Posts
4908
Joined
6/26/2009
Location
Boise, ID
US
Fantasy
66th
Edited Date/Time
1/22/2018 7:53am
Long-time World Cup mechanic and man behind the legendary stiksanstones.com (RIP), Craig "Stikman" Glaspell has been in the MTB game since the glory days. We're stoked to put him in our Forum Hot Seat. -gordo
Name: Craig “Stikman” Glaspell
Age: 44, with the hair of a 72 yr old, or lack thereof
Years riding: Over 30, I was at the tail end of the Puerco DH race era, the young kid showing up to race in the 80’s.
Education: high school drop out, then went back to college about 3 different times. Finishing college shows commitment and ability to finish tasks. So my education shows a fail in that regard, but I have been with my wife for 22 years, faithfully and I generally work for people for long periods of time, so, I’m ok with my education or lack there of.
Hometown: Grew up in North Hollywood Ca, Living in Santa Ana with wife and daughter
Job History:
- 80’s I worked at a bike shop called Bicycle Center, an iconic BMX and MTB shop in Redondo Beach, between that shop, Charlie Litsky and Dave Cullinan, they gave me a career.
- late 80’s and into early 90’s, I wanted to be John Tomac, but, I realized I would never be that, so I quit racing, focused on creating champions.
- 1993 to 2004 : was the top team tech guy (Douche statement alert), had a stretch of making 6 figure salary doing it, it was a golden era. Started a MTB gossip blog before anyone knew what the fuck that was (stiksandstones.com), helped developed a shit ton of products with cool brands, worked with the best riders in the world, a few dozen championships were won via the athletes I worked with, most iconic of those being Leigh Donovan and Brian Lopes, 4 amazing years of them ruining the hopes of teams with far bigger budgets and staff-we were the smallest but mightiest race program of all time.
- 2004-2010 : I quit the bike industry and became a stay at home parent, my retired-racer wife (Leigh Donovan) had a kick ass business that was very successful, so I took care of our daughter, did side gigs of photography, broadcasting with Rob Warner in the Freecaster days but NEVER left being a superfan of Downhill racing.
- 2010 : Marketing Director for Intense Cycles
- 2011 to Current : Global Marketing For Bike at Troy Lee Designs, working for the craziest dude in the business, who loves racing more than anyone I know-except for Roskopp! Troy and Rob could have a battle on who loves racing more.
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Stik will be here to answer your questions from 11:30 to 3pm Pacific time today, so fire away and he'll answer the gems.
I think I started it in the late 90's, a blog, with some insider gossip from the circuit. It caused too much drama, some uptight people got SO bent out of shape about it, hate email, people wanting to fight me. I forgot what I wrote in 99' but Myles Rockwell wanted to punch me out, in Vars, France for something I wrote....Doug Dalton was SO angry that I mentioned he sharpie'd out Cedric and Chausson's Maxxis tires, because they were paid by hutchinson, so mad that he was shaking in anger. Once some proper web channels started doing some cool site content, I just wasn't into it, nor had the time, so I let it die. I still carried on writing columns in DIRT and even Velonews with the same gossip style, but, then I turned 30 and was over it all.
That being said, when Leigh and Brian were on Mongoose in 95, they rode some handmade german bikes with handmade shocks-now no disrespect to this guy because it was he that helped them win 5 major titles that year, but it was a challenge keeping bikes together, rebuild proto shocks, and lots of JB weld. I think I was always lucky to have worked with Shimano back in those days, spent a lot of time with the engineers from Japan and was a big part in disc brake development, drivetrain and other things, it was a great time working with them, and projects like the HRB brakes, the dual rotor brakes, airlines, while a bit over the top, there was some great development from that-that went into future products.
Thats a shit answer, but Troy just came in with a hot topic, I call them Troy-nados! please hold.
I saw Troy Braswell at Interbike the last couple years, BC owner from the day, that dude is the salt of the earth, a real f@cking MTBer.
No more rub on's, they've turned to dust haha.
We went from Japan to Mammoth (for a NORBA national) and I pulled up in our team rig, started setting up pits, and a GT executive rolls up in a new-ish car, with his clown loafers, nice clothes, watch, and just stood around while the GT guys were setting up the pits-between the staff and riders of both teams, it was about 25 people getting screwed. We knew the executives were still getting salary and fleecing the company, while we were out there still racing and promoting the brand (had to, or threatened with not getting money in the settlement).
Anyways, this pissed me off, I cussed the guy out like I have never cussed anyone out, felt better, and went racing.
Jeremy McGrath was so close to punching me in the face a few years ago, I wrote something about him on stiksandstones, and he was so pissed. Lopes calmed him down.
-every prepubescent Semenuk fan with access to social media
is there room or potential for a non-UCI, high payout DH series?
Tire pressure tricks, couple suspension tricks.
Being a mechanic, you have to have ONE key trait-keeping these riders calm and in the zone, focused on the goal of the weekend, to win, or sustain a points lead. I was always a shitty mechanic, there were plenty of guys doing cooler stuff than me, innovating some tools, or a technique. But I was good at getting better pay, good at motivating riders and keeping them stoked, laughing, lots of laughing.
But Noah, I will tell Troy we got another vote for larger rear pocket!
Ok, enough PC bullshit right?
Troy Brosnan.....the kid scares me, i've never seen a rider so f-ing hungry to win, I think once he calms down on the bike he will be lethal.
That other kid that Sven is always raving about, Commencal guy, french dude, forgot name-he's a threat.
Can't count out vets, like Minnaar...Bryceland will be back and deadly on the course and off the course haha.
It's a damn shame the world cup is only 7 rounds, because it is the most amazing sport on earth-real talk.
Or not.
I am old, really old, and LBB is my favorite web series ever.
Be right back bros!
**** EDIT, I am back, we ate Wahoos instead.
I started working in shops as a 15 year old in 1994. At that time, us shop rats all fancied ourselves as future World Cup mechanics and our superstars were folks like Gravy, Monkey and yourself. Back then, our shop was a GT, Mongoose and Schwinn dealer; so you were really at the top of the list for us. Anyway, a few years later, a couple of us went out to the NORBA at Seven Springs and got the chance to chat with you a bit in the pits and we all walked away just completely starstruck. Much respect, man.
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