A snap shot of every day folk who ride in the Forest Of Dean, Gloucestershire.
Dirt Magazine’s Steve Jones frequents the Forest of Dean a lot, testing bikes, drinking tea eating cake and testing more bikes. He meets loads of colourful characters there from all walks of life, all ages and all abilities most of whom are using the uplift wagon www.flyupdownhill.co.uk
Today’s “On Any (insert day of week)” rider is Sebastien Gagnebe from France who used to work for top chef Raymond Blanc and bought his Foes from Ebay for £300.
Name: Sebastien Gagnebe
Age: 40
Occupation: Retired head chef, now I am a Daddy at home.
Where you from: I am French, from the Dordogne, have been in the UK for the last 17 years and live now in Sevenoaks in Kent with my wife Heidi and my 2 boys Antoine and Gabriel.
What bike or bikes do you have? That’s the question on everybodies lips! I collect old school bmxs. At the moment I have eight. If we just look at mtb, FOES dh1 Mono, Iron horse Sunday, Dabomb Dapukka, Sunn radical 99, Sunn Bmix, Intense M1, I think that’s all!
What types of riding do you do? I prefer downhill and enduro.
Where do you usually ride? Around Sevenoaks, we have lots of secrets trails, PORC of course and Surrey Hills, and anywhere I can. When in France I’ll go to “Le Lioran” in the Cantal, it’s proper Mountain for Man with hairy chest!!
Who do you ride with? My pet monkey if I had one!! So I’ll ride with local riders instead that are also very good friends now.
Have you got a good local scene? Yes, tres tres bien!! We are the scene baby!
Do you ride at night? What lights you using? Nope! At night, I’ll wear black tights, a mask and a golden belt, I am a Zumba warrior.
Tell me about your bike set up? Hum, I am still trying to find out, I usually trust the pros, TF tuned, MOJO, or the guy at the local bike shop! Basically, my bikes never work properly!
How do you manage without the uplift? I push up like everybody!!
Favourite FOD track? I love them all ,Flat Land then Sheep Skull, I liked the flowing Cork Screw until Friday on the last run ,where I crash and dislocated my fooping shoulder!!
What tyres are you running? Minion and Rubber Queen.
Tell me about your week? Since the crash, I spent 6h30 at A and E, watched the whole series of Magnum PI on dvd, spent too much time watching bike vids on the internet and booked my ticket for a DH trip to Costa Rica in March, missed six shifts at work, cooked a bit for my boys and started chiropractor sessions! A great week!!!
