Posts
302
Joined
9/14/2012
Location
San Diego, CA
US
Edited Date/Time
7/9/2015 11:09pm
Thought this would be a cool way to show the progression in bikes over the years and our own progression along the way. Time to dig deep into your photo archives!
I've been riding bikes pretty much since I could walk. BMX bikes until my early 20's when I moved in with a with a good buddy who had two mountain bikes. He had just built a Gary Fisher Opie hardtail and had a used 2002 Banshee Scream.
This is the bike that pretty much got me started riding gravity. I think it weighed 50-pounds, complete with a Marzocchi Monster T. I "trail rode" on that thing sometimes... We knew of an old freeride kind of spot a 20-min ride away from our house, so we spent most of our time rebuilding it and riding. Just small jumps and drops.
Here was me hitting the "biggest" jump there.
After riding my buds Scream for a year or so, I finally saved up enough cash to pick up a clearance priced 2005 or 2006 Specialized Bighit from a local bike shop. It came with a Manitou Stance Kingpin fork which I blew instantly, so eventually I found a used 2006 Marz 888 and Fox DHX 5.0 and the bike rode sooooo much better.
That seat... that bike...
Around this time we had finally discovered the local DH spot and started riding proper trails and jumps.
Me on the Bigshit hitting the Pond gap.
"Urban Hucking..."
I probably lasted only a year on the Bighit before I wanted a different bike. I was gaining interest in racing at this point and wanted a bike that rolled on TWO 26-inch wheels, so what'd I buy? A 2004 Specialized Demo 9... hahahaha.
Another tank, I was almost back up to Scream weight with this thing, I think 48-lbs? I got it used off a guy in Canada for like $1200 I think. This was the bike I hit my first resort on and raced my first race on.
Full goon... I raced Beginner and ended up 2nd place. Finished my first Winter Series season in Fontucky in Sport all on that Demo 9, super fun pedaling The Wall on that bike. Here's another photo from around that time, crashing in practice at 'Tucky
After the season ended I started slowly building up my first race specific bike, a Sinister R9. I think this was close to the end of the bike's production life so maybe one of the last R9s Frank welded up.
This bike took me months to build. It was my first custom built bike that I had started as a frame only purchase, it was also my first sub 40-lbs bike (I think it was just under, maybe 39.5 or so). Loosing almost ten-lbs on a bike was insane. That bike was the first bike I blown away by in terms of how it rode. Here's a shot of me racing on the R9, likely 2007ish.
I started getting more serious into racing around this period and started sending out team applications and joined a small local team called BRC / Turner Bikes. This was right as the first round-tubed Turner DHRs were coming out, so the team rode those which was awesome, I was blown away by that bike back then.
That year I started racing Nationals and made it to National Champs at Mt. Snow that year, 2008. Definitely one of my favorite periods of riding bikes for me. That year I got to travel all over riding and racing with a rad group of dudes on one of my favorite bikes of all time.
After 2008 I had a long series of injuries that kept me off the bike long periods of time. It started with a separated shoulder while racing in Angel Fire. Soon after I recovered from that one I broke my elbow riding some local trail, which took me out for a long time, about a year before it healed well enough to actually ride again. By the time I was back riding again regularly I had been off the bike for so long I lost a lot of speed and confidence. Because of that I stopped racing and just focused on riding and building more. It was also around this time when I started wrenching at local bike shops. Turner had just released the DW-Link DHR too, so I sold my round tubed DHR and built up a brand new bike.
This was all the way forward in 2013, crazy how injuries really slowed me down. I think I had taken a couple years off and one of my good riding buddies had a really scary injury that put me off for a bit. I was also busy finishing a degree during this time so even less time to get after it. I did return to local racing at this point though, just the Fontana Winter Series and stuff like that. But I don't really have much in terms of photos from this period.
After a bit on the DHR I ended up building an Evil Undead, well, just because. I loved the DHR but I was in a position to build up something new and different.
Took the Undead to Whistler for a month to celebrate finishing college. I lost a bike shop job for that trip but it was well worth it.
Riding my local spot on the Undead.
After about a year on the Undead I sold it and built up a Scott Gambler. The old old DHR was handing down to a good bud of mine. Riding Trinidad, CO with the old bike and the new one.
Riding my local spot on the Gambler.
That's about it. Crazy seeing the past 10 or so years laid out in a linear kinda timeline. Feel free to post your own.
