Posts
4235
Joined
6/26/2009
Location
Boise, ID
US
Edited Date/Time
3/5/2022 2:59am
The race season is over, the team rumors are flying and things in MTB are relatively slow before the new year. No better time than to introduce yourself in the Vital MTB forum.
Go as deep or as shallow as you'd like w/ your introduction. i'm gonna go big.
Shawn Spomer aka gordo (yes, it's me. it's not two different people...or is it?)
- Content Director at Vital MTB (which means a lot of TPS reports as well as working with some of the best dudes in our sport!)
- riding since 1996-ish
- freelance mtb video and photo dork from 2001-2005 (was lucky enough to be one of the photographers for the honda team w/ minnaar and cyril in 2004, that helped jumpstart things for me).
- was feature editor at decline in like 2005 or 2006 or 2007...i forget
- started littermag.com which eventually turned into vital in 2009
- get nervous and stoked when i see an email notification that "kidwoo has posted a comment"
- get nervous and stoked when i see an email notification that "TEAMROBOT has posted a comment"
- live in brocal, but north of "the shit"
- love editing Vital RAW vids and being one of the first to see what sven/duncan and crew send over for world cup slideshows.
- wish there could be a g-out project every day.
- prefer rides that are no more than 3 hours. never been a fan of "epics" for some reason. i think i'm gonna die usually.
- love surfing. i feel skateboarding helped define me growing up
- am finding less bike is more fun these days as i get older and slower.
- use age as an excuse that i'm getting slower when all i'd have to do is ride more.
- miss living at solvista and riding silky johnson nearly every day.
- would love to do a legit bunnyhop barspin before i die.
- if my brakes need to be bled, it must be time for a new bike.
- i still can't tell when to use effect vs affect and have to look it up.
- i'm not a conspiracy theorist, therefore i do not believe big, bad corpo execs at bike companies are out there wringing their hands trying to make something stupid just so we'll buy it. i've experienced the passion and ridiculously good riding skills of those developing product at the big, legit brands firsthand.
- is that enough?
self-portrait 2010 (i know, no helmet, sorry)
self-portrait 2015
now it's your turn! go big, go small. say hi.
I'm stoked that we have a quality group of forum participants (and lurkers) who keep things civil, but fun, too. Let's build on it!
Go as deep or as shallow as you'd like w/ your introduction. i'm gonna go big.
Shawn Spomer aka gordo (yes, it's me. it's not two different people...or is it?)
- Content Director at Vital MTB (which means a lot of TPS reports as well as working with some of the best dudes in our sport!)
- riding since 1996-ish
- freelance mtb video and photo dork from 2001-2005 (was lucky enough to be one of the photographers for the honda team w/ minnaar and cyril in 2004, that helped jumpstart things for me).
- was feature editor at decline in like 2005 or 2006 or 2007...i forget
- started littermag.com which eventually turned into vital in 2009
- get nervous and stoked when i see an email notification that "kidwoo has posted a comment"
- get nervous and stoked when i see an email notification that "TEAMROBOT has posted a comment"
- live in brocal, but north of "the shit"
- love editing Vital RAW vids and being one of the first to see what sven/duncan and crew send over for world cup slideshows.
- wish there could be a g-out project every day.
- prefer rides that are no more than 3 hours. never been a fan of "epics" for some reason. i think i'm gonna die usually.
- love surfing. i feel skateboarding helped define me growing up
- am finding less bike is more fun these days as i get older and slower.
- use age as an excuse that i'm getting slower when all i'd have to do is ride more.
- miss living at solvista and riding silky johnson nearly every day.
- would love to do a legit bunnyhop barspin before i die.
- if my brakes need to be bled, it must be time for a new bike.
- i still can't tell when to use effect vs affect and have to look it up.
- i'm not a conspiracy theorist, therefore i do not believe big, bad corpo execs at bike companies are out there wringing their hands trying to make something stupid just so we'll buy it. i've experienced the passion and ridiculously good riding skills of those developing product at the big, legit brands firsthand.
- is that enough?
self-portrait 2010 (i know, no helmet, sorry)
self-portrait 2015
now it's your turn! go big, go small. say hi.
I'm stoked that we have a quality group of forum participants (and lurkers) who keep things civil, but fun, too. Let's build on it!
