From Control Towers to Mountain Trails - Jon Denton - Cycling Oklahoma

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
What is up?
Cycling Oklahoma.
Thank you so so much for tuningin for another episode, so
happy to have this one in thebooks.
I've been chasing John for areally long time to get this
done and, as a lot of the guests, they're like I don't really
have a lot to talk about, andthen when we start talking it
all starts coming out.
So there's some good stories inhere to hear how John got

(00:21):
started in cycling.
It's not the same traditionalroute that a lot of the other
fast dudes uh follow.
He came to it a little later inlife and, uh, like, actually
lived a life raising family andall those kinds of things and
career, um, while getting intocycling.
So it's a really fun story.
Uh, we hear about John's uhmoves from around the country

(00:43):
and, uh, how him and hiswonderful wife met and kind of,
you know, raising their familyand getting their kids into
cycling.
And we talk about Corey alittle bit, which is so great to
keep his memory alive and totalk about how Corey got into
cycling and kind of some oftheir memories that they had
together.
So it's very touching.
It's a great, great episode.
I was very appreciative of Johnand Julia sitting down and

(01:06):
talking with me and sharingtheir story and their memories
of Corey.
It's a very special episode, soI hope you enjoy this one.
We have a link where you canorder a jersey that we talk
about.
You can just order it off ofBuchanan uh, their Facebook page
.
Get ahold of them.
Uh, there will be pictures uhof that on their Facebook page.

(01:29):
So you know, support them.
The money's going to a reallygreat cause.
Uh, to be determined of howthey're going to get that to
where it's going to go, but uh,they're.
They're given back to thecommunity through Buchanan
bicycles.
John purchased the business a acouple years ago and, just like
all local bike shops, they'restruggling to stay relevant in
this direct-to-consumer world.

(01:51):
But, man, this bike shop is socool Buchanan's if you haven't
been in, it is the old schoolneighborhood bike shop.
It has got so much historyinside of it.
It's in Norman, on CampusCorner, so if you're in the area
, just stop by and say hi, checkout the shop.
It's got that old school feeland vibe and I absolutely loved
it sitting down in their shopand talking to them.

(02:12):
So thank you so much for tuningin to this episode.
As always, please check outCyclingOklahomacom and we'll
continue to try to roll out somenew videos this springtime and
get those shot and get thosedone.
So if you have ideas, you havesuggestions of episodes or
routes we should feature, pleaselet me know on that, send me
your route so we can update andkeep new things live on the

(02:33):
website and keep things fresh.
I just want to say thank youguys so much for tuning in and
listen.
Without you guys, this doesn'texist and doesn't go forward.
So we want to continue to growour amazing cycling community in
Oklahoma and I hope you uhappreciate this episode and any
suggestions and ideas you have.
I'm open and if we can do them,we will do our best to put them

(02:55):
into action, to make it live.
So thanks again.
Go check out cyclingOklahomacom, check out Buchanan
bicycles uh, the jerseys thatthey have that are honoring
Corey and everything that herepresented, and what they're
doing with those funds is goingto be really, really fun to
watch and how they continue togrow cycling among the juniors
in our wonderful state is goingto be really fun and exciting to

(03:18):
watch.
So thanks again for tuning inand we'll see you next time.
All right, john, we'reofficially live.
I have bugged you.
I tell it.
I say this most time like, oh,I've been trying to get you for
a long time, but I really trulyhave been trying to get you for
sure since you bought the shopRight, at least that time, yeah,
so maybe longer, I'm not reallysure.
So when I got the message theother day on Facebook said let's

(03:40):
just get this crap over with.
Here we are, I'm excited aboutit so, and I haven't been in
Buchanan's in a really reallylong time, so it was really nice
to come in and see the placeagain.
So a lot of things to cover.
I think we can go a lot ofdifferent angles with this, but
I think we start with an introof kind of where you grew up and

(04:01):
how you got into riding bikes.
I think we just start there.

Speaker 2 (04:04):
Okay yeah, okay yeah, yeah.
So I've listened to all yourpodcasts so far to date.
I need to.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
You're the one.

Speaker 2 (04:12):
I appreciate that Now that now that I'm on the hot
seat, your brain's goingshutting down completely blank.

Speaker 3 (04:19):
Yeah, no so.

Speaker 2 (04:21):
I, I, I guess, like most people who you've
interviewed and we ride with andstuff.
We've probably all ridden sinceI can remember California, when
I was as far back as I canremember riding bikes out there,
and then in Louisiana, when myparents moved to Louisiana
second grade or so we all rode.

(04:42):
We would do wheelie.

Speaker 1 (04:45):
you know the banana seeds twins and stuff and we do
wheelie contests to see how farwe could go and saw a great meme
the other day was talking aboutthe cool kid in the
neighborhood who could ride awheelie and I was like that was
not me.

Speaker 2 (04:56):
I could.
I was maybe third best of ourgroup.
I mean the one kid across thestreet, his name Steve Peterson.
He could ride around the blockand it seems like forever and
just go.
I got like three-quarters ofthe way around at one point and
then you know, we would do thejumps, just like you see in the

(05:20):
memes.
You know back in the 70s andstuff and brick with a piece of
plywood and shout up.
You know, oh, I had someterrible crashes.

Speaker 1 (05:26):
Yeah, that never what a little kid thinks of as like
a cool ramp.
It's not a good idea.

Speaker 2 (05:33):
No, and then my dad got me, so we rode.
My dad got me a motor, an ST90,honda ST90.
Okay, they used to use them atthe Avondale shipyards because
that's where he worked, but hegot me one.
The gas tank's under the seat,so it looks like a girl's bike,
a motorcycle right, it lookedlike a sissy bike, if you will.
Back in the day, everybody elsehas these little 125s and

(05:54):
everything.
We would go to the church.
There was a Catholic churchthat had a big backyard, if you
will, and a big loop.
We would go and we could ride,race each other on the
motorcycles that's awesome andwe would go in circles.
It couldn't have been more thanan eighth of a mile loop, I
don't know, but it was verysmall.
Anyway, we'd go in circles andwe had our helmets on.

(06:15):
We didn't ride with helmets onthe bikes, right, but my
motorcycle we did, and uh,that's even kind of surprising
that you had a helmet onmotorcycle.
Yeah, yeah, well, that's a goodthing I did, because I probably
wouldn't be here.
My dad actually come out towatch us and we were ripping and
I come around to turn and theonly technical spot was through
a little, not even a creek bed,it was just a little dip, maybe

(06:36):
12 inches, and I washed out andthe kid behind me ran over my
head, my helmet.
I could feel the helmet squeezein and everything and it took a
chunk about oh, half inch outof my helmet.
That would have been my head.
Yeah, you know, my dad didn'teven be, he was by the pickup
and I still remember this as amemory.
But he just kind of looked overat me, kind of waiting to see

(07:01):
if I was going to get up.

Speaker 3 (07:03):
He ain't coming to help.

Speaker 2 (07:04):
I'm getting up, so I got up and started racing again.

Speaker 1 (07:08):
I guess that's a good way to learn.
Learn the limit of them tires.

Speaker 2 (07:12):
Yeah, shut us down from that.
We weren't able to do that fortoo long.
We did one or two summers, Iguess.
So we rode bikes and then,right after high school, I
joined the military so did yougraduate high school in
louisiana yeah, a place calledmarrero, uh, john eric.
John eric high school inmarrero.

(07:33):
Okay, about 10 minutes from neworleans.
Okay, yeah, and so, um, I rodea motorcycle to high school as
well one summer.

Speaker 1 (07:43):
Oh one summer see this is what happens?
They just start coming backonce.
You start going once I rode mybike.

Speaker 2 (07:49):
I got to ride my bike because I failed biology and
you got to uh-huh so good spinto uh, right, and if julia could
look at the map we could lookat how far it was.
I swear it was a mile ride, butit was probably three miles to
the ice Uphill both ways.

Speaker 1 (08:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (08:06):
And no helmet, 10 speed drop bar bike, you know
thing.
And uh, I had to go for a monthand a half and it didn't matter
, I had to go and I got stronglegs.
Man, if I'd have known thatthere was a thing of cycling,
racing stuff, it would have beengreat.
And there was none of thatstuff, I didn't do.
Bmx this is before bmx reallytook off.

(08:27):
Okay, well, it shouldn't havebeen.
It would have been the early80s, 81 it's not in your area.

Speaker 1 (08:32):
Yeah, I know that's what these guys locally like
malott and you know charles, youknow long and all those guys,
they talk about the bmx.
But like I grew up in el reno,30 minutes away, i've've never I
mean I rad when I was a littlekid.
The movie was amazing and youknow, you see, like the movies
of them, I'm like I didn't knowa person.

(08:52):
It didn't know it existed.
I didn't even know it was athing that you could race BMX in
Oklahoma.
So it wasn't like in your group.
You didn't even know it existed.
Yeah, um, I didn't know it wasa thing.

Speaker 2 (09:04):
And so yeah, and then , of course, about a year after
high school, I graduated when Iwas 17.
I went in early, I guess, butnot that I was smart, I was just
started early.

Speaker 1 (09:20):
Just tell people it was because you were smart.
They don't know, they can'tcheck.

Speaker 2 (09:24):
My ASVAB scores.
Going in the Air Force got meinto security police.
That was a terrible job.
So you went to the Air Force.
Yeah, I did four years in theAir Force and so I was a cop.
And this recruiter saw thisdumb sucker kid come in.
I put all my jobs I did all.
Requested nine of 10.

(09:45):
They give you 10 options topick from.
Everything was electronics.
I had this little hobby thingwhere I would do electronics
projects and so I'm like allright, but the 10th one I put
law enforcement.

Speaker 1 (09:57):
That's the one you got.

Speaker 2 (09:58):
Why the fuck did I put that?
I don't know, but I did.
It's like wow, we can put youin security police.
And he gave me a coupon for afree Popeye's dinner.

Speaker 1 (10:08):
Sold Signing bonuses are better than pepper chicken
now.

Speaker 2 (10:15):
That was the stupidest thing.
I spent more years trying toget out of it.

Speaker 1 (10:18):
Did you get stationed anywhere?
Good, at least.

Speaker 2 (10:21):
Osan, korea.
That's pretty good.
That was my second station.
My first duty station was mountfrom the air force base in
great falls, montana that's abig change.

Speaker 1 (10:31):
That was huge man.

Speaker 2 (10:32):
You went from new orleans to montana, yeah and so
in my my basic training startedin february in san antonio,
which wasn't bad yeah, that'sthe best time of year to do that
but it was I.
They put me through all like abunch of special training, like
all.
So I didn't finish out of sanantonio fort, sam, houston area
until august.
Oh wow, yeah, my six weeks ofboot camp.

(10:53):
Like most air force people,mine was six months.
Wow, I was stupid.
They saw this.
I went through m60 gunnerschool, I went through airbase
ground defense, extra shooting,all kinds of different stuff,
and the whole time I'm trying toget out of it.

Speaker 3 (11:10):
Right.

Speaker 2 (11:11):
I finally had a chief master sergeant pull me in his
office like Airman, you caneither go to the brig or you can
do what you signed up to do.
Got it me eat up, sort of, anduh, actually had a.
After one of the exercises Ihad a, uh, he was a air force
guy but he was army ranger,trained okay, and so he was.

(11:33):
He was a ranger but he pulls meto the side.
He's like you want to go toranger school, airman, like but
I want more training.
I want to get out of here right,everything would change for
sure, but and so, anyway, umwent through all that, and so
they sent me to maelstrom again.
All my requests you know whereI wanted to go was not anywhere

(11:55):
north.
I'm southern, yeah, so to speak, california, louisiana, send me
just the spot let's send you tomontana, that'll be great.
So I get there in august.
Cool, it's warm a little bit.
I don't have a car.
I'm like walking aroundseptember 14th I guess,
somewhere I think it was 14freaking blizzard hits, I mean

(12:18):
snow, like holy crap.
I didn't have, I didn't evenhave a coat.
Oh my, my gosh In.

Speaker 1 (12:24):
September In.

Speaker 2 (12:24):
September Dumping and so I had to walk to the BX,
like, ran to the BX, bought aski jacket.
My first one was like $120,everything I had and that was an
eye-opener man.
It's like holy crap.

Speaker 1 (12:41):
And you were there for how long?
Just over a year, and then yougot to go to.
Korea, which is cool.
Yeah, so you were there.
For how long?
Just over a year, and then yougot to go to Korea, which is
cool.

Speaker 2 (12:46):
Yeah, it was interesting, um, when we got
there.
Well, when I say interesting, Idrank a lot yeah.
Sounds like military life youknow, 20 years old, um 85, 86
timeframe, Um, and just like nota place.

(13:08):
Well, but they have to send theyoung guys.

Speaker 3 (13:10):
I was actually one of the older young guys and the
younger guys were terrible.

Speaker 2 (13:15):
We had to take care of the young guys because they
would drink way more than us andit's like, well, you're older,
but anyway.
And so we get there.
Of course, I'm still securitypolice, right, and they have
this thing called EST, which islike a SWAT team, emergency
service team, and because I shotso good, I was one of two
snipers, went in training.

(13:37):
That's kind of back in training, interesting at least.
So I was one of two snipers andthey asked me if I wanted to be
on it and I'm like, well, sure,cause I'm like, you know, do
something Right.
But I've always been kind ofcompetitive in that respect,
right, so I guess that's why Iget to the cycling stuff.
But, and so we trained, we didthe EST stuff, we got to shoot

(13:59):
more, shoot with a pistol, andthen I made expert with the
pistol as well as the rifle andstuff like that, and so to me it
was fun and did that for a yearor so.
And if I'd have been a littlesmarter well, I don't know about
that If I'd have done someother different things different
, I probably wouldn't be herebecause I would have gone to the

(14:21):
special forces and tried forthat again but it didn't.
And been a lifer and had acompletely different life.
It changed where I know where mytrajectory of life changed,
because I was walking the flightline one day in Korea freezing
my ass off because it's cold inOsan.
I don't know what the latitudeis, but it's somewhere up around

(14:42):
South Dakota, but I think.
But anyway, I'm walking aroundthe C5.
You know what the latitude is,but it's somewhere up around
South Dakota is what I think,but anyway, I'm walking around a
C-5.
You know what a C-5 is?
A big cargo plane.
By the way, it's 243 steps towalk around, because I counted
multiple times and I look up andI see this tower with the glass
and everything up top there andthese guys with their feet up

(15:05):
there.
It was nice and warm.
Like what the hell is that?
So I go and check and that'sthe air traffic controllers.
Okay, that's what I wanted todo.

