User:Patrick Swayze
From Mod Mania
Assessment Task One - A Rapid Descent into Gravity Bike Racing
For this assessment I will be investigating and exploring the world of Gravity Bike racing. I have never built or raced a gravity bike however I have had a long time interest in them. I am also currently in the development process of designing my own gravity bike. I decided to learn more about the community this style of bike and racing come from in an effort to gain a deeper understanding of the cycling world and all its niches. How is a gravity biker born? At what point does someone decide "hey no pedals, no engine, public mountain roads and high speed. Yeah that sounds like my kind of thing"? I trolled forums and interviewed a former 'IGSA number one'. It seems gravity bikers are born from exactly my situation, a cyclist looking for more.
Sholto Allbrook
A combination of events lead to Sholto Allbrook getting into gravity bikes. He grew up in Tasmania were his main interest was in mountain biking. Through
this and his involvement in outdoor sports he met Greg, the then owner of
ozone sports, a skate and snowboard shop in Tasmania, with help from
him and research on the internet Sholto built his first street luge. Early on in life he loved the idea of gravity and speed. He liked the luge but the love of two wheels kept Sholto loyal to mountain biking.
Four years ago Sholto moved to Melbourne and started working at Melbourne bicycle centre. This is where I met Sholto and where he had the pleasure of meeting Gonz. Mid way through 2008 Gonz started talking about an event that was going to be held up at Bathurst in NSW (Newtons). The event included Downhill skateboarding, luge and gravity bikes, Initially Sholto started making plans to ship the luge over from Tasmania, dust it off, and enter in the event.
It was then that Gonz began bringing in his custom gravity bike that has been evolving over the past 20 years. Sholto described his impressions of the bike, "This beast of a machine with its full suspension, top of the range DH Triple piston disk brakes and inspired riding position was something I'd never seen before, I was instantly hooked!" Sholto then asked himself "why should I luge when my passion is for two wheels?" He began building his own gravity bike out of bits and pieces from around the shop. And with that Sholto's race to get ready for newtons began.
An Interview with 'The Gonz' a veteran gravity biker
Gravity bikers often talk of the ‘pioneers’ of the sport. These people such as Gonz are held in a sacred patriarchal position of the hierarchy. Other then this there is not much division in power or admiration within the gravity bike community, with the exception of the IGSA [[1]] (International Gravity Sports Association) world rankings. While IGSA rankings are commonly referred to by the riders themselves it seems the other riders don’t give any more respect to a rider simply because they got a better place at an IGSA event.
This lack of hierarchy, I believe, is attributed to the young nature and young history of the sport. The lack of history which is evident from the youthful ages of the ‘pioneers’ means the gravity bike community has not had any timeless heroes like that of the skateboarding community. At this point in gravity biking if you were there at the start you are a legend, a pioneer. Yet if you have had any other achievements you’re merely a competitor.
Despite the competitive nature of gravity biking the relationships between riders are extremely strong and kind hearted. The close-knit community stays friendly and works together to keep what is a blossoming sport growing. There is also a massive encouragement for new riders to start racing. Gravity bikers ultimate dream is to see their sport grow and be as popular as any other BMX sport. I believe this could contribute to the outgoing congeniality of the riders. They want people to build bikes, the want people to come to races, and some of the riders want to start businesses around the gravity bike community. So perhaps the reason they are so nice to outsiders is just to help grow the sport. A dynamic I call ‘the Mormon factor'.
The gravity bike community loves a road trip. The road trip provides a chance to ride new hills meet other riders and maybe convert some new riders on the way. Like any other action sports road trip there are always many cameras rolling the whole way. Upon arrival a new gravity bike video will be posted to you tube. Australia’s primary channel for Gravity Bike videos is gravity bike HQ. The freedom of jumping in a car and driving till you find some hills couples well with the adrenalin and feeling of freedom and speed achieved when gravity biking. These similarities clearly indicate why road trips have become such a defining feature of gravity biking.
Additionally the road trip reinforces the paternal bonds between gravity bikers. The days riding, the nights out, the crashes and the competition for top speed give the riders history together. Like any friendship the strength of the friendships in gravity biking comes from shared experience. The amount of adrenalin, the physical and mental extremes, and the copious amounts of near death experiences means that the bonds formed on a road trip are extremely strong.
The gravity bike road trip video has a distinct style. They don’t include any of the ‘night before footage’ that is extremely common in other action sports videos. In fact there is no ‘day in the life style footage’ in gravity bike videos. All footage is riding. The entire emphasis is on physically doing the sport itself. Additionally almost all the footage is from helmet cams. This barrage of helmet cam footage is due to the illegal nature of gravity bike racing. The gravity racers are not permitted on public roads. They also commonly merge onto the wrong side of the road through corners in order to hit the apex and carry more speed. There is a danger for the gravity bikers that if they stop and set up cameras that they will get a fine or be arrested. On top of this most riders won’t want to stop and film because they don’t want to stop riding.
All year round gravity bikers are going on road trips to find new hills. However it is only once a year that the IGSA hold a nationals race in Australia and even less common that they hold the worlds race in Australia. These events become Mecca for the gravity bike racer. These events happen over the course of a weekend and have practice, qualifying and race sessions. The race sessions are structured similarly to BMX and 4X racing. There are several heats in which contestants are eliminated. And the end of the day a national or world champion is crowned and IGSA kudos and bragging rights are won.
I mentioned that the riders do not hold these rankings in absolute glory. however they are a common talking point. In fact if you ask a gravity biker about gravity biking or their bike it will be near impossible to avoid there IGSA ranking. And why wouldn’t you tell someone where you are ranked in the whole of Australia?
While from the outside gravity bikers seem like a bunch of idiots going way to fast on modded kids bikes, from the inside they are a close group of friends having fun, engaging those primal switches that exhilarate human beings.