Name: Patrik Zuest
-been riding since 1993 when I lived in Bend, OR the first time (really should have taken more advantage of that)
-Been a mechanic since 2000
-wrenched for Cannondale grassroots 2004-2006 (I have a funny story about the first day on that job)
-Shimano Multi-service mtn mechanic in 2007
-Yeti North American Mechanic 2008-2009 so was there for Gwin’s start… that was amazing, and I will ALWAYS be a fanboy.
-Been FSA/Gravity tech support since 2012.
-actually started racing AFTER I got off the race scene. Now I get the best of both worlds. See all the friends and ride my bikes.
-I am a cerified bike and gear whore. I like to flip bikes every year and am constantly seeing what is out there.
-as always, wish I rode more so I would have the skills….
Uh yeah… that’s about it for now… but open book so just ask.
My name is Alex Visser, and I have been riding for as long as I can remember! I am 23 years old, I was born in Portland, Oregon, and grew up right across the Columbia River in Vancouver, Washington. When I was young and in daycare, my dad would pick me up by bicycle, carrying me in a trailer behind him. He would also take me mountain biking like that, on some wide--but steep--doubletrack. My dad was a motocross racer for a few decades, so I started on the dirt bike at a young age and did not get super into mountain biking until I was about 13. My first real mountain bike was a Kona King Kikapu full suspension 26er. I I completed my first race when I was 18, but didn't train or take it too seriously.
I got into racing more seriously in the winter of 2013-2014, when I started doing cyclocross and XC in Oregon. My first XC season in Cat 3 I won several races and moved up to Cat 2 in the summer. Since then, I have been running at the front of Cat 2 but have yet to nail down a win. I have always been better on the technical side of XC, so I have been hungering to get into Enduro. Unfortunately, I haven't had a capable bike. I raced the enduro nationals at Mammoth this summer on a rented bike I had never ridden before, and broke my wheel on the third stage. I am currently building up a Rocky Mountain Altitude for the 2016 enduro season.
I currently live in Issaquah, Washington, and I have spent the past year as the Operations Manager of a Performance Bicycle. My store has just closed down, and I am transferring to Gregg's in Bellevue. I am also in school studying for my bachelor's degree in journalism. As cliche as it is, I love all things two-wheeled, and you can find me fairly active on VitalMX's forum page.
Have been all over the place since then including judging contests, working at Trestle Bike Park (Winter Park Resort) and a stint as a dirt gypsy helping construct Valmont Bike Park in Boulder. Even had 15 seconds of fame on MTV's Ridiculousness with my old back yard pump track!
You'll find me out on the trail rather than the forums (I think this is perhaps my 3rd post, ha!) and probably running spray painted parts rather than the newest of the newness. Keep the shred more mellow these days with lots of trail riding, boon docking down mountains and exploring beautiful Colorado from behind the bars while scouring the internet daily contributing to VitalMTB's awesome content.
Stoked to hear where other VitalMTB'ers have to say about their journey to two wheels!
Aaaand this was my first dh bike, in 08:
Yes that is a Hot Chili with a Stratos fork, and probably one of the ugliest bikes ever, haha
- Have been riding ever since
- Trying to make it as a pro bike rider
- Everything I care about in biking
- I don't know many videographers so I got creative and bought a 4k camera and started doing selffilmers and then pan and zoom in post
- Doing everything I can to do everything, film, race, write blogs, coach, taking pictures etc.
- Need to know everything that is happening on the bikes scene, team rumors, new product, bike brands, I am obsessed. I other words, I am such a bike nerd most of my friends get tired of it.
- Been mistaken for Martin Söderström countless times
- Can make a pretty good British accent that can even fool a British.
my first downhill bike cost me around 30,000, it was a used Giant ATX2, the fact that it coincided with my divorce of 15 years ago probably helped a bit in that cost!
I have owned 12 downhill bikes since then, and 7 XC bikes
I have been to Whistler 6 times and bike parks in Europe once, which works out at over 2 years full time riding (chair lift assist) downhill in 5
no holiday this year, the company i worked for closed down!
so this year I had 5 months off, digging and riding trails literally in my back yard, building progressively steeper and steeper trails, until my fear of the steep stuff has changed to enjoyment
and now sitting at home dreaming of riding, in recovery from a repair to a long term shoulder injury
and still planning my next trip!
This is my trusty steed, the 2012 Transition Bottlerocket (otherwise known as bae, babe, or baby). Her slightly dated Marzocchi fork and rear shock may be ugly, but she shreds like no other. And say what you may, but I'm still convinced 26rs will out maneuver 27.5s any day of the week!