Speaker 1 (15:12):
Yeah, that's way better than this.

Speaker 2 (15:13):
I just want to get out of the freaking cold, yeah.
So I started putting in for itand they wouldn't.
But they wouldn't let meprostrate and they said we were
short, like no, you're not.
There was order of aircraftcontrollers by five times.
There was a shortage ultimatereal bad.
But security had like a 0.5shortage number, whatever it was
really minuscule.

(15:33):
So they wouldn't let me crosstrain and pissed me off.
And so they they said and thenthey sent me back to stateside,
to ellsworth North tier again,not South where every place I
didn't even put North tier right, nothing.
So they sent me back statesideand we met, but um, but they

(15:54):
wouldn't let me cross train, andso I I knew I was getting out
at that point, but I didn't knowwhat I was going to do.
So I joined the guard and atone oh, I know how we got to
Washington when I was atMalmstrom.
I have a bunch of family inCanada, okay, in fact my mom's
on my mom's side I'm is allCanadian.
I could have dual citizenshipif I had done the paperwork at

(16:16):
one point.
Anyway, I drove on one of mytwo weeks vacation.
I drove from Great Falls up toNelson, british Columbia, and
through Spokane.
It was beautiful, that placewas awesome Back then.
I don't know what it's like now.
When I got done with the fouryears and they wouldn't let me

(16:37):
cross train, I told them tocancel my job reservation when
I'm getting out.
I moved to Spokane, washington,instead of Louisiana.
I didn't know anybody, just therecruiter, oh my gosh.
And uh and this by this point Ihad met Julie, so so we were
dating.

Speaker 1 (16:55):
And so you guys had met whenever you came back.

Speaker 2 (16:58):
Yeah, when I got yeah .

Speaker 1 (16:59):
Okay, or you better, she's eyeballing you.
You better get this informationright.
So, yeah, so.

Speaker 2 (17:05):
I got that let's see 86, because it's November of 87.
Yeah, because I got out inFebruary of 88.
Anyway, and so we met in RapidCity, but where I would work in
the missile field was about fivemiles from her house.

Speaker 1 (17:21):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (17:21):
Where their house is still miles from her house, okay
, where their house is still,and so, um, anyway, it was just
we met through some friends.
My friend that I worked with,his girlfriend, knew her and we
met, and so um.
So when you moved to washington,she go with you later okay yeah
but it was, yeah, so I had tofind a place too.

(17:43):
I mean I didn't know anything,but back then you could, I mean
you could.
Actually it was yeah, so I hadto find a place too.
I mean I didn't know anything,but back then you could, I mean
you could.
Actually it was livable, youcould work and make a, find a.
So I found a cheap assapartment and um, and we made it
work.
Um, I did live in Canada for awhile.
I would cross the border allthe time.

Speaker 1 (18:00):
You can't do that now Right, just freewheeling it,
just doing whatever yeah.

Speaker 3 (18:04):
A lot of different situations.

Speaker 1 (18:06):
Oh, that's nice.
I've only been up in that areaonce we went.
Actually, that's where I boughtmy van.
I bought it from a guy inSeattle, so I flew up there and
that's a fun story, it's not.
It's funny now.
It wasn't funny then.
But me and Lindsay had justkind of started dating like just
like kind of like two monthsand be like.
I said, hey, I just I don'teven know if we've been together

(18:26):
too much, I would say maybelike a month and I was like I
found this van.
Is there any chance you want togo with me to get it?
and she's like okay, I'm likeeither, this girl's like the
coolest girl ever or something'swrong with her, because I
wouldn't have gone right and Iso we flew to Seattle and picked
up the van and drove back andthat's the first, only time I've
been in sea.
I've been to port or oregon acouple times, but never see it

(18:48):
was.
Washington was beautiful.
Yeah, like I need, I want to goup there and spend like time
travel in washington.

Speaker 2 (18:55):
Yeah, yeah, I love it up there, so so beautiful but
it's considered a desert likeonce you get like in the east
side, yeah, yeah, like highplains, kind of high desert all
the way to spokane interesting,I've heard that.

Speaker 1 (19:08):
I've seen like that area.

Speaker 2 (19:10):
But I've heard that yeah, and so I joined the guard
there and, uh, so this is thelong path, winding path for you
to get the bike shop on the ship.
So bear with me if anybody'slistening, and so um, yeah, so
how long were you in washington?
uh, we lived there five years,three, was it, only three.

(19:31):
You can speak, is that all?
So we so, yeah, 88 we, becausewe bought, we'd gotten a little
motel that if you touch the sinkand the stove you would drop
out and shock yourself.
And she'd get up at night andshout.
It was an old motel with cinderblock walls.

(19:55):
That was the insulation.

Speaker 1 (19:57):
Wait, you guys were staying there, Uh-huh okay.

Speaker 2 (20:00):
We got there in February.
Wait, that was after we gotback from ground radio school,
so that was in 89.
But in 88.
We got there in February.
Uh-huh Wait, that was after wegot back from ground radio
school, so that was in the 80.
, 89.
, 89.
Okay.
But in 88, we got there.
We were staying on Adams Roadin that other wonder apartment,
okay.
So I got out of the Air Forceand I joined the Guard.
Uh-huh, and I was waiting for atech school to go into ground
radio.
They didn't air traffic controlspots at the time.

(20:31):
Okay, that's, that's right.
But I'm like I still want to bean air traffic controller.
But listen, but we can't yet.
But you can go to ground radioschool until we find a slot for
you, okay, all right, what isthat electronics?
Oh cool, we'll do electronics.
So that was.
I got out in february from theair force, february 27th
actually, and then, like the endof february, and then march,
april, may, june, I think I wentin June, right, yeah, because I
graduated in December.
The school was six months long.

Speaker 1 (20:49):
This is for the ground radio, school Ground
radio, is that right?

Speaker 3 (20:54):
And if I wanted to go along so for her.

Speaker 1 (20:58):
I had to get married.
So you guys got married in 88?
Okay, gotcha, man, man, she'sput up with you for a long time
it's like, give this.
Um, yeah, give this lady here,goodness gracious, okay, um, we
should have brought the decent.
You should give her whatevershe wants at this point.

(21:19):
Um, so you're.
So you're there.

Speaker 2 (21:22):
You go through the, uh, ground control school, so
basically, radio is all okay,traffic control was used to talk
on.
Okay, put it on the ground side, gotcha, um.
And so, um, I did all it went.
May have been a little bitlater than june, but um, I was

(21:43):
just thinking why I got I gotfired from a grocery store
during that time Because I wentback to pick her up and he said
the little 19-year-old buttheadmanager is like you need to be
back to work tomorrow.
I'm like I ain't going to behere, tomorrow I'm going to
South Dakota.
I'll be back the next day.
He fired me it was worth it Ihad to pay back like two weeks

(22:08):
worth of unemployment.

Speaker 1 (22:11):
It all worked out just fine.
Anyway, did you eventually getinto air traffic control?
I did Through the military.

Speaker 2 (22:20):
Yeah, I did ground radio for three years.
I got certified, trained.

Speaker 1 (22:25):
You were there in Washington doing that.

Speaker 2 (22:27):
Yeah, we spoke at Washington and so I got into a
job at a local shop installingcar radios and cell phones when
the bricks were in the trunklike huge, and so I was doing
that.
We did that for three years,yeah, what.

Speaker 3 (22:41):
What do?

Speaker 2 (22:42):
you mean though?

Speaker 3 (22:43):
We went to Bluxy.
Yeah, that was Biloxi yeah, wegot Corey went to Biloxi again
and then we went to Michigan andthen we came back from New York
at UPS goodness, you guys movedall over the place.

Speaker 2 (22:55):
Oh because, because then we got so we were there
until 95 when Sarah was born in95, so we were in Washington
until 95?
We didn't yeah.

Speaker 1 (23:04):
Back and forth.

Speaker 2 (23:04):
Yeah, we were all around why?

Speaker 1 (23:05):
Biloxi.

Speaker 2 (23:06):
Biloxi is where the tech school.
So for so in 89 or 88, thegrounds the tech school for the
electronics shop was there, andthen roughly 99, went to OCCC.
We got our associate's degree.
I got my associate's degree inavionics.
Okay, thought I wanted to doelectronics Lasted about six

(23:27):
months under.
Once I started working onairplanes.
I'm like no hell, no.

Speaker 1 (23:31):
So you were in Oklahoma City at this point?
No, oh, you're still in Spokane.

Speaker 2 (23:35):
Still in Spokane.
Okay, and so an opening cameopen for air traffic in 91.
Okay.

Speaker 1 (23:45):
And we had bought our house.

Speaker 2 (23:46):
We bought a house in the place of all places, green
acres.
Oh, that's wonderful.
It's halfway between spokaneand court lane, okay, oh yeah.
And they had a river path,beautiful area way down.
They have a river that goesfrom spokane to court lane.
And, um, I did ride.
At one time we took my bikeinto town.
We rode from the college, wewere going to school and I rode
back.
It was like 23 miles to ourhouse on the road path.

Speaker 1 (24:06):
I thought I was gonna die.
I was gonna say, and youthought, like man I'm, I think I
basically rode the tour tofrance it was?
it was on a swin high plainswith the bio pace uh-huh,
miserable, miserable so freakingbad my legs are so bad, I never
did it so this whole entiretime that you were in your
military life and you guys arein Spokane you're doing all this
stuff, did you ride at all atthis point or you just kind of

(24:27):
had been like moved on to otherthings, just kind of yeah.

Speaker 3 (24:31):
We got moved on and we said we're going to get by.

Speaker 1 (24:33):
Ori was born when 1990.
1990.

Speaker 3 (24:38):
Okay, two.

Speaker 2 (24:39):
When I bought the high planes in 93.

Speaker 3 (24:40):
The Schwinn's.

Speaker 2 (24:42):
The Schwinn's the.

Speaker 3 (24:42):
Schwinn's and we had a carry-along.
The airplane movie had come out.
No, the river runs through it.
Okay, and the whole time we'reriding with Corey along the
river, he's like we're going todrown.

Speaker 1 (24:54):
We're going to drown.
So is Corey your oldest?
Yes, okay, corey's your oldest.
He was born in 90.
And you guys were in Washington, so bikes were like in the
family, like for recreationalpurposes and for fun and just
kind of around yeah.

Speaker 2 (25:09):
We pulled the trailer with him in it, right yeah.

Speaker 1 (25:11):
And it was just kind of like a part of daily life
whenever you use them Right.

Speaker 2 (25:16):
It wasn't like racing or into it or anything like
that no, we'd come up to MountSpokane, had an event one year
with Hans Ray and there was somedownhill stuff.
There was the trials.
Hans Ray happened to be there.
I can't remember who his maincompetition was, but we watched
them.
That would have been in alittle bit.
Cory was a baby, I mean not ababy, but he was old enough to
ride.

(25:36):
That would have been 95.
Said Sarah.

Speaker 1 (25:41):
Your other kids were born when.

Speaker 2 (25:42):
Sarah was born in 95.
Okay, okay, 98.
95, 98.
So I got the job change to goto air traffic in 91, I want to
say 92?
91.
And so I went back down to techschool in Biloxi for four
months for air traffic again.

(26:03):
And then I went to SelfridgeAir National Guard base for a
year to train.
Okay, Meanwhile somebody'srenting our house out while
we're doing this.
Come to find out they werehaving parties.
We're called so many times.
It's like a renting situation.

Speaker 1 (26:19):
When we got back, our neighbors were so pissed.

Speaker 2 (26:21):
Like we're so glad you're back.

Speaker 1 (26:26):
So where did you guys go?
From Spokane To.

Speaker 2 (26:31):
South Dakota.
I don't know what the hellhappened, but we're at home.
We're at your home visitingfamily, and they had a shop
there.
It's called ScotchmanIndustries.
They sell machinery all overthe world and using electronics
and stuff, and I don't know whywe were thinking about moving
back there.
But we did so.
I went in and applied.

Speaker 1 (26:51):
They had another scene, went through all this air
traffic stuff.
You've been chasing thisforever.
You finally get it, and thenyou, but, but well, I get it, I
get it so so we went back tosouth dakota.

Speaker 2 (27:03):
I was still in the guard, but I couldn't get a
full-time job as a controller inthe guard, so it was just
weekend duty, so I was actuallytraveling every month to go back
to my training, gotcha.

Speaker 3 (27:15):
Sarah, we were working five part-time jobs.

Speaker 1 (27:20):
So you had four part-time jobs at this point
Finish in college and you hadkids and you had four part-time
jobs at this point Finished incollege and you had kids and you
had college and you werepregnant with another one.

Speaker 2 (27:33):
I was working at the car radio shop doing
installments.
This sounds terrible.
This sounds like a.
No, I was working at theavionics shop in the morning,
UPS in the evening, Air NationalGuard on the weekends.

Speaker 3 (27:44):
They were coming on the weekend because they had to
go to fresh duty.
Then I had a job and I lookedat someone.

Speaker 1 (27:49):
Then you had two part-time jobs and you had two
kids, or one pregnant withanother one, gosh.

Speaker 2 (27:55):
Occasionally I would go back to the car shop and do
some installs if I needed to.
I had the four.
You're insane.
I lasted about a month.
To be honest, I was wore out.

Speaker 3 (28:04):
Yeah, sounds like it so this is all, while you're
back in South Dakota.

Speaker 1 (28:10):
Oh, in Spokane, Okay yeah.

Speaker 3 (28:14):
Being your mom Right.

Speaker 2 (28:15):
Yeah.
So we yeah, Like okay, easierlife we just go back to South.
Dakota and chill Just betypical.
But my boss there drove mebatshit crazy and I lasted five
months maybe and I called myguard uh, chief controller or
whatever.
I'm like dude, send me TDY, Idon't care where, anywhere,
something he's like.

(28:35):
I was like, do we have any?
And I knew all this timethere's, there's, they're
opening guard bases, take guardbases, were taking over FAA
airship towers Okay, right, andI knew that was happening, but
favors had to be made and paidand all that kind of stuff and
so, like I don't care where,send me somewhere.
So I got to go to Tazar,hungary.

Speaker 1 (28:56):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (28:58):
Interesting One of the most guys were going for two
months, I got to go for six.

