Bike Limits

Writing by John Murphy | Photos by Jake Garrett

I grew up in New Jersey riding bmx bikes and other forms of rigid bicycles until I was about ten. My family moved to Seattle in 2000. I picked up another bmx bike here and rode that for a year or two before I got my first mountain bike. Then year after year and bike after bike I fell in love with mountain biking. It just made more sense for me and my riding style. Throughout Junior High and High School, I raced a little bit and had some fun doing that until one day I cracked / fractured five ribs hitting a tree high speed. That changed things a little bit for me. It reminded me that these heavy metal steeds we were riding were going pretty damn fast. When you hit a stationary object or surface high speed the consequences are terrible. Since then I haven’t had any really bad crashes. Well besides a clavicle I shattered last summer when I decided to ride backwards on some dirt jumps and over shot it.

I’ve been riding dirt jumps, smashing downhills, and recently riding a lot of 29” all mountain on just about everything… My favorite places to ride are all here in the Cascades of Washington State. The i-90 corridor is a good place to start. Bellingham, Eastern Washington, and everything in between is sprawling with different networks of trails that if you plan correctly, could almost all link together. My riding style is inspired by my early days of riding skate parks and homemade dirt jumps, so I think that shows when I am riding. I scream and yell all the time and probably annoy some of my buddies, but most of the guys I ride with these days are all good friends and do the same. Recently I have been riding a lot of downhill on my Commencal trail bike. It’s a 29” monster truck and I have never had so much fun on a bike. I ride pretty close to home most of the time, hitting the i90 corridor networks of dh and all mountain loops. I seek the trails that make me smile at the bottom. It is good to push yourself, just know and learn your limits.