Well thanks for letting me ramble like this, I can't wait to see what you other fine gentlemen (and ladies ) have to say!
-I owe my forum handle not to trying to be cool but to a very ill-advised choice of haircut and sunglasses back in the day that may or may not have had something to do with a certain movie about fighter jets. It's been with me ever since.
-not many people know this, but the "2058" didn't come about because there were 2057 other little icemen before me, but because that was the factory serial number of my limited edition Honda Integra Type-R that I had to sell when it became incompatible with the well-being of the other people I was now meant to ferry around regularly, aka my family. I still miss it.
-in a previous life I used to ride horses and snowboard a lot, before getting into MTB in 2005.
-in said previous life I also held down various office jobs before being lured into the glamorous world of MTB media mainly by Spomer's false promises (or it could have been the free gear).
-I successfully passed the Great MTB Journalist Grammar And Spelling Exam once. It involves telling the difference between then, than, there, their, they're, your, you're, and also never ever ever ever using the phrase "I should of...".
-as a person who learned proper English it took me a long time to learn to write "aluminum" instead of "aluminium" when I joined Vital. And of course, now that I've actually mastered it, everything is suddenly carbon. That's just great.
-a self-taught photographer, I get pretty upset whenever I have to watch portrait mode videos.
-classic rock all the way. I mean Twisted Sister and Motley Crue, of course.
-I can never get enough of the World Cup.
-When I wake up in the morning I check the phone to see what I've missed. Before opening both eyes.
-I enjoy riding pretty much any terrain, but the majority of my time these days is spent pedaling up to have fun coming back down. They really should invent a word for that kind of thing so we all know what we are talking about.
-I like to build my own trails, really because then I have no excuse not to send it.
-I only ever dabbled in racing, because it soon became clear that there was a vast chasm between the results I wanted and my actual talent level. My preferred racing tactic was always to try and go twice as fast as soon as I heard the beeps, and hope that one day I would see the finish line. Mostly, I didn't. Thankfully I'm now old so I can use that as an excuse for not lining up in the start gate and crashing in the third turn every weekend. That, and somebody has to take pictures of the other people crashing, right?
-traveling to new places to ride bikes stokes me out. Especially if it's also a new bike to try out. Especially if it's also a place with good food, nice trails, and beautiful wo....
-PRO TIP: if you want to get Bike of the Day here on Vital, it's not really all that complicated: build a nice bike, and take a nice picture of it. By "nice bike" I mean "sell a kidney" and by "nice picture" I mean "National Geographic cover", just to be clear. Or, at the very minimum, try to include the whole bike in the frame, and make sure it's sharp enough to tell the difference between the bike and the background. If you STILL don't get BOD, buy an Iron Horse Sunday. Those get me EVERY time.
-I love Taco Bell more than almost every other thing in the world.
-I also love loud and bright riding gear more than almost every other thing in the world except Taco Bell. I sometimes (OK most of the time) forget why people look at me like I'm some kind of weirdo when I stop for food after the ride. But damned if that's gonna get between me and my burrito!
-Iceman2058
Ha! I have to also agree with this and say the same thing. My main reasoning is so that when I crash here in the PNW someone can find me off the trail. Also, surprisingly, helps get clear pics on those rare occasions I look fast enough for a photog to take the smugmug photo for later that I might buy so I can kinda look like I know what I am doing.
-Fred Robinson, actually, with the unfortunate nickname "DERF." I'm the newest member of the Vital team, having started contributing to the site around two years ago as a product tester.
-Before I was a full-timer at Vital, I was a wrench at various bike shops in San Diego.
-I started at a Performance, which may not be the coolest shop in the world but it was my gateway in as a "professional" mechanic and our particular store was filled with a bunch of rad dudes.
-I used to always be on a BMX bike, starting at the age of two, no training wheels (proud, a little...)
-I got super into skateboarding around 10 and skated daily until around 16
-I can only ollie four-stairs now and it'd take me like a week to build up the courage to boardside even a flat rail
-I've played music and been in touring punk bands for close to 16-years now, the last tour being a summer ago where we did 29-days, 26-cities (I think) and 14-countries all over Europe
-I went to school for audio engineering and now I don't even have Pro Tools on my computer
-Coming up on 11, maybe 12 years downhilling... I used to pretend to race but never broke the ranks of Cat 1
-I like turtles
-And my dog
-I'm originally from San Diego, and at one point lived across the street from the hospital I was born at. I'm proud to say I've branched out a bit more and now live about 4-miles away. Maybe one day I'll break the 20-mile mark.
