What inspired you to mtn bike [Archive] - North Shore Mountain Biking Forums

trail worker

02-24-2006, 09:44 PM

In 2 words: Doug Detwiller.

10 years ago in elementary school my teacher was Doug Detwiller, founder of Sprockids bike club. He was just starting out his "program" to implement mountain biking as a good way of setting goals and creating a good influence on young kids.
Basically, myself and whoever else was in my class at the time where the guine pigs for the sprockids program when it first came out.
His entire classroom was devoted to bikes, he had a back corner of the room with a rack of bikes, piles of bike mags, jerseys on the wall, etc etc.

Later on he started tuesday group rides here on the sunshine coast, mostly for younger kids in elementary school. He got some of his older past students who were racing XC to lead group rides for the various skill levels. He also put on a few XC races up here, with alot of prizes and lots of good times. He had The norco factory trials team come out circa 1996 or so, which was super sick. I think it was one of the first events Ryan Leech attended.

Anyways, riding has always been there for me since then. Its probably the one thing that Ive stuck with thin or thick and always enjoyed, so thanks Doug Detwiller!

Battlecat

02-24-2006, 09:45 PM

What really got me inspired to ride was riding. I used to ride an easy trail with my parents up in whistler from my place down to function junction. One day it flooded so these guys put a ladder bridge in. I would just ride it over and over again. I loved it and knew I wanted to continue riding.

Thats what I think started me riding

M_Dub

02-24-2006, 09:48 PM

broke my foot... cudnt ollie well anymore
wanted to go back to the skatepark
bought a bmx and was hooked
rode for a year on bmx at the park
popped my tire up at station 2
two weeks later i bought a 2004 norco 250
and was hittin the big ones a week later, never looked back
the tire still isnt fixed

Dantes Inferno

02-24-2006, 09:50 PM

About 7 years ago I saw a kid with BOMBERS. I knew what I had to do.

Action Hero

02-24-2006, 10:07 PM

Dylan Shiedow

RiotGirl587

02-24-2006, 10:13 PM

i hung out with my brother alot when iwas younger..(dirtbiking,atving,dirtjumping on a pink bmx!, alot of other boyish stuff...) and soo i decided to pick up mtbing

SkunkworkS

02-24-2006, 10:16 PM

I always rode my bike.

Ever since I could crawl and talk, I would be seen on my little tricycle. Used to be just cruising around the neighbourhood with friends and whatnot, but living in Vancouver, I always saw Power Rangers on bikes. I knew there were trails so I headed out. And I gotta admit, disc brakes and Bombers were damn awesome.

I never returned.

Wayne P

02-24-2006, 10:17 PM

I sprained my ankles a lot when I used to skateboard, so I started XC riding to help strengthen them.

Tom

02-24-2006, 10:18 PM

I was into hiking, but my knee started hurting on the downhill stuff. I got a bike "for exercise" hoping it would help my knee get better. I was hooked in the first week.

Late Bloomer

02-24-2006, 10:35 PM

A combination of things inspired me initially. I had already been riding bikes religiously for about five years before I knew what singletrack was. On a whim, I signed up for a charity ride (MS Mountain Bike Madness) in '96. I got my ass handed to me, but I completed the ride and realized this was something that I had to have in my life. I soon met one of my best friends, Scotty Warner. He was a pretty good local XC racer that I met in our courier days. He showed me some of the sweetest singletrack that the area has to offer. He could have easily dropped me at any given time, but always kept me in his sights - often encouraging me when I obviously appeared flustered. He'd also ease up enough to let me see the lines he was choosing thru some of the techy sections. If it wasn't for him, I'm sure I would have been a mediocre rider at best - if I even continued to mountain bike after my "baptism".
I still ride with Scotty as much as possible and we've both inspired each other (as well as a few other friends) to new heights in both downhill and freeriding. Just last week we were discussing just how far we have come over the last eight years...ESPECIALLY the last few years.

