Click here
for a silly story likening my relationship with bikes to one with
a woman...
I started riding in the early 80's. Thanks to Mike Lawless (still
one of my best friends), I was hooked on a life of two wheels. The
first tricks I saw blew me away (curb endos, kick-outs), and as
an early teen I spent every possible moment on my bike. Looking
back, those were some of the best years of my life... neon bikes,
80's metal, summer vacations--yeah!
Anyway, I loved riding so much, I tried to make a go at riding
professionally. I was eventually able to make a living through my
riding by doing stunt shows at fairs, festivals, and LOTS of bicycle
safety/anti-drug shows at schools and other community events.
In the early days, I set all of these shows up myself (from making
the sales calls to handling all of the logistics). I ran several
teams: Northshore Freestyle Team, Maximum Performance Trick Team,
Acition Impact Stunt Team; and eventially landed a spot on a national
team: Perfection
on Wheels. You can read a little more about that here.
Anyway, I was able to make a living for a couple of years just
by riding my freestyle bike. It was AWESOME. I didn't make big money,
and I wasn't one of the best riders, but I had incredible experiences,
I met great people, and I traveled back and forth across this country
more times than I can remember. What more can somone ask for?
Ultimately, times change, priorities change, and it wasn't feasible
to live that life indefinitely. I stopped touring in 2000, after
one last hurrah on the road with the Jolly Rancher/GT team. And
while I used to have up to five complete, ready-to-ride BMX bikes
on hand, I've only got one now... and that one only rarely sees
action. I still think about riding every day though, and those experiences
certainly helped shape who I am. I still get out there when I can.
In fact, as I'm typing this, my freestyle bike is in the back of
my car, just in case I can squeeze some time to ride in.
Freestyle is not the most important thing in my life anymore, but
it's far from out of my life completely. Hell, I'm even thinking
about getting a new bike!
