Glen Jacobs Interview Part 1

[Scott]

Well it is finally here, spurred by Glen’s random appearance on Farkin.net's forums we jumped at the chance to interview the "God Father", a man who has seen all there is to see in the industry and can give an honest opinion on how things are in the MTB World. *Due to Glen's generous responses we have opted to split this interview into 3 parts to be released over the course of this week.

Check it out here ('/page.php?p=b5d917581948d65bbf6a0dbf2de6bd13').

[scotty beefs]

How far away, if at all, do you think a scene like glen is alluding to is reality. Something along the lines of a club with its own facilites...a permanent 4x track, short downhil, a club house and training times for the club members? Is it at all realistic? a- these things require land. For a club situation to work this land has to be proximal to suburbia for easy access - this is hard to come by. b- money - thats the tough one i spose and as glen mentioned about the cycle of popularity coming back around...once mtb becomes more popular, public acceptance increases then money will follow.

Is it a reality any time in the future?

(I know the perfect site! Bottom of cootha - clubhouse is the old freers chips factory with dirtjumps in those cow paddocks...permanent 4x track on those nicely sloping park, grass hills on the other side of the road, downhill with car/shuttle access is obvious and its all 10 minutes from the brisbane CBD!....ah a pipe dream, a pipe dream. or is it?)

[Scott]

Well, the Cairns mtb club site is proof of all that he has talked about. So obviously none of this is out of reach, its all a matter of dedication, time and effort. Think of all soccer/football/golf etc facilities around the place, they are everywhere. Some of these sports are even less mainstream than mountain biking currently is and they've put it together. I know we've been trying it for ages now, but with the right public exposure and having the right public figures on side I can't see why mountain biking couldn't reach its enormous potential (and I really hope it does). Just imagine parents dropping their kids off for mid-week downhill practise at venues and local races on weekends. Clinics helds by pro riders every month or so for the kiddies or aspiring... I had better stop this reply here before I get too carried away.

[Ryan]

Just so y'all know; Gordon, the guy who supplied us with Glen's mugshot for the article, has some pics of the new Cairns MTB Park facilities up on his website http://www.gordong.com

Check out the 4X track and the combined disciplines start / finish area, then realise this is only one of the 2 permanent 4X facilities in Cairns (pop approx 150,000) and you realise that what Glen's talking about is by no means out of reach.

[Bonnet]

would be good, then we could have us 'veterans' (anyone who rode before it was cool to ride) coaching the young-uns on a tuesday arvo after school.

if one company, say a large bike shop chain sponsered a single club, than they could begin to make in roads to a large scale development of the sport on a local level.

over Here the PMBC is running events quite smoothly

[Scott]

now this looks cool...

http://www.gordong.com/smtx030816/image_data/smtx030816083.jpg

[Ty]

would be good, then we could have us 'veterans' (anyone who rode before it was cool to ride) coaching the young-uns on a tuesday arvo after school.

my LBS does that, and they often get people tagging along to help out the kids.

(i like to see a mail order place put something back into the sport like that, support your LBS)

[dodgy_bob_1]

Glen,

ay bin followin whats happenin on the club site and gordons pics and must say thats a damn big effort all the lads and yourself bin puttin in, would have loved to be based there at home once uni finished but oh well shite happens. Will be making the trek back from mighty Mt Isa over X-mas and cant wait to get out there and have a look at everything

L8A yub

Tys

[Woody]

Firstly we need to make a decision, do we make the tracks for sport riders and put sections in for pro's, or do we build tracks for pro's with chicken lines, or do we have a completely defferent series for pro's. What i see has happened since i started racing is the bikes are getting faster and the tracks are getting slower, personally i get bored shitless watching $10000 dh bikes going 20km/h across grass paddocks into corners u nearly need a trials bike to hop around. You don't see organinses of freestyle motoX events going oohhh no you better make that ramp a bit smaller, do u? Thats why there is no sponsorship because it is boring to watch. I would never invite someone who didn't ride to come watch a dh race, and that sucks. People want to see fast action, big jumps, loud music and other entertainment. Riders will ride anything but spectators won't watch shit, not even the best cinematography can make tracks look wat they aren't. We the riders need to stand up for DHing and stop racing the shit tracks and act as a group and say this is wrong for the sport, Take thredbo for instance, ask anyone that went and ask them about the weekend and the first thing they will tell you is that they made the pedalling section longer and more uphill. Does that seem right? the biggest hill in Australia and i has the biggest hill climb!! make the tracks 3 mins long and fast very fast. I was reading the results of world cups and seeing the average speed of like 49km/h, you would be lucky to a max speed like that in OZ. Well for the sake of the sport of dhing i hope that we find some more people like Glen Jacobs who want to see the sport grow first then there back pockets not the other way.

[Icks]

yaay, a pick of me, im on the right,and for the record, i smoked his ass. the cairns site is farkin awsome and it is a true example of what glen is talking about and proving that it is possible. It took a shit load of working bee's but in the end u only get ou what u put in aye.

[GordonG]

now this looks cool...

http://www.gordong.com/smtx030816/image_data/smtx030816083.jpg

Glen is right. The Cairns facility has been designed with everyone in mind, including us photographers. That photo was taken while hanging out of a tree conveniently located right next to the course. I reckon I had as much fun as the riders did. My skills (and advanced age :)) do not allow me to race, but I sure as hell have fun out there or at Wyreema with a camera!

[josh]

Excellent interview, Glen is a deadset champ. By the way glen, im studying marketing at uni ;) :P

[DOM]

Hey Welcome to the Site Gordon .. thanks for the photo's...

The track looks so awesome .. and yeah the position for the photo's looks real pro.

Cannot wait to get up there in New years.

[josh]

A big thanks to Acadain as well for giving this article the attention it deserves by posting it up on the pinkbike.com frontpage.

Hope you guys are looking forward to part 2 and 3 :)

[Scott]

wow, not only does he do track building :)
http://members.fortunecity.com/mpw/jacobs.html

[Jake]

No matter what a person does Scott, the past always catches up with you aye. Wrestling, was my only outlet from the long days of quilt knitting.

[josh]

Glen, looking bulk from track building :P

http://members.fortunecity.com/mpw/photos/gjdiesel.jpg

[DOM]

hahahah ... i was actually going to say that in the interview haha Did you know you shared the same name as the famous wrestler .. "Kane"