How Did Mountain Biking Find You?

I bought a Honda Element.

I bought into the dream of being outdoorsy with this car purchase.
Two years after car ownership and multiple random bike shop stops I ended up moving near Aliso Wood Canyon.

Friend of a friend rode mountain bikes so I bought a bike in preparation to go ride with him and my friend one day.

First time down mathis in Aliso, I was hooked. After the ride during lunch I couldn't stop talking about how awesome it was. (Even the guy I rode with was like, "Is he always like this?" because I couldn't stop talking about it)

Saw my neighbor with his friends shuttling all the time and asked to ride with him. He saw that I was a beginner and basically told me to keep riding and that one day he'd ride with me.

Started riding with him on an entry level 4inch XC bike. Riding more technical stuff in Laguna was always fun 6 months into riding, haha.

My latest motivation to ride is to get in shape. I can't stand being in 2,000th place out of 4,000 people on most climbs. Well on the internet it really bothers me, but when I am riding, I find myself going into hibernation mode on anything in hopes to keep my energy for the downhills. I have gotten better as I now set out to get PRs on climbs, or "loops"
 
1995, almost 20 years ago had a health scare, overweight and high BP from too much desk work. Doc said I needed to get more excersize. I had chronic sore knees, so couldn't run, hike or even walk too much, but always loved the outdoors. Buddy said, see if you like mountainbiking, it's easy on the knees and it gets you "out there". I was skeptical, riding a bike seemed like kids stuff, but my old moto background drew me to it. So he took me on my first ride to do a San Juan trail shuttle. I loved it (even tho I thought I was going to die on some of the little climbs on SJT). I was hooked.

Many different reasons why I ride now, getting "out there" away from the bustle, getting/staying in shape, friends and camaraderie, solos just to think, G forces, flow like flying, taking care of my trusty steed myself, knowing every noise and vibration and if it needs some attention when I get back. And it's just fun and feels good. :D
 
Early 1990 I was dating a girl. Her brother had raced road bikes for almost 20 years. He had recently got in to mountain biking and had picked up a couple of MTBs. He asked if I rode and I said no but I raced BMX back in the 70's. He let me ride his wife's Diamondback on a ride. I was hooked. Within a couple of weeks I went down to Cycle Path in Chatsworth and picked up a Raleigh Chill.
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Within a year I had lost my job and had to work two jobs to make ends meet. At that point there was no time to ride and I was really getting into motorcycle roadracing. A bad car accident in '96 left me unable to do any kind of exercise for almost a year. Once I could I got my Raleigh tuned up and started riding again. Things had changed since I last rode and I started noticing bikes had suspension. Picked up a '98 Raleigh M800 and really got into it. Picked up a couple of more bikes and then in 2004 got back into dirt bikes. I all but stopped riding the MTB. Was riding maybe once a month or so. In 2009 I moved to Simi Valley and stopped riding the dirt bike and focused more on the MTB. I picked up a 2007 SX trail.
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Fast forward to 2011 and my wife leaves me. Little did I know it would be the best thing that ever happened to me. Started riding as much as I could and even picked up a road bike. In the beginning of 2012 I met my fiancee Jennifer on a road ride. Turns out she raced mountain bikes for 10 years and had gotten a little tired of it. Well we both dove in head first and bought new MTBs and have been riding together ever since. I ride because I love it and it keeps me in relatively good shape.
 
Great subject Mikie... I'll try to keep this short but I don't think it's possible.

