blog 08

Well i started this blog site in 08 with no set ideas, After bsx-world (one of the UK's leading bike sites of its time) i took some time away from posting news and info till i posted up a piss take holding page called north shore freeriders..lol. odd thing i turned it in to a forum and it found some legs and ran for a number of years and ended up being a hub for uk freeriders.. Since then this blog has been my net focus for Rants,photos,odd stuff, info and what ever else all in one spot..

As a sponsored rider here in the UK you have to promo yourself and do a lot of work but i feel its worth while, Sure you get 6/7 internet clowns that love to hate but then what else are they going to do with there sad lives if they could not bitch about a rider they dont know but seem to think they do on forums.. sad but true.. still keeps my blog hits up ;) thanks.

Riders have to be there own management here in the UK if you want to get on, Your not going to find a compnay to do it for you and if your not backed by a big brand that the magazines are keen for advert space then you have to work on your own media and promo. The net has proven in many sports to be a great way of doing so and im happy to run what i do on the net these days as a great grassroots tool to show what im doing. If your legit and you can keep posting worth while media then do it, Super stoked to say this little blog had over 9,000 hits from the states and almost 7,000 from the UK last month!

So heres what some people have to say about me and what i do...



FSX:
Elbry is one of the FreestyleXtreme's longest supported riders; we've been helping him out for just over 5 years now. He's one of our riders that delivers results and content for us year in year out, which is why we continue to give him our support! Whether it be competing in XC events or setting off speed cameras on his downhill bike, we love the enthusiasm and coverage he gives the FSX brand.

[FSX Marketing Manager - Ben Richardson]
"Elbry understands what's requiredfrom a sponsored athlete and goes over and above what he needs to deliver. I love his underground punk attitude; which is what FreestyleXtreme is all about!"
[FSX Social Media Manager - James Dunford]
It's awesome to have a rider like Elbry riding for the FreestyleXtreme team. Elbry is one of our longest standing riders, who continues to give us images, videos and an content which we utilise throughout our social media network".


andrew : OP trails main builder and freerider.

If your looking for a truly dedicated rider, look no further than Elbry. His passion for mountain biking, both competitively and recreationally is surpassed only by his dedication to supporting grass-roots riders. Out on the trail he has a strange ability to make you want to keep going for another run, even when your legs turned to jelly 3 runs ago. He's pushed my riding, showing me lines that I hadn't seen and carrying speed where I'd been slowing down previously. At the same time though you never get the feeling he's being competitive or judging your ability, instead there's a very chilled atmosphere about him interrupted by the occasional bit of encouragement or idea for a trail. You can see he's just happy to be out on a bike having fun......who wouldn't be?

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Well I've known Elbry a number of years, and he has been a controversial figure in the UK riding scene during this time, drawing equal amounts of criticism and praise from many people who have never actually met him!

I've ridden with Elbry a couple of times, and found him to be a quiet, friendly guy with a good riding style, not afraid to send the bigger drops.

He has a sense of his self-worth and is prepared to work hard for his sponsors, which is important to a UK rider pushing the freeride "scene" in the UK - a scene which is barely in existance with no organised competitions and an ever decreasing number of legal venues to ride at!

its his self promotion that seems to get the backs up of UK riders (many of whom, their wheels have never left the ground on any occasion apart from during a crash); in the USA Elbry would fit in just fine, as people are keen to see others succeed and admire hard work from a passionate person .

However, in the UK, we have a long standing culture of criticism and cynicism, and view people who have to 'blow their own trumpet' to get noticed with an air of derision - this is not specific to bike riding, but celebrity culture in general - in the UK we love to see "people fail" and celebrate "putting people down".

You cannot win on the mountain bike forums - people hide behind their user names and sprout the most astonishing bile about someone they have never actually met, and a problem comes from trying to defend yourself (as Elbry has been forced to do, on occasion) as it just adds fuel to the fire!

Unfortunately its very hard to promote yourself in the UK as a mountain bike freerider (or as any kind of rider in general) unless you have the backing of a huge company like Trek or Specialized which have the magazines and media in their pockets due to big advertising budgets and jolly's for the press (i.e. product launches in Whistler).

A guy like Elbry, riding for smaller brands, has to promote himself otherwise his sponsors don't get any attention, and his grassroots approach is actually very effective, but does not have credibility in the eyes of brainwashed mass-market riders who inhabit the forums.

I know this as I was in the same position as a UK pro freerider riding for Banshee Bikes and DaKine...
I found it difficult to get any coverage in the mags so started making lots of videos, built a bike park and entered every jam or competition I could find and finally got noticed!

I never made any money from it, but certainly had fun, travelled to Canada 3 times, and met some great people; I got criticised and even banned from certain forums for defending myself or promoting myself, generally I let my riding speak which would normally shut the critics up...

I completely understand where Elbry is coming from, and find the attitude of the anonymous "internet warriors" who relish in putting the boot into anyone they don't like, very sad but an unfortunate part of the UK riding culture...

Elbry is certainly misunderstood (a bit like the USA's Josh Bender) - if you get the change to meet Elbry (or Josh Bender for that matter), or ride with him, you will have a fun time and make friends with a genuine bike rider who has a passion for the freeriding movement, and works hard to promote companies that have supported him over the Years.

something I have come to learn in extreme sports (I have been involved in bike/skate for 25+ years) is that just because someone rides a bike, does not make automatically them a friend or even a nice person.

there are alot of ars*holes in life, which means alot of ars*holes in sport as well, but Elbry is not one of those ars*holes, he is a genuine guy with a passion who should ignore the haters and get on with his thing!

I know how effective the grassroots approach is, and Elbry knows this too, and I'm sure he will keep riding for many years to come yet...cheers

Rob Cole
Mythic Bikes / Freeborn Bikes