INTERVIEW: Mick Stephenson

MoreDirt talks to Mick Stephenson; a man with seemingly endless passion for both riding and building. You seem like a really dedicated member of the MTB and BMX community; a key personality in the Noth East Freerider Association (NEFA) as well as the Dynamix skate park in Newcastle/Gateshead. I doubt there's many people out there who have put as much in to the local scenes as you. Well, I'm no superstar really. I mainly do it for selfish reasons like getting something to ride or just enjoying the process of building etc. What is your first bike related memory? Mick: Ha ha! Apart from tearing it up on a Raleigh Budgie as a youngin'? (those budgies could wheelie for ever!) My first proper bike memories were way before MTB or even BMX had been thought of. We used to go dumpster diving at Wrekenton council tip for bike bits; taking old racing bike frames and bolting on flat handlebars then building massive jumps and launching ourselves off them with no fear at all. There was no cotton wool parenting back then. We spent hours at Leam Pit building what looked like today’s four cross tracks and practically killing ourselves riding it. You'll have to expand a bit on the Raleigh Budgie. I was a kid in the eighties so grew up with the BMX, Grifter and to a lesser extend the Chopper bikes. Raleigh seemed to be all you could buy when it came to bikes back then but I've never heard of the Budgie. So, you and your pals invented four cross then?! That's pretty huge! Mick: The budgie was the baby of the pack, then came the tomahawk and finally the chopper; basically all different sizes of the chopper. The budgie was the one you could sling around like a toy. We far from invented four cross. Kids were probably riding the same stuff all over the country but back then nothing had a name. It was all just riding your bike. I laugh at all of the tags biking has picked up over the years: backtrail biking, free-riding and the like were just called playing on your bike when I was a kid. We built this track on the pit with spades nicked from parents, neighbours and the odd unlocked garden shed on the estate. We must have moved tons of dirt over the school holidays. We ended up with a pretty complete looped track with huge tabletop jumps. Single runs and grudge racing was the norm along with some huge bails. No helmets or pads either and we didn’t get medical assistance. We just cried a bit and if it was really serious a parent was fetched. There are still noticeable traces of the track behind my house after30 years which just shows how huge we built it. I'm tempted to pop over with a spade and get it on again! Ah, the trail building began at quite a young age then? Where did you go from steeling tools and riding the pit? Lots of people, my self included, move on to smoking, drinking and chasing girls, forgetting all about bikes well before they've even left school. Mick: It has just always been there. Don't complain if there's nothing to ride near you. Get out and find something or failing that, build your own. My career as an international tool thief was short lived. As soon as some smart fellows invented the BMX, that was it for me. I was an early adopter and spent hours in Henderson's bike shop in Washington drooling over the American import bikes. Where I live at Leam lane was a hotbed for BMX in the eighties, with riders like Dave Young and Steve Laidlaw hanging about on the banks at Fewster square. We had a Race track right behind my house with regular national races; a few of which I dabbled in myself, all elbows out and aggression. I spent most of my time just messing about street riding. I also found the drink, smoke and girls distraction but never lost the passion for bikes. I even rode road bikes for a while. How did you end up involved in the NEFA group? Mick: Myself and a few mates were regularly building sneaky trails, drops and random bits of northshore in Chopwell Woods and the Forestry bods were regularly taking them out. It was all very cat and mouse but very annoying to see your hard work trashed every week. So, we contacted the relevant people in the Forestry Commission and arranged a few meetings. We were asked to prove the need for bike access to the woods. If need was proven the FC would look in to providing some facilities. A group or official body was needed so NEFA was born. We knocked up a pretty makeshift DH track in a couple of weeks and advertised a race. To our surprise 120 riders entered and the forestry came well and truly on board. How long ago was that and where did having the FC on-side get you? Mick: This was way back in 2000 when bikes were still classed as a menace in forests. The FC helped get the tree hugging brigade on side and made them see we were not out to trash the forest but to improve its recreational use. Forestry gov' speak is a wonderful thing to behold when it's in full flow. NEFA joined the IMBA in 2001 and in August 2002 we had a visit from their American trail specialists Joey Klein and Rich Edwards who pointed us in the right direction. Myself and two other NEFA lads were invited down to Dalby Forest, North Yorkshire for a trail building seminar where we were shown the serious side of trail building by Joey and Rich. It was nice to see that trail work was not just shovelling shit. It was a real thing; a skill to be learned. Heads full of rising turns and bench cutting, we returned to Chopwell with a new attitude to building trails. Did the trail building seminar lead to the Powerline trail at Chopwell being built or did that come later? Mick: Aye, pretty much immediately on our return from Dalby we were Flagging out section 1 of the old "powerline" trail. Riders these days may be surprised by the fact that the entire trail from the car park to the bottom of the woods was hand cut using nothing more than spades and hand tools. Every bit of top stone was wheel barrowed by blokes not machines and some of the trails were a half mile away from the stone storage!!. We were self funded and over keen back then. My mate Trev and I actually bought the first top stone out of our own pockets at close to £1500 and we never got that back. Sounds like a massive job!How do you feel about it now? All that money and time put in. Does NEFA still exist as an active group? Mick: I still love a bit of trail work and try to get involved in as many projects as I can manage. We still try to put in a couple of build days here and there to keep the trails in Chopwell open and fun. As for NEFA, as a unit we are still going strong but for the last few years rules and health and safety bullshit has kind of taken the fun out of building. The forestry is pretty much dead in the North East due to cuts and sell offs etc. and our little forest is about to become unmanned. NEFA have turned their hands to racing and most of the main lads now race downhill. I don't enjoy racing as I ride for the fun of it and don't really feel the need to be better or faster than anyone. I've moved on to project management and building outside of Chopwell. I put in a solid 14 months building the Dynamix skatepark for the boardroom team with my mate Dyno. I am getting involved with a rebuild of the old Whickham Thorns BMX track just off the A1 at Gateshead too. 14 months building at Dynamix is a huge commitment! How do manage to pay your bills when you're putting that kind of time into a project? How much involvement are you expecting to have with the Whickham Thorns track? Mick: Ah, passion doesn't pay too well I'm afraid. After closing "The Bikeshed" (my bike shop) I worked for the young offenders people teaching chavs to fix bikes for a while but at my age no one's keen to take you on, so a few dead enders and part time jobs have kept me in bike tokens. While I volunteered at Dynamix for 14 months I was between jobs but I have no tolerance for sitting around waiting for things to happen. The Dynamix job was supposed to turn into a proper permanent job but that's gone by the wayside. Whickham Thornes was a nice little BMX race track back in the day and I've always thought that the council were a bit daft to let it get in such a bad shape. There are kids out there who would love to ride it. I will be designing and building the Mtb loop proposed for Whickham Thornes this summer and that hopefully will lead to the council coughing up the money to get the BMX track back into action. Are you going to stick with designing and building trails and parks or is there pressure to get a "proper job"? Do you have any advice for youngsters who really want to get into trail building? Mick: The pressures of life will always knock on the door and get in the way of what you truly want to do. I would love to find a way of making my passion pay but its highly unlikely. The truth is that a few years ago while working way too hard for soulless drones in a job I HATED, I made a big decision. I decided that no matter what, I wanted to be happy with myself and if that means being poor I'm fine with that. In reality you don't need a 50" plasma TV, an i-pad or next years trainers. I smile every day of my life. Advice for young trail builders: get permission if you want your hard work to stay put. Build it well the first time and don't be too keen to ride it before you know it's right. Most of all, ride for fun, ride for you, nobody else's opinion matters. Article by: John Dunn Thanks to Richard Easton for the photos www.photo-moto.co.uk