Mountain Biking found me about year and half ago. I had moved to a new town(Castaic) and didn't really know anyone and thought I was going to die of boredom sitting on the couch. I had always been an off-roader(dirtbikes,jeeps etc...) but it was becoming a project to go anywhere and I started losing interest. I kept seeing tons of guys with mountain bikes staging at the local sports complex and figured there must be something to it. Talked the wife into buying bikes together thinking we would both enjoy it. First ride together was super windy and up what seemed to be an impossible dirt road(easy cimb today) that we had to HAB and she promptly retired from mountain biking after calling me everything but a white man. I however realized it was a great escape that allowed me to completely tune out all of life's other BS and focus on myself and really clear my head no matter what the conditions were. I knew I felt better with all the exercise but about 6 months in I had friends asking me if I was sick because they hadn't seen me in a while and I had lost a lot of weight so that really started to fuel me. I lived on BMX bikes as a kid and life was much simpler so it all makes sense. Today I kind of eat breath and sleep mountain bikes and wonder why it took me 44 years to discover it. I can leave from my garage and be on some trails within minutes, no truck and trailer and two hours of loading and a hundred bucks in fuel just me my bike and my camelbak(Sh!t that thing is heavy). I become highly irritable if I go more than two or three days between rides and currently put more miles on my bikes than I do my cars. Some of those miles have to be on blacktop commuting to and from work but at least it's an option, it's on my mountain bike and I've learned that all bike miles are enjoyable and instead of looking for reasons not to ride I now look for reasons to ride. Refuse to become a spandex clad roadie though... :mrgreen:
 
I was 14 years old, my buddy and I wanted something to do on a Saturday. So we hopped on our Sears Free Spirit 10 speeds and rode from Cypress to Azusa. Would have headed up the canyon but my forks snapped just above the axle on the right side. This was 1975...no cell phone, no internet. Had a dime to call but I don't think anyone was home anyway. Being a Boy Scout, I duct taped the fork and rode it home (Yes, that really worked. I should have been terrified going over Hacienda Heights but I didn't know enough to be scared).

Fast forward 36 years...Like others above have said I was gaining weight, BP going up, cholesterol too high, figured I'd better do something. My wife had bought me a Schwinn MTB, which had been gathering dust in the garage. Heard about the FLoop, so I took it there. Thought I was gonna die of asphyxiation, or an aneurysm.

Being the ornery cuss that I am, I resolved to make those young'uns who passed me look bad. While many people can still out-climb, out-run, and out-downhill-bomb me, I do okay. I enjoy any kind of riding. MTB & road. I'm either on this...



Or this....



or this...

Dang. Just realized I don't actually have a pic of the new XTC.

I quickly realized that I had forgotten just how much fun it is to hop on the bike and ride. Dirt, or pavement, or both. Give me an hour of free time and I'll be pedaling. The scenery I've seen is by itself sufficient inducement.

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Oh and one other thing is that I eventually figured out that 50+hp 250lb dirt bikes are hard to hang on to when you have a bunch of screws pin and plates holding your body together. 26lb mountain bikes are much easier to bounce around on... Crap it might be time to change my screen name.
 
I think I have the stupidest story.

I lived in Durango during college in the 1980s and I was a ski racer. My buddies bought mountain bikes and were riding locally and in Moab and they couldn't stop talking about it. I reasoned "I never even ride my road bike, so why get a mountain bike?" One of the guys in my dorm - a motocrosser - was Greg Herbold. My buddies met up with a guy named Ned Overend for some rides. I didn't get it.

Fast forward to the start of my teaching career in Colorado Springs. I was into whitewater kayaking and occasionally made my wife come along. I bought her a "mountain bike" (Trek Antelope) so she could entertain herself on the dirt roads while I was paddling. Later that year (I think it was 1989) I bought a MtB and rode some trails near my house. WHAT A FRIGGIN" FOOL I WAS - missing all of that Durango and Moab time. I was hooked from the first turn in the woods.

:oops:
 
Asking why I ride and accepted mountain biking into my life is like asking what is mountain biking to me. That is a tough question.

