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Zap, Freeride
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You have to feel for Zapata Espinosa. He had a great gig at Mountain Bike where he could say whatever he wanted. Many of us didn't often agree with him but his articles always stirred up emotion and they were never boring. Much of his energy went into slagging Freeride and the trend towards baggy shorts. I was on a ride with Zap in the Chilcotins and he wore the full Euro kit - bib shorts and the whole bit - in the Chilcotins mind you. The land of traplines and float planes.
None of this was a big deal until Zap was no longer working at Mountain Bike. See, Zap's gig these days is working for Trek Bikes as a brand manager. He's on the marketing side and there are times when it's his job to promote freeride and to tell folks how cool Trek's new freeride bikes are. For most that seems like a dream gig but it's cruel punishment for the guy who says 'dress for the ride and not the crash.' called ODI lock-on grips one of the worst products ever and who declared that no bike should have less than three water bottle braze on locations.
Lately Zap's been doing some googling and he managed to find some quotes on our Web site from 2001-2002 in our currently dormant product review section. There was a spot where you could comment on magazines and it seems that everyone who commented on Mountain Bike mentioned Zap and his disdain for Freeride. Many of the comments are quite unkind - some worse than that. Zap assembled those quotes and put together responses to each unfavourable post.
Good on ya Zap. Nice to see there's some fight left under those bibs.
PS - You should try mtb polo Zap - I think you'd dig it.
To find Zap's Rant
It seems that direct linking to this article is a problem for most folks.
To find it go to Trek bikes
and then choose Canada or U.S. as your country - other choices don't present
Zap's column. Once you are in choose mountain and then scroll to the bottom.
Zap's rant is on the bottom left.
