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Mountain Bike Action Magazine - Mountain Bike Action Magazine
TESTED: ENDURA MT500 BURNER FLAT PEDAL SHOES
TESTED: 100% S2 AND S3 EYEWEAR
SPINERGY MXX 30 WHEEL REVIEW – NOT YOUR EVERYDAY SPOKES
REVIEW: YAKIMA’S SURPRISINGLY GOOD STAGETWO HITCH RACK
VIDEO: GOLD STANDARD FEATURING BRYN ATKINSON
VIDEOS: PROVING GROUNDS WINNING RUNS
VIDEO: SANTA CRUZ 5010 DREAM BUILD… IN MINIATURE!
VIDEO: “HANDY MACASKILL IS BACK: THE WORLD’S GREATEST BIKE HANDLER”
ASK MBA: WHAT BIKE FOR A 13-YEAR OLD?
ASK MBA: DOES THE ADA JUSTIFY RIDING E-BIKES ON “NO E-BIKE” TRAILS?
ASK MBA: ARE CLIPLESS PEDALS REALLY BETTER THAN FLATS?
ASK MBA: GIVING THE BOOT TO FLAT TIRES
FINN ILES: HOW HE BECAME A STAR WHEN HE WAS 14
INTERVIEW: OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALIST JENNY RISSVEDS AND HER WORLD CUP WINNING IBIS EXIE…
RICHIE RUDE’S ENDURO BIKE
KIALANI HINES’ SECRETS TO SPEED
TEN REASONS TO RIDE BENTONVILLE ARKANSAS – AKA “THE MTB CAPITAL OF THE…
TOP TRAILS: WORLD TRAVELERS REVEAL THEIR FAVORITE PLACES TO RIDE
RIDER LISTS RELEASED FOR CRANKWORX CAIRNS 2022
FOX US OPEN OF MOUNTAIN BIKING STARTS THIS THURSDAY IN NEW ENGLAND
CANADIAN BECOMES YOUNGEST-EVER WINNER OF WORLD’S TOUGHEST DOWNHILL RACE
2023 UCI CYCLING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS “MEGA-EVENT” COMES TO SCOTLAND NEXT…
PHOTO GALLERY: OUR FAVORITE READER SUBMITTED PHOTOS
PHOTO GALLERY: OUR FAVORITE READER SUBMITTED PHOTOS
PHOTO GALLERY: OUR FAVORITE READER SUBMITTED PHOTOS
PHOTO GALLERY: OUR FAVORITE READER SUBMITTED PHOTOS
Todd Snider on his National Championship-winning race run at Big Bear in 1994. He is a longtime member of MBA’s wrecking crew.
I was racing the Junior Expert class back in 1994 at age 17 on a Foes LTS. I started with the Amateur Cups, the Keyesville Classic and other big downhill races in Southern California. I had a lot of success on the Foes with its 6 inches of travel in the rear and the best Rockshox fork available—the gold Mag 21 with a whopping 2.5 inches of suspension travel. It was a little hard to deal with the travel imbalance, but you kind of just rode it by trying to miss stuff with your front wheel, because it was okay to slam stuff with the rear as long as you didn’t pinch flat. Our tires were just lightweight cross-country models with thin sidewalls, so we had to be careful. We didn’t have good DH tubes or DH-style tires then, so flatting was very common.
Fox, with the help of John Marking, set us up with some really good rear air shocks that would allow the bike to be plush, not squat too much, and yet still be able to pedal amazingly. The Foes had the benefits of the extra rear-wheel travel that allowed us to pick different lines compared to hardtail bikes or DH bikes that used elastomer bumpers or super-short travel. Most important, the extra travel offered much better rear-wheel traction, so in unfavorable conditions we were able to take inside lines or choose the rougher, blown-out sections without having to slow down.
In 1994, I won every race I entered as a Junior, until I entered the Downhill Mania event. This was a race where the racer’s class and category didn’t matter. It was open to all, and the top 32 racers from the qualifying races moved on to the Sunday races. It was a bracket-style race where four racers left the starting gate at the same time and battled down the course. So, imagine four racers leaving the starting line at the same time, and after battling each other down a gnarly five-minute downhill run at Park City, Utah, only the top two racers moved on to the next round. Well, it was a stormy day, and about halfway into the races we had a course hold for rain and lightning. I laid my bike down on its side and some rainwater got under my left grip.