I once pondered the answer to the question, "what is the meaning of life?" Now that's a relatively easy question for me to answer, which I settled on the answer, the pursuit of happiness. What is happiness? Now that's one question with no certain answer, as it's different for everyone and it even changes over time. That's why it's phrased as the pursuit of happiness. For me, mountain biking is happiness. Whatever burden or pressure life puts on your shoulders, mountain bike offers an escape where you can get a breath of relief, free yourself from system of society temporarily, and look inwards to your own psyche which helps straighten things out equalize your inner balance so you can continue moving forward without faltering. It can even be like meditation at times, the trance-like rhythm of pedaling, breathing, flowing with the terrain, becoming one with nature. It helps to strengthen the mind, to release more control to you over from your subconscious that typically stops you due to fear of the unknown.

If you wanted an answer from me like the others in this thread, well, that kind of compels me to tell you about my life, from when I was a kid until now, and would be akin to a 10,000 word essay.
 
These are great responses.

If you were a kid in a middle-class Phoenix suburb in the 1970s, you were a mountain biker before there were mountain bikes. Every kid rode bikes in the dirt, did jumps and whatever terrain was handy. Some raced BMX. Even cruisers were in the dirt. By the time Specializeds hit the market in the 80s, it was a new tool for an old passion.

I bought my first MTB in '89 as a commuter when I lived in Boston (I had no car for 4 years there). Wicked Fat Chance with road slicks, right from the Sommerville factory off the Red Line. Once in CA, the slicks came off and a new chapter began, which is still gleefully in progress. I sold my $1800 bike for $75 a few years ago.
 
9 years ago I asked Santa for a new bike so I could ride to the gym instead of drive. When shopping I was steered away from a comfort bike (thank God) and moved toward a mountain bike.
Then somebody said something about a Fullerton Loop for riding ... yup, that's kind of how it got started. Blue jeans and the Fully Loop!
Fast forward and several crappy ski seasons later, riding restores my sanity and gives me a pretty damn decent workout. The best part is I get to ride a bike with my husband on ride dirt trails and act like a kid. :mrgreen:
 
wow there are some great and super interesting stories here. Meeting wives, not riding with Ned Overland, and people, ok one person getting all philosophical. BTW Varaxus, do you read any philosophy? Cool thread

For me my son wanted a bike for his 10th B-day, he was tall and when we were at the shop he wanted a mountain bike - a trek 3700. Man he beat that thing to death and is on his 3rd bike now. I thought it was great to have an activity to do with my boys and I ride all over the place with him and my now 9 year old. Surfing is hard for kids, but they could bike, and soon they could climb some big hills. It has only been about 4 years, we have done some fun road trips to Tahoe, Big Laguna, Snow Summit, Kernville and few others. Cant wait for the next trip, its a great way to explore with the kids and get fit. Lately the surf has been amazing so I have not ridden much but I just mix it in when the waves are not good, and thats most of the time.
 
I used to ride road alot growing up in Palos Verdes, then one christmas I got a new thing called a mountain bike, it was an 87 GT Timberline, my parents got at Circle Cycle, which we all now know as Price Point. 6 months later my parent told us we are moving to Lake Isabella( its a long story). We lived in Mt. Mesa and i would ride up to Cooks peak all the time and generally ventured out from there. It was funner than riding my road bike because you could generally go anywhere with the bike and see things I could not on the roadie. Have been hooked ever since. I do ride a road bike from time to time but still love the mountain biking experience.
 
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I totally forgot about the 1971 Cub Scout den outing to someplace full of dirt, somewhere in at-the-time under-urbanized North Orange County. Where we proceeded to ride our Schwinn Stingrays with banana seats and sissy bars, and which of course lacked suspension in any way,shape or form, over jumps, berms, gnarly other stuff. And having my ape-hanger handlebars snap off on landing. I managed to avoid being impaled on the stem, but I also remember that bike maintenance became a priority shortly after that.
 