Speaker 1 (29:03):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (29:04):
Yeah, how was it?
Because I was.

Speaker 1 (29:07):
Was it terrible?
It was not.

Speaker 2 (29:09):
Okay yeah, this was an old base, old Russian base.
Oh, okay yeah, hungarians hadtaken back, but it was.

Speaker 1 (29:16):
So very modern and very nice.
Oh man, Great accommodations.

Speaker 2 (29:20):
Our tents Dirt floor tents Initially, third floor
tents initially.
When we first got there, yeah,and we got wood floor tents and
then, um, and we were livinghigh on the hog on wood floor
tents and so that was so you'rethere for six months.

Speaker 1 (29:33):
She's back here with two kiddos yep, yeah, but she
was, you were at home though shewas with her parents, like in
south dakota, so you had somehelp, okay, gotcha, yeah, and
then still no bikes in this.
At this point, you're justtrying to survive, yeah, yeah.
You're just trying to surviveat this point, yeah, and just

(29:53):
try to make life work.
So how much longer did you stayin the military?

Speaker 2 (29:59):
so, um, short answer is I did 21 years.
Oh, okay, so that was probablywould have been about the 10
year mark.
Oh, wow, yeah, at that point,12 at that point.
And so I did.
I was in the guard and I'm atHungary and, uh, you know, they
tried to the the chiefcontroller and stuff there in

(30:21):
Hungary tried to keep me, takemy orders away to come back.
They wanted to extend me.
I'm like, no, this is July, I'mout, I'm going to disappear
tomorrow.
Even if I'm on a plane, you'renot going to find me.
I'm going home.
And because I was like I wastraining all the final
controllers and all kinds ofstuff, anyway, so they let me go
.
And I got back home and Icalled my chief control.

(30:41):
I'm like, all right, I did myduty.

Speaker 1 (30:46):
Give me a normal.

Speaker 2 (30:47):
Yeah, I knew we were moving to Cheyenne.
So they opened up the tower,they took over the tower in
Cheyenne, wyoming, and so I'mlike, all right, show up.
I showed up in Cheyenne,wyoming, for a guy that Cheyenne
we had this.
Yeah, oh so federal funding cutour air traffic control

(31:07):
squadron and they moved toCheyenne, to the Wyoming Guard
Gotcha, and so I went from theWashington Guard to the Wyoming
Guard Gotcha and so they neededto fill those positions.

Speaker 1 (31:17):
After.
This guy that was in NewOrleans that said I don't want
to go north, lived his entirecareer in the north.
This didn't work out as planned.

Speaker 2 (31:32):
They got me into Cheyenne and I went over there
and I was good.
A lot of the stuff I'm nottelling is that I was an asshole
for most of my militaryactually all of my military
career, in fact.

Speaker 1 (31:44):
people now I was going to say it depends on who
you ask.
I don't know if anybody thinksyou grew out of this.

Speaker 2 (31:49):
Yeah, sarcastic, oh, I get it, whatever.
But, fun of things when youweren't supposed to.

Speaker 1 (32:00):
I did that the other day and it did not go over well.
It was a great buddy of minewho's a very devout Catholic.
We just came out of a funeral.
I made a.
I thought it was a hilariousCatholic joke.
He didn't think it was as funnyas I did, so I was like, okay,
foot and mouth, I'm going tomove on from this situation.
I think I'm funny a lot oftimes, others don't.
So I get that.

Speaker 2 (32:27):
I've been there.
Yeah, sometimes I have to watchmyself.
Yeah, I get it, got the shamanand I became a controller.

Speaker 1 (32:29):
Tower controller okay and no no, I was radar I was
radar was it everything that youbecause that's what you wanted
to do.
Once you finally achieved it,were you like man, this is what
I wanted to do.
I'm excited about this.

Speaker 2 (32:42):
I enjoyed doing it, but my ultimate goal was to get
into the FAA and do that, notjust DOD, not the military
because, I was tired of themilitary, but it was good money,
it was a decent pay.
But I get bored, easy sort of.
And so I'm a radar air trafficcontroller working the traffic

(33:04):
and it's a slow facility,nothing major, but the most
airplanes I ever had was 13.
And it was like that wasawesome.
I'm working, we were working,it was great.
My assist guy is I'm working thescope and he's pulling radar
contact, radar contact, all thiskind of crap.
And he said it like four timesbefore I talked to the first
plane and blah, blah, blah.

(33:25):
It went through the wholesystem deal.
So I did that.
It was just a slow area.
So I asked to become a towercontroller, which is totally
different than the radar.
It's different.
They're like well, we don'thave anybody to train you, you
have to train yourself.
Essentially, I'm like okay,okay, and so on my days off I

(33:48):
would go work in the tower anddo the book work and sit and
watch and listen and then get onthe mic when I could, and
eventually became a dual ratedcontroller okay um wow, and so,
man, from the guy that wasn'tsmart enough to do anything
besides, rest people to an airtraffic controller, which is
like a super stressful,sophisticated situation.

(34:12):
So what I like to tell people is, when they ask me if it's
stressful, I tell them to thisday it's only stressful if you
let them touch.

Speaker 1 (34:20):
That's when it gets real stressful.
Other than that, it's justmanaging.
Yeah, that's when it gets realstressful.
Other than that, it's justmanaging.
Uh-huh, and when they touchhave you asked me if my
controller is not Well, did anyof them touch?
Well then, that sounds like awin.
Self-average Well, that seemslike a VR enough.

Speaker 2 (34:40):
So I mean, what's that movie Not Tin Cup, when the
air traveler, Billy, BobThornton and the controllers?
The only part about that moviewas when it's at the beginning,
when they're showing them likethinking in the 3D thing and
their minds and stuff.
That kind of to me is kind ofhow it works Right.

Speaker 1 (35:01):
The rest of that show was junk, I mean as someone,
I'm sure it's the same questionsyou always get.
But, like, in the chaos of likemanaging all the things that
are going on at one time, is itjust become routine or does it
become like every day is like.
This is because you can't havean off day.
I mean, it's like a, like adoctor, you can't have an off
day.

Speaker 2 (35:20):
The worst thing slow, like when you only had a plane
and a car, believe it or not.
Like we're two planes, likewhat just happened.
We almost had a near miss ontwo because you just, yeah,
you're lazy, you're lax, etc.
It's busy, it's not like, it'snot like, oh, I gotta go do this
again.
No, you're like, you're kind of, you're in it, you're kind of
pumped for it.

Speaker 1 (35:37):
yeah, you're focused.
Yeah, and in it it was.
So is that what you did for therest of your career?
No, so wait, when did you getto Oklahoma?
Let's get to there 2005.
So you got to Oklahoma.
Were you still doing the airtraffic at that point?

Speaker 2 (35:57):
Yeah, so I finally got a job offer from the.
FAA and about four of us fourcontrollers got offers to the
FAA to go to flight service,which is not an air traffic
position but it's talking toplanes and doing weather
briefings and crap like that.
Okay, but I thought it would bea backdoor to get into becoming
a controller in the FAA at thetime.

(36:18):
It wasn't, it was just a deadend, and so I got in.
But I had to move to Utah.
Okay, and so I got in, but Ihad to move to Utah.
Okay, my commander was pissed.
I went from an E-7.
She was going to bus me to anE-7.
Six, okay, uh, yeah, because ofI'm moving, I'm left her in a
lurch and all this kind of stuff, and so like, okay, I guess I

(36:41):
ain't staying in the Wyomingguard.

Speaker 1 (36:43):
So I called Utah guard recruiter like I need a
job, so move to there.

Speaker 2 (36:49):
So we moved to Cedar city in 2000.
Was it 2000?

Speaker 1 (36:53):
Yeah 2000.

Speaker 2 (36:55):
And uh, that was it 2000 yeah, 2000 and uh that's
where you fell back with thebike.
That's where we got with thebikes.
It was only after we realizedthat none of our kids would get
could play with other kids whenwe didn't fit in and so on.
And I was getting pretty heavy.
I was well for me, I wasweighing 185, I'm feeling
sluggish and blah, so.

(37:15):
So I said I got to do something.
I had my old Swin High Plainsrigid biopace piece of crap bike
and I signed up for a mountainbike race in January 99 or 2000.

Speaker 1 (37:26):
2000, I guess, and totally just on a whim, like out
of nowhere, you decided to do abike race.
Yep.

Speaker 3 (37:32):
Huh.

Speaker 1 (37:41):
That's not usually what people decide to do when
they're like I'm bored, I thinkI'm gonna go do something short.
Yeah, I get bored easy.
But so I signed up.
It was a seven mile race, arandom thing to pick to go do.
When you think about it, you'rejust like, oh, I'm gonna go
pick golf balls or I'm gonna goget a tennis racket or I'm gonna
go to the gym.
It's not, I'm gonna go do amountain bike race.
Yeah, sure, why not?

Speaker 2 (37:55):
I mean, good thing you did it, it was and it was.
It was so freaking hard it was.
In st george, utah, there'sonly seven mile loop for the
beginners for us, and, um, Iwant to say it was 700 feet or
so of climbing the first fourmiles and then you get to go
back down right.

Speaker 1 (38:12):
Yeah, but we've never been on a bike.
That's brutal.

Speaker 2 (38:15):
It was, it was, but the trail was so fun, like just
riding along, we would go downand practice.
I gave myself a month to trainfor it.
Okay, 30 days, why not?
Sure, and so um, and we, we andI test rode the hook and I got
third oh nice, freaking.

(38:36):
Third, and I was hooked.
Yeah, then we're all then then Igot it like I gotta get, I
gotta.
I'm dying.
This thing's killing me.
I need a fork, I need somesuspension.
So I bought a elastomer fork150 bucks.
I had like that much travel,you know, like a hitch of travel
20 mil travel it's like livingin the life of luxury now,
Awesome.

Speaker 1 (38:59):
And I've raced them for a season, I think a whole
season.
I can't imagine how miserablethat was in Utah.
Oh my gosh, the trails weregreat.
Yeah, I can imagine, but Ican't imagine basically a
no-suspension bike on Utahtrails.

Speaker 2 (39:12):
I think it hurt so bad.
I forgot because I don't know,I don't remember what it was
like.

Speaker 1 (39:17):
But you were also younger and it was so much fun,
you just like blocked it out.
Well, you don't when you don'tknow, you don't know.
So when you're like oh, I wentfrom no suspension to 30 mils 20
mils of spin.

Speaker 2 (39:30):
This is great.
So I that season on the on theschwinn and we were talking like
, could I do better with abetter bike and stuff, and I
didn't want to spend a thousanddollars for a mountain bike,
right, you know, a fullsuspension or whatever she she
bought me.
Christmas comes around and Iend up getting a gary fisher

(39:51):
sugar three plus sixteen hundreddollar bike.
Did it make me faster?

Speaker 1 (39:55):
no, no, no but man, you felt good it was so fast
except chain suck with a triplechain ring my first bike that I
bought was a used, uh felt roadbike and it had the triple.
I didn't know, I didn't have aclue I mean, I didn't get into
this world until like not longago compared to most and so but
it had a triple on it and I waslike this is great, this is the

(40:18):
best thing.
Why does nobody, why doesnobody else around me have three
gears?
You guys are dumb, yeah, likeyou have.
I have so many more options andI'm gonna use them all yeah.
Yeah, it was a bad idea itdropped.
Spend like 120 cadence and golike four yeah.

Speaker 2 (40:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (40:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (40:39):
So um I, and then that next year I raced.
Was it still beginner, or did I?
I didn't move the sport yet,but I was still still 180, like
170.
And then, like I got seriousinto it and I started training,
training more, I dropped 30pounds in one year.
I went to 155, but I reallydidn't know how to train.

(41:00):
A lot of these guys on yourpodcast with other guys.
I didn't know how to trainthere's no coaches I just
dropped the weight, but I alsodropped any semblance of power.
I was at the back of the pack.
I was getting crushed by theseguys in the sport category,
whatever.
I kept coming back and keptcoming back and then, um, by the

(41:22):
time we left, we'd been therealmost five years, the last
season.
Um, I was pretty.
I was back, moving back towardsthe front, but cory had, like,
cory had gotten into the racingand we had gotten tyler and
sarah into racing.
Tyler was about six, sarah wasabout nine.
Okay, when we left with eightor nine, because remember when
she went out to st george raceon.

(41:43):
So we sent sarah out on a racein st george, like their races,
the same, the same same course.
I did, of course, you did stgeorge race, but it was like two
and a half miles.
Okay, she's on a 16 inch singlespeed Walmart, oh my gosh.
And she, they start them off.
There's like 10 little girls,10 little kids, boys and girls,

(42:05):
and they go.
They have to go up about 20yards, make a right-hand turn.

Speaker 1 (42:09):
And then like Huffy Hill yeah, like Huffy Hill yeah.

Speaker 2 (42:14):
And she's on a 60s and so that's a lot of little
pedal strokes.
So they say go, she's the firstone to turn.
And then by the time she makesthe turn she's the last one,
everybody you know, because shewas just pecking.
And then we're watching her andit's like she's gone just
pedaling, the sad guys behindher and like half the kids start
coming around and she start,you know, it's like a half hour

(42:35):
come by, not even seeing hercoming down to one section.
So I go backwards on the courseand like pop, get to where
she's going to pop over.
And sure enough, there she isand I did just long having my
best time.
She gets on and it's down.
Coaster break only, break only.

(42:56):
Oh yeah, she's going.
And the next thing I know, Imean she's supermanning off the
bike.
Oh my god, I just felt so bad,they got behind me like she's,
she's, gets up, she's crying alittle bit and I'm like you're
okay, brush her off.
Like come on, and we're back tothe flats kind of section.
Like you're okay, come on,let's get to the finish.
The guy looks at me.
He's like you're leaving her,like yep oh, my god, I went to

(43:19):
the finish line.
My heart hurt so bad.
She made it.
She made it, uh-huh andeverybody's watching another one
yeah, oh, she came in third forthe season.
Oh nice she took third becausebecause she was at every race,
right, yeah, a couple, the boysalways beat her, you know, right
, good for her and keep comingback so yeah all the people who

(43:40):
watched her go, or there'sclapping her on when she came
back in.
Well, she probably loved that.
That's great.
It's just a little guy, youknow.
He did the really really shortcourses and stuff, but then cory
had gotten into it at thispoint not tyler, he didn't race
that year though, no, and thengotten into it at this point,
not Tyler he didn't race thatyear, though no.

