Mar 02 2009
Riding the road less travelled
Most of us when faced with a fork in the road would naturally gravitate to the choice that looks well-paved with clear signposts and a predictable destination. Not for Gary Fisher and Oliver Ronzheimer who were both guests on Primetime Morning this week.
Gary is the Californian hippie who in the 1970s, began to modify his road bike to enable him to race up and down mountain slopes. It was the first step towards the introduction of the sport we know today as mountain biking.
Oliver is one of Europe’s best motorcycle stuntmen. Like Gary, his love for two-wheelers propelled him onto the road less traveled.
For Oliver, who had been riding motorcycles since the age of 8 (although, he was quick to point out that this was legal, on offroad vehicles), it was his twin loves of entertaining people and motorsports that led him to his career, and he hasn’t looked back since. He became a professional stuntman in 1992, and in 1999, set a Guinness World Record for jumping over 38 people on a motorcycle – without a ramp.
When asked whether he had suffered any major injuries, he replied with deadpan Teutonic humour, “I’ve never broken a bone. I’m a professional. It makes no sense, when I spend my time in the hospital I don’t make money.”
Where Oliver was the disciplined German, Gary Fisher’s path to fame had a more American frontier spirit to it. Starting out as a professional racer, he was actually barred from competing because he had long hair. But it wasn’t his way to get his locks shorn to gain easy entry.
Instead, he decided to do his own thing and began biking in the Californian hills. By modifying existing lightweight racing bikes with tough motorcycle-like gear, Gary was able to make the humble two-wheeler an all-terrain machine.
“You can ride almost anywhere you want, you can ride all those little paths, you can ride out on mountains, you ride out in the forest, you can go almost anywhere you want. And it’s light enough that you can pick it up, put it over a fence, or go through a difficult area, carry it sometimes and ride home.”
The next step was to start a company with his partners, making mountain bikes for people, and introducing the sport to others.
To hear him talk about those early years, you conclude that going offroad was the best thing he did.
“Coming down the trails, it was amazing, it was a like a big natural rollercoaster. I had for years ridden around the periphery of this great riding on paved roads and everything, and suddenly this was the heart of something fantastic. And you know we used to say, you get out in the mountain bike, you’re away from the cops, the cars and concrete and you can have a really good time.”
Spoken like a true hippie and I for one definitely hope that life still holds many unexplored, unconventional but rewarding paths to take.
(this article appeared in the TODAY weekend edition 28 Feb-1 Mar 2009)
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Joanne Leow is a producer-presenter with Channel NewsAsia. She is married with 2 young sons and spends her free time reading, writing, swimming, doing yoga and cooking up a storm.