Back in the day as kids my friend GD and I were heavily into BMX/Urban Assault. We rode together for years and years tearing up the city. As we got older we hung out less as girls and jobs got in the way. I did some road riding in my 20's but the local riverbeds soon got boring. Found myself not riding any more. Then one day many years later, 2002 ish, I'm driving down the 91 freeway and some jackass is driving ridiculously slow while talking on his cell phone. I drive by to give him the finger and low and behold it's my old friend GD. Turns out he had just moved to Fullerton (as I did too) and just bought a $3000 Santa Cruz Heckler. We got together later for a ride on the Fully Loop. I couldn't even do one lap I was so out of shape. I wasn't hooked until one day he let me ride the Heckler. It's all down hill from there.
 
OK, here's the short version. . . . .

Got a Schwinn Sting-Ray for my 5th birthday in 1963 (Geezer Alert - - - - - Geezer Alert - - - - - Geezer Alert - - - - - Geezer Alert). Loved what we would now call a mild form of urban mountain biking. Jumping off of any and everything in sight. Gradually, the Sting-ray got converted to a BMX/MTB steed. Even did a Cub Scout Hare-n-Hound in what I think was at O'Neil Park one time. Brutal! Eventually got into mini-bikes, and dirt bikes. Dirt bikes back then for us were mostly converted Honda 90's, Yamaha 80's and Hodaka 100's. Wide World of Sports started showing some motocross events, and guys like Roger DeCoster were our sports heroes. Crossup. . . . Braaaaaaap :P Got into desert riding a bit too. My dad used to bring home bikes he found in the trash, and we would refurbish them to ride around town. Beaters for certain, but very functional and FUN! I didn't start driving until I was 17.5 years old, so the bike was my only mode of transport, and I rode all over the place.

After High school, got more into cars (Pontiac Power!), girls and so forth, and my biking days had soon become a distant memory. I did get a Honda XL600R the year they came out (1983) and rode the tar out of it until the head bolts pulled out of the cases :o

Work.

Marriage.

Kids.

Fast forward to 1995 and I was working at Amgen in Thousand Oaks, where there are quite a few cyclists among the employees. I noticed that some would even ride at lunch time and thought that might be a cool way to get some exercise. So, I went to Newbury Park Bikes and got a badass GT Outpost for $325 and one of the guys took me on the lunch loop. Up Space Mountain, and down Rosewood, and back to Amgen. On the way up Space Mountain, I thought I was going to expire and had to stop at least a dozen times. . . . . I LOVED it! It transported me back to being ten years old and that feeling of freedom, speed, and adventure.

Problem for me was that the guys that I knew that rode MTB were actually very good riders and I had no shot of being anything but 'that guy' when I rode with them. So, I rode by myself most of the time because I really didn't like being 'that guy' even though they would still invite me along fairly often.

About that time, my daughter was getting old enough to ride a bike and her being the type of kid that loved spending time with dad regardless of what dad was doing, she started going on short rides in the local hills when I only had a short time to ride. She proved that she could hang there, so I decided to take her on a 'real ride' in Sycamore Canyon (Pt. Mugu) on a lead pipe framed bike from Sears when she was 9. We rode through Wood Canyon, down to the beach, down the coast to Neptune's Net for Lunch, and then back to Newbury Park. 31 miles! She slept the whole way home in the car, but we had a great time.

For her tenth birthday, I bought her a lightweight LaLuna steel hardtail with a Rock Shox Quadra fork and LX drivetrain. Sweet ride for a 10 year old. She went riding with me wherever we would go. Places like lift assisted riding in Big Bear, and anywhere else we could find. After going through the upgraditis routine on the GT, I eventually moved on to a 1999 Cannondale Super V and soon my son got the bug too, and we would all ride together.

My daughter went off to college and joined the cycling team, but soon moved somewhat away from MTB over to the dark side of road riding (racing actually), and naturally my son and I had to see what all the hoopla was about. I soon found us each with a quiver of four bikes *facepalm* for all the different riding we were doing. Naturally, I had to figure out a way to keep them all rolling as well and began doing all sorts of maintenance, including building wheels and cobbling together enough lights to get us all out riding in the dark.