Speaker 1 (43:57):
And then Corey had at this point had kind of gotten
eaten up with it as well.

Speaker 2 (44:00):
A couple of years.
Yeah, he was doing by the timewe left.
He was one of the fastest.
He was kicking my butt for sure, but he was getting to the
point where, um, there was himand one other kid.

Speaker 1 (44:13):
And he would have been how old at this point 12.
, 12, 12, 13.
Yeah, it was him and one otherkid, we're usually one and two,
okay, so he was into us and nowit's a family fair Like the
whole crew is on the trails.

Speaker 2 (44:25):
So I got a job for, you know, retired from the guard
, got out of that stuff, a wholedifferent job.
So and they were cut.
Oh, the reason we moved toOklahoma was my FAA job was
being cut and so, um, I knew acouple of guys here in Oklahoma
city, you know, called in.

(44:46):
I didn't call favors, I beggedbasically like hey can I get a
job?
And so, and I didn't like shiftwork anymore, so I got in as a
terpster what we call terps,procedure development for
aircraft and uh, here we are andso, um, but when we moved here,
our first race was elk city, meand cory.
It was muddy.
Tommy duvall's on the startline with us and he's just

(45:08):
talking his shitty talks all thetime.
Like who is this guy?
Shut up, man, we're about, youknow, I'm just in my head and
trying to, you know, figure thisout.
So, muddy, peanut butter mud ohyeah, city, for sure it was so,
oh my god, and then we did therace 11 miles, this sucks.

Speaker 1 (45:25):
I was like I wasn't sure I was gonna yeah nothing,
no crunching, no doubt.

Speaker 2 (45:31):
You know, it's all down the whole way.

Speaker 1 (45:33):
I think I got yeah, I'm sure you came from like the
St George area, which isridiculously gorgeous and so
much fun trails, and your firstevent is Elk City, where it's
kind of red dirt like St George.
But that's about the end of thecomparison.

(45:54):
You know, one of the thingsthat I know, I one of the things
that I remember.
So I think it was the firsttime I met you or that I
remember meeting you waswhenever I went and pre-road at
Elk city when we had that first.
They had that first race outthere, maybe I don't know, like
seven, eight years, seven yearsago, I don't know it was and I

(46:28):
left my car door open in theparking lot.
That was me.

Speaker 2 (46:29):
I left my car door open in the parking lot and I
get back to it.

Speaker 1 (46:30):
And you guys were.
You were sitting in the car oryou were, and I don't know if
you'd put a note on my car.
You came over and told me orsomething like, hey, dipshit,
you left the door open while youwent and rode.
I was like, oh my gosh, thesepeople were so nice.
I don't know.
That was when I first that's myfirst time meeting you.
That, I remember, was because,yeah, save the day for sure.
Yeah, so that was my first ElkCity experience.
So what did you guys thinkwhenever you got to Oklahoma?
Was it like, eh, it's kind oflike what I thought it was going
to be, or was it just like man,what did we get ourselves into?

Speaker 2 (46:51):
Well, so Utah wasn't as inviting a community back
then as, like, I think mycommunity here now is Like I'll
tell people all the time youwant to come hang out under my
tent, come hang out under mytent.
Back then we were I wouldn'tsay we were outcasts, but we
were just kind of loners.

Speaker 1 (47:08):
Right.
When you came into thecommunity.
Huh here, oh out there.

Speaker 2 (47:18):
Yeah Right, yeah Right.
So you got noticed, you kind ofweren't, you're kind of by
yourself, you just kind of satby yourself, which we're okay
with, I mean.

Speaker 1 (47:28):
But it's kind of how the cycling scene is here Not
the dirt as much, but theroadside for sure, unless you're
plugged in.
That's how I get that.

Speaker 2 (47:41):
When we got here, we just expected the same.
We just kept to ourselves.
The first year I don't evenremember Other than that race
that first year, elk City Idon't remember any of the other
races, how I did, or nothing.
Then somehow we got hooked upwith Pro Bike and we got on.
John, I think, asked us if wewanted to, or somebody asked us

(48:01):
if we wanted to ride with themor be on their team for the Tour
de Dirt, I'm like sure.
And so we won that year.
Mine and Corey's names on theplaque on that cup, kids Cup.
Then we helped start or getKids Cup going going, or we
helped started or kept it going.
Huh, mark wharton yeah and so.

Speaker 1 (48:22):
So you guys got kind of got plugged into the scene
like, yeah, right off the bat.

Speaker 2 (48:25):
Yeah, by 2006, by the next year?
Yeah, in fact I was very white,I was the turn of dirt race
director kind of thing, but Ihad no, I had no, I don't want
to say authority, but right Ihad nothing you were affiliated
with anything and just oef hadevery had control of everything.
I had no money, I had no controlof nothing, right?
And it was just like, oh, thisis kind of thing.

(48:46):
And then so I mentioned earlierray and I you know I was I was
trying to make some changesthrough the, through the race
scene, and, oh my goodness, thepromoters were killing, they
were so pissed Like you'rekilling us, you're trying to
break us and all you know thisis bullshit and I'm like dude,
I'm just trying to offersuggestions and and I'm I don't
remember what it was with me andRay, but something you were

(49:09):
assigned a tag, a tag.

Speaker 1 (49:12):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (49:13):
And as you came through, you could race with the
finish line, and then they Okay, they would pull a tag.

Speaker 1 (49:19):
Okay, oh, so that was your like lap timer.

Speaker 2 (49:24):
No, no, no.

Speaker 1 (49:26):
Just finish time.
Okay yeah, it was just like atag system.
Uh-huh, fill out that card justcut it out.

Speaker 3 (49:36):
It's just like a tag system.
You got here and you had tostop Fill out that card.
You had to finish and you hadto fill out the card.

Speaker 2 (49:40):
Remember filling out the cards.

Speaker 1 (49:42):
I wasn't here for that stuff.

Speaker 2 (49:43):
So when you got here, you'd race and you'd be dead
when you fill out these cards.
What I was proposing was to doall the back-end stuff on the
front-end.
You just pull the tag your name, what's what.

Speaker 1 (49:56):
That makes total sense.
What?
Group you're in everything, butit did cost a little extra
right, because you had thetearaways at the bottom of the
race numbers.

Speaker 2 (50:01):
It's just a tag, like a pull tag, a strip, just a
strip by itself.
Oh, okay, and so, anyway it.
But Ray, I can't remember beingRay.
We got into a little bit of anargument about it.
He might not even remember, butit was funny Now that I think
back of it.
But back then he was a hotheadand I was kind of a hothead

(50:25):
Stupid, but we raced at Keystone.
Anyway, I didn't race him buthe was, but anyway.
So I gave it up.
I'm like I'm done 2007,.
I'm out.
I got no control of it.
Screw this.
And that was about the time toothat Corey stopped racing, but
also the same time that Tylerand Sarah got into soccer.
Okay, so we went, we're out ofthe cycling scene.

(50:48):
Okay, Just that quick.
Two years, Okay, so time goesby 2017, 2016,.
Corey comes back home and I'mjust now starting riding back,
getting back and riding.
They're done with soccer, thetwo young ones and I'm back on
the bike just for exercise.
I hadn't even started a race ornothing, but Corey had come

(51:08):
back home from what he was doingand he asked about something or
other.
I can't remember exactly what,or maybe I asked him you want to
go for a bike ride.
He could not go from home toBlanchard, which was a 10-mile,
20-mile round trip he couldn'tmake it.

Speaker 1 (51:27):
We had to turn around and find a place.

Speaker 2 (51:30):
But he took off, Got the bug again and then he said
let's go to do Medicine Park.
His first race back wasMedicine Park and he won it that
year.
I came in dead last.

Speaker 1 (51:45):
How the times have changed Pops.
This ain't happening again.
There's too much pride on theline.
I got Kevin Coleman to coach mefor that summer.

Speaker 2 (51:58):
I came back and I won every race, I think in the fall
when you ever beat him againwho Corey?

Speaker 1 (52:04):
no, corey.
No no, corey.
Yeah, no, that was it.
The ship had sailed.
Yep, no, you didn't beat himback then, Whatever he was in,
that was it?
Yeah, he was fast, if you couldjust do some things.

(52:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (52:29):
Do that in a lot of things.

Speaker 1 (52:31):
Yeah, whenever he was in it, he was in it.
He was good yeah, for sure, Ican't remember if it was Cat 1.

Speaker 2 (52:35):
No, it wasn't the in it he was good.
Yeah for sure.
I can't remember.
Was it his Cat 1?
No, it wasn't the pro race.
He did sign up to go pro but itwas one of his first Cat 1
races.
I think it was Palo Duro and hewas going out there.
I think that race was going tohave who's the gravel guy
Ornseal.

Speaker 1 (52:53):
Yeah, payson.

Speaker 2 (52:55):
And I think he was just out there all the time.
Mm, that was one of the I thinkhis first cat.
One races, yeah.
Category.

Speaker 1 (53:02):
Cause me and my brother would go out there every
year and we would just allcause we'd see we knew these
names and we'd see them outthere.

Speaker 2 (53:08):
I was so freaking nervous, we're talking about
that time and stuff, and thenwe're friends and uh, like dude,
if you, if you don't mind, willyou talk to Corey and just tell
you know, whatever, I don'tknow what.
So I don't know if Ray did ornot, but Corey never told me or
anything but, but he went outthere and I think he got 11th

(53:29):
10th or 11th.
That and so he was doing better.
But he got flustered and he letsome kid screw him up and you
know you get mad and you screwup, but anyway I was excited and
proud for him the whole bit.

Speaker 1 (53:40):
Yeah, that event has always pulled in really solid
talent and I kind of took a bigdip and then I went last year
again and it was back to legit.
Legit Because Aaron McDaniel,who you know, you guys know him.
So Aaron, I mean he's so fast.
I want to say he finished likeeight or 10 or something like

(54:00):
that last year.
Like I mean then the dude'sfast and he got like close to
10th.
And then Lauren I can't thinkof her last name, she's married
to a pro cyclist or he's agravel guy, Steven and maybe
Lauren Stevens, but she was andhad full ef kit you know
canondale bike, like the wholething, is standing on start line

(54:21):
next to me this past year.
I'm like this, this woman's thereal deal.
This isn't like, I bought thiskit online.
I'm like and then, um, ofcourse I was way off the back
and my brother's like um, shewas the first one through.
Like the section where you guyscross the road halfway through
your first lap, she was there,she was in first.
I was like man, she was killingall those ladies.

(54:42):
I think he's like no, she wasfirst over everybody.
I'm like oh my God.
So now it's pulling in men andwomen that are like that.
It's deep fields, it's awesome.
Anybody that hasn't ridden PaloDuro has to go.
It's the best.

Speaker 2 (54:54):
It is a great trail Without having to go all the way
back to Utah.
Oh, it's very similar to that.

Speaker 1 (54:59):
For sure.
Yeah, I'm going to ride Moabthis year for the first time
ever, and so I'm super excitedto get.
It'll be my first time to ridein Utah.

Speaker 2 (55:07):
Don't do the corn trail.

Speaker 1 (55:08):
I don't have a choice .
It's a three-day race, so,whatever, whatever is on, there
is what I'm doing.
Oh, it's a race.
Moab Rocks is what it's called.
It's a three-day stage race.

Speaker 2 (55:19):
So I don't know what trails I'm doing Portage or
Portable Trail, I can't remember.
It's basically a cliffside dealwhere you have to walk half of
it.

Speaker 1 (55:27):
Oh, I don't think that's on there.
I hope that's not on therebecause I don't do well with
that.

Speaker 2 (55:34):
The Tour of canyonlands.
So when we before we leftutah's set, we did it two years
um cory.
Cory cory's race was an outbackon the gravel road.
It wasn't much of a mountainbike race for him both times
because he was a little bittystill.

Speaker 1 (55:48):
He was 10, 9 or 10, but it was a 23, 24-mile loop it
wasn't that long, but for me itwas significant 25 miles on a
mountain bike in Moab can belong.

Speaker 2 (56:03):
So it started out just outside of Moab.
We grabbed a lot of gravel road, we're going to Harrow Pass or
Harrow Pass whatever, and thenJackson Hole, and then it comes
around.
Street trails put together andthen it hits Jacob's Ladder,
which is a 400-foot verticalclimb Like you're a hike-a-bike,
like rock step, rock, step,rock step All the way to the top

(56:25):
of a massive back trail, whichis downhill.
By the time you get to that.
I was just coasting down amassive back and I couldn't get
to the once.
I got down to the bottom ofMassaback.
You have to go down throughthis creek and maybe a 10-foot
climb out.
I couldn't climb, I couldn'tget out, I walked up, I'm

(56:46):
sitting there, everything's onthe road and I'm sitting there
with my legs straight out.

Speaker 1 (56:49):
Oh, that's the worst peg leg I was like are you okay,
man?

Speaker 2 (57:00):
There's nothing I can do so finally, you know,
stiff-legged up the other side,that's the worst and close to
the finish, because it'sdownhill to the finish, thank
god.
And I think I was like twohours and 40, two hours, 45
minutes for this race, whateverthe distance was.
I don't remember exactly, butso we did it the next year and I
trained for it.
I knocked off 30 solid minutes.

(57:21):
Two hours and 15 minutes.
You know what?
My placing was?
The exact same, oh my gosh,like 20th place.

Speaker 1 (57:28):
I'm like what the hell?
Good thing you trained so hard.
I trained hard man.

Speaker 2 (57:33):
Then the race, somebody got killed.
The next year A car pulled outon a kid on a downhill and so
they shut it off.

Speaker 1 (57:40):
But because there was an open road, gotcha so once
you guys were back in oklahomayou decided to get back into
race and cory's off like racingfull blast.
Now you're in the late 20 teensand you guys are like full in
again at this point.
Back into the bikes, yeah, andthen your racing career.
At that point, I mean, you'vebeen super competitive for a

(58:03):
long time.

Speaker 2 (58:04):
Yeah, I go to races, I do the competitive things.
I just have to, like I said Iget bored so I need something to
.
I got to find a reason to dosomething.
I, you know, like these guys,like Barrett Davis and these
other guys, can you just go outand ride and be fast and get
faster and faster, withouthaving a goal, if you will,
other than other than being fast?

Speaker 1 (58:24):
I got to have something I can't just go ride
for.

