| Jared: MTB Bike Snob |
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Jared Johnson I am arried to the most wonderful wife, Shelly, sharing the most wonderful children Hunter, Mikyla and Cameron. Starting off any other way just wouldn’t be right. A native of Orange County California (nobody’s perfect right?) I grew up with the BEST parents in the world. Both of my parents instilled in me the value of hard work, honestly and integrity. Well, so the hard work part hasn’t paid off in me yet, except when it comes to my dreams, but it is at least a characteristic engrained within. I started riding at about age 14 when I would sneak my dad’s old Peugeot French road bike that I never saw him ride. As a soccer player who never really excelled at running short or long distances, I became fascinated by how far I could ride from home in such a short period of time and caught a little feel for what I think might be called a “runner’s high.” The speed and level fitness it required intrigued me, with a certain empowering feeling of accomplishment and increasing zeal for that adrenaline every time I finished a ride. Riding never really fully caught on with me at that time in my life until I, with a whole other group of 14-15 year olds made an organized trip out to Moab Utah. Slick Rock was amazing and some of the other gnarly trails mined with jagged rocks and steep descents really caught my attention, but the whole experience for some reason faded. Then several years ago I encountered a problem with my knees which suffered years of unresolved apathy after having been so religiously active in year round soccer tournaments. First my patellar tendon flared up with infection. Then the infection spread to the connected shin bone causing the bone itself to swell. In severe pain that became somewhat debilitating, my sports medicine doctor opted to trust in rehabilitating exercise rather than surgery involving cutting the bone out and grafting replacement bone from the hip. So I got on a bike again, for the first time, and haven’t looked back since. I ended up as a naïve but enthusiastic bike builder where I learned through a lot of trial and error, mistakes and misgivings about the “do’s & don’ts” and general cycling styles and preferences. The deeper I dove into cycling, the more I became disenchanted with the monster chain stores that I worked for, as with the OE stocked bikes that came through my work stand and thought there had to be a better way to service cyclists who deserved something better than just “something off the rack.” Every OE stocked bike had anywhere from 3-7 weaknesses or inconsistencies in the parts package. Each bike seemed to have some hidden weaknesses in the areas less visible and parings that didn’t make much sense to me. I came to discern that manufacturers were financially bound to implement concessions, but also that they seemed to lead riders down hypocritical trends and gave in to what their audiences believed was best for them. So instead of giving cyclists what they need, they submit to what their customers want, which isn’t necessarily for the good of a bike’s overall performance. Each feeds the other, but there’s too much junk food being exchanged (pretty poor metaphor, huh?). It was then that I left the shop and set out to learn all I can to provide cyclists with the best of everything I possibly can:
I remember that Down Shift Cycles improvements rely on your feedback, so let’s hear it. More About Jared |
