From Dirt Issue 116 – October 2011
Intro and photos by Ed Haythornthwaite. Who is Dan Stanton?A self–proclaimed bike Ninja/Nerd and entrepreneur.
Where do you live?With my wife and son in Derbyshire, UK.
What’s your job title?Managing Director of Stanton Bikes
What do you do?
I dedicate my time to the development of Stanton Bikes. I design frames and test bikes. I also organise the brand, market the product, chat with costumers and provide the vision for the company’s future.
About a year and a half.
What’s the worst job you’ve ever had?Putting white insulation tape around white rope that ran all the way round the perimeter of 1st RHA Barracks! Reason…to make the white rope look white.
Where’s your favourite place?Montifrio in Andalucía.
Where’s your favourite place to ride?Stanton Bikes secret test area, somewhere in the Derbyshire hills.
When are you happiest?When I’m building up my prototypes, I have an impatient excitement about seeing if what I’ve designed rides how I’ve envisioned. Also when I’m on my game, riding and achieving things I didn’t think I could do.
What makes you angry?Hidden dog pooh on trails! Dinners without meat in them! My stuff being moved (tidied up) by my wife, ‘I know it was there, I put it there’! Slipping a pedal and twating my shin!
What makes you happy?Flowing through fast aggressive trails as stylishly as I can.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?As a man thinks, so is he.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever given?
A wrong decision can be made in a split second.
What are your extravagances?Cheerio’s and lie–ins.
Who do you admire?People who only take a few tries to get a trick dialled, like Jesse Jones and people with a keen eye for bike industry photography like Tom Gaffney and Leon Stimpson.
What’s the most important thing in your life?My family.
What would you never throw away?I keep coming across an old Hope hub in my garage, every time I contemplate whether I should throw it away, then I think to myself, ‘nah save it, build it up into a wheel’…still haven’t made the wheel… haven’t thrown it away, looks like I’m never going to throw that away.
What’s your greatest fear?Alzheimers.
What was your luckiest escape?Getting out the army before war with Afghanistan and Iraq.
What’s the first thing you do in the morning?Go and say good morning to my son.
What’s the last thing you do at night?Check my alarm is set.
What would be your dream meal?A massive egg custard inside a giant cheesecake, stuffed like a two game bird Sunday dinner.
What things do you always carry with you?My key, my bank cards, my Stanton Bikes business cards and my porthole to the online universe (iPhone).
Do you have any regrets?
No, everything is a learning curve.
What’s the most important lesson that you’ve learnt?Don’t eat pink chicken.
If you could have dinner with three famous people (dead or alive) who would they be?Bruce lee, Jet Lee, Jacky Chan. But there will only be one dinner!
Who is your favourite rider?Mitch Ingley; he rides my bike like I’d like to!
What’s your favourite bike product of all time?Fox 36 Talas RLC forks.
What’s your least favourite bike product of all time?The prop stand.
What’s your favourite motto or saying?Those who own the means of production also own the means of logical thought (Karl Marx).
What saying do you use too much?He’s off the friggin chain (Nick Frost).
What bike are you riding at the moment?Nothing…you guys (Dirt) have my bike.
What was the last magazine you read?Dirt Mag… and I’m not just sucking up…honest guv.
What are you listening to at the moment?The Young Knives (again).
What one thing would you change about yourself?The ability to accept balding graciously.
What are your weaknesses?Interview questions and my inability to fit more than 24 hours into any one day.
What does the future hold for you?It’s feeling very positive at the moment. Designing bike frames and testing them, going to shows and networking, meeting awesome likeminded people, being immersed in cycling culture, my aim for the future is for this not to stop.
What does the future hold for mountain biking?I foresee a division in opinion over the preferred influence of 29ers on the rougher side of riding and racing. A baggies or skinsuit kind of affair.
How would you like to be remembered?As someone who is respectful, honest and loyal. A good husband, father and son.
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