The other thing that inspired me then and still inspires me is knowing that there are many people that can't ride - as much as they'd like to. Be it a physical limitation, lack of money or some other reason. Just knowing that I CAN do something like that keeps the fire burning. After all, there may come a day where I can't ride. I dread that day, but I cherish those days that I am able to. This is something that I hope to never take for granted.

Gimp Pimp

02-24-2006, 10:44 PM

My good friend Jordon was my inspiration. way back in grade 7/8 he would try to learn bunnyhops and stuff. I saw that and wanted to do the same. Those were some fun times:)

M@M

02-24-2006, 10:48 PM

in about 2001 or 2002, watching riders come down in the boneyard, i sat and watched forever. I was completly mezmorised.

Ed von Schleck

02-24-2006, 11:05 PM

Hm, on August 22nd 2005 my brother, who had been riding downhill and freeride for about 8 years, woke me up at about 5 o´clock in the morning, we drove 3 hours to a bikepark in good old germany, he rented a bike and protection stuff for me and at 9 o´clock I was riding at the beginner dirt tables. I never rode before anything like that (I used to ride my bike to school and that´s it). After 10 minutes, I caught air for the first time, after an hour I was doing some small drops and a few jumps. During that day I learned how to jump, how to bunny hop, had a great time on the fourcross, destroyed a truvativ chainguide and propably had one of the best days of my life.

One day later I was sitting in the airplane from Frankfurt, Germany, to Seattle, WA. My brother gave me the first issue of the german freeride magazine. On my way over here I decided to buy a bike and start riding. That´s basically what inspired me to ride bikes.

King of Fasia

02-24-2006, 11:06 PM

kranked 3, still one of the best movies out there, saw what was going on in the mountain bike world and had to be a part of it.

RiotGirl587

02-24-2006, 11:06 PM

wow...quite the introduction

Hack On Wheels

02-24-2006, 11:07 PM

Its all ShoreIH's fault. Since I tried it (and got my ass handed to me), I just haven't been the same since.

Col. Craig

02-24-2006, 11:09 PM

after buying a $20 specialized hardrock w/ a stripped crankset from a friend, i took it to the local hills and havent stopped since

Danksi

02-24-2006, 11:14 PM

http://www.rootsrocksflow.com/page5/page2/files/page2-1005-full.jpg

This lot... never looked back! :)

Late Bloomer

02-24-2006, 11:31 PM

kranked 3, still one of the best movies out there, saw what was going on in the mountain bike world and had to be a part of it.
That's the movie that planted the freeriding seed into my mtb garden...the Turkish segment in particular opened my eyes.

Ed von Schleck

02-24-2006, 11:38 PM

That's the movie that planted the freeriding seed into my mtb garden...the Turkish segment in particular opened my eyes.

Ooooh I remember that... My brother always told me to come over to his room and watch all those mtb movies, and the riding in Turkey was quite memorable. I was quite impressed but however, I never tried it. Well, I guess that changed a few months ago. :shhh:

King of Fasia

02-24-2006, 11:57 PM

yeah, tippie and wade rippin on those funny lookin RM6's, i was like wow, i have to get a freeride bike and upgrade this element race . . . . alot of money has been spent since then, ouch.

Grumster

02-25-2006, 12:02 AM

my older brother, he's also a serius rider ( JeffM on the boards), we both got are first mountain bikes at the same time, nishiki's, they killed it, BUT when I was like 10 I stopped for like a couple months b/c nobody road mountain bikes, and everyone was skateing, so I started skating, then my skateboard got snapped in half my my older cousin trying to acid drop off of his car onto the drive way. So I started riding again after that, got more sirius about it, and now I wont and will never be able to stop.

sanrensho

02-25-2006, 12:07 AM

What inspired me to get back on a bike?

Getting fat.

NooNer

02-25-2006, 12:10 AM

team sports sucked. i wanted to do something fun.

Bridges!!!