You can probably guess what happened next. Halfway down in the round of 16, my grip spun in my hand and blew off the handlebar, and my hand went with it. I rode about 10 feet and never got my hand back on the bar, so I crashed pretty bad, destroying my collarbone.
I was winning all other amateur races by a large margin in 1994 and was hoping to maintain my winning record at the U.S. National Championships just four weeks after my injury. Fox Racing helped me make a special MX-style chest protector, and we taped a homemade foam donut on my chest to create some space between my fractured collarbone and the chest protector. Due to the injury only being four weeks old, I had to very casually roll down the hill only three times the day before the race to be extremely careful not to even slide out or tip over.
I wanted to have a smooth run with no mistakes. So, after hitting all my marks and completing a smooth but not the fastest run, I was able to squeak out the biggest win of my career and secure a National Championship by only about a half of a second! It was the first-ever championship for Foes Racing as well.
My win streak was stopped at nine races at the World Championships. I ended up washing out the front tire in a steep switchback and took home 15th place. Heartbreaking result for me, but it motivated me to work hard and consider turning pro for 1995.
Around March of 2015, I got a call from Toby Henderson at Iron Horse to come down for a meeting with him and the corporate bosses. I was lucky to be selected to the Factory Team for 1995, and I had a rough first season. I was very young and had barely been out of my small town of Bakersfield, California. Next thing I know, I am trying to beat Tomac, Cullinan and Lopes. I still had posters on my bedroom wall at my parents’ house of these legends, and now I’m doing everything I can to post times close to theirs at the NORBA Nationals.
Todd (center) took home the stars-and-stripes jersey after winning the Junior Men’s Downhill National Championship on his Foes LTS in 1994. Also on the podium is longtime MBA wrecking crew rider Waylon Smith.
The Iron Horse bike was the same bike that won the 1992 Worlds Championship, but by 1995 this bike was way behind in terms of suspension technology. I most definitely went backwards from the Foes in 1994 to the Iron Horse that only had about 2.5 inches of rear travel. The Foes was designed around better brakes, more travel and less side-to-side flex. It was years ahead of the Iron Horse bike. Toby Henderson eventually started testing and racing a Foes model with Iron Horse badging because I was so vocal about the difference.
If I could go back and change anything, I think I would have pushed harder to race that Foes bike for Iron Horse from day one. If that wouldn’t have been an option, I probably should have elected not to sign that first pro contract for 1995. Don’t get me wrong; it was an amazing experience to race all over the country and have the best mechanic on the circuit, but I think my results were lacking because of a bike that I had to adjust my riding style so much to. I should have stayed racing for Foes in 1995 as a privateer and focused on the West Coast Nationals while racing on better equipment. Yes, the Foes was really that good. I think Iron Horse had to reevaluate my position on the team due to my series ranking of only 20th, and I had to find another team for 1996.
RIDER LISTS RELEASED FOR CRANKWORX CAIRNS 2022
U.S. MOUNTAIN BIKER SELECTED FOR UCI ROAD WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
LAST CALL: MAMMOTH BIKE PARK’S FINAL DAY IS THIS SUNDAY
MANITOU LAUNCHES NEW MASTODON PRO LE LIMTED EDITION FAT BIKE FORK
U.S. MOUNTAIN BIKER SELECTED FOR UCI ROAD WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
FLASHBACK FRIDAY: WHEEL-WAR SHOOTOUT— 29″ vs.…
LONG TERM REVIEW: KONA HONZO ESD
The History of the Specialized Stumpjumper
TESTED: ENDURA MT500 BURNER FLAT PEDAL SHOES
TESTED: 100% S2 AND S3 EYEWEAR
SPINERGY MXX 30 WHEEL REVIEW – NOT YOUR EVERYDAY SPOKES
REVIEW: YAKIMA’S SURPRISINGLY GOOD STAGETWO HITCH RACK
VIDEO: GOLD STANDARD FEATURING BRYN ATKINSON
VIDEOS: PROVING GROUNDS WINNING RUNS
VIDEO: SANTA CRUZ 5010 DREAM BUILD… IN MINIATURE!