Now that both kids are out and on their own, I have more time to ride than ever, and although I do still manage to ride with them occasionally, I really miss riding with them kids more often.

I too have a story similar to Herzalot's.

My son was playing in basketball leagues when he was pretty young, and my daughter was playing soccer. I had got involved in coaching soccer, and my wife would take my son around to his basketball games. Truth is, I preferred to be involved with 13 year old girls playing soccer rather than 8 year old boys playing basketball just because it was a sport at a higher level, and it can be tedious trying to teach an 8 year old to dribble when I could be teaching functional and tactical subjects to another group. We all have our specialties :~)

One day my wife tells me that one of the dads from my son's basketball team "invents mountain bike parts" and that I would probably enjoy meeting him. I envisioned a guy 'inventing' some crappy bike accessories that might make it into the nearest Wal-Mart and with my back to her, made a gesture that resembled a man flogging a stubby dolphin (you know the one :o ). I had decided I would likely be disappointed, so I would do all I could to not have to meet this guy and pretend that he actually made some cool mountain bike parts. She kept on telling me about how much she thought I would enjoy meeting Dan and his friend Brian (that was also into riding and 'inventing' mountain bike parts). I put it off as long as I could and finally was invited to a birthday party at Dan's house and had no way to get out of it.

Alright, I'll go.

Turns out that "Dan" was Danny Soltelo, founder of the original Onza brand, wrench for Missy when she raced for Yeti, etc.

And his friend "Brian" was Brian Skinner. Yeah, that Brian Skinner. The one that Mountain Bike magazine called the 13th most significant person in MTB history.

They turned out to be very cool guys, lots of fun and great energy.

And they did invent some VERY COOL mountain bike parts to say the least.

Yup. . . . . I was such a ginormous TOOL :P
 
Mikie! You keep coming up with good ideas… Great topic.

These are all great reads...Daddy Dirtbag's ending had me in stitches!


My story has some similar elements. I grew up in the middle of nowhere, on the shores of mighty Lake Erie. I started biking, because there weren’t very many kids to play with in walking distance. Actually, the closest was about a mile away. I biked to play with friends, and we eventually went farther and farther together. I did my first century at 12, around Lake Chautauqua, on a bike made from junk parts. I bought the green Schwinn that I’ve posted in other threads in the mid 80s… It was an entire summer of mowing lawns. :-) It may be a road bike, but in the 80s, it was an “all terrain vehicle”. It’s been in the snow, under water in Lake Erie, through the woods, and thousands of road miles. I'm pretty sure I could still handle it on ice, but I'd probably need the 27 inch tires back... :D

We took a 15 year detour to Florida… This was bad. Puerto Rican, Dominican, Colombian, Haitian, and Jamaican foods are really addicting. Damn you, Arroz con Gondules! I ended up close to 300 pounds. My wife has been back to Florida a few times on business over the years, and shipped 10-15 pounds of food overnight on dry ice. Yeah, I was hooked bad… If you’re ever in the area of Disney World, I strongly recommend Maraca’s in Kissimmee.

A few years ago, I got the bug to start riding again. When the size 42s were getting tight, I knew it was time! All the dads involved with my kid’s baseball team could run around and help out with the kids. That was real motivation to get in shape. I bought a $700 Diamondback from Performance, and rode the hell out of it. I climbed Live Oak in O’Neill 2-3 times per week for months. Sometimes, the bench at the halfway point was too far, and I would turn around and coast back to the park entrance. And, I didn’t even try for the cell towers at Vista for months. The Diamondback is still in the garage, and will probably be donated to charity at some point. Some of the parts are worn, and the Suntour “shock” is useless, but the bike held up very well and is still rideable. When I could finally reach the cell towers, I started branching out and discovered the Arroyo and Tijeras trails, Waterworks, and all the others in the area. It’s been a slippery slope since then…
 
