Street has and always will be my favourite terrain to ride. I trust it. I know the rules of engagement with it. I respect it.
Matt Barton
Epilogue to Interview
So the rail I had in mind as photo subject for this Ride On Q&A didn’t happen. It got the better of me. Two years and eight months since the last double pegger has rusted me up big time as far as street rails go. Once again, I was thwarted by own mind. I know I have the skill set to deal with it but my balls at 45 hang lower than they did when they were 25!
The factors that haunted me on this were numerous. The height being the primary one. A cool cruise up to it and a good hop would have been the order of the day in years gone by. That’s for a steady and controlled descent. I wasn’t confident of bunnyhop for that approach. So I started and maintained a more slightly pacey approach. It felt right but it’s cheating a bit in my book. Gapping out to a lower portion but I feel that the control element is reduced greatly and then luck plays more of a role. It also makes the rail shorter and when that’s case, reaction times need to be cock-sure! The end of this rail is a good 4ft from the floor. If you don’t pull up at the end, a piledriver situation IS the conclusion.
Other factors were the time of day. Lots of people coming and going in what is a fairly unsavoury part of North Manchester. I took my wife as wingman and photographer. The first time she’d been allowed out with me on a ride. So that was a little weird. As far as encouragement went, she was good. All positives. But sometimes you need the wisdom of a riding friend with you. One that knows what needs to be done technically and who is likely to say that one thing that gets you to get the job done.
Hopefully I’ll go back to it with just such a person and I won’t have billion false starts. It’s haunting me already!
Name?
Matt Barton
Age?
Soon to be 46.
Bike?
21.25 Kink Backwoods frame sprinkled with Odyssey, S&M, Bicycle Union, Cult, Kink…..a right old mish-mash of brands I’ve come to know and generally support regularly over the years. Components wise, they’re the stuff that just work for me in terms performance and aesthetics. You know, crank length, head angle, standover, bar rise, up and back sweep, blah blah.
Never stopped, New Starter or Comeback King?
90% comeback clown and 10% never stopped. My first BMX was a blue, black and yellow Raleigh Burner back in 82 or 83 I think. I remember my older brother selling the BMX concept to my dad for me. One of the few good memories of my brother that I have.
I got that for Christmas and then we’d (me and my childhood friends) just tear up the streets. Jumping kerbs, jumping down steps, bricks and boards on quiet streets in the village and so on.
We were lucky in that we had a set of valley side woods on the edge of the village. Emroyd Common. We had the “Little Hills” and the “Grey Hills” down there. The Little Hills were kind of a rough and ready race track, but instead of being a track that was a few meters wide, it was just well worn paths of about a meter in width with bomb holes and natural table tops and dirt flyouts. It was a fun spot until the motorbikes of older kids started going down there and literally tearing and rutting it up. The Grey Hills were like a short down hill course and at the bottom, there was this seemingly impossible tabletop jump to clear. Only the village nutters would do that though!
There were a couple of other spots down there like the U-Hill and the Wall of Death. I think the U-Hill spot was where I first saw the older kids doing legitimate tricks like Tabletops, X-Ups and Turndowns. It was like a dirt half pipe with one side higher than the other. The “half pipe” might be exaggerating it a little. A steep as fuck roll-in on one side and on the other, a steep as fuck fly-out? I remember vividly my first ever roll in on that. Absolutly shatting myself going over the edge. But yeah, that’s where the older village kids would throw down some shapes on there Mongoose Motomags. Wankers! Haha!!
Why the hell would you want to ride that?
At the end of 2018, I got this idea in my head that I should wind the street riding in and get more into the transition side of things. I’d been enjoying the latter a lot more over the preceeding year or so and I knew it would be kinder to my battered and broken body, so I went from 20.75 up to 21.25 TT after having never riding anything longer than 20.75. All other dimensions are similar to what I’ve rode for the previous 10-15 years and I must say, I’ve been loving the extra length. Something my wife’s never said to me!
Where do you ride?
Last year, mostly between Sparky’s trails spot near Stockport and the gnarly streets of Oldham. I had a big mental block on dirt jumping after breaking my right collar bone in 99. I just didn’t even want to look at a dirt jump for myself for 20 years.
That was due to some mild incompetence on the NHS’s side. Instead of 6 week lay off of riding, I was off it for 15 weeks. Call it a full 5 months before I was back to full confidence.
