I want to ride my...
Bicycle! Bicycle! Bicycle!
I want to ride my bicycle!
I want to ride my bike!
I want to ride my bicycle!
Hello, my name is Sean Vincent and I started riding bikes at 2 years old, when I rode my tricycle down a flight a stairs, not just once, but twice. I guess I had so much fun I had to do it again!
Since then the only thing consistent in my life has been my passion to ride. I’ve wrecked more bikes than I can count, and have broken every conceivable part on a bike!
Whether it was when I was twelve years old and took my Murray...that’s right I said Murray down a 100 foot drainage ditch trying to jump the bottom 3 foot stream, let me tell you that ended in a disaster and a long walk home! But it seemed like a good idea at the time...
To when I was in college and rode 60 miles just to see a girl, that actually worked out pretty well....or that time I decided if i could ride a 100 miles in a day just on a dare!
Then came marriage, I always drove my wife nuts because all I wanted to do was ride!
Then came divorce and two broken frames later.... Both my Weyless frames broke, I don’t know if it was me riding harder or just riding more but at the end of the day the frames couldn’t be salvaged...All I wanted to do was ride....
One thing that has always been a constant is the friends I’ve met and ridden with over the years...There’s a group of us today that have been riding together for almost 15 years...
They've always been there whether it was for the Thursday night ride, to let’s go take our race bikes down the downhill course trips... We've always had two things our friendship and our passion to ride.
For some bikes are just transportation, for me a bike is a lifestyle.
Here’s a picture of me finishing my first Whiskey Row Ride in Prescott, notice everyone else has been done forever and has showered and changed, me I literally just got done riding the hardest event of my life, that course kicked my a$$ and still does to this day!
Here’s me a year later putting in one of my best times ever on this course, it's amazing what happens
when you actually train for an event, versus just show up and ride! Look I even have a smile on my face!
Man Down! This was the first trip I took on my new Enduro Pro, my friends thought this was the perfect bike for me, something I couldn’t break. So what do we do, I don’t even have the bike for a week and we drive to Moab and Colorado for seven days of riding!
Now remember my friends thought this was bike I couldn’t break by the end of the trip I’d blown the rear shock and broke the derailleur hanger! But over the life of the bike it actually was pretty good for me!
Before I got remarried several years ago, my wife and I sat down and put everything on the table about what is important to us and rules we live by.... Mine were pretty simple.
- I procrastinate, deal with it....(usually cause I'm too busy riding or thinking about riding...)
- I have a love of everything on two wheels!
I can tell you since I was a young adult I’ve never had less than three bikes in the house. About once a year my wife always ask, why do we have to keep them in the house? Because to me their part of who I am....I’m not leaving them outside or in a garage where they collect dust and rust.
I’ve been lucky, my wife while she doesn’t always understand my love and passion for riding, she’s always supported me. Whether its my crazy trips out of town with friends or my decisions to line up at the starting line and push my limits, I’m thankful for her support.
This past couple years has been great, I’ve gotten both my sons introduced to mountain biking and we are slowly getting them out on the trails...
Where would this story be complete but without friends, we’ve ridden together for years, we always had one rule when we went for a ride, don’t talk about work. I think it allowed us just to relax and get away... Here’s a few shots from our adventures...
Let's not forget with family and friends it always helps to give back, that's why I have supported IMBA for many years and just recently joined their Mountain Bike Patrol along with the City of Phoenix Park Stewards program. If you have some time you should definitely give back to the community because without these organizations we wouldn't have nearly as many trails to ride!
Now originally I thought I would write an essay on why it would be so awesome to participate in Foundry’s new bike program, but the more I wrote and looked at pictures, this isn't about the ride program, but more about the lifestyle. While I would LOVE to help test and ride new bikes, if I don’t get it, it doesn't change who I am or why I ride.
I ride for those moments where everything is in harmony and I’m cruising down a trail a full speed and everything is flowing perfect. I attack and punish that hill that usually destroys me, I fly over that rock garden that has eaten me up more times that I can count, I flow through that tight corner I usually over-shoot, these are the moments I ride for....
PS. If you get a chance check out Foundry Cycles, their a subsidiarity QBP or Quality Bike Products which distribute a ton of supplies to your local shops, and are doing some great thing for affordable bikes! http://foundrycycles.com/
