An amazing story...

[N3ur0n0saurusl2exs0r!!!]

Just about 10 years ago I was at a high point in my life working for Squaresoft while living in Seattle where I rode my BMX bike daily jumping all the jumps at Green Lake - then disaster struck. My mom was in the hospital and I spent two weeks living there until she died. After she died both my sister and I stayed with my dad at our old Bonney Lake home for a while. During the begininng of that period when I wasn't living in my Wallingford house a "friend" of mine stole my bike that I had left in the living room. Having my spirits completely broke by losing my mom was bad enough but to have my bike stolen during a time when my bike meant so much to me totally just killed me and I ended up not riding for five years after that. During the five years I didn't ride I got into certain illicit substances and furthered my career in game development which was unfortunately hugely deleterious on my body but I didn't really realize it until the time when I was finally able to ride again. September of 2001 was when I finally made the decision to get back on my bike in what is only completely unimaginable in terms of how unhealthy I was. It took years to recover from what I did to my body when all I did was work 10-14 hours a day with no exercise and eat a horrible diet. Three years went by and I was still trying to get back to where I was when I was 25. During that time I endured five broken bones from BMX, having my sister die, my wife leaving me, my job amounting to nothing, and my dad getting cancer - twice. But somehow I still kept riding my bike - that was until I got into powerlifting and gave it up for two years. Until about a week and a half ago I hadn't really ridden since June of 2004. Now here is the amazing part, I've been riding everyday for the last 6 days straight. I almost didn't ride today but for whatever reason I ended up going to Green Lake which is not where I've really been riding that much. Now for whatever reason the third time I end up going to ride Green Lake in the last two years the guy that stole my bike just happend to decide that he would try and find me today of all days and since I was there 10 fucking years ago he thought maybe I might still be riding and that I might be there on the same day and time that he decided to be there. This is nothing short of fucking freaky. I didn't even recognize him - he was able to recognize me though. He approached me and said that he had been looking for me and that this was the third time that he had been up this way from Tacoma where he was now living. Now something of note was that we had no real overlap of circles of friends unbeleivably even though we both had BMX in common - I mean he could have just called me if we had. I told nobody I was going to be at Green Lake today except for my girlfriend Kelly and you have to remember that I only really started riding again about 1.5 weeks ago after taking two years off. What were the chances that I would be down at Green Lake on the same day and time as Johnny? Ridiculous odds...How did he even know I would still be riding 10 years later when I was 35 years old? It's just freaky...So why was he seeking me out? Well it had been bothering him for so many years about what he did to me that he just couldn't deal with it anymore and was comitted to try and make things right so after a brief introduction he just got right to the point - his sole purpose was to find me that day and to make things right for what he did. I told him I had forgiven him long ago because I knew that someday we would probably end up riding together again - remember we were "friends." He told me that I should take his bike because he took my bike from me. I told him I couldn't do that. So then he told me that I could either take his bike or he would give me money for what my bike was worth back then and then pulled out a wad of cash and started counting. Back then $500 was a decent amount of money for a bike and that is what he handed me in cash then and there just on the spot. I was blown away. I'm still blown away. I mean it was like a total real world My Name is Earl moment. We talked for a while after and got caught up and then parted ways - I don't know if I'll ever see him again or not. I'm thinking I probably will though...what a day...

[R3C]

Very interesting. I remember when that happened, (or at least hearing about it shortly after.) (I remember the house too ) So, you should take that money out, and buy you up some illicit sub... ... I mean bike parts. Any breakthroughs in BMX technology lately? I'd like to get a bike, but I'm not sure which way I want to go. I'm thinking something along the lines of one of those Urban Assault jobbies.

[Bill Drayton Jr.]

Only a couple things have really changed for BMX- there are now three different type of bottom brackets standard, Spanish, and euro. And headsets are now integrated into the frame.

As far as the mountain bikes go I've been seeing a lot of them setup for dirt jumping which basically means no rear suspension(hard tail) and lower center of gravity by what looks like it having the seat really low so it stays out of the way and you can throw the bike around like it was a small BMX but it's a bigger bike with 24" wheels and not too pricey because it doesn't have any rear suspension - the frame alone on rear suspension bikes can be well over $1000 by itself. You want a hard tail for manualling and pumping through jumps or even for making it easier to pedal on flat ground because a full suspension bike eats a lot of the effort you put into pedalling it and takes a ton of speed to get those things off the ground - I don't know why. Also mountain bikes have ridiculously awesome hydraulic disc brakes front and rear that work in pouring down rain. If I were you, I would get one of these since they are very accomidating for a taller rider and actually easier to ride than a BMX.