Anyway, with lockdown when I wasn’t going over to the jumps, I’d be riding Oldham and my town of Middleton between Manchester and Oldham with a little bit of Manchester street thrown in. 2019 for me has been a vintage year as far as riding goes. Fantastic weather for a large part of the year. Empty streets and some chiller dirt jumping!
When did you start riding?
As I mentioned earlier, I was there for the first BMX wave in the UK back in the early 80s. I didn’t stick with it though. The bikes were shit and they’d break down in some way. Or all of a sudden, nobody was up for riding for whatever reason so the bikes would rot in the back garden and then they’d be effort and money to put right again and we’d move on to different things. That’s how it seemed in our small village anyway.
A few years later I acquired my brothers Curtis frame, Landing Gear forks, CW bars I think, Araya wheelset etc and briefly got back into the kerb and step jumping thing. That would have been around 88/89 and I was a couple of years into senior school. That meant that girls were high on the agenda and so once again, BMX got sacked off.
You were part of the Rehab scene slightly after my time. What was the scene like around this time and who were you riding with?
OK. So I first darkened the door of Rehab Skatepark in Wakefield in what would have been early 1998 I think. My brother knew someone with a car repair unit and one of the lads that worked at the unit was called Paul Taylor, aka Charley Taylor. At the time, I was back on a BMX but I was alone really. Just nibbling about on kerbs again. Anyhow, as it turned out my brother was at this unit and spotted Charley’s bike and got talking to him. He mentioned me and riding and the introductions were soon made. Charley was a “street” rider and he showed me the beautiful art that was the Bunyhop. He just made the stuff that I was doing or trying, look that much better. To cut this a little shorter, Charley knew very well the owners of Rehab. The Jaggers. Winter that year was sewn up! Boom! Free entry and when the Jagger lads went off doing their singing lessons, I got to look after the place for an hour or so after closing time on a few occasions.
But when the weather was good, me, Charley and another lad called Dayey would get in my dad’s Transit van and we would drive to different towns like Huddersfield and Halifax and Dewsbury. We would never see another BMX soul! Until one afternoon around Huddersfield Uni, when we met James Love.
James blew our minds, not only with his riding but his town’s spots and his scene there. Huddersfield became my firm favourite place to ride and I would eventually move there for the street riding.
It was also around this time that I met the Horbury boys. The Horbury boys consisted of Neil and Sean Gatenby, John Spurr, James Bennett, Martyn Walker, Wayne Womack and a couple of others. They weren’t just the Horbury Boys though. They were the Wakefield Scene as far as I was concerned and they rode it all. Ramps at Rehab, street and I quickly learned of their trails in none other than…..Emroyd Common!
You ride a lot of Street which I always think is really brave for an older rider. Has your approach to Street riding changed over the years as you’ve got older?
Without a doubt. Street has and always will be my favourite terrain to ride. I trust it. I know the rules of engagement with it. I respect it. I had what I consider to be my worst spank on the dirt in terms of time off my bike. Clinically speaking, I had my worst spank on street. A partially collapsed lung. But as I was off of my bike only for a few days with that one, I chalk it down to a bad set of circumstances and decision making.
As the years have worn on and my responsibilities have increased, I have given various set-ups a little extra thinking about. Especially over the last 12 years since becoming a husband and father. I’m not a talented rider by any stretch of the imagination. I’ve been a hucker for the most part. Relying on luck and experience and a shit ton of adrenaline to carry me through! Haha! I’ve had to reign that sort of stuff in a lot over these last 12 years. Occasionally though, the old “Crazy Baito” comes out.
Street riding today seem to be very much in 2 camps. Huge and deadly or small ledges and tech. Whats your take on modern street?
I’ve very much stopped paying close attention to where street riding is now. As I said, I don’t consider myself to have much talent at this BMX riding malarkey and if there was a time when I thought I might be able to hold my own, it very quickly got left behind. I do know what you’re talking about though. The foot tall ledge riders that are good at it…I can appreciate the technical difficulties and bike control. Spacial awareness even but it doesn’t resonate with me. The dudes that go big. Well….it’s not even big anymore. It’s usually gigantic! I can appreciate that more. But between both those niches of street, there are, in my opinion, a handful of riders that can do both and do it with style. There’s a LOT of seriously capable riders today but a lot of them are indistinguishable from one and other. That’s my tuppence on that.
Has street riding lost some of its “soul”?
With the exception of a very small handful of well known riders, I think it has. It comes across as being so serious now!
