Skills with Phil Rider Feature

Recently I moved to Vermont full time and I’ve gotten back into snowboarding and this year I picked up snowskating. It’s a good break during the winter to help keep things fresh. The time off the bikes helps rejuvenate you to get back out on the bike come Springtime.

It’s something I picked up as a kid. I moved around a lot, so I never made strong friendships. Instead, I’d spend my afternoons riding around the yard or digging up the grass to make jumps. Wherever I moved I was always the weird kid who was obsessed. My parents noticed my interest in bikes and even though they weren’t competitive people, they got me involved with racing from an early age.

People’s attention is very limited, so you have to get your point across quickly. This makes it tricky when explaining complicated topics in simple terms. Everybody wants to learn easily how to master a bunny hop in 5 minutes or less. Imagine trying to explain something as simple as how to walk, there’s a lot more to it than just putting your right leg in front of your left.

I wish there was more focus on the experience and less focus on performance. If you smash a derailleur hanger, there’s a good chance that the bike shops in town don’t carry the derailleur hanger for your bike. That means you will have to special order it and will be off the bike for a few weeks until it comes in. Those sorts of experiences can suck the joy out of biking.