Martyn Ashton is a four-time British BikeTrial Champion and World Expert BikeTrial Champion, and has been a regular on-camera presenter for the Global Mountain Bike Network, GMBN. His Road Bike Party videos have racked up tens of millions of views and just last year he established RideAble Now, a non-profit group dedicated to adaptive mountain biking.
- What drew you into motorcycle trials as a kid? How is mountain bike trials different from BMX or motorcycle trials?
- Where did the idea for Road Bike Party come from?
- Prior to your injury, what did you know about adaptive biking?
- Tell us a bit about your new Gen2 Bowhead RX.
- Adaptive bikes are very expensive, so how is RideAble Now is working to make it easier for folks to afford them?
- What’s the experience like for first-time adaptive riders?
- What are some of the barriers to creating adaptive mountain bike trails?
- There’s a misconception that adaptive trails will be boring. How do you counter that perception?
- What’s your goal for RideAble Now video and podcast content?
- How does riding an adaptive bike on technical trail features compare to the challenge and feeling of trials riding?
- What upcoming trips or projects are you looking forward to?
Visit rideablenow.com to learn more and keep up with the latest from Martyn on YouTube and Instagram @martynashton. And visit rideablenow.com/join to become a supporter.
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Automated transcript
Jeff Barber 00:00
Hey everybody! Welcome to the Singletracks podcast. My name is Jeff, and today my guest is Martyn Ashton. Martyn is a four-time British bike trial champion and world expert bike trial champ, and has been a regular on-camera presenter for the Global Mountain Bike Network. His Road Bike Party videos have racked up tens of millions of views, and just last year he established Rideable Now, a nonprofit group dedicated to adaptive mountain biking. Thanks for joining me, Martyn.
Martyn Ashton 00:30
Thanks for having me, dude. I love it. Great stuff.
Jeff Barber 00:33
So I read that you started out riding motorcycle trials as a kid. What drew you into that sport, and like, how young were you when you started that?
Martyn Ashton 00:42
I started riding motorcycle trials. I was about 10 years old, I think. Wow! And I was brought into it because I’m the youngest of three brothers. Okay. And my two elder brothers went into my motorcycle trials mainly because my dad was a huge back in the day scrambles fan. He rode scrambles, which was early day motocross, and he, yeah, he loved motorbikes, but he didn’t want us crashing round a track at 100 miles an hour, so he took us into motorcycle trials, slightly safer, slightly dude, but all about control, and it meant we could learn about motorbikes, and yeah, I always refer to myself as a failed motorcycle trials rider because that’s what I wanted to be when I was young. But what I did do-I mean, I’ve said this many times when people have asked me about it-but because I couldn’t ride my motorbike every weekend because my mum and dad had split up when I was very young, very amicably, they were great friends. But we, I, the motorbikes were at Dad’s house. Okay. In the week, I was at Mum’s house. Yeah. School. So during the week, I would practice on my BMX, pretending it was a motorbike. And little did I know, I was actually becoming pretty good at mountain biking by accident.
Jeff Barber 01:59
Yeah. Yeah. That’s awesome.
Martyn Ashton 02:01
That’s basically how I ended up doing professional mountain biking because I, when I was about 18, I hadn’t even heard of bike trial competitions. I went to one because someone had shown me that it was a thing, and was instantly really good because I didn’t know for the last seven years I’d been practicing it.
Jeff Barber 02:20
Well, what do you think about these like the kids today that have these e-motos? You know, like the Surron, and you see the videos of them just doing wild like trials like stuff with those bikes. A lot of those rideouts, like do you think you would have been into that if that existed?
Martyn Ashton 02:38
I don’t know. I don’t know because there’s a slightly different energy to that than to motorcycle trials. Because motorcycle trials, especially in the UK, it’s like very like flat cap Yorkshireman, like you know, like go out and tough it out at the weekend on a tough day on the moors or on tough rocks. It’s not really about like being showy. The international competition side of it, there is X Trial, which is like the indoor competitions.
Jeff Barber 03:09
Okay.
Martyn Ashton 03:09
I actually commentate those for for the FIM, and I do the outdoor series as well.
Jeff Barber 03:15
Oh, cool!
Speaker 1 03:16
So I’m still connected to it in a in a weird way, but the yeah, the energy of the whole I guess the electric moto world is is slightly different. Yeah, there is a certain amount of anarchy around.
Jeff Barber 03:31
Yeah, there’s there’s cops involved in a lot of these videos. The kids taking over the streets.
Martyn Ashton 03:36
I don’t know if that would have necessarily been my thing back as the kid I was, but these days I think everything has been turned on its head by how technology has developed, whether it’s social media, AI, or or electric motors and and battery technology. And I just think, yeah, we’re just in a time of transfer, you know, or a moment of progress where we’re sort of like finding our ways back into it a little bit because the bikes that are being developed and for the price that they can be developed for, how cheaply that can be done now is means there’s a whole category of bikes that just didn’t exist, and now it’s very exciting time. But yeah, there’s certainly I would I feel like I feel bad for Suron because they make lots of cool stuff, but they do get tagged with this.
Jeff Barber 04:39
The riders of Surrons are giving them a bad rep.
Martyn Ashton 04:42
Yeah, well, yeah, and there’s and there’s brands that aren’t Surron that look an awful lot like a Surron, and they don’t actually the bikes that a lot of the kids are riding. But yeah, I don’t pay too much attention to that stuff really. Um, I think the only place I’m really noticing and what. Electric motorcycles is in motorcycle trials because it’s very interesting how they’re developing and how they’re part of the development of electric motorbikes broadly. And I would say in motocross because the bikes like Stark Future are insanely capable and a very different prospect to a Surron, and and and also in Hard Enduro, you know, like you got riders like Graham Jarvis riding the Jarvie. He’s he’s a great rider, but somehow he’s getting that bike through some of the toughest events in the world. So in that space, I would be looking at it, but in terms of the world of Surron and going out and riding the streets and frightening little old ladies and using them to steal mobile phones, yeah, I’m not that into that to be honest.
Jeff Barber 05:52
Well, so you mentioned that you know you started out doing motorcycles, you did BMX, you did mountain bike trials, and then there’s this video that you made, Road Bike Party, where you’re doing trials on a road bike. So, like, where did that idea come from? Why, why make that video?
Martyn Ashton 06:10
Desperation. I tell you what, it was in all honesty. Right, is that at that time I was already quite late in my career. I was really lucky before I had my accident, I had a very long professional career where I was, you know, trials is a a sport you can do very well in competitions, but you can’t get paid for winning competitions. But because it’s so dynamic and it’s so a spectator friendly, it’s a really great way for sponsors of mountain biking to take mountain biking in a minute version and put it somewhere else, like MotoGP or at a golf event, and it’s a way of showing like Volvo sponsor something else outside all the golf stuff when you’re in front of that audience. So, had a really amazing career as a as a sponsored trials rider, you know, I was on one of the biggest race teams in the world with Volvo Cannondale. Then I went to Animal, which was a UK brand that really got behind my show. It was a stunt show essentially, and I toured that for like 12 years, and it was amazing. You know, we took it to some incredible places, incredible events, and just had a lot of success with it. So I’d already been really lucky in my career, but it was in that time of sort of 2000 beginning of YouTube essentially started to change how we all like got into the sports and our windows into sports because obviously you know it wasn’t just live; it was like VHS videos or DVDs and magazines. And then Danny Mack’s moment happened, where he released this video and not only like stopped the cycling world, but for a few weeks stopped the world. Everyone was like, “Have you seen that Scottish kid?
