Most of you reading this will already know what I mean when I say that we are all fanatical about bikes. When I was younger I used to eat, sleep and breathe them. As I grew older certain things have changed, but oddly I still find myself waking up in the morning thinking about bikes! Some (most probably not readers of this magazine) may think that this is slightly worrying for someone of my age, but I just don’t know what it is…OK it is my job, so I guess I have think about them a bit. But it is much more than that, there is something about rolling on two wheels that is hard to match (hippy talk over).
But I know that I am not alone. There are people like Andrew Palmer who organises the annual Yeti Tribemeet, a gathering of die–hard Yeti fans from all over the UK. Then there is Chris Conroy, who (along some fellow employees) liked it so much he bought the company…Yeti that is. Then there are people like Jamie Brockway, a man possessed with the urge to build a complete and precise replica of Shaun Palmer’s 1998 Specialized FSR DH bike using original parts sourced from all around the world. Or young Tom Boase, ‘stoked and pumped’ on having a three hundred quid fully rigid bike to ride around on. Then there are the dirt jumpers, spending hours, days and weeks, shifting and shovelling, smoothing and shaping, perfecting dirt lips and landings. Downhill racers too, travelling miles to camp in muddy and wet fields, only to wake up at the crack of dawn the next day, then sit in the back of a cattle truck just to throw themselves down a hill.
Everywhere you look there are fanatics, I mean just look at Sam Hill, two wheels and racing are in his blood. But you know the funny the thing? Most of us don’t even realise it, we’re all the same when it comes to bikes.
Mikey Rose