I've been riding bikes pretty much since I could walk. BMX bikes until my early 20's when I moved in with a with a good buddy who had two mountain bikes. He had just built a Gary Fisher Opie hardtail and had a used 2002 Banshee Scream.
This is the bike that pretty much got me started riding gravity. I think it weighed 50-pounds, complete with a Marzocchi Monster T. I "trail rode" on that thing sometimes... We knew of an old freeride kind of spot a 20-min ride away from our house, so we spent most of our time rebuilding it and riding. Just small jumps and drops.
Here was me hitting the "biggest" jump there.
After riding my buds Scream for a year or so, I finally saved up enough cash to pick up a clearance priced 2005 or 2006 Specialized Bighit from a local bike shop. It came with a Manitou Stance Kingpin fork which I blew instantly, so eventually I found a used 2006 Marz 888 and Fox DHX 5.0 and the bike rode sooooo much better.
That seat... that bike...
Around this time we had finally discovered the local DH spot and started riding proper trails and jumps.
Me on the Bigshit hitting the Pond gap.
"Urban Hucking..."
I probably lasted only a year on the Bighit before I wanted a different bike. I was gaining interest in racing at this point and wanted a bike that rolled on TWO 26-inch wheels, so what'd I buy? A 2004 Specialized Demo 9... hahahaha.
Another tank, I was almost back up to Scream weight with this thing, I think 48-lbs? I got it used off a guy in Canada for like $1200 I think. This was the bike I hit my first resort on and raced my first race on.
Full goon... I raced Beginner and ended up 2nd place. Finished my first Winter Series season in Fontucky in Sport all on that Demo 9, super fun pedaling The Wall on that bike. Here's another photo from around that time, crashing in practice at 'Tucky
After the season ended I started slowly building up my first race specific bike, a Sinister R9. I think this was close to the end of the bike's production life so maybe one of the last R9s Frank welded up.
This bike took me months to build. It was my first custom built bike that I had started as a frame only purchase, it was also my first sub 40-lbs bike (I think it was just under, maybe 39.5 or so). Loosing almost ten-lbs on a bike was insane. That bike was the first bike I blown away by in terms of how it rode. Here's a shot of me racing on the R9, likely 2007ish.
I started getting more serious into racing around this period and started sending out team applications and joined a small local team called BRC / Turner Bikes. This was right as the first round-tubed Turner DHRs were coming out, so the team rode those which was awesome, I was blown away by that bike back then.
That year I started racing Nationals and made it to National Champs at Mt. Snow that year, 2008. Definitely one of my favorite periods of riding bikes for me. That year I got to travel all over riding and racing with a rad group of dudes on one of my favorite bikes of all time.
After 2008 I had a long series of injuries that kept me off the bike long periods of time. It started with a separated shoulder while racing in Angel Fire. Soon after I recovered from that one I broke my elbow riding some local trail, which took me out for a long time, about a year before it healed well enough to actually ride again. By the time I was back riding again regularly I had been off the bike for so long I lost a lot of speed and confidence. Because of that I stopped racing and just focused on riding and building more. It was also around this time when I started wrenching at local bike shops. Turner had just released the DW-Link DHR too, so I sold my round tubed DHR and built up a brand new bike.
This was all the way forward in 2013, crazy how injuries really slowed me down. I think I had taken a couple years off and one of my good riding buddies had a really scary injury that put me off for a bit. I was also busy finishing a degree during this time so even less time to get after it. I did return to local racing at this point though, just the Fontana Winter Series and stuff like that. But I don't really have much in terms of photos from this period.
After a bit on the DHR I ended up building an Evil Undead, well, just because. I loved the DHR but I was in a position to build up something new and different.
Took the Undead to Whistler for a month to celebrate finishing college. I lost a bike shop job for that trip but it was well worth it.
Riding my local spot on the Undead.
After about a year on the Undead I sold it and built up a Scott Gambler. The old old DHR was handing down to a good bud of mine. Riding Trinidad, CO with the old bike and the new one.
Riding my local spot on the Gambler.
That's about it. Crazy seeing the past 10 or so years laid out in a linear kinda timeline. Feel free to post your own.
Had fun on that thing! Then bought an eastern bmx. Spent more time on the bmx than the orbea.
Had two bikes then
Sold them both and bought my current babe!
My little story haha!
I dig the Raleigh, kinda makes me want to build up a hardtail trail slayer for myself!
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