Fast Five with Matt Thompson
The first time I ever came into contact with Matty (aka ballr) was in 1998 or 1999...he yelled at me for not wearing a helmet while riding the dual slalom track at Thunder Valley and I took off, LOL. Since then, I've had the chance to yell at him many times for having bowed legs while doing turnbars for the camera.
Matty is actually responsible for the existence Vital MTB as we know it. He pointed me to a Vital MX slideshow 3 years ago while I was doing littermag. This opened the doors for launching Vital MTB and, well, here we are. THANKS MATT!
How come you only danced like one dance at my wedding?
Your DJ sucked. Until he played "Celebration" by Kool and the Gang, I really didn't feel like dancing.
If you had to choose between riding moto or riding downhill for the rest of your life, which would you choose?
Would depend on where I live. Moto is so much more accessible than downhill in Colorado. And you can ride it year-round for the most part. If I could afford to live in Cali or Whistler, it might be a different story.
Break down your current trail bike set up.
My trail bike is sick. I'm about to go shred right now in fact. Santa Cruz Blur TRc with RockShox Revelation fork. It has awesome geometry and it's light as shit. Got some Burgtec pedals and bars on there cause they're burly and reliable. 1x10 setup w/ XO carbon cranks and an e13 xc guide. Reverb post sure makes things convenient. The thing is dialed and takes a beating, just the way I like my bike to be.
If you could have one do-over in life, what would it be?
Wish I would have knocked my old lady up the first night I hung out with her instead of waiting so long to have kids. I would have more ride time with my son that way.
Who do you think would win a cage fight between Rob Roskopp and Mike Ferrentino?
No clue. I could beat up both those dudes at the same time.
Matt and the Momentum Trail crew shred it all in this rad video...
Matty is actually responsible for the existence Vital MTB as we know it. He pointed me to a Vital MX slideshow 3 years ago while I was doing littermag. This opened the doors for launching Vital MTB and, well, here we are. THANKS MATT!
How come you only danced like one dance at my wedding?Your DJ sucked. Until he played "Celebration" by Kool and the Gang, I really didn't feel like dancing.
If you had to choose between riding moto or riding downhill for the rest of your life, which would you choose?
Would depend on where I live. Moto is so much more accessible than downhill in Colorado. And you can ride it year-round for the most part. If I could afford to live in Cali or Whistler, it might be a different story.
Break down your current trail bike set up.
My trail bike is sick. I'm about to go shred right now in fact. Santa Cruz Blur TRc with RockShox Revelation fork. It has awesome geometry and it's light as shit. Got some Burgtec pedals and bars on there cause they're burly and reliable. 1x10 setup w/ XO carbon cranks and an e13 xc guide. Reverb post sure makes things convenient. The thing is dialed and takes a beating, just the way I like my bike to be.
If you could have one do-over in life, what would it be?Wish I would have knocked my old lady up the first night I hung out with her instead of waiting so long to have kids. I would have more ride time with my son that way.
Who do you think would win a cage fight between Rob Roskopp and Mike Ferrentino?
No clue. I could beat up both those dudes at the same time.
Matt and the Momentum Trail crew shred it all in this rad video...
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kidwoo
11/17/2011 5:32 PM
Team robot cut the course.
TEAMROBOT
11/17/2011 5:27 PM
I'm real happy for you ThisGuy, and imma let you finish, but KidWoo is one of the best internet haters of all time. Of all time.
lawn dart
11/16/2011 11:53 AM
looked at, "this guys" profile. hmmm. created 11/15, from colorado springs, and his "name" is in the subtitle...wonder who that could be?
Loochi
11/15/2011 11:46 PM
2003 Snowshoe, WV. Boxing gloves, G. Houseman, M.Thompson. And no they didn't box. You're the man MT.
kidwoo
11/15/2011 9:34 PM
Spomes: Why in the world would I make fun of matt's seat height? You and I both know that as the prostate enlarges, it NEEDS that extra support. It gets sensitive and to leave just flopping around like that makes you feel like you have to pee all the time. It's just cruel to bring that up. And with failing vision, the onset of Alzheimer's and slower reaction times the need to actually stand up to maneuver a bicycle becomes much less important.
And why did you create that alias 'this guy'? You're not hiding anything, I mean no one is THAT dumb. You'd have to be a complete fvcking RETARD to believe MT is arrogant. Come on spomes NO ONE is going to believe that. You're just a mean person.
Mike_Doucette
11/15/2011 8:03 PM
Iv been thinking of trading in my nomad for an TRc. this might tip be the tipping point.
Joe_Graney
11/15/2011 7:44 PM
best things about this are a) matt can make the douchebags come out of the woodwork and b) that bike is farkin' sick! nice ride Matt
chequamie
11/15/2011 7:29 PM
I saw this fast five and instantly had a smile! I have known matty as a competitor, promoter, and course builder for something Like 10+ years I admit he is a bit rough around the edges but most of the good guys are, to do well in this sport you do have to sometimes put yourself first or you might get your dumb ass killed! I have never witnessed MT being and "arrogant asshole" to anyone who didn't bring it on themselves. I have seen him battered, bloodied, and about to get pummeled by a caveman from taos and in all of those years "Arrogant asshole" never came to mind. tough as nails competitor who doesn back down comes to mind instead, these guys build some of the most forward thinking sickest trails around! "this Guy" Do your homework do something to make the scene better maybe you should go join "occupy a fucking clue!"
jeff.brines
11/15/2011 6:31 PM
I knew I had picked an interesting sport when I first met Mr. Matt Thompson. Well, actually, this was before we formally met but as a grom, I knew who he was. Anyway, while waiting in a lift line or something he was telling a story about how watching some college football landed him in the emergency room.
