that get's louder and of a different tone the faster you're going. That split second where you're not sure of the line but you know you're going too fast to stop now and you pull it out. Coming back and stomping that jump/drop/whatever that kicked your ass last time. There's nothing better.
So, whatever it is that get's you personaly out there. Keep doing it cause when I look around at what we've built and where we've come, I'm impressed. I hope to someday meet alot of you folk and get to ride with you. untill then, take comfort in the fact that were all in it together, and where ever I am, I'm stoked on riding, so I've got that particualr area covered...
Cheers and No Worries
Dave
The thing that get's me stoked...
http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j309/4x4Rescue/PICT0672-1.jpg