98 comments! - Holy cow - and I missed your post
Back in the day (90's) I was a downhiller racer and used to own a bike shop too. The sport was pretty new in the early 90's. Suspension was just being developed and there were no disc brakes. Most of us rode hardtails, and there were no big jumps. But the hills were much bigger - up to 1500 meter vertical descents!
A guy who used to hang out at our shop went on to become NZ downhill champ and moved to America to race professionally.
He won the 2005 New Zealand National Championships in both downhill and four cross and finished third in the NORBA downhill series overall. He also took fourth place overall in the downhill in the 2004 NORBA series and sixth place in downhill at the 2004 UCI World Cup Race in Calgary, BC (Canada). He was also the 2004 New Zealand National Champion, and took NORBA championships in 2000 and 2001.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kirkcaldie
Man that's fuckin cool! Well I'm glad you didn't miss it either Frot, I'd be lying if I said I noticed you didn't stop by. 😉 I wouldn't normally do this but did you get a chance to see the downhill video I put together before the weather went to shit?
It's just now starting to ease up so I've been putting some miles back on the bike, plan on filming some more today actually. Just got my bike back Sunday from the seasonal tuning so I'm ready. Oh fuck man! First time I took it out this season was about six weeks ago and I smacked my knee so fucking hard on the frame I thought I got shot! Could hardly walk for a few days. But now I got a knee pad for my good wheel that protects the inside of the knee, too, oh it's on now!
Hard tails. I'm new to this area so the terrain is unfamiliar to me but they say this eastern region of Tennessee is the Mecca of downhilling because it's all rolling hills. But dude, the amount of rocks and exposed tree roots, there's times my full suspension isn't enough, a hard tail wouldn't work.
Thanks Frot!
PS - 101 comments