Speaker 2 (58:27):
I wish I'd started sooner.
I could have been, you know, Icould have been so waiting to
get my pro call up, you knowanytime now, as soon as they
start that senior tour, you'rethere yeah, so we were all in.
You know this, last few yearswe've been going hard at it.
It's been fun, and I'm justworking at the fa and then covid

(58:51):
hit and you know that kind ofmessed a few things up.
But um, I mean racing singlespeed has been awesome for so
that's one of the things Iwanted to talk to you about yeah
, so to in your cycling.

Speaker 1 (59:03):
What I don't get the single speed like it makes.
I understand if, like you havethat as a bike because you want
to go out and have fun and it'sjust something different and
it's like this is going to be acompletely different experience
on this trail with a singlespeed compared to a geared bike.
I get that why you would choosethat as like the bike.

(59:24):
I don't get that.

Speaker 2 (59:25):
So I can't remember why I did it no six.
I did it no six in this guyPerry camera.
His name in Tulsa, perry, perry, perry.
But anyway, he beat me for theseason and I was riding an old
red line rigid.
But I don't remember how I gotinto it.

Speaker 1 (59:38):
I think I just wanted to do it so that I could learn
pedal strokes and just getbetter yeah, much better rider
the fields were big in thefields were big and the single
speed or in the geared bike,like in true yeah, I don was
about the thing I don't thinkthe problem is now the single

(59:58):
speed is all the super fastdudes that don't want to ride
geared bikes anymore.
It's not like oh, you don't wantto do that, just come do that.
No, now it's like I don't wantto do single speed because those
guys are like real fast, yeah,so I mean single speed here is
real fast and there's only a fewof you guys and you're all real
fast.

Speaker 2 (01:00:19):
There's only a few of you guys and you're all real
fast.

Speaker 1 (01:00:23):
I mean.
I'm almost 60 now Wait, oh, Iam 60 old man no.
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:00:33):
Why did you go single speed?
Oh yeah, so yeah.
So that was the year that yousag jack.
The price is up the season passto 110, I think, okay.
And I was like, screw this, I'mlike I'll do one day passes,
I'm only gonna do tour de dirt,I'm not gonna go out of state.
And so, yeah, I didn't want todo cat one and have to be a pay
license and race David Herrera,the best guy.

(01:00:56):
He came out of nowhere, itseems like.
But anyway, and I think CoreyWhite was kind of pressuring me
a little bit, I know you used torace, but it was primarily
because USAC jacked it to 110from 75, I think.

Speaker 1 (01:01:19):
And so anyway, um, you just decided to single speed
, so you didn't have to do that.

Speaker 2 (01:01:22):
I just so I converted that and I'm like, all right,
let's go and um racing thoseguys and cory and one day
licenses.

Speaker 3 (01:01:29):
It was ten dollars then.

Speaker 1 (01:01:30):
I think now it's more right they've changed, I don't
know, and so and it's so funnybecause because single speed
guys, they always tell me thesame story oh man, it's simple,
you get rid of the stuff, it'sjust, you don't have to think
about things.
But single speed dudes are themost into gearing and gears than
anybody I know.
And when I go to a race I justlike talk hey bud, what have you

(01:01:53):
been doing?
And single speed guys are overthere geeking out Like what are
you running?
Oh yeah, I wrote this and I ran.
And they're like talking aboutall the tech and the gear and
I'm like you guys got into this.
To be simple, you guys have beenjacking with your bikes for
like three days.
You're ready for this event.
I just like showed up, yeah,cause you guys are all even at
Skip on the.
This is not a race thing.

(01:02:15):
You guys are out there andtalking about and adjusting
something.
Whoever brought a single speedthat night is trying to fix
something, because something'snot.
And I'm like it's Thursdaynights, yeah on the Thursday
night ride.
Somebody's always jacking withthe single speed before we ride,
because the chain's loose orthey change the gears or
something's different.
I'm like.
It's not simple, it is fun, itis hard at times it would be fun

(01:02:37):
to have one to play around on.
For sure.
I don't know how in the worldguys do like real like courses,
like going to, I mean likemedicine park or somewhere that
has like, or if you're in utah,like doing a real travel places
like medicine park trickybecause, um you, you know, when
you get to the flat sectionsyou're spun out.

Speaker 2 (01:02:56):
You've got to gear for the climbs, Otherwise you're
walking and then you're way offthe back, Right, you won't be
there.
So that's tricky.
Corey Weiss really got itdialed in.
I think every one of us likenext race.

Speaker 1 (01:03:10):
I would bet you he would say everybody calls him or
texts him like dude, what do wegot to run?
Because he's got it, I meanhe's.
That's the thing is he know itbecause he knows the trails.
If you took him to like a,trail he'd never ridden.

Speaker 2 (01:03:24):
Would he be like I have no idea?
Well, yeah, we all do that oninitial till.
We go on and see it.
Now that I've done it for thelast few years, I would like, if
it was a trail I didn't know,if I knew it was hilly, I'd
probably run a 19 or 20 justbefore anything.
If it was somebody said it'smostly flat or something, I'd
probably run a 17 or 16 and thenhopefully you know if you get
stuck on a climb while you'rescrewed right, but so when you

(01:03:48):
go to an event that you've neverridden before, do you just take
like four or five gears, yep,and just see what happens?

Speaker 1 (01:03:52):
yeah, to pre-ride it and see what happens, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:03:54):
Maybe change that one .
You know, if you've got time,hit a lap and then, depending on
how long the laps are, etcetera.
But you know, yeah, I've got inmy toolboxes probably 15, 16,
17, 18, 19, 20, and 21.

Speaker 1 (01:04:10):
You know you can.
You don't have to just keepchanging them out.
I know I always whenever we do,and I've told you this before,
I'll just speak it to the world.
But I love when I see that youshow up on a single speed for
the Thursday night race, becausethen I can ride with you every
time when I'm like cause wealways take off and I don't pay
attention.
And then, if you usually get infront of me off the start, and

(01:04:31):
when I look down and see asingle speed, I'm like thank God
, Cause this is going to be fun,Cause we usually like race,
race and you'll like there'slike some of the tactics,
because we're pretty close whenyou're on the single speed, when
you're on gears and we get tothe flat section that's straight
, then you shift and I'm screwed, Cause that's where you attack
me and I never can recover bythe time we get back to the
parts that I can like stay withyou on.

(01:04:54):
And so when we're on thestraight parts that's when I can
like catch up to you, becauseyou dropped me on the other
stuff and then the straightparts, I'm like, oh, thank God,
I can get back up there.
And so over the course of likethat 40 minutes you wear down
enough that I can kind of juststay with you.
But when you have gears I cannever catch back up in the
straights and so it kills me.

Speaker 2 (01:05:12):
So yeah, when we do these, those skip things, I'll.
I'll go out sometimes and sayI'm not going to go hard Next
thing.
We, you know we start.
Never seen you not go hard outthere.
But where it really changed forme was when I went to nationals,
cause Corey went that one yearand he got fourth and that

(01:05:34):
really got me fired up.
And so those dudes start are sogood Like I.
I got a front row call up.
Everybody else on the front rowwas a former national champ.
Oh my gosh, the only reason Igot a front row call up was
because my points that year forUSAC, my races.
I was so nervous, I was so likethe picture you can't see it,
but I was shaking.
It was not cold, I was sonervous, but we took off.

(01:05:58):
It was so fast, so hard, thatby the time we got to the single
track we had to climb a littlebit of the start ski slope area
and then come back down.
And I was sitting in fifth orsixth and we were probably going
35-ish down in the single trackhauling ass and the first three
guys were already pulling awayfrom my second three.

Speaker 3 (01:06:20):
Then I broke my boa on my shoe.

Speaker 1 (01:06:23):
Like wearing a flip-flop.
Oh man, Game over.

Speaker 2 (01:06:28):
I come around to the start-finish area and Corey's
like Corey had driven out what'sgoing on, I broke my boa again.
I did it at two national races.

Speaker 1 (01:06:40):
Oh no.
What are the chances?
Marathon?

Speaker 2 (01:06:42):
Nats the year before broke the other boa.
Oh, my gosh, oh yeah, that'srandom.
Yeah Well, yeah, it's like hewas so mad at me.
He's like you got to take careof your shit.

Speaker 1 (01:06:53):
Yes, dad.

Speaker 2 (01:06:54):
But in Arkansas I had brought two pairs of shoes, and
so I was at the other end, atthe far end, and I had broke the
boa, and so I had to godownhill and make it back and he
had called or somehow got backthere and had my second pair of
shoes, perfect, so just put theone on.

Speaker 3 (01:07:12):
So I'm going to need two pairs.

Speaker 2 (01:07:14):
I finished the race mid pack, right, but no, that
started Snowshoe, west Virginia.
God, those guys, it was so fast, amazing I mean.
And so when I came back, Ihaven't been nervous on the
start line since then.
I wish I had done that yearsand I can tell everybody

(01:07:39):
everybody I talk to now like yougot to do a big race sometime,
that you'll get rid ofbutterflies.
You'll see just how fast peopleare.
And then you want to worryabout our local races, right?
Um, because like I go out therenow we're just bsing and stuff.
But I would be so nervous.
You know our local races, um,I'd burn so much energy before
the race.

Speaker 1 (01:07:52):
but now, it's just like well.
I think, everybody, no matterwhat level you are and what
sport you do, and because I justpull off my experience from
golf Right, but you need to godo like a real event with real
people that are real good, likewhat you think is good in
Oklahoma, and it doesn't matterwhat it is, we have good guys in

(01:08:13):
every sport.
We have good people at that.
They're good in oklahoma.
And then if you go to like anationals, like a real nationals
, yeah, with like the realpeople in the real field, and
you're like, huh, that's whatfast looks like.
Or in golf, like that's whatgood looks like, it's completely
different than what you thinkit is.
You've got to get out of here.

Speaker 3 (01:08:35):
Yes, you have to pedal the whole freaking trip,
the whole time, don't get inuphills.

Speaker 1 (01:08:46):
It's shocking that you can be a good mountain biker
from Oklahoma.
I have a little experience inthat, but I've said it several
times on here when me and Saxwent to Cape last mean, I
couldn't climb for anything.
He climbed fine, I sunk like.
But I do that on the road.
I'm terrible.
But when we were going downhills, like everybody was in our way,

(01:09:07):
I'm like, how are we the fastones?
And if there was like a tightsingle track cause there's a lot
of gravel there there if therewas just a good, flat, flowy
single track section, like, wecouldn't like, seriously, people
get out of our way.
Why are you so just go likewhat is happening?
But it's because it's like ourtrails here and you could do it.
But like, yeah, and but peoplethere like, and I was like who

(01:09:29):
would have ever thought we'd belike the good on single track?
Like we're better than well inthe area that we were the field
you know, like we were betterthan almost everybody around.
No, we never got passed on flatsingle track or on downhills.
Very rarely got passed.

Speaker 2 (01:09:47):
So the trails here build a certain skill set but
definitely lacking certain skillsets.

Speaker 1 (01:09:50):
And so we recently I mean I probably didn't really
get into mountain biking untilprobably, like, um, I probably
didn't really get into mountainbiking until probably, like I
don't even know maybe very late20 teens is when I got into it
because I did multi-sport fromlike 07 0607, it's kind of when

(01:10:11):
I got into that world all theway up until and I dabbled here
and there but I did, um, someexterra stuff and I kind of
didn't really know what I wasdoing.
That was like the mid teens andstuff.
But I didn't get like fullblast dirt until like.

Speaker 2 (01:10:20):
So I was listening to the podcast with Ray and like
you were asking, how did youknow Ray, how did you, how do
you, how are you so good throughthe trails and you know Chris
trying to catch up, et cetera,and I I can, like I've had guys
ask me that Like I, just I tryto flow right.
And I've had a couple storiesOne in Arkansas, the one race I

(01:10:41):
can't remember out of Attila theHunt and the one section it was
downhill.
We're just flying, flowing andI'm passing guys left and right
and one dude yells out dude, youare so smooth and all that
stuff, like it made me feel good.
But I'm like I don't know how Ido.
I mean it just, I've always,I've always been not afraid to
just go yeah, that's a big pieceof it, just the confidence to

(01:11:03):
just trust it.
There was a point where it did Idid have, I was afraid, and
I'll get to that in a minute,but but um, the, the, I forgot
where I was going with it now.
But anyway, we're doing where.

Speaker 1 (01:11:21):
I got, because going downhill I don't have the
confidence, so I'm going to holdon to some brakes a little bit.

Speaker 2 (01:11:28):
So we were in a race, yeah, okay, so talk about not
being afraid.
I was in a race in Ogden, utah,I think it was, and back then
it was Norba.
It wasden, utah, I think it was, and there was.
So back then, like it was Norba, it was beginner sport expert
and then pro, right or semi-proand pro.
A pro guy had caught me orlapped me on the top of the ski,
climb right and we get todownhill and I stayed on his ass

(01:11:50):
on the downhill able todownhill with him guy.
Uh-huh, we hit the flats.
It was like he turned on turbo,like what the fuck.
Just what just happened yeah,and he's gone, okay, but I could
downhill and so that's, andcory would stay with me and he
we would.
We could just fly, david, andhe had less fear than I, david

(01:12:13):
heard, did that to me atthunderbird one time.

Speaker 1 (01:12:15):
Yeah, we went, we did the relay.
Oh yeah, he was, me and Troywere doing it against him and
whoever he was with we were likeone and two we were, and he was
happened to be on my leg thistime and we went through that,

(01:12:36):
first like twisty things.
Then we got to the fire roadand it was like a real long fire
over it.
I don't know what he did, butby the time we, by the time I
got close to the end of thatfire road, he was so far out of
sight that I'm like it's like heturned on an e-bike, but I'm
chasing them.
It's like oh it's insane butit's the same thing that
happened to you.
You're like, oh, I got this,and then, yeah, I didn't yeah

(01:12:59):
chasing.
Yeah, so, yeah.
So the downhill has always beensomething you've been handling,
you've.

Speaker 2 (01:13:07):
It's just been a natural just seemed to come
natural and I can't explain it.
You know it's hard to teach it.

Speaker 1 (01:13:14):
I think so.
I think it is.
There is a natural gift there,for sure.
Yeah, like it's.
It's a different kind ofathleticism too it's.
It's interesting to watch,because when you see somebody do
it, you're like, they're justso.

Speaker 2 (01:13:26):
And I'm still not that good.
I don't think I'm still thatgood Like following guys like
Ray and now and Drummond hasgotten really good, I mean
obviously.

