Twelve years ago, when I was 16, I dreamt of being a trucker, cruising the land with a 350 Cummings cab over Peterbilt. So I got an "American by birth, trucker by choice" belt buckle and had ""Condor" scrolled across the back of it. I grew bad bushy side burns, to fit in at the truck stops, and started working on my hick accent. Since I had long hair, I was kind of a hippie/trucker, but by perfecting my spit and "a heap of hell fire slang" I was accepted into the "Trucker Family."

To tell the truth, that was only half of my reason for turning trucker. The other half stemmed from the progression of Bicycle Stunt riding. See, we were all starting to leave quarter pipes behind, and started riding half pipes. The evolution of bikes was making it to where quarter pipes were not just difficult to perform on, but very dangerous, and risky to our health. The problem was that touring was such a big part of riding that I felt we should tour with a portable half pipe.

With it being very costly and also not proven that you could make a decent portable half pipe, I couldn't get any of my sponsors interested. The next step was just to do it myself. I started by designing a half pipe. Once I was happy with the design, I had it manufactured.

After redesigning it about 3 times I finally had a portable half pipe I could bring on the road. Ready to tour, I hooked it up to a dually and off I went. About a half a mile later, I realized the dually wasn't going to go over 35 mph with this gigantic sled on the back, so back to the drawing board. I redesigned the hitch on the trailer, and went searching for a Semi truck. It normally wouldn't be that hard to find a Semi truck, but to find someone that would sell a 16-year-old one was a different story. See you have to be at least 21, with a special license to drive one.

The search continued until I found one in Kansas. Steve (Swope) and I flew in, got a cab to some red necks house, and bought me a Peterbilt. I climbed up in the cab, and I was looking at all the knobs and buttons with a confused gaze on my face. The retired trucker asked, "Do you know how to drive this thing?" Lying through my teeth I said, "yes." Seeing through my lie the trucker said, "you know this baby has 16 gears, and you don't use the clutch to shift." Me saying "Oh ya, I know," we took off.

Well, the first couple hundred miles was pretty hard, but after that I was a pro, except I had burnt the clutch out in the process. Now I was a proud trucker with a half pipe in tow at speeds up to 65 mph. With a fresh paint job, flames on the side, and an added bumping stereo, the Sprocket Jockeys were born.

Through the years, I tipped the trailer over into oncoming traffic, got stuck under a bridge, had many encounters with the law, and broke the semi in half, just to mention a few adventures. Ten years later, I have designed a new rig that is much more glamorous and user friendly and the Sprocket Jockeys still live on.

If you're interested in booking a show at your shop or event, call Hoffman Bikes at 405-528-4130.