02-25-2006, 12:19 AM

Left my skateboard on the skytrain, picked up a bike

dead_sailor

02-25-2006, 12:29 AM

Ride To The Hills

Jaysin

02-25-2006, 01:31 AM

I was super fat, like SUPER fat, and my cousin CJ showed me what was goin on

Dude

02-25-2006, 02:00 AM

I've never not ridden. Went through too many bikes to count between 6 & 13. Rode everywhere imaginable...school, soccer practice, baseball, the pool, pretty much anywhere around Coquitlam, we rode. About 14 watched Dave Scott annihilate the field at Hawaii Ironman, and started saving my paper route money for a road bike. Told Dad I wanted to race triathlons, and my step mom told me it was a pipe dream. My Dad then says he'll cover anything I earn. Within a year I'd earned $500.00, and bought a Miyata 750 Road bike, complete with Scott DH bars. Got a job at Caps when I was 16, went through several high end mountain and road bikes. Used to train in the winters with nightly midnight runs to SFU for a quick boot up and down the trails there, using the old Night Sun lights. Continued to race triathlons & duathlons until I was about 19, then retired from that to focus on college soccer. Kept riding though; it's a part of life.

Mic

02-25-2006, 02:43 AM

used ot ride everywhere with a cheesy bianchi in the early nineties. did some xc tours, learned how to ride down steep things - thought about trying to throw in some skateboarding-like stuff, broke the frame. bought a katarga lx (reynolds frame still have it) with a rs quadra 21r and did some more riding, longer and more difficult stuff -

then i saw kranked 1 - and my world was never to be the same again. all downhill from there....like, i had been to bc a couple of times, but never for riding - now i feel like an idiot not having ridden on the shore in 96 and 97...anyway.

speed and flow probably inspired me, and some "brain-dead canadians" inrpiring me even more because i was afraid - and i try to not be it.

Bat Man

02-25-2006, 04:35 AM

riding my bike fast off road was fun
it was all i needed

trout

02-25-2006, 04:37 AM

teen angst.

Random Hero

02-25-2006, 05:14 AM

Spoke in middleschool.
Riding burke for the first time when I was 14 on my Gt, coming back with cuts all over my legs, sore hands, soaked to the teets, a broken bike, and one big shit eating grin on my face.

King of Fasia

02-25-2006, 10:14 AM

oh yeah i lost fifty pounds riding my bike one summer

LOBOTIDULATOR

02-25-2006, 11:08 AM

early on my friends neighbour made me ride up coast xc style on my rigid cromoly precision, and went and rode flywheel on burke. i was wearing sandals, came down with sprocket marks on my acillies(sp) tendon. then i forgot abotu biking, got heavily into lacrosse, watched krank 4 dangerous dan's section with Junkie XL - Legion playing, got hooked. started hanging out with alex stathis and matt breeden more, learnd to barhop.

DaveM

02-25-2006, 11:17 AM

My wife was into it for a few years before I met her. I figured I'd see what it was all about, borrowed an old steel rigid bike, had some fun, watched a video at a buddies house and then just let my natural obsessiveness take over. That was just 5 short years ago. That was the first time in 20 years that I'd been on a bicycle.

whistler110

02-25-2006, 11:37 AM

I guess it was just natural progression and being in the right area at the right time. I spent most of my years growing up on the North Shore hiking and biking.

I broke my first bike at age 4 trying to jump down 2 stairs, my mom was pissed but loves to tell the story now. My next bike was the wheely machine with the banana seat and the sissy bars until it got stolen, then came the road bikes until I moved to Kelowna in 1980 and saw what was happening in the BMX & MX world.

When I got older I bought motorcylces instead of cars and kept BMXing until MTB's became lighter and more nimble in 1990, then I got hooked. A bike that could ride like my BMX but could handle the trails that I was hiking yeehaw. With the type of Shore trails being built it was too addictive and I stuck to it.

So I don't think anyone or anything but timing inspired me to start MTBing, but I'm thankful that nothing inspired me to leave cycling.

This post realy makes me realize how old I've gotten.

NPhill

02-25-2006, 11:38 AM

http://www.greatoutdoors.com/tv/

What inspired me to mtn bike is this short video "Mountain bike magic", I've stumbled upon 2 years ago ^

Stumbling upon this link was a pure coincidence because I was looking for sites that have information on hiking trails in and around the north shore.