Jeff Barber 08:03
Did you know Danny before? Like before the video came out?
Martyn Ashton 08:06
A little bit, not much, not much. And I just made-he just produced. And I think it’s a perfect lesson for anyone who’s making content. Danny Mac didn’t make that video to do that. He just wanted to make a really banger video. All that’s all he wanted to do, and he just he spent time on it, and boy, did he deliver a brilliant video! You can go back and watch it now. It’s 2009, I think. It come out.
Jeff Barber 08:37
Yeah, it’s still amazing.
Martyn Ashton 08:38
It will be good today. If someone released it today, you go, God! It would have a much more competition today because there’s so much more content, but it’s still good. And it just was a moment where I woke up and was like, right, the moment of me spending my time on the live shows, great. That can continue, but I can’t. I’ve got to come up with a way to be relevant in that space, and I just thought road bike party was funny. I thought it was like a funny idea. Like, what if I did all the stuff I can do on bikes, but on the wrong bike?
Jeff Barber 09:18
Right.
Martyn Ashton 09:18
But take it seriously. Like not like as if this guy is how he rides his road bike, and yeah, just really had a great time doing it. I didn’t really. I thought this has got a chance at being interesting. It keeps me able to be in that space because, in all honesty, I was I couldn’t make that video that Danny had made. He was, you know, he was a step changing sort of level of riding that everyone was going to have to like get to. You know, you’re going to have to keep up, and it certainly helped me make my riding better, which is great at that time in my career. It was late. But yeah, it was so. I needed some way different of doing it. So road bike party was it, and it went way better than I imagined. I didn’t. I had. I think we. I. I can’t really remember. But back in the day, I made it with a guy called Robin Kitchen, who was my manager on the road on the animal bike tour. But he was also a fantastic and is still a fantastic photographer and videographer. So he directed the films and really we really went to town on it. And we, I think, we were hoping like in our wildest dreams, we’re like, imagine if we got 100,000 views or something like that.
We got it in. I mean, the experience of Road Bike Party changed my life because it was just going through the experience of having an actual viral hit is weird. So weird. Like my phone just because I had my I put it on my own YouTube channel. Didn’t think what that meant. Didn’t have any views or any subscribers, but I had the notifications on for new subscriber and new comments. And my phone just went ding ding ding ding ding ding. It couldn’t. Was that?
Jeff Barber 11:19
I mean, was that the first video you posted to your channel?
Martyn Ashton 11:22
That channel, that’s video one. It’s so weird. I couldn’t believe it. Yeah, it was so weird.
Jeff Barber 11:30
But it’s the same thing. I mean, it kind of sounds like like you’re saying the position that Danny was in at that time, where it’s like you just wanted to make a really good video. Like it didn’t sound like you were thinking it was going to be this super huge thing.
Martyn Ashton 11:43
I very I was very much inspired by Danny. You know, Danny his video made me go, ah, okay, this is this is a change. Like now I’d be done. Yeah, because I’d used to I used to focus on magazines, and I’d be like, right, I need to get great photos, and trials is great for. Sometimes you can do a photo with a trials move somewhere, and then the and the moment will be one thing. You could have videoed it, whatever. But but the photo, if you take it in the right moment, that photo then hits other people in a way that you isn’t about what actually happened. It’s what they imagined happened and what they feel from it. So it might be danger of like where you are, and they they get of I do a thing where like oh that was close, right? Pitch taken, yeah. But the impact of the photo is that someone stares at it for a while and goes, “Oh my god! You know, it’s a they get a feeling from it. Yeah. So you have to really think about your photos and the opportunity when you find a spot for like, “Oh, I could get the bike there, and if you take it from here, it will look like this. That moment can be so impactful. So I used to take that very seriously, and I because I really loved seeing the photo myself, and be like, and you do it and go, did you get it? Did you get it? And then like, oh yeah, we’ve got it, and it’d be like, oh my god, you know, so sick, and then that would translate into great magazine features and things like that, but yeah, Danny’s video just was like, yeah, it’s a horrible, rude awakening for magazines a little bit.
Which is sad, and I still think sad. And but yeah, also the sort of emergence of like, well, the world just changed, and weirdly, yet again, it was a trials rider that had to do it. First, it was Hans Ray had to show mountain biking and cycling how to do media. This is my this is my little angry little trials rider moment. We’re always leading the way.
Jeff Barber 14:01
Well, yeah, I think that is interesting because, yeah, I mean, there’s a lot of truth in that because you know the things that that you all are doing in these videos, nobody, no mountain bikers are doing, and very few of them are, and yet it really just connects and inspires in a way that, like, just regular, you know, even downhill. Downhill is exciting, but it’s it’s just something a different way.
Martyn Ashton 14:28
Yeah, you’ve got to know downhill really to know what’s going on, and it’s fantastic at the moment. The downhill, it’s incredible. But I, I think trials for some reason is a great advert for mountain biking, even though it isn’t really mountain biking. It’s kind of a weird thing, but it’s true. Like Hans Ray dominated magazines across the world for a period because because of that photo thing I just said about, and I very much got a career off the back of being like Hans Ray. You know that’s that’s how I, you know, thank God for that man. And then, and then Danny was another version of that, the new version of that, and he dominated this year. And then Fabio Wibmer came across came along because he wanted to be Danny Mac, and then became even bigger. And it it’ll happen again. You know, I have heard though. I have heard Fabio Wibmer has got a new video coming.
Jeff Barber 15:31
Ooh.
Martyn Ashton 15:31
I won’t say where I’ve heard it from because I’m probably not allowed to because I wouldn’t want to upset anyone. But I’ve heard it from a couple of places, and apparently it’s astonishing.
Jeff Barber 15:42
Oh man, I can’t wait.
Martyn Ashton 15:44
And the people saying it, like, well, if you’re saying it, yeah, it’s got to be good.
I’ve not seen anything from him for ages. Have you?
Jeff Barber 15:54
No, I haven’t.
Martyn Ashton 15:56
And there’s a world rocking video coming from Fabio.
Jeff Barber 16:00
That’s awesome. Yeah, I love Fabio, and yeah, we’ve had him on the podcast, and then his cousin, right, Gabriel.
Martyn Ashton 16:09
Yeah, I mean, yeah, it’s incredible, isn’t it? How did they? I remember watching Gabriel putting out his first videos on Instagram, like you know, like I’m Fabio’s little cousin, and he was awful. You’re like, yeah, just like, oh, that’s so cute. Yeah, right, right. And now look, yeah, just like, oh my god, the guy is insane. It’s just, yeah, his his, the Wibmer family have nailed dedication, haven’t they? They have, they have got some.
Jeff Barber 16:38
Yeah, absolutely.
Martyn Ashton 16:39
They’ve got some balls. Those kids.
Jeff Barber 16:42
Yeah, for sure.
Martyn Ashton 16:42
Sorry, I’ve taken you off track there.
Jeff Barber 16:45
No, this is great. So, yeah, let’s back to the timeline. So, in 2013, you suffered from a debilitating accident that left you paralyzed, and I know it’s been a long journey. And today, you’re leading a nonprofit, Writeable Now, that enables and promotes adaptive bike riding. So one thing I’m curious about, like prior to your injury, what did you know about adaptive biking?
Martyn Ashton 17:12
Ah, oh, that’s a good question. What did I know before it? Probably not a whole lot. I mean, I would have known of Stacy Kohut, who is in Whistler, he rides a quad mountain bike, like a little buggy mountain bike, and I think I would have seen him because he’s someone that was he’d had quite a lot of, I’d say, social media or magazine success. He’s a very turns out when you meet him, quite intimidating character, but he’s very exciting character. He’s very big character, which is cool. He’s like, if you’re gonna, he’s sort of got the air of a real old school hard nut mountain biking. Real, real vibes of like yeah, not what you would expect.