At half time of whatever game he was watching, he went to go help a buddy move (or something involving a moving truck). Apparently he wasn't paying attention using the hydraulic lift and pinched his toes in between the deck of the truck and the lift. He went back inside after finishing the move to watch the rest of the game. Sometime in the third quarter, he pulled his shoe/sock off to find one of his toes had been (nearly?) cut off from the lift..He threw his missing appendage into some ice and decided to finish watching the rest of the game before going to the ER. Yup. Not sure if his toe actually got reattached or not but I do know he didn't listen to the rest of that game on the radio...he watched it on TV, like real men do.
That's when I knew A) Matty T is the burliest guy I know B ) I had picked one hell of a sport...
(How true is this story? I don't know...but I'm telling you, I heard it 10 years ago from Matty himself. I've since recited it many times when people ask "what is your average pro downhiller like")
BeigeWolf
11/15/2011 5:52 PM
WHO HAS TWO THUMBS AND DRINKS THEIR OWN PEE...?
xmojo37x
11/15/2011 5:24 PM
@ThisGuy
MT is one of the friendliest, fastest guys around. If you knew anything about him you would know that.
And if anything, people owe him for building the sickest trails around and contributing to the mountain bike community probably more than any body i know.
AdamZiegler52
11/15/2011 4:41 PM
@ "thisguy" you're probably the same fag that thinks Winter Park has the sickest down hill tracks.
ThisGuy
11/15/2011 4:32 PM
Matt Thompson is an arrogant ass hole. I have no clue why people look up to him, he is not even a “has been” he is a “never was”. There are MANY other DH riders that are faster than Matt, and more friendly than Matt, and we still hear about MT… Over rated! If anybody owes somebody something, it’s Matt that owes an apology for acting so self proclaimed important.
SwylieR
11/15/2011 3:12 PM
Matt is awesome... first encounter I had with him was when i was still a grom - I responded to a piece he wrote for Litter ("ask a pro" or "pro perspective"....something like that). Anyway, he was basically talking about how MTB was in a shit state, NORBA sucks, no prize money, fuck ups at races...etc - the usual stuff everyone was talking about around '02-04'. At the time, I had no clue who Matt Thompson was, and more importantly, that he is hardcore as shit and pretty intimidating. I wrote a response to his article which basically said that he was a whiner and that if he wanted a change, he should do something about it. After all, he was a pro that was directly linked to the industry - shouldn't he get loud about his concerns? A few days later Matt wrote a nice reply to me essentially saying that he was working on it and trying to do his part (which we all now know he has, bigtime).....
The point of the story is that, although Matt might throw a heckle or two your way, he can take it thrown right back at him, think about it objectively, and turn it into something positive. In retrospect, I didnt know shit about the bike industry and what was actually going on. And had I known how fast Matt could probably put me on my ass, I might not have even said anything to begin with. But rather than put me in my place, Matt respected my perspective and took it upon himself to do what was within his ability to make biking better for everyone. When I eventually moved out to Colorado, he was always super nice and really made his presence felt in the CO Downhill scene. He is an extremely intelligent, industrious guy that genuinely cares about Downhill... Its the kind of personality that sustains emerging sports (especially during lulls) and we all owe Downhills current (solid) state to dudes like this.
k.shiz
11/15/2011 2:30 PM
I heard Matt killed a guy once... for casing a jump.
lawn dart
11/15/2011 2:17 PM
The first time I ran into that guy was at Sol Vista. Me, Andrew, Nate and a bunch of other guys on demo bikes were eyeballing this road gap and no one was ready to nut-up yet. We hear this guy yelling down to us from somewhere out in the woods...couldn't see him, just heard this dude harshing us (in the nicest, most encouraging way) to huck that shit. Nate said he (Matt) was the guy who built all the trails there. I didn't know much about downhill, but i couldn't believe someone in charge was actually goading us to send this thing. Then, after seeing the rest of the jumps at SV, it about made sense. The amazing part is that once you get the speed down (sometimes slower than you think)...those gaps just flow. I've been mtbing for almost 25 years, and before riding Sol Vista, I would never have thought you could ride a bike on that kind of terrain.
AdamZiegler52
11/15/2011 1:11 PM
Matty yells at me alot. Especially when he found out I put my "clapped out" parts on my new dj frame, at least he digs my sick rattle can paint job on them shits! Get sum Matty!
Andre Lamanna
11/15/2011 11:40 AM
NICE FAST 5… MATT IS A NICE MAN, MET HIM BACK IN 2005, IN BRAZIL, FOR THE WC… THAT'S NICE TO SEE THAT NICE GUYS ARE STILL ON A BIKE!!
veach
11/15/2011 10:37 AM
Is it still secret that the Blur TRc is the best bike ever or can we start talking about that yet?
KHSFactoryRacing
11/15/2011 10:31 AM
LIKE!