CFR

It's Time for change

This month ChicagoFreeride.com is four years old, but the idea behind it goes back much further. I started out riding road bikes and got bored with it pretty quick. Moved up to my first mountain bike around 92-93, a rockhopper then a trek and a stumpjumper and so on and so on. Somewhere in there I met some real good people. The first to join in the mountain bike thing was Big B. We did mostly xc at that point. Keep in mind that xc to us back then was a lot more like freeriding than xc now. While out riding at deer grove( I think that’s where it was) we these guys, Angel, G and Greg. We became good friends and rode together. Then this cat named Dom came into the picture. Through him and Big B I met this lousy rider named Bryan aka: -b. He got much better! Then through him met John L and this little flip dude named Vince who became better known as “Hardcore Habon” and I cant forget Chris Miller. The first time he rode with us I wanted to leave him behind. Flat tires and that shit. He got A LOT better. Then one day we got these stickers from Angel that where from that move “snatch”. That’s when we became the “Snatch crew” I think that was in 2000. I had started a real crap free site with no bandwidth based on the snatch crew.

During that time we me quite a few riders. We even turned some on to freeriding. Those were some great times. As we grew, I felt the need to do something more for us. I wanted to start a site for us to post our pics and vids on and also a place to post riding times, places and to talk shop and trade our scar stories. It really wasn’t long before the site took off and people were actually look for us on rides. I remember posting rides to meet at the totem pole on the lake front and guys I never met before showing up asking if they could come along for the ride. It just blew me away. While riding on the train one day met this guy(Tim T) who knew about us from da site. He eventually came out ridding. The site just started snowballing and growing. We changed hosts and I finally got a real forum up and running. I couldn’t believe how big we had gotten. We were meeting new people every week. I came across Matt (2x4) on pink bike and e-mailed him to meet. I remember that day very well because that was the first ride w/ Angel after he moved back from California, I saw Matt, this skinny guy ridding up on and ellsworth specialist. Little did I know that meeting would lead to a great friendship. Actually, through this site I have met, and I mean this, some great friends. Guys I call brother!

This site and riding has shaped my life. I met my wife Holly because of Angel, my brother whom I will be eternally grateful to. Because of him I got married and had a son, Luke. This site has given so much to me that I felt sometimes I wasn’t giving the site and you enough back. I haven’t been able to take care of the site very well at all over the past year and a half. I have felt pretty shitty about that. Cfr has not been living up to its name, the site anyway. You all have been spreading the word about CFR like mad. I have been completely useless when it comes to taking care of the site and especially you all. I’m very sorry for letting the site go to hell and letting you down.

I have thought about this for awhile now. Chicagofreeride.com is not about me and should not suffer because of me. This site, CFR, ChicagoFreeride.com is YOU! Without you there would be no site. CFR is bigger than me and should be run that way, not just when I have time for it. So I have decided to turn the site over to Matt (2x4) to run. As of Monday or Tuesday (8-9th May) Matt will be the owner and webmaster. Please give Matt some time to work on getting the site back to what it was. He has a lot of work ahead of him. Good luck Matt. Also, I will be changing my e-mail address from Admin to Danno@ChicagoFreeride.com. If you need to, please send any mail there.

I want to sincerely thank all of you.
Danny Leach (Danno)