I don’t know. I think I don’t know when when it makes sense when you meet him because he’s like, watch this. Oh, sorry, I can’t probably can’t swear. My language is terrible. He said, you know, it’ll be like, watch me. You know, I’m I’m a I’m a bit of a legend. He’s he’s pretty incredible. So yeah, I’ve seen him. That’s probably as much as I would have known. And then, to be honest, other than his bike, which was very is is he’s still riding the same bike, is very limited. There wasn’t really adaptive mountain biking of any kind.
So, I mean, only 13 years ago, there wasn’t really a thing that you could go, you could call a scene, or you could say had a community, or or you could say had potential. Not really, you know. It’s only the dawn of you know e-bike motors and the just the sheer progress of all that that has made some adaptive bikes now just insanely capable and and wildly exciting, you know. But when I had my accident, I had to kind of make up a way to ride bikes, and it was not necessarily ideal, but it was bloody good fun.
Jeff Barber 19:22
Yeah, yeah. Well, right. Speaking of that, there’s that 2015 video that you made with Danny and Chris Akrigg and Blake, where you’re back on the bike, but your feet are like literally taped to the pedals, and you have this like bucket seat, and yeah, you know the thing looks. I mean, it looks prehistoric compared to the bikes that you’re riding now.
Martyn Ashton 19:45
So I did do it again recently, actually, with GMBN. Just before I left GMBN last year, They ended up being called bucket bikes. You know that idea. A few people took the idea up and had a go themselves. But I did that first video, back on track is what it’s called, and yeah, it’s literally like the idea was put me on the bike and let gravity do the rest. Yeah, like let’s just, and then they follow you down the trail.
Jeff Barber 20:17
Well, was it as scary for you as it was for like for everybody else watching, I mean, it looked it looked terrifying.
Martyn Ashton 20:24
No, on the bike, it’s funny. It’s funny more than anything because it’s it’s a really weird situation because when when you ride on a bucket bike like that, and I think this is one of the brilliant things about it, is you can’t do it alone. You do need a little crew, and then once that little crew have put you on the bike and they’ve thrown you off the top, they’re kind of half responsible for the problem, so they’ve got to chase down and be ready and got to be at the bottom to catch you, and and it becomes like a team event. It’s really and you’re kind of heading down this trail, just having a really great time all together, and yeah, it’s it’s really cool. And I I did it again before I left GMBN on a oh what bike was cool bike propane propane spin drift. Okay, and we took off the chain, the derailleur, everything. Just made it just a literally a rolling chassis bucket. Taped my feet on, and God, it was incredible because the bikes have got so much better since then.
Jeff Barber 21:28
Right, that’s true. Yeah, 12, 11, years ago.
Martyn Ashton 21:31
Yeah, and it was just like I had big, like you know, cool riser bars on it, and looked like Nico Malali, and it was it was so sick, and I could I’d taken all the chain and trailer off. It was just silent, so it felt amazing. And yeah, even though I’m an absolute, you know, advocate and you know promoter of adaptive bikes in the bowhead sense, so like the you know quad with with the ability to lean into corner sorry trike with the ability to lean into corners and articulation and independence as much as I’m all about that I would still say the bucket bike is an experience that I would do again tomorrow if I can get the people around me to do it. It’s so funny and yeah, just a blast. At the end of the day, what’s the what’s the worst thing happen? You’re going to topple over. It’s not that bad. It’s really not that bad. You know, like just come to a steady stop and fall over.
Jeff Barber 22:39
Have you done that? Have you had to do that? Come to a stop.
Martyn Ashton 22:43
Oh yeah, God, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, and and laughed my head off. You know, got elbow pads on. You just hold on to the bars, take it.
Jeff Barber 22:51
Yeah, it sounds a bit like you know going on a fat bike or a you know hardtail just to be silly with your friends and you know just kind of like…
Martyn Ashton 23:00
I don’t know what fat bike enthusiasts would say about that.
Jeff Barber 23:03
I don’t know. Well, dry trails. There’s no point, really. You’re just messing around, I guess.
Martyn Ashton 23:08
Well, fat bikes. Yeah. I mean, they’re useful for 11 people in the world. You know, it’s like stop making them. I don’t know anything about fat bikes. I should be quiet. I make it up as I go along,
Jeff Barber 23:21
Tell us about your new Gen Two Bowhead RX bike that you’re riding.
Martyn Ashton 23:27
Ah, the new the new Gen Two Bowhead is yeah, it’s oh, it’s crazy, right? Because it looks so similar, but they’ve made some just such smart changes that make something that was already incredible, right? Bowhead RX, in my opinion, is the best adapted bike in the world. A lot of people prefer the Reach, the Bowhead Reach, which is the throttle-actuated bike.
It’s more like a moto. You know, it’s got really powerful motor, and you just power down the trails, and it’s wild fun. It is world fun. But the RX is where e-bike, actual e-bike technology meets adaptive bikes, and I think that’s that’s where rideable now started for me. It’s like wow, now I’m getting to use the absolute pinnacle of technology and mountain biking in a bike that I can now use my arms to do something that is very similar, very similar to mountain biking, and I can get to places that don’t seem real when you’re doing it because you’re like, how am I getting up here, this is insane, you know. So the going up becomes incredible. Where you get to becomes transformational because just the you know the epicness of it, and then then the getting down is just like this, you know, adrenaline rush. That’s just you know makes you want to do it all again you know and it’s they’re just an incredible bike and I’ve been saying that before this generation two bike come out but the new one is so the changes they’ve made is they’ve made an actual working front suspension on the bike so you’ve got two front wheels the original Bowhead RX did have suspension, but it suffered from a lot of brake jack. So you could be coming down fast into a corner, hit the front brake, and the suspension would open up. The springs would be stretched out, and basically you lose all your suspension, but you’ve got braking. So it would it would be very it would be very hard to have the control into corners you would want in the way that you would on a mountain bike.
Jeff Barber 25:47
I see.
Martyn Ashton 25:48
They they spent a long time, two years developing this front end that, which is called MoFlow, and it’s yeah, it’s a real suspension. This thing now monster trucks in the corners. Your braking is so much better. The grip is better.
It’s just so different. It gives you a little bit of pop out of jumps, which means it doesn’t buck as much which was really noticeable when I was in Whistler because the jumps at Whistler would would normally have been very scary.
Whereas this was giving me confidence to go crack and get some real nice feeling out of the jumps, and the jumps feel nice. So the suspension is wildly different, transformational for how good the bike is. And one of the things I think’s most brilliant about it is it’s you can retrofit it, so it’ll work on the Gen One bike. So everyone’s got a Gen One bike.
Jeff Barber 26:44
Oh, that’s nice.
Martyn Ashton 26:45
You could just put that MoFlow suspension on it, and your bike will be way better, like way better. The next thing is it’s got the Gen Five Bosch motor in it, so it’s got the smart system and the extra newton meters of torque, and you know that 400% assist, rather than you know the lower level. It does use the speed line motor, so it’s not the. It can’t have the 120 newton meters of torque and the 600% assist.
But it is still much much better than the the Gen Four motor that was on there before. Of course, you’ve got all the app you can play with and tune it to how you want it to be, and and it is just you’ve just got that extra, what is it, 15 newton meters of torque makes a huge difference, and you you are much stronger on it.