I would have never imagined people on mnt bikes doing stuff like that in the forest if I had not seen the vid.

The next day after seeing the vid I went out and bought my first shore bike.

.243racer

02-25-2006, 11:50 AM

one trip to Moab.

axisofevelknievel

02-25-2006, 11:51 AM

Moved to Whistler, needed something to replace snowboarding once the snow melted, moved here with a bike, started hitting some local trails with friends, and it all snowballed from there. In some ways I like it better than snowboarding, in other ways it doesn't come close and probably never will.

SubPlop

02-25-2006, 05:13 PM

My old buddy got me into it. That was 3 years ago.

chad

stubz

02-25-2006, 05:29 PM

In 2 words: Doug Detwiller.

pretty much the same for me

Jay T.

02-25-2006, 05:46 PM

parents bought me a bmx, i rode the hell out of it, started to ride with mtn bikers at a local school, started to do drops and stair gaps to flat, knew i had to get a mtb from that point on.

redsdisease

02-25-2006, 07:26 PM

Riding this short trail near my house on my crappy old costco bike with my buddy Steve, I beat the hell out of that thing.

Millstone

02-25-2006, 07:33 PM

I can definately tell you it was not and never could be this bb.

michelin man

02-25-2006, 07:37 PM

my good friend cory W. i was like 10 he came over he was like lets ride bikes.
never looked back.

BeggarsBanquet

02-25-2006, 08:01 PM

someone who loves and lives for biking, he's admirable that way. he rode and i was a pussy, but finally i came around. thaaaaaaaaaaaaaank you, you know who you are.

umbullit

02-25-2006, 08:27 PM

I had a decent bike. never had the urge to go off road. MY buddy gets hit by a car while he is riding. got a nice bike outta the deal. he and i went out riding, and got hooked from then on. Kinda jumped in head first into the freeride thing.. had my old xc bike stolen, and picked up the bullet. Have not really looked back since.

Chump

02-25-2006, 10:32 PM

Thomas Vanderham and Ride To The Hills.

Steve

Action Hero

02-25-2006, 10:35 PM

http://bb.nsmb.com/showthread.php?t=67422

this too

Lady Gravity

02-25-2006, 11:51 PM

i met a pro biker, he told me he hucked off buildings and i was like what the hell, people actually do that? checked out some bike movies, figured it looked like fun, took a womens only course, got covered in bruises from head to toe (was too stubborn to give up) and was hooked :)

still can't huck off buildings though...

Chunk

02-26-2006, 12:31 AM

ME and my friends hated having to ask my mom to get some place. So we biked. I was the first guy to get a new bike between the three of us friends, and when i got it, they were like "hey lets go take it to a trail!" So we did. We were all hooked. They got new bikes soon after, and the rest is history.

synchro

02-26-2006, 04:06 PM

I can definately tell you it was not and never could be this bb.

so why not just leave us then?

HeadOverWheels

02-26-2006, 04:59 PM

just moved back to Canada after being in England but accidently got a ticket for the Leftcoast, rather than the homeland. Then i met up with some east coast buds and they showed me the tiring way to get to Severed Dick. Each week for a year I rode up that damn trail with a GT Richochet and worked my way down the mountain. That didnt sell it for me.

I worked at a company and a buddy of mine was right into it. We went and really did Seymour the way it was meant to be ridden.

No turning back, the bikes just got more expensive and more fun.....

Actually this site kept me going. Good ol Nsmb is really some sort of internet family for me.

S-Dawg

02-26-2006, 06:06 PM

i didnt really have a choice, started by catwalking the sidewalk with a 25 dollar junkies bike. then some buthead and his dad made me buy a mountain bike, the i realized riding a bike down hills was fun, whenever i had the idea i didnt care anymore same buthead and same dad made me go biking. now i likey bike riding.

enduramil

02-26-2006, 06:26 PM

The year 1986 it was Patrolskid who took all of us racers out on MTB rides as part of training. Places like Lost Lake and Cheakamus Lake he took us and showed us how it was done. But more importantly gave me away to find adventure.