VIDEO: “HANDY MACASKILL IS BACK: THE WORLD’S GREATEST BIKE HANDLER”
ASK MBA: WHAT BIKE FOR A 13-YEAR OLD?
ASK MBA: DOES THE ADA JUSTIFY RIDING E-BIKES ON “NO E-BIKE” TRAILS?
ASK MBA: ARE CLIPLESS PEDALS REALLY BETTER THAN FLATS?
ASK MBA: GIVING THE BOOT TO FLAT TIRES
FINN ILES: HOW HE BECAME A STAR WHEN HE WAS 14
INTERVIEW: OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALIST JENNY RISSVEDS AND HER WORLD CUP WINNING IBIS EXIE…
RICHIE RUDE’S ENDURO BIKE
KIALANI HINES’ SECRETS TO SPEED
TEN REASONS TO RIDE BENTONVILLE ARKANSAS – AKA “THE MTB CAPITAL OF THE…
TOP TRAILS: WORLD TRAVELERS REVEAL THEIR FAVORITE PLACES TO RIDE
RIDER LISTS RELEASED FOR CRANKWORX CAIRNS 2022
FOX US OPEN OF MOUNTAIN BIKING STARTS THIS THURSDAY IN NEW ENGLAND
CANADIAN BECOMES YOUNGEST-EVER WINNER OF WORLD’S TOUGHEST DOWNHILL RACE
2023 UCI CYCLING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS “MEGA-EVENT” COMES TO SCOTLAND NEXT…
PHOTO GALLERY: OUR FAVORITE READER SUBMITTED PHOTOS
PHOTO GALLERY: OUR FAVORITE READER SUBMITTED PHOTOS
PHOTO GALLERY: OUR FAVORITE READER SUBMITTED PHOTOS
PHOTO GALLERY: OUR FAVORITE READER SUBMITTED PHOTOS
TESTED: ENDURA MT500 BURNER FLAT PEDAL SHOES
TESTED: 100% S2 AND S3 EYEWEAR
SPINERGY MXX 30 WHEEL REVIEW – NOT YOUR EVERYDAY SPOKES
REVIEW: YAKIMA’S SURPRISINGLY GOOD STAGETWO HITCH RACK
VIDEO: GOLD STANDARD FEATURING BRYN ATKINSON
VIDEOS: PROVING GROUNDS WINNING RUNS
VIDEO: SANTA CRUZ 5010 DREAM BUILD… IN MINIATURE!
VIDEO: “HANDY MACASKILL IS BACK: THE WORLD’S GREATEST BIKE HANDLER”
ASK MBA: WHAT BIKE FOR A 13-YEAR OLD?
ASK MBA: DOES THE ADA JUSTIFY RIDING E-BIKES ON “NO E-BIKE” TRAILS?
ASK MBA: ARE CLIPLESS PEDALS REALLY BETTER THAN FLATS?
ASK MBA: GIVING THE BOOT TO FLAT TIRES
FINN ILES: HOW HE BECAME A STAR WHEN HE WAS 14
INTERVIEW: OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALIST JENNY RISSVEDS AND HER WORLD CUP WINNING IBIS EXIE…
RICHIE RUDE’S ENDURO BIKE
KIALANI HINES’ SECRETS TO SPEED
TEN REASONS TO RIDE BENTONVILLE ARKANSAS – AKA “THE MTB CAPITAL OF THE…
TOP TRAILS: WORLD TRAVELERS REVEAL THEIR FAVORITE PLACES TO RIDE
RIDER LISTS RELEASED FOR CRANKWORX CAIRNS 2022
FOX US OPEN OF MOUNTAIN BIKING STARTS THIS THURSDAY IN NEW ENGLAND
CANADIAN BECOMES YOUNGEST-EVER WINNER OF WORLD’S TOUGHEST DOWNHILL RACE
2023 UCI CYCLING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS “MEGA-EVENT” COMES TO SCOTLAND NEXT…
PHOTO GALLERY: OUR FAVORITE READER SUBMITTED PHOTOS
PHOTO GALLERY: OUR FAVORITE READER SUBMITTED PHOTOS
PHOTO GALLERY: OUR FAVORITE READER SUBMITTED PHOTOS
PHOTO GALLERY: OUR FAVORITE READER SUBMITTED PHOTOS
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