Grew up in chino riding/racing BMX as a kid, until my bike got stolen... Age 13. Fast forward to 1993 age 21, bought a Cannondale super v (fully ridged). Rode CHSP and Marshall Canyon religiously for about 4-5 years. Also worked a second job at a LBS, and built a few high end bikes back then. Moved to HB, sold the bikes. Half the $ went to a week long snowboard trip to Whislter and the other half of the $ on brand new 1999 YZ 125. Bye bye bicycles. Rode MX relentlessly until 2012. 40 yrs old, married with two young boys. The dirt bike got rode maybe once a month. Eventually sold it and new I had to do something. Some friends at work had just recently started riding the floop. I bought a $400 diamond back hard tail (used) and decided to join them. Now I had ridden the loop a handful of times before (in the 90's) and thought it'd be a walk in the park. HA!!!!! I thought I was gonna die, maybe I did. I dont know, it was a blur, And I hated it!!!! But, couldn't wait to do it again. To make it up all the hills w/o stopping. To do it in less than an hour. Fast forwoard to present day, two used bikes later. Now I am riding a brand new state of the art full suspension rig. Riding as much as possible and wherever possible.

I pedal for the same reason why I twisted a throttle.... I need adrenaline rushes that remind you of being alive at the moment. When you are in the moment, nothing else matters. All of life's stresses and concerns don't exist. It is so peaceful, yet at the same time extremely violent. Pedaling one ups MX, I can push myself more mentally and physically on a mtb. I still get that scared to death feeling every once in awhile, which is good too.
 
I never answered the second question - why do I ride?

Fun and fitness.

I need to exercise but I hate to just exercise. I love the feeling of flowing through space and dancing with gravity without an engine - skiing, snowboarding, surfing, whitewater kayaking, even elements of ice hockey have that flow (but no gravity there). MtB allows for a high ratio of fun to fitness.

A harder question would be - Why do you golf? (I used to be a seasonal golf addict from age 10 to age 36)
 
1986. I buy a Stumpjumper with a friend on a two-fer deal from a shop in Hollywood. I use that to commute and as a daily driver for almost a year.
1987. Someone tells me that my Stumpy is actually a pretty good off road bike. He invites me on a ride, and I'm young, dumb, and full of....so
We pay my brother a 12 pack of beer to take us up into the ANF. He drops us off at Clear Creek with a promise to pick us up when we get to Pasadena. Our backpacks were full of beer, our heads full of weed, and not a helmet in sight. At least I had 2 water bottles. One guy brought milk!
We asked the ranger at the station where the trail to Pasadena was. He took one look at us and asked us to write down our names and phone numbers, just in case. He pointed out the trail (Gabrielino) and off we went.
Took us at least 5 hours to crash our way down to JPL, leaving a trail of bloodshed and torn clothing along the way. The guy with the milk in his bottles made butter! My other friend had a deep gash that required stitches-that he never got. I used my face to stop against some exposed rock.....
We finally made it to Tommy's in Eagle Rock and found a payphone to call my brother to pick us up.We were beaten, bloody, dirty, hypothermic, borderline dehydrated, and starving! Tommy's chili cheese fries never tasted so good.
When my brother arrived, he wanted to take us to the hospital! We told him it was the best time we had ever had on our bikes..
I was hooked.
 
I had a 5-speed 20" rigid huffy growing up, not my first bike, but the one I remember most vividly. That is what I used to chase the ice cream man (Ralph) during my golden years of childhood in the late 80s-early 90s in Upland, CA. One time I sprayed the tires with WD-40 and lit them on fire while riding down the street. Anyway that didn't last very long....Then I graduated to suspension bikes: the 1993 Huffy Dr. Shock! Still chasing the ice cream man, but now riding with style bitches!