Jurz

02-26-2006, 09:53 PM

I Rode my BMX untill 1980,then never rode again untill 22 years later when I seen a 2002 Kona Stab Primo, I just had to ride again. Several bikes later im still here having fun.

jeebus

02-26-2006, 10:09 PM

my friend showed me freewheel burning and i was like this is the sport for me

bunny

02-27-2006, 12:13 AM

i was too stubborn to admit i sucked and biking was just a whole lot of pain.. all the guys at JH and the people i met on here convinced me that pain was a good thing... which inspired me to go hurt myself more. :)

RiotGirl587

02-27-2006, 01:12 AM

...when biking hurts...it could be a problem....unless ur riding hard...i dunno...maybe i dont ride hard enuff

0_o

02-27-2006, 01:23 AM

...when biking hurts...it could be a problem....unless ur riding hard...i dunno...maybe i dont ride hard enuff

WIDE OPEN.

Lady Gravity

02-27-2006, 10:20 AM

:lol: :lol:

umbullit

02-27-2006, 10:23 AM

...when biking hurts...it could be a problem....unless ur riding hard...i dunno...maybe i dont ride hard enuff
im not gonna touch this one..

seen44

02-27-2006, 12:02 PM

nick nimmo, i owe my hole life to him
my hero

Ducati

02-27-2006, 01:52 PM

I didn't have a choice. At the end of grade 12, I smashed both of my parents cars, in 1 week. (one was my fault, the second was not) For the next 2 years I had to ride everywhere, school, work, sports, everything. Since then, its just something I do. I started the shore type stuff after meeting my girlfriend.

the Master Plan Dan

02-27-2006, 04:13 PM

This is going to date me but riding my Consumers Distributing Voyager... full steel, I think it had steel tires as well... to the river behind my house and trying not to get a soaker from the water. I was always on my bike, always behind my house building jumps. I am guessing that I was never really that good, as I always came home with ripped clothing and cuts and bruises.

I wrecked that bike in no time, then I wrecked my brothers, then my parents bought me a Mongoose Hilltopper SX... SOLD!

I left my mind somewhere on the trails out there...

dudski

02-27-2006, 04:41 PM

either my brother and his friend pressuring me into hitting a two foot booter when i was 6 with no helmet or it was in the first kranked when me and my old lady comes on and someone hits the first sand drop of the section , that shot still pumps me up........69'n and bikes together in one, what could be better?

Farmer

02-27-2006, 06:42 PM

my friends dad rode, he got him into it, then my friend got me into it, now there are about 8 of us who ride together, but that makes getting to the mountain a bitch, as none of us can drive, and most of the time we are too lazy to ride up for a 1/2 hour to an hour before starting the real climb to the trail

XXX_er

02-27-2006, 06:53 PM

Summer of 83 in banff,we rented a couple of cheap mtn bikes,rode it along for a bit and it felt just like a dirt bike so I yanked the bar off the path rode down some stairs and over a bunch of shit and the way it handled really made an impresssion on me and my little foray really pissed off my GF

Desloc

02-27-2006, 07:59 PM

I would have to say that I have my father to thank for getting me started. He bought my first three bikes from the original Caps in New West including my first trike at an age before I can possiblely recall. Thanks Dad.

Stopped at about the age of 16 when carz, girls, and fun in general took to the forefront. Oh ya, and school too ;)

Retuned to biking in 91' because the bikes looked pretty cool, especially these mountain bikes with big wheels and shox. I just had to have that cool looking Nishiki with elevated stays and anno bar ends. Since then I've recruited over a dozen riders, many that never really rode before. Rewarding and addictive~!

Had a small delay in the late nineties with a little car accident, but was back at it again with full force in 02. Holy, how could one not be motivated and inspired by hydraulic disk brakes, 7" of Monster travel, and shocks with rebound and compression... I was in techno biking nirvana :)

Des