I just thought I'd share this as it may interest some of you guys..
Mountain biking has been a big (possibly the biggest) thing in my life for over 17 years now. It means many different things to me. I love the places it takes me, I dream of riding anywhere with an impressive vista. I like the fact it keeps me fit. I'm a geek at heart and the technological progression keeps that side of me satisfied. But I think for me it will always be that feeling of pushing your own limits that I really get off on. For this reason I've been heavily into the downhill scene since it emergered in the mid 90's.
So in 07 I decided to take voluntary redundancy from my well paid job as an engineer for a large aerospace company, and up and move to Whistler, Canada. I had no idea what I was going to do over there, but the call of those mountains was deafening and I couldn't ignore it any longer. I'm sure most of you have heard of Whistler and the Whistler Bike Park, but I'm also sure what most of you don't realise is that Whistler and it's surrounding area has possibly the largest network of maintained XC trails in the world! It really is a mecca for mountain biking of any discipline. Never have I felt so accepted with my choice of passion! Being not much more than a small tourist town it doesn't offer much in the way of career opportunities but I managed to blag a job working as a bike mechanic and all was good. OK I wasn't earning a lot, probably not even what most people would call a comfortable wage, but the perks were good
and hey, I got to ride my bike(s) every day on actual, real mountains!
Fast forward to August 09, I was just begining to plan a winter in New Zealand to basically get a year round summer and ride, ride and ride some more! It was an average day, I'd rode XC all morning then switched bikes and was hitting up the DH trails in the park in the afternoon. I was cruising down a trail, what I'd class as an easy trail, not particularly pushing it, but I slightly over cooked a corner and found myself heading off the side. I thought should I bail, but there was a lot of big sharp rocks around so I didn't fancy that and decided to try to ride it out. I droped off the side of the trail, through a bush onto what I later found out was a pile of even bigger rocks, this stopped my bike dead and I was spat head first into said rocks. I heard the crack as my helmet hit solid rock, but the really worrying thing was the crunch I felt in my neck/upper back area!
The next few hours are not something I ever really want to dwell on! :shock:
A few day's later I was on a plane returning to the UK for major spinal surgery and my dream of that endless summer was suddenly not even in sight!
I'm now recovering.. still.. the docs say I will be able to ride to some extent again but it is not yet clear if I will ever be back on a big bike ripping some techy lines again.. :?
Do I regret riding that kind of thing? No!
Will I do it again (if I physically can)? Hell yes!
Where do Retrobikes and the retro bike community come into this I hear you ask. Well, when I moved to Canada I had not long finished my first retro project (96 Amp Research B4), and I had to trim my quiver of bikes so I chose to sell her (I do regret doing that!) While I was there I often logged into the forum and checked out what was going on, but I didn't really have the money to fund another project, although, I was always rocking the 3DV Ringle H2O on my XC bike. I would tell people about the site and I think half would think we were mad, and the other half would think it was cool (but we were still mad)! Anyway, a few weeks ago I realised I would have to sell at least one of my current bikes because I still can't work and money is tight. This really got me down, but then I thought what an excuse to do another retro project, after all I will need something to get around on once my spine is good..
So yep I'm back with a vengence, my ebay watch list is huge and I'm already having to reign myself in to tame my addiction for purple ano! I obviously don't have a lot of money, but that's the great thing about retrobikes, it is possible to build something really special for a reletively small amount (compared to new mtb's anyway) I'm excitedly waiting for parts to start arriving for my project, I might have to wait a while to build it, and even longer to ride it, but we all know half the fun of this is the chase! :twisted:
Anyway thanks for reading, hopefully some of you may find it interesting or inspiring or whatever..
Oh.. everyone should visit Whistler at least once in their life! Whatever style of riding you do, if you ride a bike you have to! Trust me it's that good! :shock: I'm planning to go back at least once every year..
Cheers,
Owen
Mountain biking has been a big (possibly the biggest) thing in my life for over 17 years now. It means many different things to me. I love the places it takes me, I dream of riding anywhere with an impressive vista. I like the fact it keeps me fit. I'm a geek at heart and the technological progression keeps that side of me satisfied. But I think for me it will always be that feeling of pushing your own limits that I really get off on. For this reason I've been heavily into the downhill scene since it emergered in the mid 90's.
So in 07 I decided to take voluntary redundancy from my well paid job as an engineer for a large aerospace company, and up and move to Whistler, Canada. I had no idea what I was going to do over there, but the call of those mountains was deafening and I couldn't ignore it any longer. I'm sure most of you have heard of Whistler and the Whistler Bike Park, but I'm also sure what most of you don't realise is that Whistler and it's surrounding area has possibly the largest network of maintained XC trails in the world! It really is a mecca for mountain biking of any discipline. Never have I felt so accepted with my choice of passion! Being not much more than a small tourist town it doesn't offer much in the way of career opportunities but I managed to blag a job working as a bike mechanic and all was good. OK I wasn't earning a lot, probably not even what most people would call a comfortable wage, but the perks were good
and hey, I got to ride my bike(s) every day on actual, real mountains!Fast forward to August 09, I was just begining to plan a winter in New Zealand to basically get a year round summer and ride, ride and ride some more!
It was an average day, I'd rode XC all morning then switched bikes and was hitting up the DH trails in the park in the afternoon. I was cruising down a trail, what I'd class as an easy trail, not particularly pushing it, but I slightly over cooked a corner and found myself heading off the side. I thought should I bail, but there was a lot of big sharp rocks around so I didn't fancy that and decided to try to ride it out. I droped off the side of the trail, through a bush onto what I later found out was a pile of even bigger rocks, this stopped my bike dead and I was spat head first into said rocks. I heard the crack as my helmet hit solid rock, but the really worrying thing was the crunch I felt in my neck/upper back area!The next few hours are not something I ever really want to dwell on! :shock:
A few day's later I was on a plane returning to the UK for major spinal surgery and my dream of that endless summer was suddenly not even in sight!
I'm now recovering.. still.. the docs say I will be able to ride to some extent again but it is not yet clear if I will ever be back on a big bike ripping some techy lines again.. :?
Do I regret riding that kind of thing? No!
Will I do it again (if I physically can)? Hell yes!
Where do Retrobikes and the retro bike community come into this I hear you ask. Well, when I moved to Canada I had not long finished my first retro project (96 Amp Research B4), and I had to trim my quiver of bikes so I chose to sell her (I do regret doing that!) While I was there I often logged into the forum and checked out what was going on, but I didn't really have the money to fund another project, although, I was always rocking the 3DV Ringle H2O on my XC bike.
I would tell people about the site and I think half would think we were mad, and the other half would think it was cool (but we were still mad)! Anyway, a few weeks ago I realised I would have to sell at least one of my current bikes because I still can't work and money is tight. This really got me down, but then I thought what an excuse to do another retro project, after all I will need something to get around on once my spine is good.. So yep I'm back with a vengence, my ebay watch list is huge and I'm already having to reign myself in to tame my addiction for purple ano! I obviously don't have a lot of money, but that's the great thing about retrobikes, it is possible to build something really special for a reletively small amount
(compared to new mtb's anyway) I'm excitedly waiting for parts to start arriving for my project, I might have to wait a while to build it, and even longer to ride it, but we all know half the fun of this is the chase! :twisted: Anyway thanks for reading, hopefully some of you may find it interesting or inspiring or whatever..
Oh.. everyone should visit Whistler at least once in their life! Whatever style of riding you do, if you ride a bike you have to! Trust me it's that good! :shock: I'm planning to go back at least once every year..
Cheers,
Owen
