In Our Blood

It doesn't matter if it's propelled by internal combustion or human power, if it has two wheels, we love it. I can't even begin to count the number of people in the motorcycle industry who are into bicycles, whether they ride road bikes, mountain bikes or BMX.

It goes the other way, as well: Many of the top bicycle racers either ride motorcycles or follow motorcycle racing. While on a road bike ride into work the other day, I stumbled upon 2008 UCI Mountain Bike Downhill World Champion Gee Atherton (check out the video below), who was in California (he's from Manchester, England) training for the upcoming season. As we pedaled along together, one conversation led to another and he informed me that he was a huge Supercross fan and planned to attend one of the Southern California rounds. Like us, he's simply bike mad.

Take the Cycle World crew, for example: Associate Editor Mark Cernicky keeps a beach cruiser with BMX bars parked in his office and can wheelie around our building countless times without ever setting the front tire down. Managing Editor Matthew Miles is even more fond than I am of donning the Lycra and going road biking. I'm more of a mountain-bike guy (although I get in plenty of miles on the tarmac), as is Editor Mark Hoyer, both of us living near mountains that offer nearly endless miles of single-track trail and fire road.

But this picture really says it all: It's a snapshot of often-featured-in-Cycle World-custom-bike-builder Gregg DesJardins riding a wheelie with his son Preston aboard. You've got to get them hooked on two wheels while they're young!

—Blake Conner

Watch this sick on-board video of Gee Atherton at Red Bull's Desafio no Morro in Rio de Janeiro's favelas (Portuguese for "slum").