Conrad Davies

Name: Conrad Davies

How long have you been working in bike shops, and at Maverick? Been working in bike shops on and off for the last 14 years, but full time for the last 5 and at Mavericks for just over a year.

What types of riding do you do? Mountain biking! commute, race DH, marathons, XC, trails, street, park. Single speed, geared, ridged, full sus, what ever.

What bikes do you own? Morewood Izimu, Morewood Shova and GT Peace.

What do you do outside of Maverick? The way Maverick is sucking a big part of my life, there isn’t much outside of Maverick, but I rip up the trails as much as possible, hang out with Steph and watch movies, and I listen to music all the time.

What do you most enjoy about bikes? The freedom and the feeling you get when you rise to, and overcome a challenge.

Why work at Maverick? Maverick is an ideal, and I believe in that ideal.

What is your dream bike? For DH: a Morewood Makulu with the new Fox DHX RC4 and 40, and a RaceFace Diabolus/Shimano Siant build.

For XC: Kona 120 Supreme with full XTR and for trail: My Shova.

Three words that describe you: Can’t tell you.

How do you like your steak?.Dead, but still twiching

If you won the Lotto, you would: Have the biggest bring and braai ever

Who are your favourite riders? Kelvin Purchace and Alan Hatherly, and Greg Minnaar and Matti Lehikoinen.

Something random to end: Join the Moster Army!!!

It was Ian Dury who said "Sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, it's all my brain and body need". Mountain biking is simply suttogate sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. that is why everyone experiences it in a different way.

Since I left high school in 1994, I’ve worked mainly in retail or wholesale of some sort. Straight from school I went to work for Pix: Hobby Magic and from there to Speed Models as a shop assistant. I raced radio control cars and the industry was fun. It also gave me the opportunity to learn about the technical side of the products, which I enjoy. Up until 2001, I moved around a to few shops owned by my boss, usually to start them up and get staff up to speed. During that time I moved to Pretoria and all the way to Umhlanga, to start hobby shops.

In 2001 I felt like I needed a change (I’d started riding a few months earlier) and started studying web design. Also started freelancing as a graphic designer/web designer at that time. The first few years as a designer where tough, but fun. And the people in the in the industry are a bunch of laughs, but the unstable income started to cause problems.

During the time I was studying I worked for Linden Cycle and working with Mike Barth as a head mechanic, I couldn't help but pick up how to fix bikes well. As with radio control cars (and everything else I do) I had to learn everything I could about bikes and cycling. So I pretty much became the part time techie and setup guy in the shop.

When finances forced me to look for a full time job and the design industry wasn’t hiring 30 year old designers, I decided to look for work in a bike shop. Don at Bike Shak needed a manager that was a good mach, so I worked for him till his shop moved to PE. Luckily Omnico wanted a Fox Shox mechanic at about the same time.
Ever since a learned what droop (sage) was, suspension was something that interested me, so working with Fox was right up my ally. I believe I’m naturally, both technically minded and creative, so I can fix stuff by the book, but am really good at problem solving and thinking outside of the box.

Goals for the near future include, settling in Hillcrest, qualifying for the first round of the DH worlds in 2009, and mostly helping take Maverick Cycles to the next level. The shop is cool and I hope to see it grow huge.

Keep it tidy.