WORDS & PHOTOGRAPHY SANNY
What is it that first inspired you to get into this strange and unusual sport of ours? Was it riding your BMX off-road with your mates as a kid? Was it some briefly glanced-at TV programme about this new craze from America called ‘mountain biking’? Or did you flick through an outdoor magazine and see images of impossibly tanned and goodlooking Californian types on bikes with a gazillion gears, riding sun-dappled trails that appear only to exist in dreams?
For me, it was the cover picture of a walking magazine showing a guy sans helmet pushing what would now be considered a practically Neolithic Saracen (complete with canti brakes and Bullmoose stem) on a patch of snow on the Cairngorm plateau. As inspiring images go, it was pretty low rent. Despite this, the image stuck with me long after I got my first proper mountain bike, a 15-speed Raleigh Maverick ATB. Icing on the magazine cake was a story inside about the Crane cousins taking their bikes up Kilimanjaro. Tiny – mind – blown! The years have passed, the bikes have come and gone, but the same spark continues to burn brightly. Unbeknownst to me at the time, that one picture would set me on a journey of adventure, self-discovery and personal challenge where I would set out to ride all the Munros – every Scottish mountain over 3,000ft. Currently standing at 283 in number, it’s not exactly what you would call a minor task. I’m not there yet but damn, it’s been fun so far!