Free Ride Revolution

FREE RIDE REVOLUTION

What's the matter with kids today?

JIMMY LEWIS

HERE'S A RIDDLE: WHAT'S WITH THIS GUY ON A DIRTBIKE, BLANK NUMBERPLATES, wearing baggy clothes, riding wild and crazy, leaping over huge chasms? A gang member who's just ripped a bike from the local shop and is fleeing from the law? You might think so, but you're a long way off. He's a "freerider," a subculture of dirtbiking that's blowing the lid off of every how-to-ride and motocross-fashion rulebook.

HERE'S A RIDDLE: WHAT'S WITH THIS GUY ON A DIRTBIKE, BLANK NUMBERPLATES, wearing baggy clothes, riding wild and crazy, leaping over huge chasms? A gang member who's just ripped a bike from the local shop and is fleeing from the law? You might think so, but you're a long way off. He's a "freerider," a subculture of dirtbiking that's blowing the lid off of every how-to-ride and motocross-fashion rulebook.

Not that freeriding is anything new, it's just coming into its own. The alternative side of off-road roosting was spearheaded through jump videos that wailed to a punk-metal soundtrack (see "Video Craze" page 63), and now an entire generation of riders is hooked up with oversized riding gear and stickered-out bikes. The antithesis of the flash and glitter of Supercross, where teams and riders are seeking that profes sional NASCAR image, freeriders hail from the skateboarding or snow boarding side of the fence. "Anti" is in and style is everything, especially if it shocks the mainstream. Mostly, though, it's about riding, just being out on a bike doing what YOU want.

P Jumping is the big craze, the most adrenaline-popping and atten tion-getting activity the freerider can perform. Simple airtime isn't the key. These kids have surpassed the Evel Knievel era of mapped-out, ramp-to-ramp distance jumps and moved things back into the, hills with ridge-to-ridge, dune-to-dune leaps, the more improbable the better. Forget about dollars and even common sense, freeriders do it for the rush. In the air they become disconnected from their bikes, but not with the "can-can" and "nac-nac" leg extensions that have become commonplace in Supercross. Now, riders do "nothings" (let go `of everything), "Saran wraps" (leg over bars, one-handed return) or "candy bars" (leg back and forth over handlebars). The "cliffhanger" is a move wherein the rider jumps, lets go of the bike complete ly and catches it by his boots on the bars, pulling himself back on with his feet-the attendant 90-foot jump notwithstanding.

Sound like stunt work? X-games material? It is. In something of a paradox, freeriding's anti-competition, in-the-hills excitement is winding up right back in stadiums in front of crowds of thousands. Videos are great, but everyone wants to see things up-close and per sonal. Enter the Freestyle Motocross Competition held for the first time in Las Vegas ear lier this year. It was the first contest dedicated to freestyle riding. No longer just a jump contest at a motorcycle race, the Freestyle Challenge packed a stadium and filled an hourlong show for ESPN2.

Entire magazines have even been dedicated to the genre. One such is Wide Open, an all-color monthly loaded with photos, very few words and even less race coverage. It's mostly riders cata pulted stories high captured in lunatic leaps of faith. "I wanted to do a mag that covered dirtbikes the way I saw them. We're completely different than any of the main stream mags-they do what they do great, we do something different," explains Editor Matt Schlingman, an ex-Pro snowboarder. His take on freeriding's appeal? "It's any time you throw your leg over a motorcycle, start the motor and smell the exhaust. It all starts with your first wheelie," Schlingman says.

Where is all this going? Who knows? But what is clear is that a whole new spectrum of kids now thinks motorcycles are cool. Surfers ride dirtbikes. World Surfing Champion Sunny Garcia cuts loose from the high-stress world of waveriding on his MXer. Almost every interview of a professional snowboarder includes moto-talk. Look no farther than Shawn Palmer, the tattooed, $4-million-a-year downhill mountain-bike racer and reigning King of Boardercross (essentially Supercross on snowboards). Hobbies: motocross. Every BMX pedaling kid now needs a motorcycle to go faster, big ger and higher; these days the top prize at national BMX races is often a new 125.

Fine, but you still think all that baggy riding gear is pseu do-gang wear? Well, to freeriders it's comfortable, nonneon, dope-looking swag. If the jumping seems like a disaster waiting to happen, consider the amount of construc tive energy channeled into these activities, then what might happen to the same kid with time on his hands and a can of spray paint in them. And if you can't stand the smashing punk music that accompanies the videos and these freenders everywhere they go, just remember what your parents thought of rock `n' roll. If it's too loud, you're too old.

FASHION FOR THE DISCRIMINATING FREERIDER

In today's world, it's more important to look good than to be good. [~~why_not feel good and look baaad? With almost eveiy off-road clothing house offering a "baggy"_line, here's a style guide for the fresh-dressed freerider...