Mix in some street/ice hockey and the ubiquitous soccer ball, and bikes took a back seat to other sports. In highschool I picked up a steel 26" NEXT Hardtail with a double-crown fork from Walmart, and as I would hike-a-bike that PoS up to Potato Mountian, I would think to myself why would people ever spend thousands on a bike..? Then in 2007, my cousin T-no (short for Kostantinos) invites me to ride mountain bikes with him and some of his buddies. Turns out this was going to be a night ride, and Webb Canyon was on the itinerary. I show up with my PoS NEXT and get ridiculed for the double-crown garbage I bring to the party. T-no lent me his back-up Giant dual suspension rig and a niterider halogen lamp and off we went...

This time bikes will forever be a part of my life...totally integrated in my day-to-day. I ride because it's fun, thrilling, healthy, relaxing, therapeutic, and functional! I agree with Gary Fisher...the bicycle is one of the single most potent machines that can change the world for the better.

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Voodoo Tom said:
Great subject Mikie... I'll try to keep this short but I don't think it's possible.

Mountain Biking found me about year and half ago. I had moved to a new town(Castaic) and didn't really know anyone and thought I was going to die of boredom sitting on the couch. I had always been an off-roader(dirtbikes,jeeps etc...) but it was becoming a project to go anywhere and I started losing interest. I kept seeing tons of guys with mountain bikes staging at the local sports complex and figured there must be something to it. Talked the wife into buying bikes together thinking we would both enjoy it. First ride together was super windy and up what seemed to be an impossible dirt road(easy cimb today) that we had to HAB and she promptly retired from mountain biking after calling me everything but a white man. I however realized it was a great escape that allowed me to completely tune out all of life's other BS and focus on myself and really clear my head no matter what the conditions were. I knew I felt better with all the exercise but about 6 months in I had friends asking me if I was sick because they hadn't seen me in a while and I had lost a lot of weight so that really started to fuel me. I lived on BMX bikes as a kid and life was much simpler so it all makes sense. Today I kind of eat breath and sleep mountain bikes and wonder why it took me 44 years to discover it. I can leave from my garage and be on some trails within minutes, no truck and trailer and two hours of loading and a hundred bucks in fuel just me my bike and my camelbak(Sh!t that thing is heavy). I become highly irritable if I go more than two or three days between rides and currently put more miles on my bikes than I do my cars. Some of those miles have to be on blacktop commuting to and from work but at least it's an option, it's on my mountain bike and I've learned that all bike miles are enjoyable and instead of looking for reasons not to ride I now look for reasons to ride. Refuse to become a spandex clad roadie though... :mrgreen:
Click to expand...

Still kinda new here, happened to chance upon this thread. What a great read!! So many symptoms that we all have... We can all relate to Voodoo Tom when we say we become irritable if we don't ride for a few days... just like a real addict. When I miss my Saturday long rides, I just don't feel right physically throughout the week... when I ride the floop during the week, I'm a better dad... when my bike is in the shop for two weeks? Back up bike now...
 
This is why this community is great. There are lots of reasons how we found ourselves mountain biking, but we all came together to love this sport.

For me, I used to ride to school everyday and then one day I got t-bone by a car. Fast forward many many years later, I figure if I'm going to get hurt. I'd rather be hurt by my own stupidity and not a texting driver so I bought a bike and headed for the trails.
 
konakc said:
Still kinda new here, happened to chance upon this thread. What a great read!! So many symptoms that we all have... We can all relate to Voodoo Tom when we say we become irritable if we don't ride for a few days... just like a real addict. When I miss my Saturday long rides, I just don't feel right physically throughout the week... when I ride the floop during the week, I'm a better dad... when my bike is in the shop for two weeks? Back up bike now...
Click to expand...

Thanks for resurrecting this old thread... It made me reread my own post. And, it still hits me every time I think about the events in there that this sport probably saved me from an early heart attack.

Tomorrow... I think I'll go on a death march with mtnbikej. Just because I can now. :thumbsup:
 
I missed this thread first time around.

My story....

