“Midlife Crisis“ by George Ryan

Last year, I turned 40 years old. When I was a teenager just starting my mountain biking journey, 40 might as well have been 99, both seemed so far away and hella old! It seemed like once you got that “old”, the only thing anyone did was sit on the couch watching football, doing the 12oz. curls and massaging your beer gut. Back then I could never imagine what I would be doing once I reached this age. I certainly did not think I would be capable of still riding my bike and feeling good. Not only do I feel good, but my desire to get out on my bike is the same, maybe even greater than it was when I first fell in love with riding. While I know that my days of being part of the group that were pushing the sport forward are over, I still get the same thrill pushing myself as I did back in the day. That’s where the idea came from to film a new video part. There was no budget, no obligations, or even a dedicated filmer for this project. I have always been heavily influenced by the culture of skate videos and I absolutely love the process of putting in time to film a video part, whether it takes a weekend or a full year. Having a family now makes it a little tougher to schedule filming trips, so most of this video takes place close to my home in Sparta, New Jersey, even including the dirt jumps right in my backyard. From the conception of this project, my main goal was to make a video that pushed my current limits and something that I would be proud of. If anyone else happens to enjoy this video too, then that is just an added bonus. Thank you to everyone who has ever supported my riding addiction over the last 25 years, especially those who still value the partnership with me today including everyone at Evil Bikes, Tyler at SDG Components (20 years of support), Sean and Andrew at Vans shoes, Reid and Bistro at Oakley, Industry Nine, and the Crüe at Mountain Creek Bike Park.