KFuller

My goodness that was beautiful. I hung on every word. Thank you for sharing.

That's a cool perspective. I know former bike mechanics who went on to big, related things: one is a large aircraft mechanic; one designed and helped build camping trailers for a while and is currently getting into restoring motorcycles. I am a garbage home mechanic because I can't visualize things well (no spatial reasoning) but I would think those two individuals realized they were good at that visualization and problem solving and much more, and could apply those skills in other places.

I generally have little interest in professional athletes. But being able to watch Jackson literally grow up in the sport has been amazing. I really admire his tenacity and commitment. It's not every day a grom with a highlight reel actually turns into the next big thing. Well done, kid. Thanks for bringing us along for the ride.

Well said. I hate to admit that I'm also getting a little desensitized to just straight riding (or skiing) edits with zero story, backstory, personality, info, insight, etc. This was refreshing.

@Grealdo: It's STILL only 2020?!?! Yeesh.

Logged into PB for the first time in years just to say RAD! Love these. I scored one a while back and it's even better looking in real life. More bike art in this world, please.

Indeed. I have worked with Rebecca several times and she's an outstanding human being. Congrats Liv/Giant. Godspeed, Rebecca!

Truth. My non-bike friends who want to try MTB lose their minds when I start talking about bikes around $1k. Even if they can technically afford it, they don't want to for an unknown. More than $1k seems outrageous and $2k?!? $2k gets you a ski pass and a really nice equipment setup -- and that sport is seen as "very expensive" to the average person, so...

@CycleKrieg: Direct to consumer makes a lot of practical sense beyond just saving $$. I live in a ski resort town. Most "bike shops" are only functioning 3-4 months out of the year (they are ski shops the rest of the time). People do ride here but it's second fiddle to pretty much everything else. Bike shops here don't stock good MTBs because they are focused on rentals, not sales. And the employees are almost never bike-focused and are working largely on those low-end rentals. And they're slammed all the time. Want suspension work done? You can wait a month. I get all my specialty work done by a "private" bike mechanic who works out of his garage and has decades of pro-level experience. Finding him via word-of-mouth was a Godsend because I would otherwise not have good options. Buying my last bike online was a given. I'd have to drive a long way to "buy local." And anyway, finding size smalls to test ride--let alone finding smalls in stock--is damn near impossible. Being able to spend less, customize parts AND have the bike delivered to my door pretty much ready to ride ... I mean, it doesn't get much better than that. I'm all for supporting local shops but if the customer service is crummy and the options aren't there, I'm moving on.

Amen. I love a mix. All the types of riding are good. Haters gonna hate, but I'm SO sick of the hate in this sport, TBH.