Dabbled in it a few times around '88/89 on my uncle's Bianchi Nueva and Schwinn 1x6...yup, waaaaayyyyy before it was cool to do so.:cautious:

'94 I bought my first mtn bike....Giant Iguana. Rode it all the over the place....El Moro/Mammoth/Peters Canyon. Sometime in '95 that bike was stollen out of the garage.

'96 I bought a GT Avalanche LE w/ just released XT V-brakes and a Judy SL. Rode it a lot....for a weekend warrior. Bounced around on a couple other GT hardtails for the next couple of years.

Finally made the jump to FS in '99 after riding down Trabuco Creek Rd....GT STS 1500....yup, waaaaaayyyyy before carbon was cool to do so.:cautious:

After breaking that bike a few times...literally the 2nd ride after getting it warrantied the 2nd time...I dumped GT and made the jump to a Santa Cruz Bullit....yup, waaaaayyyyy before it was cool to have a SC. :cautious:

Rode the big travel bikes for several years....but still dabbled in some 12hr solo racing in the early 2000's.

'03 I bought my first 29er GF Sugar 293...yup, once again....way before it was cool to ride a 29er. Broke it a few months later, then sold the warranty replacement. :bang:

'04 was my first attempt at Vision Quest...I failed. :thumbsdown:

Got rid of the long travel bikes in 2007 or so and moved onto a Heckler and a Chameleon, as well as starting to ride a SS on a semi regular basis(Redline Monocog)

Did several 5 man 24hr races.

Became a member of the Warrior's Society in 2006 and co-Course Building Director out at the Flying B. Anybody that did any of the races out there in 2006/2007 can thank me for the great amount of suffering on those courses. :thumbsup:

'07 Finished VQ for the first time.

'10 broke my leg @ Palm Canyon....18 months later broke my shoulder on STT. :eek: :oops:

'13 Got back on the SS

'13 Decided I wanted to VQ again....from there on the big rides started. Late in the year is when I pretty much hung up the geared bike for the SS.

The rest is history.
 
I rode a Nightrider big wheel around until my 4th birthday when my parents took me to Orange Schwinn to get a real bike. No training wheels and my dad let me go from the top of the driveway so I had no choice but to get it right the first time. Rode around in circles for hours in the cul-de-sac that day. Moved on to BMX bikes after that.

For Christmas in 1990 or '91 my brother and I got mountain bikes. He got a Diamondback (Apex?) and I got a Sterling Discovery with an elevated chainstay! I grew up in Villa Park so we would ride Oaks and in the hills above Maybury Ranch before homes where there. Back then we rode the hills so we could bring our BB guns along and "get into trouble" without having those nagging adults around.

I would follow him and his friend around the hills and obsess over bikes in the magazines. All I talked about was mountain biking for a few years until I got into middle school and got really serious with my travel ice hockey.

After the fluorescent yellow Sterling I inherited a Cannondale M700 that I put a crappy RST suspension fork on and rode that through high school and into college. Then I moved to Boston to finish school.

Moved back to So Cal in '05 and started my career and didn't get the itch to ride again until 2012 when I was hiking a lot and wanted to cover more ground. Picked up a '13 Stumpy HT from Rock n Road in September '12 and got bit by the bug.

Followed my buddy around all over riding everything from STT/luge to telonics on the HT. He was on a mojo, yeah I walked some of telonics but rode most of it on that thing.

Built up my current RIP in the beginning of '14 but have since changed out some parts and wheels. I used to surf, snowboard, and wakeboard a ton but now riding is my only true passion and it will stay that way.

I seriously think riding has and will save my life. I work 10+ hours a day behind a desk in a very stressful environment and riding keeps me fit and sane. Granted I have a baby now so this year has seen a decline in saddle time but it's just a phase. I can't wait until my boy can ride, already planning on getting a BMX bike just to mess around on with him in the street. Yep, I'll be that dad playing with the kids acting like a kid and that sounds just perfect to me!
 
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