Jeff Barber 27:45
Yeah, and so it’s still only assisting the amount of like power that you’re putting into it.
Martyn Ashton 27:52
Yeah,
Jeff Barber 27:53
Wow.
Martyn Ashton 27:54
It’s just an e-bike essentially. It’s just a normal e-bike, but the the power’s from your arms, and it it’s got adjustable cranks because now the bike has got can run 24 inch wheels at the front. Used to have 20 inch wheels. Now you can run 24 inch wheels at the front. That would normally create a lot of hand strike on the wheels when you’re in big banking dorms and stuff. But you can shorten the cranks down to 135, and then you don’t get the the strikes, which is means you’ve got 24 scales. So you’re trucking through braking bumps and stuff like you wouldn’t have done before, plus the great suspension that’s helping you do that. But because it’s got the more powerful motor, you still feel even with a 135 crank, you’ve still got way more power than the previous RX had.
So it just feels incredible, and I’m you know I’ve got like SRAM XX on it, and it’s got a brand new harness which really holds you in the bike, and there’s a lot more adjustable. It’s just subtle changes that that collectively, you know, all add up to a much much better experience. So everyone who’s buying RXs from this point is going to get a really incredible bike. I don’t think there’s a, you know, I’m not I’m I’m not saying it because Bowhead, I’m friends with Bowhead or anything like that. I genuinely think that is the best adapted bike in the world, and hopefully, what will happen is other companies will try and catch up, and that would be fantastic for adaptive riding. So, I’d love there to be competition for Bowhead. I’m not like saying Bowhead, Bowhead, Bowhead. They just they just are leading the way. That’s just a fact.
Jeff Barber 29:45
From what I understand, the bikes, a lot of the adaptive bikes are pretty custom, right? Because everybody’s got like slightly different needs, or it’s bowhead. You just you just order one up and everybody kind of gets the same bike.
Martyn Ashton 29:57
No, I mean bowhead will work with. Every customer, I think, to to make sure they’re getting the right adaptions on their bike. But there is there is a standard bike that will certainly suit a lot of people. But then there is lots of little ways to make the bike work for people with slightly more of an injury or a slightly different type of injury, like someone like myself, for instance, they’ve got riders who have got like a brain injury, so their balance is very difficult to handle. So they’re riding a bowhead not because they can’t walk or something like that; it’s because they’ve got difficulty of balance. And what they do is they kind of turn off the articulation with these little adaptions, so it’s not as capable, but it’s still there. Which means someone with that injury could go down a trail and have, you know, a degree of control in the corners like the other bowhead riders. But it’s easier to it’s easier to sort of get back to a stable position, so they’ve worked with lots and lots of different types of people with different types of injuries, and they’re learning along the way as well. I mean, if if someone came to Bowhead, this is true of all the adaptive bike brands, not Bowhead. If someone comes to them with a need that they can’t help, I bet you 100% they’ll try and work out a way to help them.
Because that’s just good for them too to learn. And so I, I feel if they’re in that scene, they’re probably in it to do good work. It isn’t the scene you get into like to make millions of pounds. It’s you know they’re doing it because they’re passionate about it. They think they’ve got a great idea. There’s a few different ways that adaptive bikes can work. There’s a brand in Germany called Reset Arms, and that is that is got a very different approach to the bowhead. That’s quite new, so I don’t know how that’s going to develop. But you know, there are there’s another brand as well called Exotech, who are in Norway, and they make a quad bike that’s a bike, but it’s very very capable at climbing, more of an adventure vehicle. So there’s there’s brands out there, but it’s it’s you know the the the Gen Two RX is the is where it’s at in my opinion at the moment and yeah but I got mine in Whistler just a couple of weeks ago and it’s had a wow.
Jeff Barber 32:32
It looks amazing and obviously you know one of the things maybe I mean maybe people don’t realize this but adapted bikes are very expensive and part of that has to do with just the components. I’m guessing. I mean, in a lot of cases, you have like two shocks and a front suspension setup. You’ve got more wheels than a regular bike, and so I’m curious: how is Rideable Now working to make it easier for folks to afford these adaptive bikes?
Martyn Ashton 33:04
Well, we’re in our first year. We start launched in January. The way we build money to help people is we’ve got a thing called the Access Fund. So our members, which are the wider mountain biking community, not just adaptive riders, they donate five pound a month to Rideville now. That builds the access fund, and then basically the idea is that we will give grants to applicants who are trying to buy adaptive bikes. Okay, are already giving out grants, but they’re quite small in this first year. They’re they’re a nudge to help people buy bikes, but they’re not buying complete bikes. We have delivered one complete bike in year one, but that was because that a bike was available and we had access to it, rather than that we had actually the money to buy that bike. Yeah, but we have put one rider in a bike in year one. We’ve given out, I think, as of today. I did one this morning, so I think 11 grants already towards adaptive bikes.
Jeff Barber 34:11
For a lot of these people, is this their first adaptive bike, and were they bikers before? Like, what’s kind of their mission?
Martyn Ashton 34:18
Yeah, there’s quite a variation between people: some young, some old, some that are well, obviously riders before. I know that one of them is someone who’s never ridden a bike in their life and they want to try it. So it’s really amazing. They’re just someone with a disability. One of the riders is someone who’s had an adaptive bike but wants to update their bike. Yeah, I mean, each case you just got to take it, you know, as a conversation with an individual and see what we can do. It’s quite important that the applicant sort of knows what bike they want and why, because I have previously, before rideable, now you know, helped someone buy a bike, which. Ended up being not quite the right one. And that that was a bit of a you know a bit of a like oh damn we could have done that better.
So I did have a sort of like slightly sore experience before starting rideable now that’s taught me a lot, and yeah it’s really great to be helping some people already, but I’m not helping people anywhere near as much as I’d like to. And I’m determined to make it so I can. I what I really believe is that because I can’t ask, we’ve got sponsors for Rideable now, but the sponsors essentially pay our running costs.
To excite the world about adaptive riding, we’ve got to go out and do it. We’ve got to make videos about it and make podcasts about it. And ta-da! You know, like when we were in Whistler, we had a little clip go viral and got millions of views.
Jeff Barber 35:54
Yeah.
Martyn Ashton 35:54
So millions of people saw, oh, that’s a weird bike going off a cliff thing. But it took us going to Whistler to get it, you know. And it’s like that costs a lot of money. We did have some support, but you know, we also had to spend some. So that’s what the sponsors do, and that is amazing. It’s only possible because of them.
But what what the access fund is about, the the money that we’re getting from the members, that is the mountain bike community, and they’re they’re the people. If if we’re going to make a really solid base of support for people who’ve had an injury or need an adaptive bike, if we’re going to make a really solid base at Rideable now to help them, I need the money from the mountain bike community. I’m never going to be able to get brands to pay for it because what we’re asking the brands to pay for is other bikes from another brand. You know, it’s like the the sponsors can help us make the engine, but but the fuel for the idea is going to come from the community itself, and we’re we’re in an we’ve had an amazing year one. It’s you know it’s fantastic. We’ve already got 1000 members, and that’s incredible. But it isn’t enough for me to achieve the model I’ve got in my head. I’ve always been struck by little backstory on on why I started rideable now is that when I had my injury, there was a guy in the the ward with me who was a rugby player.
And yeah, he had a neck injury from playing rugby, and just rugby itself turned up for him in that bed in his first week. Like someone from the Rugby Association was at his bed, like not someone he knew,
Just someone from rugby, right? He had loads of friends turn up as well, but someone from rugby turned up and was like, “Right, how are we going to help you in life? Because this is what rugby can do to people, but we all know it. We all understand it, and we are going to make sure that rugby didn’t ruin your life. We’re going to make sure rugby helped you through this and created a great life. And that’s powerful.
