Joel Northrup
| Full Name | Joel Northrup |
| Nickname | Schwag Steward, Camper, Gold digger, literally and figuratively |
| Date of Birth | 1/22/63 |
| Place(s) You Call home | CALIFORNIA!!! ... Yosemite, Tahoe, Shasta, Mammoth, Joaquin Miller, Redwood, Chabot, El Corte De Madera...couldn't be any better |
| Height | 6' 4" |
| Weight | 195 |
| Shoe Size (euro or US) | 47 |
| Bike(s) | MOOTS YBB 22" absolutely "The best built bikes in the whole darn solar system" Wish list for 2000: VAMOOTS Road bike (for training and racing? I'll at least try it.), DH bike and Intense Tracer outfitted with our awsome sponsored products |
| Years Mountain Biking/Racing | Since 1989. My first race was just to go and see one of the Tahoe Rim series races with a buddy. A beginner talked us into racing and during the race that same guy did a spectacular flip and face plant right in front of me! (rode a Cannondale Beast of the East, hardtail with a rigid fork). I was hooked after that... |
| Racing Category | Sport/Expert coming soon... ...in 2000?! |
| Favorite Trail/Race |
Rides - Lake Tahoe, Mt. Diablo, Redwood,
Downieville... Races - Hmmm, definitely more than one, Sea Otter, Napa Valley Dirt Classic, Lake Sonoma 8 hour, Mammoth (best Spectator event) |
| Best Mountain Biking Experience | Cruising the trails when I had the ROCK SHOX BOXXER up front. Smooth as butta! |
| Worst Mountain Biking Experience | Going out for a refreshing ride just to get an ambulance ride to the Stanford Emergency room and having my arm grow to the size of a GIANT squash from a severely dislocated elbow (1/99). Ooooh, the PAIN!!!! Ugggggh, the recovery :( |
| Likes | A BIG thanks to those who still support the grass roots teams!!! Impossibly steep technical climbs. Super light bikes and components. Mechanical gadgets like long travel DH bikes. |
| Dislikes | The trend towards making all local singletracks too easy to ride or closing them altogether. Rain, mud, sleet, and Henry Snow. |
| Favorite fud | Crab :), Pasta, Salmon/trout |
| Toe-may-toe or toe-mah-toe? | Toe-may-toe |
| Wool, cotton, silk, or polyester? | Polyester |
| Boxers, briefs, G-string? | Briefs, never tried boxers, and I remember in grade school when you'd sneak up on someone and... Walla... a G-string (happened to me once). |
| Favorite CD | Pearl Jam 10 |
| Why You Mountain Bike | I actually stumbled upon mountain biking in college when I just needed to get transportation from distant parking areas to school. After that, the friends, new gadgets, racing, seeing new places, challenges and just being able to get out keep me on the bike. |
| If You Didn't Mountain Bike, You'd... | In one hand a TV tuner, the other a bag of buttered popcorn, a pastrami sandwich on my lap and a napkin on my beer belly. Actually, I'd likely take a year off and backpack around the world. Hard to think...no Mt. Biking. |
| Goals in Life | "Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value." |
| In High School, Were You a Straight A Student, Nerd, Jock, Geek (check all that apply) | In high school, I really didn't try hard to prepare for college, so I was not a straight A student because I was doing too much of everything else. Sports, Road trips, camping, fishing, biking (road at the time), water skiing, traveling, skate boarding, movies... A little too much of everything but school. It all worked out ok, and that all changed when I went to college...eeeks...Mechanical Engineering nerd/geek at U.C. Berkeley. |
| Someone you look up to | Bill Gates - Everything you do today has something to do with what he has accomplished. He was just a kid when his vision really took off. He sure was rewarded for his efforts though, I mean dough $$$$$$!!!! It's also hard to believe someone, Bill, could buy whole countries, launch his own space station... chicken feed. I just hope he spreads his wealth wisely. |
| Quote | Einstein's theory of Mt. Biking... "If 'A' equals success, then A = X + Y + Z. "X" is work. "Y" is play. "Z" is keeping your mouth shut." Or in other words (mine) "X" is $ for bikes, "Y" is getting out and riding and "Z" is keep your mouth shut or else you will be eating either manure, bugs or dust! |
| Something about you that we may not know | I sometimes work with people pieces (That is for engineering purposes for medical devices.). |
| If you could invite three people from history, who would they be? | Einstein (Q: "so exactly where should that pivot point be?", Moses (should have some fantastic stories to tell) and John D. Rockefeller (maybe he'd accidentally drop some spare change, a few million would do it, and I could retire) |