Speaker 1 (01:13:34):
But that's such a nether level, yeah, that's a
whole other level.
A whole other level Nationalchamps.

Speaker 2 (01:13:38):
Yeah, I would like to .
Maybe I thought about maybewanting to be one one day, but I
don't think that's going tohappen.

Speaker 1 (01:13:45):
There's age groups.

Speaker 2 (01:13:46):
I know.

Speaker 1 (01:13:47):
There's age groups.
Somebody's got to win the oldguy category.
That's what I'm hoping.
That I'm hoping.
That's what I'm hoping.
I'm hoping I can just outliveeverybody, and then I got it.
It's my only strategy that Ihave working for me.
Yeah, so well, before we getdone with this, I want to lead
into how the hell you ended upas a bike shop owner.

Speaker 2 (01:14:04):
So COVID hit, we're working from home teleworking
and I, you know, that was theyear I won state for the next um
.
That was the year I won statefor the next single speed.

Speaker 1 (01:14:15):
also, I saw your tour de dirt jerseys in there.
How many do you have?
I only have two.
The others are.

Speaker 2 (01:14:18):
Corey's Okay, gotcha.

Speaker 1 (01:14:20):
How many did he?

Speaker 2 (01:14:21):
have?
He had two as well?
Okay, gotcha, yeah, I think,and one of them is Tyler's, from
a cyclocross event that he gota jersey for, but he was the
only rider it was one of, but,and so yeah, so yeah, covid hit
and we're working from home,teleworking, blah, blah, blah.
And the COVID ends, and I'mtalking about going back to the

(01:14:42):
office.

Speaker 3 (01:14:42):
I'm like I'm not going back to the office.

Speaker 2 (01:14:45):
I had 30 years federal service time.
I think I'm going to retire.
And I just found out that Tobumhad had the bike shop up for
sale for about a year at thatpoint, and so I talked to Julie
hey, so if I retire, what am Igoing to do?
She's like you know, I think,but you want to buy a bike shop.

(01:15:07):
She's like you ain't stayinghome.
We talked about it for a bit.

Speaker 1 (01:15:14):
That was your selling point.

Speaker 2 (01:15:14):
There Got some funding, put it together,
staying home, and we talkedabout it for a bit.
You know that was your sellingpoint there got some funding and
we didn't get funding.
We put it together, but thedeal together and took out a
loan and all kinds of stuff andso and tobin's been great.
I mean he comes in.
I think he's actually comes into check, make sure I'm not
screwing things up actually, soit's open if you're listening
doing now whatever he wants,okay so he's not working, he
doesn't.

(01:15:35):
He does work.
He just does different things.
A little of everything.

Speaker 1 (01:15:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:15:38):
Okay, but yeah, he comes in.
And he just came back todayCame and washed his bike.
He was down at the came out ofGalveston or something.
I think he had to rinse thesand off his bike or something.

Speaker 1 (01:15:48):
So when did you buy the?

Speaker 2 (01:15:50):
shop March of 22, I think, so this will be three
years.
I've had it for three years,but I started, so I hadn't
retired from the FAA, but it wasDecember December 1st in fact
of 21, that I started putting in.
I would get up and work on thecomputer for the FAA at 6 am,

(01:16:13):
work till noon, come over here12.30, work till 6, every day
until March.

Speaker 1 (01:16:18):
So I was interning learning retail again and all
this shit and everything and uh,it's shocking how much crap
there is to a bike shop it wasthe first month, first year was
so stressful, like beyondstressful, and and you know,
it's just you don't think aboutit because when you walk into a
bike shop you're like, oh, Ijust need to get a bottle cage.
So you just go get a bottle cage, but you have to pick out which

(01:16:41):
bottle cage you're going tohave on the wall, because
there's only 847 options thatyou could have to hang on your
wall, and then of course, yourun out of the one that the one
person wants, and then, yeah,then you got to buy seats and
tools and tubes, and there'sjust so many skews and picking.

Speaker 2 (01:16:55):
and now you know, back in the day, when Freddie
started, it was just road bikesthere was you got a road bike,
you didn't get a mountain bike.
You didn't get a gravel bike.

Speaker 3 (01:17:03):
You didn't get a mountain bike Freddie gave you.

Speaker 2 (01:17:06):
you got whatever he gave you kind of thing.
Then Tobin came and switched it.

Speaker 1 (01:17:11):
Because he's the one that kind of made it more of a
mountain bike shop.

Speaker 2 (01:17:14):
Tobin made it mountain bike.
I lean towards mountain bikes.
So yeah, I do the mountainbikes and I carry a few roads
and I can get stuff too.

Speaker 1 (01:17:22):
And so your main brands that you carry here.
We talked a little bitbeforehand, but just to tell
everybody, else, kind of whatBuchanan's has.

Speaker 2 (01:17:31):
what do you guys have ?
Specialized is my primary bikebrand.
I do have a couple of pivots inthe store and some Santa Cruz,
but don't tell anybody, I don'tknow.
Those are the three majorbrands that I can get for now.
But Specialized is what Ireally lean to.
It's what I race on.

(01:17:51):
It's still what I ride on.
My Epic is fantastic.
I mean I've tried the Pivot,the Mach 4, and stuff like that
and they do okay, but I stillkeep coming back to the Epic.
I do have some cheaper brandsfor the college kids RetroSpec,
and I can get Salsa and Surlyand all that kind of stuff.
But my shop is only roughly1,500 square feet so I don't
have.
I've got to be careful what Ibring in.

Speaker 1 (01:18:13):
You can get it, you may not have it.
Sure how much of your businessis college kids?
Because you were right onCampus Corner compared to riders
.

Speaker 2 (01:18:25):
It's probably really not that much college, maybe
only 40% versus regular adultsand community.

Speaker 1 (01:18:32):
Do the college kids ride and commute on their bikes
as much as they did?

Speaker 2 (01:18:41):
It's gotten so bad.
There's so much theft, yeah,and the university's not doing
much to help out with it.
They could put up fenced areaswhere they can swipe their cards
, maybe, let's say, fiftythousand dollars per gated thing
or whatever, I don't know.
But kids could have bikes, buta lot of them are going to
scooters.

Speaker 1 (01:18:53):
Oh, so they can take them into their dorm rooms and
that kind of stuff.
So there's getting less andless bikes on campus.

Speaker 2 (01:19:01):
Oh yes, Rich Humbley used to tell me that the racks
would be so full he couldn'tpark his bike.
Now the racks are empty.

Speaker 1 (01:19:07):
Really.
Yeah, I mean that's what Iremember coming down here is
going to a game or something andit's like bikes attached to
bikes, because it was like justa huge pile of metal there were
so many bikes.

Speaker 2 (01:19:18):
I think the last game that happened in the fall like
three or four bikes were stolenduring the game.

Speaker 1 (01:19:25):
That's too bad.
That makes it tough.
Have you guys ever had issueshere For theft in the store?
No, yeah, I mean hopefully,hopefully, not, but nothing like
crazy.

Speaker 2 (01:19:42):
Yeah, wow.
And then so you're all, camerasand all the stuff right.

Speaker 1 (01:19:44):
So your, your college kids, are just kind of here and
there kind of, but you actuallydo serve more of the just
general population.

Speaker 2 (01:19:51):
Yeah, I get I mean from all over.
I get people from people fromTexas actually come up.
I've had calls from Tulsa.
A guy bought a Stumpy from mefrom Tulsa.

Speaker 1 (01:20:03):
How has the bike business been as far as
expectation and reality, becauseI know how it was for me, so I
want to hear how it was for youor how it is for you.
This might be the part where itgets edited.
That's exactly what I wasgetting ready to say.
We can edit whatever we need to.

Speaker 2 (01:20:18):
I mean to get it out there.
So, people, I don't know ifpeople think that bike shop
owners are millionaires.
They probably are.
If they start with 2 million,they become a millionaire and
then sell their bike shop.

Speaker 1 (01:20:29):
Yeah, you know something like that.

Speaker 2 (01:20:31):
But since I've owned it, I've had a few businessmen,
when I was looking to buy it,say I mean now is not a good
time, don't go into thisbusiness.
Hindsight probably weren'twrong.
It's been a tough go.
I mean I'm not going to lie,I'm not going to sugarcoat it,
but I'm doing okay, and by thatI mean breaking even if you will

(01:20:52):
.
And everybody says, if you'rebreaking even right now, you're,
you're doing good.
Yeah, um, there has been aboutfive bike shops in the region
closed in the past year.

Speaker 1 (01:21:00):
Um, throughout the area um and and with the shop.
Is it just because you see more?
You see like the cycling worldslowing down, or is it more just
like the direct consumer pieceof it and the internet piece of
it, or it's a lot of everything,consumer, the whole thing like
specializes in Trek and you knowthose guys going

(01:21:21):
direct-to-consumer Canyon, allthat kind of stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:21:25):
It's hurting us.
You know bike shops and stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:21:28):
Well, and it's so hard whenever and this is
something that a lot of peopledon't think about or know about,
and we talked about it brieflybefore we started recording was
like the manufacturers ofproducts they would much rather
sell a direct-to-consumer,because they're going to make
more money, which is commonsense, but they're going to
squeeze, the margins are goingto be so thin for the retailer,

(01:21:49):
but not necessarily on their end.
So, and a perfect example, I'llgive one of my own, like if I
would sell a trainer becausewe've got one in front of me,
you sell a trainer.
Well, they're like a $500trainer.
They're only maybe 50 bucks ofmargin in it.
I'm like well, I don't want toput $450 just sitting on my
floor to make $50.

(01:22:09):
That is really hard.
That doesn't add up to me.

Speaker 2 (01:22:12):
A lot of bike shops are still recovering from covid
because they have a lot of them.
They some of them had beenforced to.
You know, if you want to stay,tier one, etc.
Yeah, they're sitting on a lotof stuff that now those brands
have reduced prices to the pointthat's below what they paid
their pricing four years ago.

Speaker 1 (01:22:30):
You know I had that happen to me a couple times on,
like because I'd stocked quite abit shoes and stuff like that,
yeah, and then they put them oncause they're rolling out the
new model the next year and I'mlike, well, okay, now you're
selling it for less than what Ipay, or for what I paid, you
know, or something like that.
And you're like, and thensomebody comes in and is like,

(01:22:50):
hey, can you get this to me onsale?
It's kind of a.
It puts the retailers in atough spot.

Speaker 2 (01:22:54):
So it's slowly getting better, but only because
of time and we're moving awayfrom that whole area.
The chain is finally gettingopened back up, yeah, and the
prices there's still.
There's still products from2023 and 22 on the websites that
you know.
You can find Right, which putsif you find, you know might be
in somebody's bike shop, in thewarehouse or whatever.

Speaker 1 (01:23:16):
Yeah for sure.
Which puts if you find you knowmight be in somebody's bike
shop, in the warehouse orwhatever, yeah for sure.
Do you?
Are you enjoying it and stayingin the cycling community in a
different way?
Because at this point you'vekind of done all pieces of?

Speaker 2 (01:23:24):
the cycling community .
Yeah, so it's been.
That's, that's the heart I mean.
Yes, I'm enjoying it, OtherwiseI wouldn't be doing it.
I could, I could.

Speaker 1 (01:23:33):
I don't know if I should say this, but so you
don't have to be here if youdon't want to be.

Speaker 2 (01:23:39):
You have options as a contractor doing the TURP stuff
for the you know the flightprocedure stuff they can.
Yeah, it's considerably morethan I'm doing for the show and
I would Well that some of thatstuff is stressful too at
certain times.
But it can be.
But I enjoy doing this and yes,I know sometimes I've I've been
told you got to you had, yougot a bad report from so-and-so

(01:24:03):
you.
You were an asshole that day inthe shop Like it's retail.
It's hard to be on all the timeand I and yes.
I know I need to be, I need tobe the punching bag, and you
know who you are.
Who told me that?

Speaker 1 (01:24:18):
you just got to take it.

Speaker 2 (01:24:19):
Right and I get very difficult.
So yeah, I've, I've learned overthe last three years and I do
the best I can, and you know I'mprobably the worst has been
since October.
I mean, the first year waspretty tough and I I'm like,
okay, I pulled myself out ofthat stupidity.
And then, since October in fact, I blew up one day and I

(01:24:44):
apologize, I can't remember thegentleman's name, but he came in
and he was asking stuff and itwas right after the accident, of
course, and I probablyshouldn't have even been in the
shop, I should not have beenhere and I lost it
Understandable, I think foranybody that knows any

(01:25:07):
surrounding circumstances wouldunderstand and give a pass to
that situation, and I thinkthat's a perfect example.

Speaker 1 (01:25:14):
It's like man, you just don't know what somebody's
dealing with today, Likewhatever it is.
So I think that's a perfectexample.
It's like man, you just don'tknow what somebody's dealing
with today, like whatever it is.
So I think that's a perfectexample of that situation.
You just don't know how are youguys and we don't have to get
into it.
But I know our small Oklahomacity and definitely Oklahoma
community that's been socommitted to you guys and your
family and, you know, beeninvolved with your family Gosh

(01:25:36):
at this point almost 20 years.
How's everything been for youguys the past few months?
We got to do a couple littlerides together that were
freaking awesome.
The one at Draper was so fun.
The one at Skip that night wehad that time trial thing was
amazing.
I think people would, and youcan share what you want to share

(01:25:58):
and don't share, and we canedit whatever we want to edit,
but I would say, on a human side, how are you guys?

Speaker 3 (01:26:06):
We're doing, you're doing.

Speaker 1 (01:26:08):
Yeah, I get it, that's fair.

Speaker 2 (01:26:11):
It's a, it's been like a for me anyway.
Um, I get you know, there'sgood days and then there's um a
lot of times I'm just kind ofnumb.

Speaker 1 (01:26:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:26:26):
And so, um, but I, I get on the, I have to do
something, I get on the traineror whatever.
It might be stupid, it's notstupid, but but, um, where I
need to burn off energy orsomething, um, what was the?

Speaker 1 (01:26:54):
that's a fair deal, because then it becomes a habit.

Speaker 2 (01:26:57):
If anybody could.
My daughter said we'd be drugsfor two months.