And I want that. I want. I want to be an organization that when someone has an accident, and unfortunately, it happened yesterday. Because I get told this stuff, so people are going to have terrible injuries riding mountain biking. We all know what bike riding does.
We love it, despite the fact that we all know what can happen.
Jeff Barber 38:38
Yeah, there’s always a risk.
Martyn Ashton 38:40
It can happen to any of us. Unfortunately, it will happen to someone this week, and I want Rideable Now to be the thing that goes in that has allowed the community to come together and go right. This is mountain biking. What’s happened to you? We know it, or this is cycling. We know it because these injuries happen across the board. What can we do to make sure you’re excited about your life going forward? And mountain biking is still part of it. The mountain bike community is still part of it, and that you remain within it.
That’s what I want Rider One out to do, and I I just got to keep banging on about it until I can get to that.
Jeff Barber 39:22
That’s an amazing vision.
Martyn Ashton 39:23
Yeah, and I, I think I can do it. I think not. Well, I say I, I think Rideable now can do it. We’re at 1000 members. It’s 10. 1000 members means we’re already helping people, and we’ll continue to. But 5000 members means we can do it.
Jeff Barber 39:46
Yeah, like it’s it’s not that far, right? You know, and there’s a lot of us that ride mountain bikes. There’s millions.
Martyn Ashton 39:55
Yeah, honest to God, 5000 members creates a fund with a projected. You know, future because these are these are memberships that are monthly.
It creates a it creates a potential that means you can not just be helping people with a bit of cost towards their bikes. For the right rider, you could be buying a bike.
For lots of applicants where it fits, you could be giving them really considerable grants. You know, like things that really will make the thing happen. You could be working with trail organizations to help them give access. You know, you can do all the things that mean that you could go to someone’s bedside and say, “Look, this is how exciting a future can be. Because that’s what you need to hear when you’ve had an injury: is what is my future? And it might not be mountain biking, but that doesn’t mean mountain biking can’t help that person with that new future, they’re going to have to create, right? And that’s what I want it to be. And that’s what’s all about. That’s the roots of it, you know.
Jeff Barber 41:07
Yeah, it’s about that community support. And I mean, yeah, you’ve convinced me. Sign me up. After this, I’m I’m signing up. [The sign-up link is here.]
Martyn Ashton 41:16
Yeah that’s another one. That’s that’s. I mean, that’s the game I’m playing is that if I can if I can collect 5000 members and beyond, we’ve got mountain biking has made something really special that I think would be a model that other sports could could really go okay because the idea is a member signs up, their reward is they’re helping the community, but we’ve gamified it in the fact that also by doing that you are in a prize draw every month. That means you could win something incredible. Okay, and and that’s the game of it. That’s the fun of it because you know that’s. I feel like that’s a fair deal.
Jeff Barber 41:55
Yeah, just being able to see what your donations do, though. I mean, yeah, just hearing these stories and the incredible like life change that happens with this. I mean, it’s it’s powerful.
Martyn Ashton 42:07
Yeah, I think that’s the real reason people join. But I think there needs to be that carrot to make it to make it sustainable and to to keep the monthliness of it going. Is that we’ve got brands that have supported us. That means every other month we give away a 10 grand bike. Wow! Well, actually, most of the bikes been more than 10 grand so far. We give a 1010 grand bike to one of our members, and it’s just a prize draw. You’re automatically entered in it, and then every month there’s a bundle of kit that someone wins, which is also another prize draw. You’re automatically entered into it, and that really makes it fun because you can put that five pound in, and it can feel like I’m donating towards doing great things. Ah, you never know; might win a crazy cool bike too.
Jeff Barber 42:59
And we get to keep seeing videos of you doing what you do, and yeah, well, we put that’s a reward too.
Martyn Ashton 43:04
Yeah, we’re putting it out there, and I’m really enjoying it. I really am enjoying it. It’s it’s a great opportunity for myself as well. You know, I love I love. I mean, giving the bikes to the winners has been really fun already.
Giving that you know, actually get awarding that adaptive bike to Mark Holland, who was the person who received the first rideable now bike. That was pretty special, and I know it was really special for Mark. And it’s, you know, means now he’s a he’s a dad of three, and that’s actually his handle on Instagram: disabled dad of three. Dad of three. Okay. He he he now has an adaptive bike. He go riding with kids. He goes picks them up from school on it. He’s got plans to go on big rides with it. That’s what these bikes do. It’s so hard. No, is it hard to imagine? What you have to do is imagine what would it be like if I took bike riding away from you, and what would that feel like? It’s painful, and giving it back to someone feels great. But but you know it’s it really is a transformational piece of equipment. They are so capable. I mean, I could. I’ve just been to Whistler and rode rode Whistler. I rode some crazy trails. Rode a double black diamond. I did these bikes are so capable, but it’s not so much. You don’t have to ride Whistler. What you can do is go for for a walk with your partner and the dog on this bike onto terrain you could never have gone on on in a wheelchair, it suddenly gives you the world back, and and they’re truly amazing. And it’s it really is the combination of the absolute pinnacle of mountain bike technology and. Adaptive bikes that, even though they existed when I had my accident, they were not capable of much. They were kind of like trolleys that you could push along. But if you got to a climb, good luck. But now you’ve got e-bike power and and this dynamic articulated movement that’s in the bowhead, and you you’ve got an experience that is not only a great adaptive experience. I know from doing it, you can put an able-bodied rider in it, and they will have one of the best days of their life riding bikes. They’re that good.
They’re incredible for anyone to ride. I’m not suggesting able-bodied riders should ride it. Although, if you get a go, you should. Yeah. But what I’m saying is, it isn’t like a watered down version of mountain biking.
Jeff Barber 45:48
Yeah. It is mountain biking.
Martyn Ashton 45:49
Yeah. It is as good as it gets. Yeah. And it’s it’s it’s. I just want more people to be able to do it. They are expensive. They’re always going to be expensive because they’re going to. We want them to be in low numbers, right? We don’t want lots of we don’t want lots of injured people, but they’re always going to be expensive bikes to build. But we, what we don’t, this is a personal view. I don’t know what others would say to this. Be interested what you think, but I don’t want adaptive brands to have to make their bikes cheaper. They need to make money, because they need to succeed. And if they succeed, it’s because lots of people were buying their expensive bikes. That’s what I’d like. Yeah, I feel like that means that they can keep developing, they can keep making great bikes, and we’re on that trajectory of like, wow, what is possible? The answer is not making cheap adaptive bikes. It’s it’s it’s the community coming together to help people buy these bikes.
Jeff Barber 46:51
Yeah, that’s great. Well, yeah, I mean, you kind of touched on this, but there is this kind of misconception among able-bodied riders that adaptive trails are going to be boring, and so through your videos, like you’re definitely able to counter that a bit. But like, what would you say to people who are maybe like, “Oh no, we don’t want adaptive trails, you know, in my town because then that’s just going to make the trails boring. Like, how do you approach that topic with folks?
Martyn Ashton 47:20
Well, my first question would be: Are there? Is there anyone saying that?
Jeff Barber 47:25
Yeah, I mean, unfortunately, there are. You know, we on Singletracks we do a lot of coverage of like new trail projects, and I mean, fortunately, we’re seeing a ton of them in the U.S. where there are actually grants available to make trails adaptive, and yeah, there’s. I guess. I mean, maybe these are the the snarky commenters that nobody should pay attention to anyway. But yeah, you do hear it, and so and my own experience riding some of these trails is that they’re amazing. I mean, they’re as good or better than any flow trail that you would you would ride, and a lot of them too, you’ll ride it and say that was a great trail, and then later you find out oh it also happens to be adaptive.
