You’ve hopefully seen a bit of a feature on John Oldale in a recent issue of Spoke Magazine, offering a bit of a background of the man himself. We caught up with John via the wonder of the electronical-inter-web-ernet device to dig slightly deeper and get a bit more of a picture of what John is all about.
How old are you? Four weeks shy of the big 3-0.
Where do you live? The not so gritty streets of Botany, Auckland.
What do you like best about living where you do? Five minutes from Whitford trails, 15 minutes from the beach and 30 minutes to most other riding spots in Auckland. Five BMX tracks in Auckland and countless pump tracks.
What do you dislike about living where you do? Pretty far from chairlift accessed trails.
Who makes your riding possible? Hmm, this is a pretty long list, luckily I am in the situation where I look after a brand, so I guess ABD and Sheppards are the key contributors. Al from Blue Shark is constantly helping me, as well as the stuff in Mavis’s shed. Big shoutout to the Missus, for putting up with me needing to go ride every available opportunity.
First bike? Some rad little red thing that my dad got second hand and fixed up.
How did you first pick up a MTB and get into it from there? Can’t really remember how I got into it, I just always seemed to be around bikes. I do remember that when I raced XC, I would get bored during the race and end up pushing back up the downhills to ride them again and again. This developed into some sort of interest in DH racing, then I wrenched in the Alps for a bit and now I kick it at Sheppards as a product manager.
How would you describe your riding these days? Pretty dubious, and all sorts of bikes.
What’s your ‘day’ job? ABD product manager.
What motivates you to get out of bed each day to do that job? The ride after work and generally being involved in an industry that is full of passionate people and the experiences it comes along with.
What are your plans for the New Zealand summer? To try and hit up as many BMX and DH races as possible. And generally just have a good time riding bikes with my mates.
Who do you think was the most legendary MTB rider in the world in the last 15 years and why? For me it has to be Steve Peat, good guy, phenomenal rider, and been kicking ass and taking names for as long as I can remember.
What’s wrong with mountain biking? People going to trail centres and riding in full face and goggles, prime specimens of this can be spotted at Woodhill every Saturday and Sunday.
What’s right with mountain biking? Trail bikes, people who let their riding talk and don’t tell everyone how rad they are, and how damn quick groms are.
What websites do you hit daily? Dirt, Freeride’n, Spoke, Pinkbike, BMXmania, Vitalmtb/bmx, Zombiebmx, theblower (haha).
Who do you look up to? Anyone that is doing what they want to be doing and not complaining about how their life sucks.
Favourite piece of bike kit? Those uppie’downie seatposts, and 1×9 setups.
What are your vices? Coffee and more coffee.
Got any dirt / story of a pro MTBer you’d like to share? Morzine, a DHer who now rides motocross, a girl and a hidden video camera, I have heard the story from both parties involved and they are both pretty funny.
Finally, bit of word association.
– Dirt jump? Don’t let it go the way of freestyle moto-X
– Downhill? Hell yeah
– Huck to flat? People who ride at trail centres in goggles and full faces
– Tricks? We need more decades
– Style – Whips
– Cross Country? Get into it, turns out it’s not as bad as it sounds
– Groms – Pinned
Where are those photos taken?
Where are those photos taken?
I have seen a few comments from riders posts criticizing people riding with satety gear and big suspension bikes at Woodhill. Firstly there are some narely structures and maybe some people only have one kit or one bike to use anyway. Who knows and why do these people care. Leave them alone I say and worry about criminals and drug pushers.
I have seen a few comments from riders posts criticizing people riding with satety gear and big suspension bikes at Woodhill. Firstly there are some narely structures and maybe some people only have one kit or one bike to use anyway. Who knows and why do these people care. Leave them alone I say and worry about criminals and drug pushers.