I grew up in Marin County, which many consider the birthplace of mountain biking. (A hotly contested topic that will be debated till the end of time.) Growing up in Marin during the time the bike industry was blossoming was very exciting. I am so thankful that mountain biking caught on and brands like Yeti who were involved very early on are still here today.
Even though most of my early memories are filled with many mechanical I still loved seeing what could be done on a mountain bike. I was hungry for exploring the trails and going as fast as I could. A good day on the bike would be only one or two mechanicals. Rides with 3-4 flat tires were common in those days. Broken parts, cracked frames, seized up linkages, broken cranks are all things that happened on a regular basis! We all became very resourceful in those days. New riders have no idea how good you have it!
Thanks to those brands like Yeti, who leaned into the racing aspect of mountain biking and had riders pushing their bikes to the limits, me included, (I was Factory Yeti for 1996, 1998) learned a lot from the pro riders and worked hard to improve the bikes and that has never stopped.
Today I ride as much as I possible and have adopted one of the longest downhill trails in Southern California and put in heavy hours working on the remote trail during the winter. I travel to many events as I work for Shimano and race Enduros when possible.
Yeti bike of choice - why?
SB 165. Ultimate all around trail bike that can handle whatever you throw at it. Playful and confident inspiring. I absolutely love this bike.
What is your first memory on a bike?
Jumping the Tiburon trestle at Blackies pasture when I was in the 4th grade. If you have ever driven into Tiburon then you have passed this infamous jump.
Word on the street was one of the older kids had jumped it. I believe a 7th grader if I remember right. We had an old school BMX track circa 1978 that we would stop at every day riding home from school. At the far end of the track was a decommissioned trestle that just stopped. There was a trail to the side of it but generally overgrown. When I had heard someone jumped their bike from the end of the trestle I began eyeing it up for several weeks. In order to make the jump you had to jump out at least 10 feet and then it abruptly dropped down. I could barely imagine someone jumping it but one day I go tthe courage up to do a run up to see what it might be like. THis got the attention of the other kids and before I knew it there were at least 6 or 7 kids asking if I was going to jump it. I said sure Ill do it if you guys all do it too. RIght then a couple kids chirped up that sure if I do it they will do it. In my mind I thiought that maybe I wasnt so crazy to think this could be done since I had heard an older kid had done it and my friends were on board. So I lined myself up and did a couple run ups. I really didn't know how fast I should go. I noticed when I would do a run up it would feel very windy in my face. I was concerned this head wind would make it so I wouldn't jump far enough out and come up short so I did what any 10 year old kid would do and I pedaled as hard as I could and passed the point of no return and set sail! The wind was in my face and everything was a blur. I was weightless for what seemed like 3 or 4 seconds and then whoosh I landed! I jump so far down the embankment that I went way OfCourse and basically landed in tall weeds. I held on tight. The force was so harsh that my feet blew right off the pedals! I managed to stay upright and rode it out through the tall weeds. It was a crazy feeling. I was sort of in shock. I turned around to see my friends and they were gone!! As soon as they saw me fly through the air they got on their bikes and pedaled in the other direction as fast as they could! Bunch of punks! To this day whenever I drive past that trestle I think about my wild ride on that day 40 plus years ago!
Best feeling on a bike?
Riding in the zone where you are just reacting to the trail and not even thinking about what you are doing.
What is your biggest source of inspiration outside of mountain biking?Why?
I love watching other high level action sports like Supercross or motocross or F1. I love watching how they react to the ever-changing conditions and handle pushing things to the limit.
A word of advice to the groms
Put in your training! Take your health seriously and wear your pads and be smart about your riding. Injuries heal but not always 100%. Be mindful of what you are doing and be prepared when you go riding.
Top 3 riding destinations?
Pacific Northwest! Bellingham has multiple rad trails and then just across the border in North Van there is an insane network of trails.
If you can make it to Europe you have to visit Finale, Ligure in Italy. Awesome town and so many great trails. They really embrace cycling in that place.
