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i DepenD<br />
on feel<br />
B_Hello everybody in the SRSUNTOUR Suspension<br />
World. My name is Bobby McMullen, I was born<br />
in Redding, California and I now live in Mill valley,<br />
California. I race enduro events, Super Ds and downhill.<br />
Well, I’m legally blind. I don’t see out of my right eye and<br />
left eye. I’m 20/1200 best corrected vision - basically about<br />
15% of my sight. I have a number of health issues. I’ve<br />
had two double organ transplants, a kidney and pancreas,<br />
I’m battling a little bit of cancer right now and two months<br />
ago I had open heart surgery. And on top of that, the<br />
adventuresome life I’ve led I’ve broken more bones that I can<br />
actually remember. Riding the bike has been the medication<br />
you can’t by in a pharmacy. When I bought my first bike, it<br />
changed my life.<br />
Now, I’m sure many are wondering: how does a guy with<br />
only 15% of his sight ride a mountain bike in a downhill or<br />
an enduro or just ride a bike.<br />
As I mentioned, as a visual impaired or blind rider I use a<br />
number of different people who ride as my guide, who ride<br />
a bike length or two in front. And in many instances my wife<br />
Heidi is that person.<br />
BLind BoBBy BOBBy MCMULLEN inteRvieW<br />
Words Bobby McMullen B, Heidi Suchard h | Photos Hoshi Yoshida<br />
H_ Bobby has some pretty basic commands. So I’m<br />
calling out “left-left-left, down the trail or right”, I’m<br />
telling him where he should be on the trail, on the<br />
inside or the outside of the turns. It becomes a conversation<br />
back and forth between the two of us which helps us to<br />
gauge distance so I know how far he is behind me and if<br />
he’s falling back and if I’m out of his line of sight or not.<br />
B_ Working with Darren Salsbury in product<br />
development we talked about my riding style, he<br />
knew a little bit about me and he pointed me right in<br />
the direction of the Durolux fork and rear suspension.<br />
For me not being able to see very well, I depend on feel and<br />
we can fine tune this fork to the ‘nth’ degree to where every<br />
bump, every hit I take doesn’t register me going over the<br />
bar but it’s registering me being in the right position at the<br />
right time on any given trail under any given conditions be<br />
it the Megavalanche to here at Sea Otter.<br />
H_Bobby, I think, has explained it best in saying "it’s<br />
like a very well-choreographed dance between the<br />
two of us."<br />
durolux video<br />
session with<br />
Bobby McMullen<br />
39
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