From the reasoning of the Dawg name to the best comic book authors, from the history of the Hot to a timeline of industrial music, Cory has the trivia, and the opinions to mouth off about it.

Ryan Schutz is the Regional Director for the mountain states of the US for IMBA. Before that, he was half (okay, 2/3rds) of a trail care crew with his wife that crisscrossed the nation like some wayward pied piper with a shovel and a McLeod. If you have been to a mountain bike festival, you have met Ryan. Needless to say, the guy knows trails, advocacy clubs, and bikes better than nearly anyone. Here’s a quick Q&A that we had on the state of mountain biking advocacy today.

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From the reasoning of the Dawg name to the best comic book authors, from the history of the Hot to a timeline of industrial music, Cory has the trivia, and the opinions to mouth off about it.

Many crusty old mountain bikers will tell you about the “good ol’ days.” This sort of revisionist memory is wrong, and should be punished with great severity – except for maybe one facet. You see, these people conveniently forget about rigid forks and u-brakes. They forget about crappy clothing, and uncomfortable, terribly vented helmets. Seven speed top bar shifting? It wasn’t as good as you’ve been told. Trail access was terrible, and the trail quality was generally much better.
The one thing that might have been better was that trails weren’t as crowded. But with those crowds came the better trails, better equipment, and the awesome bragging right that we as mountain bikers have of seeing Chester Cheetah pictured on a mountain bike on his bag of “food.” I know I’d be happy to have slightly more crowded trails in order to see a true hero like Chester on a mountain bike!
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From the reasoning of the Dawg name to the best comic book authors, from the history of the Hot to a timeline of industrial music, Cory has the trivia, and the opinions to mouth off about it.

I arrived in Rapid City for the Festival, but I needed the big guns to really make Kona’s presence known in Rapid City. I conned Kona’s own rep/rider/one-man show Willy Warren to make the seven hour drive up from Colorado to help me with the festival’s bike demo. Willy rolled in to the hotel parking lot around 11:00pm with his Range Rover and trailer loaded to the gills with bikes, sleepy people, an elderly but anxious dog and beer. With setup for the demo starting at 8:00am, and Willy tired from a long drive, there was little to do but hit the hotel bar for some beer and sake.
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From the reasoning of the Dawg name to the best comic book authors, from the history of the Hot to a timeline of industrial music, Cory has the trivia, and the opinions to mouth off about it.

To most, South Dakota isn’t a state known for mountain biking, and with good reason. Drive across the state on I-90 sometime and see how far you can go without touching your steering wheel. If your alignment is good, you can make it to the horizon, and all while watching tumbleweed and listening to pig futures on AM radio. And then, of course, there’s Mt. Rushmore, which is a weird deal on a whole new level.
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From the reasoning of the Dawg name to the best comic book authors, from the history of the Hot to a timeline of industrial music, Cory has the trivia, and the opinions to mouth off about it.

I’m writing this on May 15th, Bike to Work and School Day. This is a cool day, where in towns and cities all over the nation people get on their bikes instead of in their cars and ride their bikes to work. It makes for an awesome time, seeing tons of people on bikes all over town, and having a safer than usual ride in to work. This lasts for a day, and everyone drives after that.
Yes, I am jaded.
I’ve always liked this event, but I do question how much good it actually does in the long run. After riding in this morning, I have a slightly more sanguine view of it. As I was cruising down a hill on my way in, I saw a couple of middle school aged girls riding up the hill. One looked like she knew what she was doing, and was getting up the hill at a decent pace. The other girl was suffering like a dog – but with the biggest smile I’ve seen in quite a while. This one girl made the whole day a success for me.
Martin Scorsese has shown that a song can epitomize a particular moment in a film, but real life often doesn’t work that way. Mr. Self Destruct by Nine Inch Nails was playing loudly in my right ear, but if it was a remark on anything, it’s me. She was suffering, but she was winning the fight, and having a damn good time doing it.
She may not ride to school on Monday. She may not ride to school again for quite a while, but she’s going to always remember that she had a blast doing it, and that’s going to pull at her until she does it again, and she will.
So, to everyone that rode to work or school on Bike to Work and School Day, congrats. To those that actually enjoyed themselves, double congrats! And if you’re going to do it again, you’re one of us.