My MTB bike journey is a long and winding road starting in a small town where no one knew bikes could be used for anything other than transport... In primary school I went through the typical growing up bikes, small Western Flyer BMX, then Bomber, then Avalance, and then Avalanche again, and then kind of lost interest in bikes as I was riding motorbikes more. In 9th grade, a now-good-friend of mine (OjVJ on here) moved to town from Durban, and brought along his GT Dyno and he could do some lekker bunnyhops and wheelies which blew my mind. That kickstarted my venture into BMX. I found an old chrome Mongoose Supercross BMX frame/fork hanging in the rafters in a lawnmower repairman's shop and resurrected it and rode that for a while. photo credit:internet Then I was onto a huffy or the like, also built up from a frame hanging in the same gent's rafters. Moved into the "big leagues" around standard 8 and bought a brand new Mosh Pro S 2racing BMX with a V brake on the rear - this thing was epic fun. photo credit:internet Started studying and met DewaldSSS (posted above), he got me back into BMX-From the Mosh moved onto a Gary Fisher Mullet Dirt Jump BMX, weighed a ton but was flippen cool (for that time). photo credit:internet The Gary Fisher made way for a Haro BMX that OJvJ (hub name) still uses as dog sled for his two pit bulls. photo credit:internet Next was a Haro Escape Dirt Jump bike - stock off the shelf. What a fun bike used for street and a bit of park - and maualling inside the design building hallway is how I met Bos - he spotted me and was like: "lekker bike" so we became friends and he introduced me to dirt jumping. photo credit:internet The Escape snapped, and a second - next generation - Escape was acquired and built from the frame up. Awesome bike - and for some reason still the only bike I could barspin. photo credit:internet Bought a Giant AC 1 team issue in black and yellow with a Marzocchi Jnr T and an air shock rear. Dream bike on downhills, but could not even pedal on flats and forget about uphills - pushing was the only way to get up. Rode the first Urban Assault on this and a couple of the first Dirtopias and had an absolute blast. photo credit:internet Bos then got me into trails and so I bought his old Raleigh RDS 9'0 frame and built that from scratch. Snapped the frame on the Burger MTB and got another to replace it. Sold the Escape and bought a DK 26" dirt jump bike in it's place. What a rad machine. my bike I was in the UK for a while and had two bikes. First a secondhand Brooklyn Machine Works steel hardtail - beat to crap by the previous owner. and then a GT jump bike. The GT at London Bank Skatepark Out with the Raleigh and in with a Mongoose Teocali frame, also built from scratch. my actual bike Around this time I also bought a Fuji track bike, turned it into a fixie and almost died in traffic. A couple of times. Out with the DK, and in with an Octane 1, dream dirt jump machine. Every part was way too expensive but so good. my bike Out with the Mongoose and in with a brand new 2011 Giant Trance Advanced (bought new in 2014) and that was flippen legendary. my bike Nov 2016 saw the Trance go, to make space for the 2016 Trance Adv 27.5, bought as a complete and completely ripped apart, sold everything par the frame and then built from the ground up to be as awesome as it is now. Currently in my quiver I have the Trance and the Octane 1. And that brings me to yesterday when I listed the Trance for sale and will also be listing the Octane 1 soon...