Speaker 1 (01:27:02):
Yeah, that's a fair deal.
Well, okay, let's talk aboutthis, because I think this is a
great way to spin a terriblesituation into something that's
pretty beautiful.
You guys made jerseys, um, andI had you explain to me cause I

(01:27:22):
picked one up, um, so, and I'llpost one.
I'll put one in the in the shownotes and we'll put one
whenever we post this, cause Iwant people to see them.
Um, they can come down here andbuy them from you guys.
You guys can order sizes andall that kind of stuff, whatever
, um, but going through thesymbolism on the jerseys, I
would love to explain that,cause, when people see them, I
would love for them to know thestory, um, so I kind of want to
go through that and then talkabout what you guys are doing

(01:27:44):
with this.
Isn't just a?
Hey, we had this situationhappen to us.
Now, come, come give us money.
Yeah, so I want people to knowthe story about these jerseys,
cause they may not, so they're.
They're pink and black, solet's just start from the top.
So the pink I learned the storythe other day, which was great,
so where does the pink comefrom?

Speaker 2 (01:28:02):
okay, so and I had forgotten, but julia had to
remind me.
But he, when he was workingthat bike one the what?

Speaker 1 (01:28:11):
oh, is this in here?
This is the picture.
Is the pink pink in here?
Yeah, go ahead.
Yeah, you go ahead.

Speaker 2 (01:28:20):
So he was working at Bike One and we have to do all
this training through Shimano,sram et cetera and stuff like
that.
I guess he had I've got a pairof bars back there I won through
a drawing.
So he won a helmet throughShimano, right Bontrager helmet
or something.
Maybe not Bontrager, it doesn'tmatter, but it came in and it

(01:28:40):
was like a $200, $300 helmet,but it was pink.
He's like I don't know if I canwear this, and so he didn't
wear it for a while.
Put it up, yeah.
And finally he's like I'll justmake it, I'm just going to own
it.
And so he started wearing itand it became, you know, hashtag

(01:29:03):
.
I was going to say hashtag TeamPink.

Speaker 1 (01:29:05):
Team Pink and Pink is faster.

Speaker 2 (01:29:07):
Stuff like that.
That's him and Kai Cordes, kaiCordes, kai Cordes, so yeah we
came back about the same timeKai Kortes and Stephen Kortes
started right and so we met them.
We didn't actually really meetthem, but they're in some
pictures of us, our pictures atMedicine Park.
And so, Steve Kortes and Kai,they've been great man, they

(01:29:29):
helped, they took care of us andtook care of Corey at times.
So you know they helped me outwhen my youngest son, Tyler, got
stuck down in medicine.
You know, freaking Scott,They've been good friends, yeah,
and so anyway, but so he's beenwearing the pink helmet.
He started wearing that pinkhelmet and just owned it, if you

(01:29:50):
will, and then almost everypiece of gear he had after had
some kind of pink accent.

Speaker 1 (01:29:55):
Okay, I noticed like the pink.
He's got the pink jersey on theback picture there.
Was there something else I saw?
I think there was pink on thehandlebars.
Yeah, little accents of pinkeverywhere.
That was on a road bike.
He's even got pink tape is whatit is on the bar tape.
The bar tape is black, but thetape that holds it on is pink.

Speaker 3 (01:30:17):
When he was mountain biking.

Speaker 1 (01:30:18):
You could see where he was yeah, yeah it was great
for you, you could see followalong and see where he was at.
I love that.
And so the team pink became histhing.
Yeah, just yeah.
So I got, I got pink socks lastnight.

Speaker 2 (01:30:35):
But me, yeah, I got a , you know.
So I got, I got pink socks lastnight, but I mean, yeah, I got
a, you know, he brought a wholepair of pink socks for me to
wear.
It's like I still have them, um, for bike one.
That was years ago, but yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:30:47):
So that's.
That's where the pink came from.
That's a hand that looks like apeace symbol.

Speaker 2 (01:30:54):
Peace symbol.
So he would, when he would roadride and stuff he would.
He would, rather than wave orwhatever, he would, just you
know, give out two fingers Causeit's like on the shoulder it
says two fingers racing.
And so that was our team, thatwe when they were kids and we're
trying to come up with a thing.
I think it was when Chris wasdoing the six hours at
Thunderbird.
What was that called?
What they call it?
Uno mas, uno mas um.

(01:31:16):
We had done it one year and ourteam name was two fingers
racing.
We had come up with that.
We got the metal plate with the, the placard or whatever.
We took home.
Um, we didn't win anything, butbecause, oh my god, during that
race he went out first, hebroke his chain like two miles
in.
Rather than run back, he ranthe whole course, the rest of it

(01:31:39):
like another, probably likefive or six miles.

Speaker 1 (01:31:41):
So I'm waiting.

Speaker 2 (01:31:42):
I'm expecting to come back around and I'm like what
the hell, you know, finallycomes running in with the chain
around his neck who was friendswith us back then and he's like
dude.
What's going on?
And you know we tagged and I'mlike are you okay?
He's like yeah, I just brokethe damn chain oh my gosh, I
must have taken forever.
Yeah, and so we're like that'sright, so I took off and Mark

(01:32:02):
helped him put his chain on andwe ended up third.
I think yeah, but anyway,that's awesome so that's where
he was stuck, so two-fingerracing

Speaker 1 (01:32:13):
something we.
And then on one sleeve you havehashtag Pink is Faster and then
you have a 90.

Speaker 2 (01:32:17):
So 90 was when he was born Okay.
And it's also on, I think, hisplates.
Cat 1.
And the pictures that you guyshave over there, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:32:28):
And then on the other sleeve we have the hashtag Team
Pink and we have number 34.

Speaker 2 (01:32:33):
34 is how old he was when he passed, and it was the
plate number of the last race atEureka Springs that he raced,
that we both raced, and, I think, the last race that Eureka
Springs had, and he was Cat 1there also, and so that was so

(01:32:53):
both of those.

Speaker 1 (01:32:55):
And then on the back we have bike one, buchanan bikes
and bike lab three shops heworked at um.

Speaker 2 (01:33:04):
Once he, since he's came back, he did work at a bike
shop in uh rapid city for awhile.
City and aspen, aspen, I wasgonna say there was only there.
That went to like a hit,because I remember when he did
that those do.
I'll have to send the messagethose dudes, dirt services in
aspen they were.
They were good to him, I think.

Speaker 1 (01:33:21):
Yeah, I talked to him .
Me and him would message backand forth whenever he was up
there.

Speaker 2 (01:33:24):
Yeah, the guy, the owner of it, when he knew that
Corey was leaving, he was kindof upset but like Corey, he
could get into the suspensionlike fork and talk the details
down, like he could.
You know the whole damper,rebuild spacers, all this shit

(01:33:45):
that I like I can just scratchthe surface on Right and he was,
he could like he could do it.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:33:51):
And he had.

Speaker 2 (01:33:51):
Actually they did a news article on him in Aspen.
Really, yeah, that's prettycool About his ability to butter
up the suspension for the ridelike butter, you know, smooth,
whatever.
That's cool.

Speaker 1 (01:34:06):
And then the final pieces.
On here you have the hashtagCDs.
Well, c, e, e, d, e E.

Speaker 2 (01:34:13):
S.

Speaker 1 (01:34:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:34:14):
It's a typo.

Speaker 1 (01:34:15):
It's supposed to have an underscore between the in
the D, but that's okay, that'sall right, and then the bikes,
the riders on the back of thebike, and it says Just Ride.

Speaker 2 (01:34:26):
So the cocapellis on the back was just something that
we all liked.
While we were in Utah we sawthem and they were on our awards
from when we had won a few backthere.
And then, of course, the JustRide is just a thing to.
That's just generalized.

Speaker 3 (01:34:40):
I'm sorry, everybody's like you know what
do I need to do?
He's like just get on thefreaking bike, just ride.

Speaker 1 (01:34:47):
So he always just told people just ride.
I mean sound advice Just ride,you'll figure it out.

Speaker 2 (01:34:57):
If he said he was going to ride with you, he would
ride with you, no matter howslow you were.
But if you complained, if youwhined, if you said I can't do
this, I can't keep up with you,he would put up with it for a
little bit and then just leaveyou.
But if you, yeah, if you keptsaying I can't, I can't, he
would like I'm done.
Where does he get?

Speaker 1 (01:35:16):
any of that spirit?
From when does the lizard onthe side?
It's another symbol from one ofmy races.

Speaker 2 (01:35:27):
I think turtle lizard is like that.

Speaker 1 (01:35:31):
I love this and then.
So where are the proceeds?

Speaker 2 (01:35:35):
So we're trying to.
We're still waiting oninsurance money and we'll still
try.
It's going to be a minutebefore all this takes place and
hopefully we can't do it.
I don't I mean we're not tryingto profit on this at all, but
we're the there's you're tryingto find a way to put it back
into the cycle.
Yeah, yeah so I would like tobe able to provide, you know,

(01:35:56):
upcoming racers a chance.
Who's serious about it?
And they would have to earn it,if you will.
Not a sponsorship, but like ascholarship situation.

Speaker 1 (01:36:05):
Yeah, it's like some scholarships scholarships, which
would be super cool.

Speaker 2 (01:36:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:36:08):
It's a great way to continue the legacy and continue
, you know young riders gettinginto the sport and grow the
sport and stuff.

Speaker 3 (01:36:24):
It's okay when you're older, you're established.
Yeah, when you're that age,yeah, like, how do?

Speaker 1 (01:36:26):
you, how do you?
It's tough, yeah, yeah to get,because it's not such a
ridiculously expensive sport.

Speaker 3 (01:36:31):
Yeah, how do you keep going?

Speaker 1 (01:36:34):
yeah, it's a such as expensive thing to get started
in, much less to like progressin, because the better you get,
the more expensive it gets.
Yeah, yeah, so I love that.
Whatever you guys end up doingwith it, it's going to work,
it's going to be great.
Um, and then I'll, if you guyssend a link and we'll put it in
the show notes or whatever, orI'll put that in there where
people can contact you guys andbuy it, and we'll try to get

(01:36:56):
that out there and show thepicture and stuff too.
So we'll put that on there.

Speaker 2 (01:37:00):
So I'm offered to help out with the NICA stuff.
I'm not part of NICA by anystretch, right?
I mean, I did offer to helpwith coaching it when it does
come around.
But John Schroth and I can'tknow Dave Weaver, I think, is
the head who's running theOklahoma one.
I haven't met him, but JohnSchroth is the one who's been
coming and talking to me aboutit and I said yeah, let me know,

(01:37:22):
I'll help out, however I canyou know if kids need bikes like
these new chisels that havecome out, full suspension
chisels?
They're awesome.

Speaker 3 (01:37:31):
I mean for an aluminum alloy bike.

Speaker 2 (01:37:33):
That's an Epic in the alloy version.
Yeah, they're a little bitheavier, but the geometry of
them is great and they're,they're great bikes.
This old wonder one kid justnot too long ago and he's like
he was riding some trail bikethat this thing just takes off.
You know he was excited.

Speaker 1 (01:37:48):
I'm ready so that's awesome.
So, yeah, so you guys aregetting actively involved and
staying involved in nika andhelping grow the sport, and I
think that's a great I thinkfirst off, it's going to be
great for our state, it's goingto be great for the cycling
community, but I think it'sgoing to be great for you guys,
as it grows, to continue to havea place to get back and to be
involved and to see, especiallywhen you start to see some kids
come out of it.

(01:38:08):
It's going to be so rewarding.
Yeah, that's going to be reallyreally cool.
Well, um, well, before wefinish up and with the yard
sales or anything else you wantto talk about or add, remember
you told me this was going to bethe shortest episode ever.
I knew it wouldn't.
Uh, never is.

Speaker 2 (01:38:26):
I was kind of hoping to talk more about my sniper
stuff.
No, I'm kidding Jeez, all right.

Speaker 1 (01:38:32):
Episode two sniper school.
I was kidding, um, okay, let'sdo some yard sale stuff.
I don not one of the Kelly Suesnipers Kidding, okay, let's do
some yard sale stuff.
I'm going to wing this off thetop of my head.
That's the way I've been doingit lately.
What's your most expensivething you have in the shop On
the floor?

Speaker 2 (01:38:50):
It's probably the S-Works Athos in the other room.
It doesn't have red grip set onit, it has the fours, but still
it's running $12,000.
Yeah, crazy Build.

Speaker 1 (01:39:05):
What's that?

Speaker 2 (01:39:07):
Well, this one's about $11,000.
Oh the e-bike.
This one right here.
Yeah, the e-bike.
Yeah, with the kids rideshotgun on it.
By the way, you got a littleone right One to three years old
.
This kids ride shotgun isawesome.

Speaker 1 (01:39:20):
It is pretty funny.
It's wonderful to see.
It's hilarious, I love it.
They even get like littlehammer bars.
That's the best Cause I've seenyou on it out of a skip.
Yeah, that's great, that'sreally cool.
Um, what's your favorite pieceof equipment under $100?
Gloves.

Speaker 2 (01:39:40):
Oh, what kind of gloves.
Anyone that fits my.
They have to fit good tightfirm, I mean not firm but like
if you get ones that's too shortof fingers, then you're just
like pushing all the time andthey suck or they cut into your
web.
So finding a good pair ofgloves, no pads I used to wear
the.
I used to wear the gel, but Igot away from those um and so if

(01:40:02):
you have a good tight fitting,not super tight but not overly
loose, you can't have anythingcrease in the middle.
So a good pair of gloves what's?

Speaker 1 (01:40:10):
uh, one thing that you've sold in the shop that
you're like man, I can't believesomebody bought that.
This one may take you a secondto think about, because I just
thought of that.
Was there anything that yousold in here that you're like I
don't know how long that's beenin here and then somebody bought
it?
You're like sweet, I didn'tthink we'd ever sell that thing.

(01:40:31):
I don't know where it came from.
So cory worked here how longago his.

Speaker 2 (01:40:41):
So there he's, he helped, helps set up lightspeed
for tobin, I think in 2019, 2019, yeah, okay so so it's been
here for a hot minute yeah,there's been some things have
sold it.
What would they be?

Speaker 1 (01:40:56):
um, oh, my goodness yeah, it's usually some like
random seat or some random stemor something like that.
That's just been hanging thereand you're like I don't even
know what this goes to yeah,there's been a few of those,
more than a few.

Speaker 2 (01:41:08):
Shop is so old been here 52 years now, which is
super cool.
I didn't know that, so there'sshit in the back that, like you
know, people come over here andsay someone sent me over here
and said you might have this.
Give me this Sure enough.
They've kept stuff fromFreddy's days and Tobin's days
and stuff like that.

