John Anthony Downing "hardcore"
Age: 20   DOB: 4-9-83
Hometown: St. Louis/Soulard, Missouri

E-mail: JohnHardcore@hotmail.com

TOP THREE'S

SPONSORS:                                   FAVORITE PLACES:
1. Tree Bicycle Co                         1. Austin
2. Golden Bear Bike Shop            2. St. Louis
3. Ding-A-Lings                            3. Woodward East/West

BEST BARS:                                   FUNNIEST BROS:                                                                       click
1. Bar St. Louis/St.Louis,               1. Josh Dey
2. 8 Seconds/Orlando, FL                  Josh Schlienz
3. Lucky's St. Louis, MO               3. Ashley Hoffmann (mackin' on chicks)

FAVORITE GROUPS:                    WOMEN:
1. St. Lunatics                                  I got a few
2. Outkast
3. Justin Timberlake
4. The Neptunes
5. At The Drive In
6. Thursday
7. Gun N' Roses
8. Anything ghetto is good for me.

BIKE SETUP
Frame: Fly Diablo
Bars: Macneil Ruben
Forks: S&M Pitch w/ Tree head-set bolt
Hubs: Profile LSD 48 rear/Profile Mini 36 front
Rims: Primo Hula Hoop rear/Sun Rhino Lite 36 front
Stem: Primo Casket
Headset: King Sealed
Seat: Primo Hemorrhoid
Seat Post: DK Fixed
Cranks: Profile Race 180-mm w/ Titanium Spindle
Pedals Primo Pro
Sprocket: Tree 37 w/ Tree Guard
Pegs: Macneil front/DK Fire Starter rear
Gyro: Something I found in the spare parts box at Ramp Riders
Tires: Tioga freestyle front/Primo V-Monster rear

CUSTOMIZATION
I cut the seat post off a whole bunch, along with the steer tube, and bars.  Between each spoke hole I drilled a half inch hole in the wall of the rim that you put the rim strip on.  I cut the right dropout on the frame so it would fit almost flush with my peg so it doesn't hang up on rails.  I cut off my brake lever so that only one finger can fit on it eliminating bloody knuckles.


    I was born in the shitty city of downtown Houston, Texas and lived there for a few months.  After that mess, my family and I moved to a fucking trailer park in Thornton, Colorado.  Thornton is a  suburb of Denver incase your brain is geographically dumb.  We lived there until I was about three or four when my parents got a divorce.  My dad got custody of me and we moved to Maryland Hts., Missouri.  A suburb of St. Louis, and yes thats incase your brain is geographically dumb.  All was great until I had the bright idea of moving to Denver for the seventh grade with my mom.  Most of the people in Denver are stuck up assholes.  So for the eighth grade I move back with my dad which was a whole lot fucking better.  So through eighth grade I thought I was a damn ass gangsta.  Smoking dope, listen to Easy-E, Snoop, 2-Pac, Dre, and Ice Cube.  That shit only lasted a year.  Good thing because anymore of that and I could have had some serious physiological damage to the brain.  So between eighth and ninth grade I built some jumps to practice racing behind my house which later became the Legendary MACK AVE. TRAILS which I'll talk about later.  I started racing BMX with my brother Mike and thats when I really got into riding.  One day at the track my brother was buying forks off this guy before the races. He said his name was Ashley.  I was like "Holy shit dude. Your Ashley from Rush Creek."  He was like, ya.  Ashley was up there with Casey and Sam.  Now Ashley and Casey are fucking living legends to me at this time.  They bought me Burger King that night and I later found out I was going to be a freshman at there High School, Pattonville.  Fucking Sweet right.  I started hanging out with them a lot and ended up getting into street and trails.  That took up most of my time so I pretty much quit racing.  My freshman year in high school was when the Ding-A-Lings were formed.  The original Ding-A-Lings are as follows: Ashley Hoffmann, Casey Otto, Theo Lamb, Kris Ferguson, John Kirk, Burks McGuire, Sam Schulte, Tim/Scott Altnether, Casey Fischer, and myself.  Since then one of the Ding-A-Lings quit hanging out and a new person filled the spot, Jeff "the only son" Brockmeyer.  That now makes me the second youngest of the Ding-A-Lings.  My high school days were filled with skipping school to ride, hanging out at all three school lunches, or chillin at the Mack Ave. Trails.  My friends would say thats not true and that I was really always inside making babies with my girl friend.  Whatever.  Now the Mack Ave. Trails were these jumps I built to help practice racing.  Ya in the beginning they sucked.  My dad spent around $1,000 on Bobcat rentals.  After the first summer the trails were pretty fucking sweet.  By the second summer it was heard being quoted as one of the best set of trails to hit St. Louis.  I highly agree.  Naturally like every great set of trails, it was plowed.  Harsh right.  We know the day would come.  It was the Chief of Police's land.  He was about to retire so he built his retirement home on the trails.  Actually, he build the house at the top of the hill which we didn't use.  The trails were plowed to make his back yard.  Nothing but grass, a light post, and two benches sat there.  That winter I ended moving back to Denver to finish high school.  My dad moved to Phoenix and got married to the best person he could have met.  Good for you dad.  Denver a pretty good place to ride once you get away from the riders that are all stuck up assholes who think there Rat boy.  Thats most of them.  I met two guys.  Josh Schlienz and Josh Dey.  Quite possibly the raddest motherfuckers on earth.  Two and a half years of that I'm back in the Lou.  Ashley and I have a place in Soulard and we ride Ramp Riders everyday and nothing could be better.  You want to know why.  Cuz its the FUCKIN LOU.