How has the improvements in bike technology impacted on street riding? Oh man. Heat treating, geometry, quality control, innovation….they’ve all come on in leaps and bounds over the last 15 or so years. Take the freecosters today. The pros are literally going backwards as fast as they are going forwards! Half Cabs as high as 180s! Huge stair set gaps facing the wrong way! Haha!! It’s bloody crazy! As far as durability though? I’m not sure. I’m sceptical to say the least. Especially as far as frames are concerned. I still think that the pros who are going BIG on a very regular basis are getting hooked up with a new frame every month or two. They have to be, surely?!?
Is there anything that really scares you trick wise when it comes to your street riding?
I may have to take a leaf out of your book Neil. Barspins. My biggest riding idol was the Gonz from Phoenix, AZ. He barspun so much and made it look good. Every year I tell myself, “get on the barspins”. I just can’t relinquish my vice like grip on the bars though. *ponders hypnosis.
The risk factor with Street is huge!! Is this something that’s you are more aware of now you’re an older rider?
Yeah….I don’t bounce or get up so quickly from a spill! Haha! But that can be true of any terrain really. The risk factor. You can get away with murder or you can really fuck yourself up on ramps and dirt, just as much as you can on street. I find that generally, the session ending stuff is a result of complacency though. Taking for granted the small stuff. The bread and butter so to speak. If you’re bricking it, all your senses are focused. Reactions are quicker etc and things are probably going to pan out.
You’ve sent some gnarly rails in your time (especially in your “last man standing” part) What your relationship with rails like these days?
You’re too generous in your praise Neil! I have a love/hate relationship with rails. The last one I did was just over two years ago. I’d spotted it during a reconnaissance mission after spying an interesting looking school. I had to have it. It was mellow and my first impression through the fence was, “pretty standard”. I don’t recall the circumstances but I ended up driving the 15 miles to it on my own one Sunday (morning I think). I rode around the perimeter looking for an easy way in but there just wasn’t one. So ended up throwing my bike and bag over the 7ft tall fence, quickly followed by myself. I did my stretches, rode around a little to warm up and then started lining it up. It was taller than I first thought but all I could think was, “get it done and get the fuck out of there!” Anyway, about 20 bitch runs over the course of about 45 minutes, a couple of mis-cues and then I bagged it. The reason it took so long was that there were a lot of dog walkers passing by. It was quite frustrating. One sneaky call to the police and shit would have gone south.
I got it though and before climbing back out, I took my pegs off and left them next to the rail. I vowed to myself that I was done with pegs that day. Lol! That rail, along with a couple of others had taken too much time. Too many bitch runs. Too much self convincing. The mental battles were becoming too frequent. Add into the mix that I’m riding solo (on street) these days and they become monsters in my mind! But I still want to “dance with the devil in pail moon light”. Haha! So maybe I’ll do one for this gig! We’ll see. *I’ve fucking called it now, haven’t I! Doh!
The double kinker at the end of that section of mine. That was a very spontaneous move. Me and Mark (Sparky) Davis were just out exploring Hyde or Denton near Manchester an block of flats looking very ordinary was hiding the rail. That one was a one and done job too! Those are always a pleasure! Haha!
While we’re talking video parts, how do you feel social media has influenced bmx in good and bad ways?
Obviously it brings riding to a broader audience. If you think about it now, any kid that has been riding for five years or less has probably only really seen riding either in person or on a social media platform. Printed media has been scarce in that time and even then, unless you already had half an idea about the mechanics of a trick, seeing a still picture of someone doing a barspin for example, would be a bit of a head scratcher to learn from. I mean, we did back in the print heyday I guess. Or we’d see one on a vhs video and maybe have a go. Better still, we’d know someone that could do them and ask for tips. The likes of Instagram, Facebook and YouTube, they’re the most diverse and comprehensive “how-to” guides. Kids have never had it so good really, in terms of learning material.
On the flip side, I think it’s easy to become desensitised to a LOT of BMX now. Saturation levels because of social media are high. There’s a million and one kids out there that can do Tailwhips within a short space of time after first picking up a BMX. And as a result, there’s a million and one kids out there that look the same on a bike. They wear the same clothes, have similar looking bikes, do the same tricks, chat the same shit and I suspect that 9 out of 10 them soon put there bikes up for sale on Facebook Marketplace saying, “Need gone” or “swap for a PS whatever number were on now”. I think for many of them, it’s just another fad to get into for two minutes.
I don’t know. I’m just waffling on with myself now. Either way, it’s here to stay. Buy into it or don’t I guess.
What part does social media play in your own personal motivation?