-My first mountain bike was a 2002 Banshee Scream w/ a Marzocchi Monster T that I used to trail ride on, too.
-My greatest accomplishment in mountain biking is having helped build a section trail that later featured Sam Hill crashing on in Earthed 2 (@3:00 in this video)
-Sometimes I put my goggles on upside-down and sneak them into Vital reviews. (I sneak other things in, too, but I'm not telling what)
Brand Manager of MRP.
I ride bikes most days.
I rode mountain bikes a lot as a kid in Colorado, but moved to Texas for my teen years. It was there that I pioneered the Birkenstock and socks look now popular with old Germans.
I got back into biking while I was at CSU (with 970biking, we used see each other huckin' staircases on campus) - that was a long time ago.
I may or may not have been hit by a car after a Road 34 pumptrack race and ended up in the ICU.
Shortly thereafter, I moved to Fruita where I worked in a rad bike shop (Over the Edge) for about five years and started doing a little freelance writing and video stuff for a few mags and websites (including this one).
My blog used to be called Western Slopestyle - and that's still on my voicemail message (and my friends make fun of me for it).
Then I got a sweet gig at MRP.
Now I live the good life - racing and riding as much as possible with my fiancee.
This is my Instagram.
I work at Vital selling ads, not the super fun stuff that Spomer and iceman2058 do, although I'm getting pretty good at mixing business and pleasure.
I've been around bikes for a long time...and hope to be around them for much longer.
I grew up riding/racing BMX in Ohio, have been riding mountain bikes since the '90's, my first real MTB ride was San Juan Trail where I crashed multiple times going up with clipless pedals (first time), now - years later - I love San Juan.
I'm a Schwinn certified mechanic, that was around 1990, we tore apart 3-speeds hubs, I wish I could bleed brakes now-a-days.
I love lots of trails I've been on in American West with favorites being Santa Cruz, Squamish, Bend, Sun Valley and Moab.
This is me, if the photo was any tighter you'd see how bad my form is.
-rode dirtbikes before mtb
-rode bmx
-I have been riding since 2013
-I have good grammar
-know my their/there/they're (never mess up)
-am currently in drivers ed (good driver)
-am Russian
-born and live in Kennewick, WA
-can't wait till I'm 18
-i am not good socially
-can be awkward at times
-i mostly talk about bikes, motorcycles
-samsung hater!!!!
-riding is life
-girls are awesome!
-love the outdoors
-do very good in school
-plan on being a firefighter
-love most music besides JAZZ!
Ask me more questions. IM OUT
Got my first mountain bike in '93 (Haro Extreme w/ RockShox Quadra) and promptly began a long career of crashing my brains out. As a result of paying off a high-priced education, taking on additional debt in the form of car and home loans, living in a true 4-seasons climate, getting married and starting a family, I never have felt like I've had enough time to ride bikes, but I sure try. Uncountable numbers of reconstructive surgeries, a few odd podiums, even fewer wins, a couple regional championships, some World Cup entries, a Masters World Champs victory, innumerable lifetime memories with incredible friends and 22 years later, I find myself no less enthusiastic to ride bikes, have fun, and get better.
These days I make a living building mountain bike trails. It's hard work and rad. After a decade + of hating the no-good slacker, line poaching, lazy shits who would follow us around to ride what we built, I decided to make that my profession. I hate bike riders a whole lot less now, but still find plenty of reason to hate most other ignorant fuckers.
I'm proud to say we built the tracks at the 2009/10 national championships and did our best to help drive the sport in the direction of progress and am still pursuing every opportunity to do that.
Not much better than hanging out at the dirt jumps with your buds, working hard on building a line, and then hitting it. Beers after are good too.
Not enough people ride DH anymore.
Not afraid to pedal up hill, but damn sure don't want to pedal across it to get back down.
Enjoy SMH at people with terrible grammar, usage, spelling, and punctuation with my friend Gordo.
I'm Zach. I've been told when I ride, it sounds like the mountain is crumbling, and when I crash it sounds like a tree falling. For the past decade I've been racing DH, and that's been the all-consuming pursuit until 2015. This year I managed to race 3 times, poorly. (I refuse to drop down a class, "Pro 'til yer Slow"!).