Martyn Ashton 48:11
Yeah, I think there are. I think there’s two ways to look at it. I mean, I guess if a trail is being made from scratch to be four adaptive bikes, and there I know of a couple of those in the UK. I guess there’s a few around. That’s that’s great, but I I think slight adjustments to greens and blues in general means that they they most greens and blues can be adaptive ready.
Jeff Barber 48:45
Okay. Yeah. And yeah, it doesn’t take a lot.
Martyn Ashton 48:48
Not really. It doesn’t take much. I think beyond greens and blues, an adaptive rider has to do what any mountain bike rider has to do if they’re looking at like blacks, for instance, they’ve got to make a bit of a decision for themselves. Like, can I ride this trail? The trail’s telling you what it is like. So, can I do it? A red on a a red on an adaptive bike can can definitely be done but you sort of need to have had a scouting ride from one of your mates, seen it on video, understood, you know, as some support rider with you.
But greens and blues could. You don’t need to change much about the great greens and blues of the world to make them adaptive. Yeah, they could all be adaptive. Yeah, but no one needs to have a slightly crapper trail because of it. It would be unnoticeable to, or could. Yeah, that’s my experience.
Jeff Barber 49:50
It’s not noticeable until you tell people, and then they’re like, “Huh.” And you think about like, what did you do to the trail?
Martyn Ashton 49:55
Yeah, it’s such subtle things, and and each trail would. Be different, but you could make ridable now’s colors are green and blue for for for a reason that I like. Yeah, greens and blues. We could we could the world is rideable now in terms of green greens and blues is the story. Yeah, so that’s that’s kind of how I see it. And I I’m actually working. It’s very early stages, but I’m working with a center in the UK to actually rejuvenate the whole center, but with adaptive riding at the heart of it. But to make great mountain bike trails, not adaptive trails.
The reason we’ll have the funding to make it better is thanks to adaptive riding. The trails will be made great for riding, and they will be adapted.
Jeff Barber 50:53
So it’s like it’s a great hack. I think same thing that if you can access that funding in that way too, it’s it’s a win win.
Martyn Ashton 51:01
Yeah, I mean, you know what? It would be really great, and this is kind of the idea is that this this region will be better mountain biking thanks to adaptive bikes. You know, so that’s it’s kind of turning it on its head. But I think that’s the way to approach this particular situation, and yeah, I’m sort of working on that in the background, and hopefully that’s something that’s going to start happening next year. But it’s like I said, it’s in its early stages of like, yeah, the ambition is there. We know where the money is. We’re just getting everybody like teed up in in line, and then we’re going to hopefully go for that, and that will be incredible because my my take on the world is rideable now is that you know I feel like without much you you should be able to roll into a green or a blue on an adaptive bike and think I’ve got a fair chance of this. That said, I would always suggest on an adaptive bike if you haven’t ridden a trail, don’t do it alone. Ride, go down it with someone else, go down it with a mate, ask someone to come down it with you.
Mountain bikers are always ready to help. So even if you don’t know a single person, I am 100% sure. If you’re at a trail center and you said to someone in the cafe, “I’m about to go up and do a run. Would you come down with me?
For your next run, they’d say yes. They would probably go, “Yeah, I’ll do that. Sounds hilarious. Watching your bike going down the trail. I’ve never seen that before. Just because you you know if you topple over something silly, they can put you up the right way, and once you know a trail, you can start to be like, “I’m going to go alone, and whatever. But you know, as long as you first time phones with you and things that you need, but yeah, I mean, having a support rider makes a big difference. I was just, I was when I was in Whistler. Actually, we went and rode a place called Grouse Mountain, and they were sort of saying, “Oh, we’re we’re adaptive ready.” And I went and rode it, and I was like, “You are not adaptive ready.” Based on how they were describing it on their website, I was like, “What you should say is, we are adaptive ready, but we strongly suggest you bring a support rider.”
Then you’re nearly adaptive ready, but with but those trails are not ones someone on adaptive bike should come up on your beautiful gondola and just roll off the top.
Because I’ve ridden a lot of trails, and I know I think I know what I’m doing, and I was like, wow, you can get in trouble here.
Jeff Barber 53:41
Oh wow, yeah. Well, you you you mentioned that a lot of these trails, these are like the green and blue trails, but you’ve shown videos of yourself riding these black diamond, double black diamond trails, and it’s it’s amazing, super inspiring. I’m curious, how does riding a trail like that on an adapted bike compared to your experience with trials riding, is it does it kind of scratch the same itch for you, or is it like a totally different different note?
Martyn Ashton 54:10
I mean, what I would say is that if I’m I’m only riding down those the hardest trails, probably to do some video and and document it.
Jeff Barber 54:21
You’re not just doing it for fun.
Martyn Ashton 54:23
I, I mean, some of those really hard ones. There, I mean, there’s. I’m 52 year old mountain biking. I mean, I’m. I am not one of the best adaptive riders in the world. There is some truly brilliant riders out there. I was in when I was in Whistler. I was riding a kid called Jaden Glentworth, guy used amazing. I was riding with him, and it was just terrifying. It was taking me down trails he does ride every day for fun, and I was not happy. I was not comfortable, and then I did another whole day with Cole Bernier and a. Adaptive riders would know that coal is about as good as it gets on an adaptive bike. Lovely, lovely guy, and he took me down some trails. But I think he was trying to teach me a bit of a lesson. Like, okay, you know, media man, try this out because it was spicy, man. Yeah, he’s just so good, and he’s riding so much, and that he’s just yeah, his talent really is coming through on the bike. And I, I can’t ride some of the trails like they can. I’m quite willing. I’m a you know, I’ll be, I’ll have a go, quite a lot of things. I think, but yeah, there’s some stuff you know. I’ve got a limit that where I’m like, I don’t know what to do. But the thing is, on an adaptive bike, when you’re sort of into a trail, you’re kind of like, oh, you’re in now. So I’ve been down some things that I didn’t really want to do, but the only way out was to do it.
Jeff Barber 56:03
And you kind of like okay, have to figure it out. I feel like with trials and a lot of and technical riding, it’s a bit of a mental puzzle too. Where you’re like, okay, how am I going to do this?
Martyn Ashton 56:10
Yeah, a lot of the time with an adaptive bike is how you’re going to do it is just do it. Just you’ve just got to commit to it because a lot of the time, a little bit of momentum and a bit of bravery is what will get you through it. But that can also get you in a lot of trouble. Actually, I on the last day at Whistler, I was trying to get. It was kind of going back to that old school stuff. I was trying to get a really great photo.
Rideable Now’s photographer is a guy called Rob Perry, who is who’s based out in Squamish. He is fantastic, and it was actually a lot of his images that he took of me from a shoot, a GMBN shoot, a few years back, of riding in in Squamish, that really inspired the kind of rideable now energy, and a lot of the images on my website, rideable now website, and the presentation I used to approach all my sponsors was Rob Perry’s photos. He kind of created the heart of it from that. The images he creates these images that are just like, like, like a wonder, you know. Like you can see, you’re riding in the space. Even when he’s in the woods of Whistler, you’re you can feel the space outside the moment. Like, wow, to be in there, you know. Just got a great style that I love, and I was trying to get this shot this year of him. Of that, I was like, “Guy, Rob gets this, and it was basically I was coming down a slope right at the Top of the World in Whistler, doing like an endo.