Hmmm? I love seeing the older end of riders’ riding. The old guard still rolling, laughing, busting, throwing shapes on their bikes. Ride On has been a boon in that regard. A real tonic. I have Facebook (obvs) but all I do with it is check the Ride On page out, I itch my cork sniffing needs on some of the other groups and I do allsorts of stuff with Instagram but even that’s predominantly BMX stuff. And with the exception of a handful of young’uns (Dak Roche, Dennis Enarson and Broc Raiford (who are old hands now as well)), it’s the older end that I follow.
Between Ride On and the folks I follow on Instagram, they influence me to keep picking my bike up. To seek out new spots and to boldly go where old men on kid’s bikes shouldn’t go!
Can it be a little lonely being an older Street rider these days? How do you keep it fun and interesting?
The short answer is yes it is. Especially now my best friend has fucked off to Spain permenantly. Twat! Haha!
I’ve had a few spells of just going it alone over the years. The only difference for me riding either alone or with others is what I ride. When alone, I’ll keep it pretty low profile in terms of danger. Kerbs, wall rides, little gaps, manuals etc. The fun stuff. But. And it’s a big but. I still feel the urge to send stuff from time to time. That kind of thing usually involves a few stairs with either a bannister rail down the middle or sides or a Hubba ledge. Maybe a gap here and there.
As I said earlier, I’m pretty talentless and so that smaller stuff I mentioned in the previous paragraph is still fun and a little challenging to me. So chasing any kind of consistency at that level keeps it interesting for me.
How have you done for injuries recently and how do they impact your confidence and approach?
So-so recently. 2019 started off good. Early on I did that wallride over a wall with a nice drop on the other side. I thought that that would set the tone. A few weeks later, my left side collar bone decided it was going to test its strength against the corner of brick pier at Mags On Ramps. It failed in dramatic style. That was twenty years almost to the day of my other collar bone break. Anyway, I laid the law down to the consultant on that and I was back on my bike in the prescribed time. I did struggle a bit though with the rotator cuff. It was being a bit obstinate in terms of getting back to full strength. It did eventually and then early on in the first lock down, complacency struck. I went over the sticks on a ledge manual and bang…..my other rotator cuff spat its dummy out. Its still not right wow but I’ve been training it and it is getting stronger. I think overall though, the last ten years have been kind to me.
Probably just jinxed myself. Bollocks!
What was the last brand new trick you learned from scratch and how long did it take you?
If I tell you, you’ve got to promise not to laugh? It was Downside tyre taps on quarter to wall set ups. They just never really appealed to me. When I used to go to skateparks, I’d generally just be on the rails, ledges and flatbanks. I could do wallrides on quarter to walls but I didn’t like them. Anyway, yeah. More or less came to me straight away. I suppose with age, the mechanics of a trick are easier to wrap your head around (apart from for Barspins for me). Lol! Yeah, they felt nice. I got a nice one at the Boneyard a couple of years ago. It’s on my Instagram somewhere.
What aspect of your riding would you love to improve?
Just to kind of get more consistent with my manuals. I love them and although they’ve been way more solid since I got on this frame, they’re still a source of frustration for me. I’m also working on my fitness levels in general. Twice a week on the elastic bands and a 5k jog once a week for the cardio. I feel that I’ve left it a bit late though in terms of flexibility. I just can’t fold myself up as much as iI would like for nice Tabletops. My hips and knees just scream “FUCK OFF”!
Who were the riders who influenced you when you were coming up?
The Horbury lot and the early Huddersfield scene. James Love and the Draine twins, Rob and Barry and to a slightly lesser degree, Christian Jim.
Who are the riders who influence you today?
Just the friends that I’m lucky enough to still ride with. Some old, some new. James Bennett, Rob Powell, Sparky, Will Jackson, Eric Easson, Chris Hamer, Alex Hoyer and the Paris connection……basically anyone that makes riding continually fun.
How do you fit riding in with work/life/family/whatever?
I’m lucky that I have a wife that puts up with it to be honest. She doesn’t really get it but she knows what it means to me. I try to ride twice a week and preferably outdoors. A midweek evening for a couple of hours or so and once on a weekend. If I’m riding street on a weekend, the earlier in the day the better. It means there’s fewer dick heads and traffic about and I can still get plenty of family time in afterwards.
Any last words?
I think they’ve had enough, don’t you?! Haha!
Seriously though, thanks Neil for wanting me to do this. Thanks to anybody who even got halfway through this! And just a massive thanks to anybody that I’ve rode with who’s made it a good time. Cheers!