When I wasn't doing my best landslide impression, I was the newest addition to the media room at World Cups, and am now a full-fledge Media Squid; I figured it was time to do something other than labor on job sites hauling shingles up ladders (just kidding, still doing that because as awesome as photography is, one doesn't make money the first time around).
You can find me on the 'grams as #mtbjesus (thanks to Boris aka Maddog for that nickname this year; he thought the Twitter account was me...it's not. And while we are talking about "examples of who I am", you may even remember one of my contributions here on Vital: http://www.vitalmtb.com/features/Blue-Ribbon-Banter-Gwinning-Killed-The-MTB-Star,568 - this briefly broke the internet and was still relevant this year. Gwin is the man, and a champion of the people. Though, the internet still hasn't figured out sarcasm/tongue-in-cheek-humor.
Further more, Vital is rad, Litter Mag is forever, and TEAMROBOT is the only truth in this world.
Flat pedals for life; I would benefit from there being a Clydesdale class in DH.
keep it comin'!
Sam...aka Dodgysam.
Im in lil ole NZ
I used to live in Auckland but said stuff the big city life and moved to a wee block of land just outside of Rotorua.
I work in a Tomato glasshouse during the week and then spend the weekends riding the trails in Rotovegas or building stupid bikes in my wee garden shed.
Proudest moments have been getting BOD twice with both my 26" sidehack and my retarded slambike...(as pictured below)
Dont usually post on the forums but Im lurking around on Vital most days.
i started biking activity with an old BMX...used it everyday; goes to school, playing with friends, many more..start MTB-ing after saw my cousin's kona...
my first MTB was a fake, anonymous bike with santacruz decal..bought it very cheap and awared that's just a fake santacruz after a while. Sold, then. my second bike was giant atx. i'm quite happy with that, but it isn't last longer. Sold. now i'm riding mongoose teocali elite 2011. such a great bike...
i just an elementary school teacher, and MTB is kind of expensive sport. i need much time to build my last bike. now, some parts need to be changed as they are not working properly. but, i enjoy this. exploring unknown place, awesome..nice to meet you all...
the connected project is actually 3 riders: Leo Gamboc (im writting) - Croatia, Goran Jurica - Croatia and Primož Tanko - Slovenija.
We really want to make a decent scene at home, promote our sport, that is mostly dirt jumping, park riding and now a bit more of free riding.
We are missing the support at home so we are looking elsewhere.
We filmed a short movie of 9 minute trough this year. In the movie we tell our story and ride the local spots and then Whistler. I think whistler was a good starting point to get people moving, people from back home are mostly lazy, they just wait for things to come to them....moving on
all that is to cover our our urge to travel and ride
here is something we did and are really proud of
21 years old living in Northern Utah
Officially came out of the closet this year so I'm loving life.
Started out riding when my dad gave me his old 97 C'dale super V 5 years ago to try to get me to stop playing video games (4 broken bones, 1 torn ligament and a few surgeries later and I think he second guesses that decision)
Quickly fell in love with DH, although I'm starting to lean more towards Freeride and Dirtjump now.
Learned to backflip this year, hoping to expand my tricks over winter
Don't post really, but I lurk a lot. Just recently made this account to follow the 2016 racing rumors thread.
Just snowed yesterday so I'm just sitting in my room staring at my latest DJ build and thought I'd introduce myself.
I'm also addicted to trying new bikes, owned 15ish bikes over the last 3 or so years. Finally got a dialed Enduro bike, a slope bike, and a DJ so I'm hopefully done for a year or two.
Really like photography and making videos, but I'm usually too busy riding.
Working at a shop now and it's amazing.
If you're ever in the area hit me up I like to meet new people.
Pretty stoked on this, didn't have the speed or height I wanted but said fuck it and threw it:
Hi guys
MURO here i am 29 today but i feel like 16
I started to ride then i was 3 years old.
I love to build bikes, ownet lot of bikes.
This bike is my latest build and love HT thats soo fun
Cheers
I live in perth australia (the ass end of the universe ) it's basically other side of australia from sydney,
dumped the bmx bikes when i was 15 for a mountain bike got into dirt jumps and racing....
20 years later still doing same stuff build tracks in the little hills we have
also been a bicycle mechanic since then as well lived in van and whistler as well as london
I meant you at Interbike this year, and you guys just sent me a Stage recently!
The bike it's going on is still in progress, so I haven't ridden it yet, but it looks amazing with the custom decals!
Thanks, and tell Billie thank you!
Essentially, mine is a simple story of a simple man who's about to open his own bike park and damn the consequences!
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