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Rich Pearson Street Training 7


Rich Pearson

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I’ve reposted the text from Facebook, but essentially after a 14 year gap I figured some more moody trials thrashing was in order. Enjoy :)

So recently I announced that I was going to make another street training video, and to probably about 87% of my friends this meant absolutely nothing, and to be fair to the other 13% it probably wasn’t life changing use either. But to me it’s important I’ll explain why.

Two things have happened this year of relative significance, one was that I bought myself a new trials bike, and the other was that I found out I was going to be a father. It might sound strange to try and even compare these two occurrences to one another, but bikes to me for the last 25 years have pretty much been as important as oxygen. I honestly don’t know if I would still even be here if I hadn’t had bikes and the friends that came with them as a constant for the last 2 and a half decades.

15 years ago I released the first of six videos under the street training title, which were generally well received by the trials community. The last video was released in 2008, when I was 21. To me they represent a time in my life going from absolutely chronic unbearable depression, anxiety and uncertainty, when literally filming and making these edits were about the only things I could feel relatively proud of. Despite the darkness of those weeks and months, I look back on those videos fondly and think about what I would tell my younger self if I had a chance. 

I found out at the start of February that me and Lucy were expecting a kid, and it was one of the most transformative feelings of my life. I genuinely think of my life at the moment as being separated into things that happened before then and things that happened after then. Looking back nostalgically at my youth and early 20s I decided I wanted to try and make another video like the first street training ones, and I’m happy to report that the last six weeks of going out on the bike and filming and absolutely smashing myself up and having a laugh with my friends and pushing myself is still just as fun now as it was 15 years ago. I genuinely feel sad for people that don’t have something that they are as passionate about as I am about riding these weird stupid looking bikes. I don’t do it because I want people to like me, I don’t do it for views on Instagram or YouTube, or to be better than anyone else. I only really do it as a form of making a living because it’s what I’m good at.

 I do it because I love it.

I called the videos training because I take bikes more seriously than anything else, and to me it is like training as an athlete. It doesn’t matter to me that this sport will probably never be in the Olympics, and will probably never be recognised the way other sports are. It matters to me because it genuinely sets my soul on fire with joy, and makes me feel like a superhero to no one but me. A king in my own mind.

Some of the clips in this video are repeats of lines that I did when I was 20 years old, and some of the biggest moves here are only a handful of inches bigger than what I could do back then. But when someone asked me the other day how far I had come in 15 years and I told them that it was down to a matter of inches in terms of progression, they asked me if it was worth it. I told them it was worth the world for those few inches. If I’m only better than I was yesterday, not better than anyone else, that’s all that matters. And better might just mean that I enjoy it more. 

Most people will probably not enjoy watching a 35-year-old man who still dresses like a teenager messing around on his bike to a soundtrack of Swedish melodic death metal, but if you do, feel free to click and watch and enjoy. Even if you don’t, as I said before I hope you have something out there that you are as passionate about as I’m fortunate enough to be passionate about this. 

I sincerely hope my kids get to have this much fun with their lives. 

Enjoy. 

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14 hours ago, bikeperson45 said:

Great video, and liked reading about your experience with making the videos too

I'm pretty sure you had a video with the song Kolnidur by Jonsi a while ago, am I remembering that right? I've looked for it a few times but never had any luck

Glad you liked it!

And…

 

 

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Very nice video and incredible riding with this typical TGS vibe videos used to have in the 2000's. I really think your riding would benefit from a longer stem. Have you ever tried it? Reading you are 35 and still throwing these massive moves gives me hope for the future so thanks for that!

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5 hours ago, Canardweb said:

Very nice video and incredible riding with this typical TGS vibe videos used to have in the 2000's. I really think your riding would benefit from a longer stem. Have you ever tried it? Reading you are 35 and still throwing these massive moves gives me hope for the future so thanks for that!

I think you’re right, I’ve got a 135 at the moment and been looking at going for a 145 or maybe even bigger. 
 

Glad you enjoyed it either way and yup, age is literally just a number dude! 

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It's a very rare thing for someone who rode well back in the old days to look comfortable on the newer style of bikes. You are one of them!

Some up those up to rears came as a real shock. Possibly because of how big they were, or possibly because people usually do on that type of bike, but I fully expected them to go up to front.
Really fun to see the bike sail past it and all the way up :D

Great stuff.

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