Jeff Barber 57:53
Oh wow!
Martyn Ashton 57:54
And I was like, “Oh, you know, I’m going to be like vertical, and the mountains behind. I thought, oh, so cool! And I just got a bit greedy, and it just went. I went straight over the bars.
Jeff Barber 58:05
Oh wow!
Martyn Ashton 58:06
I broke some bones in my foot and my shin, which sucked.
Jeff Barber 58:13
But did you get the shot though?
Martyn Ashton 58:15
Oh, we got the shot. Yeah, oh yeah, the shot. The shot’s worth it.
Jeff Barber 58:19
Yeah. Okay.
Martyn Ashton 58:20
Mike’s vertical. It looks so crazy. It’s slightly, it’s slightly not as good because you know I go that way. Not that way.
Jeff Barber 58:28
Can you see the fear in your eyes, though? Like at that moment, do you know that it’s?
Martyn Ashton 58:34
I look calm as you look. It looks good. Yeah, it was worth it, and it was all right. It wasn’t. It was a bit. It was one of those crashes, though I haven’t had many where it was a bit of a reminder. Because on the bowhead, I went right over. I kind of hit the ground with my head, yeah. And then, of course, you got 45 kilo bike comes and hits you a moment later, and does it again. And it was not. It was not that nice. So it was a bit of a bit of a check for me. Like, yeah, careful, you know. But yeah, it was good. I got a good photo, and you know, I guess I’d got away with a lot the whole week while I was there. So maybe I needed one. You know, sometimes you need one, don’t you? To like, you have like a corner that reminds you.
Jeff Barber 59:30
Yeah. I think we can all relate.
Martyn Ashton 59:33
Yeah, we’ve all we have to, right? We’ve all had that moment, like, oh my god, that was that was nearly, you know, day-ending riding.
Jeff Barber 59:47
Well, so tell us, what do you have any upcoming trips or content projects that you’re excited about?
Martyn Ashton 59:54
I’ve got a well, I’ve got a few events coming up. We’ve got lots going on. Now, in terms of we’ve got a bike that has just been won, a Trek Rail, which was won by a guy called Charlie, and Tracy Mosley handed it over from Trek. So went out for a ride for a day with Tracy Mosley, which was pretty cool. There’s a video of that up on YouTube, and that’s on my YouTube channel, Martyn Ashton’s channel.
I may as well change it to Rideable Now’s channel because all I put on there now is it’s got a road bike party and now Rideable Now things. Just all that’s on there, right? But there’s that, and then we’ve got a new bike we’re about to announce that can be won for our members, which is a Santa Cruz Bullit.
Jeff Barber 1:00:41
Oh, cool!
Martyn Ashton 1:00:41
We’ve just done the build of that video, the video build of that bike, and it’s nice. People are going to want to win that one. I think.
Jeff Barber 1:00:52
When’s the drawing? What’s like the cutoff you got to be signed up for?
Martyn Ashton 1:00:56
It would usually be the end of August, but because of Whistler, I’m a bit behind. So we’re going to make it a week into September. We’ll do the draw, but so there’s just a bit more time for the bike to exist online, if you like, because yeah, it hasn’t had the normal month run it would normally have. Okay. So yeah, we’re going to do it in just into September. So that’s the Santa Cruz Bullet. There’s a MTV kit bundle to win at the same time as well. So we’ll have two winners in September. I’ve got a couple of Malverns, which is a very classic event in the UK. It’s called the Malvern’s Classic. Got that coming up. I’m going to go along to that and hopefully talk some talk some people into membership.
Jeff Barber 1:01:41
Yeah.
Martyn Ashton 1:01:41
Then in October, it’s not. I haven’t really told anyone about this yet, so this is the first time I mentioned it. So the idea is not fully formed, but I’m doing a ride in October that is designed to gain me memberships for Rideable Now.
Jeff Barber 1:01:57
Okay.
Martyn Ashton 1:01:58
Memberships will be the fuel to the ride.
Jeff Barber 1:02:01
Okay.
Martyn Ashton 1:02:02
So unless I get the members per mile, I won’t make the ride.
Jeff Barber 1:02:09
Oh, okay. That’s fun.
Martyn Ashton 1:02:10
So that’s the idea. It’s forming.
Jeff Barber 1:02:13
Yeah.
Martyn Ashton 1:02:13
And yeah, it’s it’s a way of just like creating the. It’ll be the fuel for my ride, but obviously the members are the fuel for the access fund that allows us to buy bikes for people. So that’s that’s the big picture. So that is forming, as we say, but that’s going to be in October. It’s probably going to be wet and windy in the UK, so it’s going to be extra tough, and it’s quite a long way.
It’s a long, it’s a lot, lot further than I’ve ever been, ever, ever, ever in my life.
Jeff Barber 1:02:46
Yeah, that sounds exciting.
Martyn Ashton 1:02:48
We’ll we’ll see how it develops. I’ll, yeah, be hopefully announce it pretty soon. But cool. The first, yeah, the first to hear. When will this go out?
Jeff Barber 1:02:58
Tuesday.
Martyn Ashton 1:03:03
Tuesday. Okay. Well, yeah, right. Yeah, five days, perfect. So I won’t say anything else about it online or anything until then, and then the first place it ever gets mentioned is here.
Jeff Barber 1:03:11
Awesome.
Martyn Ashton 1:03:12
I’ve got an exclusive name, so unfortunately, it’s not really got a name yet.
Jeff Barber 1:03:16
Yeah,
Martyn Ashton 1:03:17
I know where it’s going from and where it’s going to.
I can tell you where it’s going from. Basically, I’m going to start at my house, and the goal is to get to Fort William. I can actually tell you. Do you mind if I sort of tell you the sketched out idea? Yeah. No. I’m saying this. Some bits of it could change because of logistics.
Jeff Barber 1:03:37
Right.
Martyn Ashton 1:03:38
Because there’ll be some people I need to. I’m going to need some people to help me do it. So the idea is, I will start at my house in Margam in South Wales, and I will ride to Fort William in Scotland, which is obviously an iconic mountain biking location because of its World Cup and World Champs history, and I’ve ridden there many times. I also did the back on track video. The Down Not Out video. Sorry, back on track was in Antistiniog, which will be included in this. But Down Not Out was a video we made as if I won the Fort William World Cup. I think it’s one of our best videos. It’s really funny because obviously I don’t win the Fort William World Cup, but you would think I did if you watch this video. It’s got everything, including Rob Warner’s commentary.
Jeff Barber 1:04:37
Wow, star-studded video. Yeah, pretty fantastic.
Martyn Ashton 1:04:40
So the so the idea is the challenge is I’ll ride from my house to Fort William. The stops will be at really relevant bike parks of the UK up through the country.
Jeff Barber 1:04:56
How far is that?
Martyn Ashton 1:04:59
It’s about 450, 500 miles. But we’ll obviously have some detours, so it might be a bit longer. Like I said, the logistics are being worked out. the The stops on the route will be bike parks, and we’ll spend a day riding that bike park to show adapted mountain biking. Yeah, I’ll be joined by famous riders and ambassadors at those each location. Then there’ll be a rest day, and we’ll continue on, but only if we’re getting the members. So, as we reach each bike park, I’ll announce how many members we got in that section, and obviously we need to get at least as many miles as that is because we need at least one member per mile. That’s the idea. And if we don’t get the members, the route will end.
Jeff Barber 1:05:57
Oh man.