Here is a decent dirt jumping bike from Diamond Back called the Assault for about $1k - if I were going to get a mountain bike it would look something like this:



Here is the link for that bike:
http://www.diamondback.com/items.asp?de ... itemid=172

Or here is a nice specialized bike (p.series) setup the same way:


Link for that bike:
http://www.specialized.com/bc/SBCBkMode ... =06PSeries

Ok one last one from Trek called Jack:


http://www2.trekbikes.com/bikes/bike.ph ... 31600&f=16

Now go buy one...

[R3C]

I'm partial to Specialized. A friend of mine had one. I will be able to pick one up possibly at the end of July. Would yield plenty of late summer / fall riding.

[R3C]

I'm looking at this one: http://www.specialized.com/bc/SBCBkModel.jsp?spid=12918

I've been offered a discount on Trek products though, so I may look into these ones too. There's a bike shop in Issaquah where a friend of mine knows the owner, and gets some pretty nice deals.

[enderzero]

That is an incredible story!!

[Bill Drayton Jr.]

That is an incredible story!!

Yeah...I don't know what to think of it really - but I'm pretty happy and he is pretty happy so things are good and I'm probably going to buy some replacement parts with the money for both my bike and my car. I can't beleive it took me less time to replace the front brake pads on my acura than it did to replace the brakes on my bike...

[Bill Drayton Jr.]

I'm partial to Specialized. A friend of mine had one. I will be able to pick one up possibly at the end of July. Would yield plenty of late summer / fall riding.

These type of mountain bikes are like zombo.com - I mean they are pretty damn cool and actually they are lighter than my BMX bike and around the same price really. The longer wheel base and bigger tires soaks up so much more impact as well not to mention that they have front suspension to help out as well. Oh and of course you have gears too so you can zip around like crazy. I've riden with some guys that got the full suspension bikes with gears and they had a hard time keeping up with me on my single geared bmx bike - they are just a lot of work to pedal. These type of mountain bikes are very nice. You could ride anywhere a bmx could ride even in a park. I mentioned this before too but these bigger bikes are easier to ride as well because they are much less twitchy and more predictable - I'll probably end up on one someday...

[Bill Drayton Jr.]

I'm looking at this one: http://www.specialized.com/bc/SBCBkModel.jsp?spid=12918

I've been offered a discount on Trek products though, so I may look into these ones too. There's a bike shop in Issaquah where a friend of mine knows the owner, and gets some pretty nice deals.

Yeah the p2 is heavier but it's made of chrome moly which means it will just be super strong. The P.1 is interesting though - it has no front disc brake and a cable actuated rear disc with a gyro so you can spin the bars around like crazy but whats really interesting is that it has a 26" front wheel and a 24" rear...PLUS it's a single geared bike I think this bike is pretty damn cool actually. I like single geared bikes because when you land with a deraileur you get that nasty deraileur slap. I think I may have to change my mind now and get this bike over the diamond back. This bike is basically just a big bmx bike with front suspension.

[Goemon]

That's a great karma story.

Any opinion on Haro bikes? Good, bad, shit?

[R3C]

I need a strong one, so I will probably go with one of the chrome moly ones. I tend to put a lot of strain on mountain bikes. Something always bends, breaks, falls off, etc. (I've had some pretty nice ones too.) Anyway all of these look very cool. I definitely don't want rear suspension. Bleh, I'd rather use any excess energy to do wackiness.

[Bill Drayton Jr.]

I need a strong one, so I will probably go with one of the chrome moly ones. I tend to put a lot of strain on mountain bikes. Something always bends, breaks, falls off, etc. (I've had some pretty nice ones too.) Anyway all of these look very cool. I definitely don't want rear suspension. Bleh, I'd rather use any excess energy to do wackiness.

The chrome moly frames will last longer as well as being stronger - the aluminum ones tend to get fatigued and then start to flex after a while. I think the p.2 would be cool to get over the p.1 for you because it would be nice to have gears to just speed around on the street and 26" rims both front and rear plus the front brake for extra stoppage. You could probably bounce around on the front wheel if you just locked the front brake up and used the shock to pogo too...heh...

[Bill Drayton Jr.]

That's a great karma story.

Any opinion on Haro bikes? Good, bad, shit?

The BMX bikes are good - I didn't even know they were doing mtb stuff or ATB as they call it. The bikes look pretty cool to me...

[R3C]

I will either go with the P2, or a Trek equivalent (if I can actually get a discounted price as mentioned.) My friend's Trek looks like a standard mtb frame/seat-wise, but has a solid rear end with front shock. I think I'd prefer the angled frame with lowish seat configuration.

[Bill Drayton Jr.]

I don't think the company matters too much as long as they are reputable. Yeah low seat is good, if you want to sit higher you can always raise it up - I think there are seat post clamps that are quick release style. Just get a bike setup for dirt jumping like the ones here and you'll be good.

Oh and don't get excessively knobby tires - ideally you want a streetish tire in the rear and semi-knobby up front...

Oh here is a cannondale that looks kind of cool