What is your earliest memory of riding a bike?
The arc of my cycling life goes back to the classic days of the early years of BMX. Taking cast-off moto parts and fitting to old Schwinn Stingrays and jumping anything you could find.
Things were pretty primitive then but for sure stoked my love of tinkering and making things. Later, I was on the tail end of the “Klunker” era, where before mountain bikes were available, you built your own from whatever old cruiser you could find. Me and my buddies would get out of school and go “klunk’n” for the afternoon in the Santa Monica mountains.There wasn’t much to go on in those days, so we just made it up as we went. The one race we had locally, “Reseda-To-The-Sea”, you were basically given a destination and how you got there was up to you. Crazy, but I still have my klunker I built then too.
Eventually, felt the need for speed, went to the dark side, and started racing track, racing the velodromes in SoCal, and eventually all over the US. Had a few good years in the late 80’s – early 90’s and made podium at Nationals & had a good run at the ’92 Olympic trials. Back in those days, if you were a bike racer you raced everything – road, MTB, track if you had one nearby. Not nearly the specialization you see now. Even did a few years racing fully faired human powered vehicles (HPV’s). Had my “agony of defeat” moment when ESPN filmed me laying one down at 50+ mph! In that context, pretty sure I’ve built, ridden, and crashed every form of bicycle out there.
Favorite mountain bike trail?
Anyone in my group probably knows I’m a fan of old school XC trails. So Johns, Gravedigger, Etc. are high on my list. I also love Hunters trail from Pinebrook to the Canyons as it’s right outside my back door. Never gets old for me. Dead tree up above Shadow Lake is a love/hate thing for me. Love it, as if you’re on it, you’re somewhere in the middle of an awesome ride. Hate it, as I love technical climbs, and this one is as hard as it gets to go up in the Wasatch. And I have not (yet) cleaned it….
What sport would you be doing if you weren’t riding a bike?
I do not see a world where this is even possible.
What sport would you be doing in some weird parallel universe if you weren’t riding a bike?
OK – this is better. Used to love windsurfing. Wasn’t very good but that would be awesome to do what they do now (as well as the kite stuff). Or speed skating. Used to short track on inlines when training back in the day. later, got on the ice out here. Had fun, went slow.
To date most meaningful moment as a coach?
Pretty hard to pick just one. Everyday there are new experiences that are just awesome. Certainly high on that list is when you see a rider figure out that they can indeed, do very hard things, and start to push themselves. They start to see the improvement, and it fuels the desire to push even harder. But the one I keep coming back to is the environment that we, as parents, coaches, and riders are creating. Yes, bikes are cool, and a big part of why we’re here. But what we’re doing is so much bigger than that. Not everyone can, or wants to play football. But messing around on bikes – that’s for everyone. Seeing kids who probably would not have had the team experience had this sport not come along is a pretty powerful thing to a part of.
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