Martyn Ashton 1:05:58
And now it’s up because I want to show you all of the adaptive bike parks on the UK route. So, yeah, that’s my idea. And then, if I can make it work, I want to then do it in US and Canada next year. So, a similar idea. So, that’s the because Rideable Now is very UK-centric because I’m probably more known in the UK than anywhere else because of my bike riding history. I’m I’m not a. I don’t know.
Jeff Barber 1:06:29
You’re you’re pretty big in the US for sure. I think everybody here knows you.
Martyn Ashton 1:06:33
We’ve got members from the US, and we’ve got members from the US, Canada, Australia, and if they win, the bike goes there. It’s not like only UK only, but but what I you know what I do want to do is I want Rideable now to be a mountain bike community platform. It’s not a UK centric thing. It it will always have slightly more of a heart of UK because that’s where my most of my followers are, but I don’t like calling them followers. Friends. The thing that’s what I love about mountain biking is that you can meet someone at a bike park, and they’re almost instantly one of your mates. They’re not. You don’t really have to get through much.
Like you don’t get have to get through much blur to realize your connection. You know all the politics, religion, all that’s gone out the window at a bike park. It’s just like, have you done that red, or have you? Oh, that’s a nice bike, or that. You know, you just it’s all gone, right? And you get back to, oh, we’re not all so different immediately. You know, we found you’re there because of the connection. You know, and I love that about I love that about mountain biking in its in its reality, but also in its digital sense. That your followers, you’re pretty sure you can have a good conversation with them, no matter what, you know.
Jeff Barber 1:07:53
So, yeah, can’t wait to see you in the US. That that would be awesome.
Martyn Ashton 1:07:56
I’m looking forward to that as well. I’ve got to make it work in the UK. Yeah.
Jeff Barber 1:07:59
Oh, it’ll work. We’ll make sure it works.
Martyn Ashton 1:08:01
I really want it to. I really think it’s a fun idea. I think it’s it’ll be tough, but it’s a great. I think it really proves the potential of the bike because it’s got to make the distance, then do something once it gets to the places. But it also shows that the places can be used by these bikes, and you. yeah, I think that’ll be hopefully inspiring and also quite exciting because we get to ride the great locations as well. Like I said, hopefully logistics working out right, some great riders will join us along the way, and at the end of it, we’ll have a bigger pot of members. That means we can do a better job for rideable now. So fingers, fingers crossed. I’m very nervous about it. That’s all I can tell.
Jeff Barber 1:08:49
It sounds like an awesome plan to me. So yeah, I’m really looking forward to it.
Martyn Ashton 1:08:53
Let’s let’s hope so.
Jeff Barber 1:08:55
So what is the best way for folks to keep up with your mission and your latest content online?
Martyn Ashton 1:09:01
Really great follows to keep up with Rideable Now on Instagram would be Rideable Now itself. My own platform, Martin Ashton on Instagram at Martin Ashton. Blake Sampson’s a really great follow because he is a director at Rideable Now as well. Oh, great! He’s obviously a really well-followed and respected rider, but Blake has been with me from day one of my accident and has been, oh, just unbelievable support. I probably can’t talk about Blake. I start crying. He has he has been there at every single moment, including the moment where I had my accident. So, yeah, a lot of what I’ve done that has inspired anyone else has been because Blake helped me do it. That’s just true. Another great follow for it is Black Vane Media, which is Matt has actually. Matt Davies, who is our videographer on Rideable Now, and it’s and it’s very much a brain behind it. He’s he’s always got good ideas, or he tells me how bad my idea is. So I have a meeting with him later on about the challenge I’ve just told you. So one of the ways it might change is that Matt says, don’t be an idiot. That’s ridiculous.
Jeff Barber 1:10:26
Fingers crossed.
Martyn Ashton 1:10:27
Yeah, but he’s, um, yeah, he’s a guiding light within it. I would say Peaty’s is really great follow. They have been an incredible support. Peaty’s products, Renthal have been great. SRAM have been great. Bosch have been great. These are people I’m just mentioning. Not great follows for rideable now necessarily, but Hope Technology, Endura, Bowhead, of course. Bowhead are a great follow because they talk about all sorts of adaptive riding, and none of it is boring. That’s one thing that’s really great about adaptive riding is if you’re not an adaptive rider and you follow a little bit of it, it will not be boring. It either ends in crazy disaster or wow, how did they do that, man? So it’s it’s really great, and everyone, of course who is in an adaptive bike by default has got an incredible story to tell. They’re they’re never there because of anything that isn’t like a very engrossing and probably very inspiring video. That’s one thing I have learned is that you’ll never tire of hearing how and being marveled by how and what people have come through to ride, you always we always paint. I’ll say it of myself, but it’s probably true of most of us. I paint a story for myself of like, oh, I’ve triumphed over this and that, and I’ve done so well. And then the next day, I’ll meet someone and go, wow! I have not done a thing. It just happens all the time. I’m never. I actually, I was. I did a race in Whistler. The it was the adaptive Air DH in the Whistler event.
I actually won my category. I got a gold medal in ADH, but I was the only person in my category. So, but you can’t get the medal back. That’s mine now.
So I won a medal. But on the start line, all the adaptive riders were lining up, and a guy lined up. So I’m there, Mister. I’m like I’m about to. I’m an adaptive rider. I’m about to ride an adaptive race at Crankworks. I’m a hero.
And then the guy next to me pulled up on a normal e-bike, and he had no arms or legs.
Jeff Barber 1:12:51
Oh wow!
Martyn Ashton 1:12:54
Think about it. His arms-it basically ended here, and they plugged into like little pots, little like prosthetics. That if he twisted them like that, it it there was a connection that pulled the brake.
So he’s plugging his his forearm stumps into prosthetics on the bike that are attached to the bike, and then he’s got below the knee amputation prosthetics that clip in to the bike, and it’s an e-bike. And I was just like, okay.
Jeff Barber 1:13:39
You feel like you’re cheating when you see that.
Martyn Ashton 1:13:42
I’m probably not the hero I thought I was because this guy just took the biscuit, and then he and he actually went down the hill quicker than I did on my bike by. I’m not even going to say how many seconds. Too many. It was embarrassing. He was really, really quick. Wow! It just blew my mind, and I was like, and the reason that was working again is that you can think about adaptive bikes as, as bowheads, but an e-bike is an adaptive bike. Like e-bikes are adaptive bikes for most people who buy them. They buy them because they’re making it they’re capable, making them capable of doing something they couldn’t do on normal bikes. That’s an adaptive bike, and that guy was probably the ultimate version. Well, actually, he’s not because I saw another guy on Instagram the other day that I had one arm and one leg on either side.
He was riding along on a on like a Bosch-powered e-bike with loads of newton meters of torque, and was just hammering down this trail with one arm and one leg on the other side. So yeah, sort of opposing sides.
So e-bikes themselves are adaptive bikes, and you know, yeah, that’s a that’s a great perspective. Yeah, it’s it’s really incredible. But yeah, the adaptive community-you will never end. You’ll never get to the end of amazing stories there.
Jeff Barber 1:15:07
Yeah, that’s awesome. Well, Martyn, thank you so much for talking with me today, and and more importantly, thank you for being such an inspiration and a supporter for so many riders around the world.
Martyn Ashton 1:15:20
Oh, thank you, man! Thank you for the time, and thanks for letting me blabber on about my stuff. But yeah, if you if you’re interested, get involved.
Jeff Barber 1:15:28
Yeah, thanks. Well, you can keep up with the Singletracks podcast at Singletracks DotCom slash podcast. That’s all we have this time. Thanks for riding with us today.
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