Speaker 3 (01:41:29):
That's pretty awesome .

Speaker 2 (01:41:31):
Old shops like this.
Definitely they're going away.

Speaker 1 (01:41:34):
They are going away, for sure.

Speaker 2 (01:41:37):
But this is why I wanted to buy.
This is the kind of thing Iwanted to buy.
It wasn't a height, it wasn'tlike a childhood dream.
It was just something that Iwanted when I bought my mountain
bike in utah like this would becool to have a bike shop in
that little town.
There was only the one, but Icouldn't do it because I was
working for the faa.
Now in that same little town,there's three bike shops.
In Cedar City, I think, there'sonly three.

Speaker 1 (01:42:00):
That's what I said earlier.
This shop reminds me of amountain town bike shop, a small
town bike shop.

Speaker 2 (01:42:09):
Poison Spider.
They probably have grown beyondwhat they were when we were
there years ago.

Speaker 1 (01:42:18):
Yeah, I think that's the thing that I like about.
When I walked in here causeit's been so long since I've
been in here I was like man,this is just like an old school
bike shop.
It's.
It's not big and shiny andfancy and polished and all the
things that like everything youneed is in here.
It's like a cozy place, it'slike a place you'd want to hang
out.

Speaker 2 (01:42:32):
And it is kind of cluttered, I guess.
But I mean I've got a lot ofstuff, I guess, but I could have
more.

Speaker 1 (01:42:41):
But where would I put it Right?
But it seems like you have alot of stuff because of just
it's not.
The facility wasn't built to bea bike shop, so you make use
for, like, any gaps betweenwindows and all that stuff.
I mean, just it's how.
It's how a shop used to be.
You just made it fit to thespace, which is great.

(01:43:02):
What's a favorite trail you'veever ridden or favorite place to
ride?
St George, st George, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:43:09):
Gooseberry Mesa was fun.
It's probably better than Moab.
Okay, you get a chance to rideit out there.
It's a toss-up.
It's really tough, but myfavorite, probably because it
was my first race where I gotthird.
You know where I told you I gotthird, but those trails at St
George are just open and flowy.
You ever talk?

Speaker 1 (01:43:28):
to Troy Boy about riding out there.
I didn't know everyone outthere.
That's where his family's from.
I believe they may still livethere.

Speaker 2 (01:43:39):
No, I don't his family's from.
I believe they may still livethere, uh-huh, no, yeah, yeah,
that's where we have.
I still follow theintermountain cup series post a
couple times they're like dude,you need to come yeah you need
to come out of retirement.

Speaker 1 (01:43:47):
Go show them a thing or two.
You might want to take someextra gears three.

Speaker 2 (01:43:50):
There's a trail called three peaks in cedar city
.
Um, it's a 12 mile loop and uh,that's that was that was had
almost everything a little bitof downhill, mostly flat.
Had a rock garden that wouldeat you lunch if you were
careful um sand, yeah what's theuh worst bike injury you've

(01:44:11):
ever had?

Speaker 1 (01:44:12):
oh my god, speaking of yard sale, it wasn't a yard
sale oh really Five days in thehospital and three surgeries.
Was this the infection?

Speaker 2 (01:44:24):
2020.
I remember this I had palatialwrecks.
I should probably be crippledfrom the wreck I had at Tom
Steed where I beat Corey Whiteon his trail, but this one by
far, far at Medicine Park 2020.
So I got to back up that sameyear.

(01:44:45):
Yeah, it was 2020.
I got COVID in May.
I was in bed for like nine days.
I didn't even get out of bed.
I got out of bed on the fourthday to go get tested and they
said I was negative.

Speaker 1 (01:44:54):
But I'm like I don't think so.
Anyway, on this side of death,I'm pretty sure I got some.
It was a big time.
Everybody was in bad shape.

Speaker 2 (01:45:06):
I got out of bed and I did a race in June at Ben
Guerin.
I think I got a third.
I should have won it.
I had COVID, you know whatever,no, but.
And then it took me untilSeptember to get back to race
shape, really race shape.
And then we were, me and JeremyBlack were pre-riding the race

(01:45:29):
course and we were on the yellowbus trail, which isn't terrible
, but we kind of cranked it upjust a notch, like just a little
bit, and next thing, I know,wham, I slid out in a loamy
patch and a sharp rockunderneath that dirt sliced open
my elbow and peeled the skinback around my elbow.
There's pictures of me withdrinking beer, clippering in the

(01:45:51):
yard cleaning out the, you know, like you did when you were a
kid, with the hose.
Well, the doc who did it?
He didn't I'm not, I don'tblame him at all, he did all he
did, awesome.
But he stitched me up.
I kind of think he did a toogood a job.
But so I got an infection, butI think it was already there.
I don't think him stitching ornot stitching would have changed
anything.
So that was a saturday.

(01:46:14):
By monday my arm was on firelike, like seeping all kinds of
stuff and I call my primary careand they're like do you have a
fever?
And Julie's in the backgroundyes, he has an effing fever.
His arm's infected all thiskind of stuff.
So I get in Tuesday, right,they wouldn't let you in.
They wouldn't let me in Monday.

Speaker 1 (01:46:34):
You're like okay.

Speaker 2 (01:46:34):
So Tuesday I go in and 11 o'clock or so and my
doctor.
She squeezes my arm.
She just left the office andwhen she does that I know I'm in
trouble.
It's never good when a doctor'slike uh-oh.

Speaker 1 (01:46:49):
Or like a ooh.

Speaker 2 (01:46:51):
So, she leaves, she comes back, she goes.
All right, you're going up towho's the doc, who's Sarah's doc
?
Yeah, anyway, you're going up.
You're going to have surgery byfour.
Oh my gosh, she wasn't wrong.
I walk into OneCore Health upthere by Southwest Integris and
I walked in and they wereexpecting me on a ambulatory

(01:47:13):
right, but I'm walking in thelike nurses at the aid station,
their station.
She's like, can I help you?
I'm like, yeah, I'm John Dentonhere to check in.
Like what, we were expectingyou on a stretcher, the way it
was reported, right, so we goget in the bedroom, get ready
for surgery.
I had surgery by probably fiveo'clock.
I scraped all this stuff, wasit?

Speaker 1 (01:47:39):
just, it was just an infection, or was it like just a
random infection?

Speaker 2 (01:47:44):
And so they had to test and they weren't sure they
found him.
Yeah, oh, they did ask.
The one doctor didn't have asense of smell.
He goes does that smell, doesthat stink?
We're like no, he goes good,okay, let.
Oh, is that steak?
We're like no, he goes good.
Okay, that's not gangrene, then.
That's a question.
Yeah, you're like okay.
So we ruled that out.

Speaker 3 (01:48:02):
ER is in too.

Speaker 2 (01:48:04):
Oh, so like yeah, so we never did go to an ER.
Right To rule out all the fancyshit, right, gotcha.
That makes sense, still testingand trying to find out what's
what the infection is.
And then I had a second surgerywhere they went in behind the
birth.
They didn't take the bursa sack.
The second surgery, theyscraped all that.

(01:48:24):
Oh my gosh yeah, I was I was.
They're like what's your painlevel?
Like 10, so he's out of thehospital.

Speaker 1 (01:48:33):
For how many days?
Five oh, oh, my gosh, from justa scuffed up elbow.

Speaker 2 (01:48:38):
After that one?
Was it after that one?
Can you just let us leave theoffice?
Let me.
I got off the scale of eight toten pain or whatever, and I'm
on Dorco 5.
How's your level?
It hurt, I'm good.
Why did we ask to leave thehospital?

Speaker 3 (01:48:56):
We didn't.
The doctor said you guys needto get out of here oh.
Just get out and go for a drive.

Speaker 1 (01:49:01):
It's COVID, yeah Right.

Speaker 2 (01:49:04):
Yeah, so third surgery we go out to.
Oh, we're walking out of thehospital and the nurse is like
where are you going?
I'm like we're going outside.

Speaker 3 (01:49:13):
No, you're not.

Speaker 2 (01:49:14):
And the other nurse goes yes, he is, let him go.
It's like second surprise, noton the stretcher.
And yeah, he's leaving thehospital, like what the fuck.
So we go to Bluff Creek andwalked around 15 minutes, dude,
I was ready for bed.
I was worn out Like I wasexhausted, right.
So we get back to the hospital,go through it again.

(01:49:35):
And I had a third surgery andthey cleaned it out again.
That took a long.
You said how long did it takeme to come out of anesthesia?
It took a long time, wow.

Speaker 1 (01:49:43):
But then I went home.
So five days, three surgeries.

Speaker 2 (01:49:47):
Whatever I had, they had to give me meropenem, which
is a super strong antibioticwith a PICC line.
Oh my gosh, and she had to giveit to me three times a day, oh
my gosh.
So I had a pick line in getthis.
So I had a pick line and she'sgonna beat this one giving me
this, this meds, and I was on itfor six weeks.
We had made plans to go tobentonville so cute dumb ass

(01:50:13):
till.
He's telling you, didn't ride.

Speaker 1 (01:50:15):
Oh my God, remember the picture of Jeremy with his
broken fork.
Yes, was that ride.

Speaker 2 (01:50:22):
Oh my gosh.
But I had to pull out beforethat because I made my pick line
bleed, oh my gosh, you guyswere a disaster.

Speaker 3 (01:50:32):
We ride over to where they started, like two or three
, and I'm like, okay, you'redone.

Speaker 1 (01:50:37):
Yeah, bleed, oh my gosh.
So, yeah, you can't get yourheart rate up and you have a
PICC line in what's wrong withyou?
So, gosh, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:50:49):
So I was on that for six weeks and then somewhere in
that time they found a also hada fungal infection, which takes
about a month to find thetesting.
So then I was on antibioticsfor that until March, february
or March oh my God this happenedin September.

Speaker 1 (01:51:07):
Wow, that's a rough one.

Speaker 2 (01:51:08):
Okay, I don't think anybody's.

Speaker 1 (01:51:11):
Yeah, jeez, I don't know.
I feel like I gotta havesomething lighthearted to end on
other than that.

Speaker 2 (01:51:17):
I mean, I'm still here.

Speaker 1 (01:51:21):
You're still here, that's true.
Okay, let's do this.
If you could pick any bike,your dream build, this is what
we're going to end on.
You don't have to go throughall the components.
But if you were going to have adream build and it may not even
be something that you sell, itmay be something else what would
it be?
It could that you sell, andmaybe something else.

Speaker 2 (01:51:42):
What would it be?
It could be road, it could bemountain, it could be anything
thought the pinarello dog.
They are sexy looking bikes.
It's freaking, just a just asmooth line on them.
Yeah, they are clean looking.
Bikes yeah, even though I'm nota roadie, I don't consider
myself a roadie.
You're not a roadie at.

Speaker 1 (01:51:56):
I don't consider myself a roadie.
You're not a roadie.
That all Not one part of when Ithink of John Denton do.
I think you know that guy likesto ride a road a lot I see him
out there quite a bit.
He always seems to be showing upin these crits.
Yeah, I don't.
I don't think that at know,cause I know you're, I know

(01:52:17):
Jeremy's involved with the skipand doing all that stuff, but
you guys are always there andalways helping.
You know, you're always at allthe events and you guys are
always plugged in.
So without people plugged inand have been plugged in for all
these years, this, this littlecommunity, tiny little community
that we have, wouldn't be whatit is.
And now you're really involvedwith having a shop.

Speaker 2 (01:52:34):
So we'll do more, but as one doing one man, I mean 10
to six.
You know it's.
I'm not complaining, I'm justsaying it's like you know why
don't?
I've had people ask me whydon't you have a shop rider,
this or that, like there's somany shop rides already, not
shop rides, there's so manyrides during the week already.
I just it doesn't make sense todo another ride, um, and I'm

(01:52:57):
kind of wore out, spring chickenbut I still got some energy,
yeah, and then you just savethat for single speeds and
beating up on me and all theother freaking races.

Speaker 1 (01:53:07):
Well, I greatly appreciate you guys.
It's been great getting to knowyou better and getting to know
you guys over the past.
I guess, really the last coupleof years, I've seen you guys
out more and I've been moreinvolved in the dirt scene.
So, um, I know from the rest ofthe community, I want to, you
know, give you guys a huge hugand and say that you know we've
all been thinking about you guysand sending you guys tons of
love and um, you know it was, itwas, it was a hit for everyone.

(01:53:30):
But you know, here we are and,uh, I the I wouldn't say I was
like great friends with corey,but the times I was friends with
Corey and knew him and talkedto him, sitting around and
crying and bitching and moaningis not going to fly.
So the only way that he wouldwant to do it is like, hey, put
on the jersey and like, as yousaid, just go ride.
You know, just do it.

(01:53:50):
And I think you guys do a greatjob honoring that.
And so it's been really awesometo see the community rally
around you guys the last handfulof months.
It's been pretty awesome.

Speaker 2 (01:54:01):
I think I did go a little long, but I want to say
one thing.
You know, circling back to thebeginning, when Julie and I,
like we've been married since 88and she's been, julie's been.
She's sitting right here but Imean, like with these races, now
I think you've maybe missedless than a handful Right.
So she hands up to me, I meanwe've, I don't.

(01:54:23):
So I mean she's been awesome.

Speaker 1 (01:54:26):
At this point you guys have been through it all,
like literally almost everything, every option you guys can come
up with.
You guys have been through ityeah.

Speaker 2 (01:54:35):
You to support me.
It it's like.

Speaker 1 (01:54:37):
It's like coming out well, it's definitely a team
effort.

Speaker 2 (01:54:41):
I don't ever see you without seeing her it's right,
yeah, very real so and then we,she hands up bottles to me and
everything and I think I thinkI've only ever dropped one well,
clearly your fault.
Probably.

Speaker 1 (01:55:00):
Then that definitely was your fault.

Speaker 2 (01:55:01):
Just this year at scale, me, smitty and Corey were
coming around hot and peopleeven said damn, that was you
guys have had some practice.

Speaker 1 (01:55:11):
You guys have been practicing since 88.
We got this, it was.
It was helped me play.
Might be a child for all theseyears.
That's awesome.
And still here supporting inthe shop, which is awesome.
So I think the community lovesyou guys.
I think you've seen that, andthanks for keeping the history
of the shop going and then passit to the next generation.
Don't take all the money.

(01:55:32):
It's better.
That's right, thank you guys,so much.

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}From Control Towers to Mountain Trails - Jon Denton