About/ Contact

I hate bikes is a creative side project of Jason Van Horn, a photographer and designer originally based in the Portland, Oregon area. It began when Van Horn, an Oregon native, relocated to the California Bay Area in the interest of furthering his career. The site was originally intended to be online journal of sorts, documenting his adventures and exploration of mountain bike opportunities in the Bay Area. Since then it has grown to be a creative outlet, journal, and zine. It continues to focus on documenting mountain bike culture, and has evolved over time to what it is now: a collection and archive of high quality riding photography and stories. If you were to boil it down to the very essence of the mission statement, this site is dedicated to good times & good friends, and traveling to ride bikes in cool places.

After several years of living in San Francisco, Van Horn met Inga Beck. It was a perfect match, and she joined him on his adventures, which included a stint working for the International Mountain Biking Association. During this time, Van Horn and Beck traveled from Texas to Alaska, riding bikes and teaching sustainable trail building. After a brief foray back to Portland, Van Horn and Beck returned to the Bay Area where they currently reside.

To read the old mission statement, click here.
To read the mission statement from before that one, click here.

As for the name of the site- it’s a love/ hate thing. If you do not understand the concept of irony, click here.

Contributors:

Jason Van Horn
Designer, Photographer, Editor. Jason is currently available for freelance work and specializes in lifestyle, action sports and portrait photography.

email: jason{at}ihatebikes.net

Visit Jason’s Portfolio website

Bio: Armed with a fierce passion for anything with two wheels or a handlebar, Jason has been riding bikes of some form for as long as he can remember. There was a brief period in high school where bikes were replaced by skateboards, but he renounced his planking ways when he began college, when he discovered mountain bikes. Riding trails became his therapy, as well as his main reason to wake up in the morning. Initially a cross country rider and then later an cross country racer, he found that riding fast downhills and jumping off, over, and onto things made him happier than anything else. This lead down a slippery slope, when he took a break from school after a MTB road trip- his first pilgrimage to Moab.

He began his first stint in a bike shop as a mechanic at this time. After a season of wrenching on bikes, he returned to school in Eugene, Oregon, where he ended up riding more than he should have at the local BMX track, and on the local trails. Here he began to re-learn how to ride a bike (and paying his dues frequently in blood) with proper technique- first on a 24″ crusier, and then graduating to the real deal: a 20″ BMX. Time on a BMX bike honed his skills on the big wheels, and while he still owns a bike with little wheels, now he rides 26″ full time.  After ten years of riding bikes throughout the state of Oregon, he made his way south to San Francisco in order to pursue a career as a Web/ UI Designer.

In addition to freelancing as a Web Designer and Photographer, Jason also has begun coaching others in mountain bike skills. Unlike many other naturally talented athletes, he was not naturally gifted, and therefore spent countless hours breaking down technique, and watching bike videos in order to progress his riding to its current level. Time spent studying martial arts and the swing dance Lindy Hop also taught him how to teach others.

Jason rides an number of different mountain bike styles including Down Hill, Freeriding, All Mountain, as well as street, park and dirt jumps. While his favorite thing to do is point his bike down the trail, he also tries to use his bikes as transportation as much as possible in his day to day life. His favorite tricks are suicide no-handers, 180s, table tops, whips, no-footers, and tries to make his one-handers look halfway as cool as Hacksaw’s. His current goal is to learn no-foot can-cans, fly on his bike like Superman, and learn turn-downs, because they look so freaking cool. And to finally land a 360 clean.

Jason is currently available for freelance web design and photography. If you need web design, marketing and/or content development please do not hesitate to get into contact.

JVH in action: (thanks to his friends)

Follow Jason on Twitter
http://twitter.com/ihatebikes

Inga Beck
Editor, Photography Assistant, Marketing Outreach

email: inga{at}ihatebikes.net

Visit Inga’s Blog (under development)

Bio: Inga is a city dwelling mountain biker who purchased her first mountain bike 11 years ago.  She lives for the weekend when she is free to explore new technical trails, park and shuttle runs, and street riding. As a city dweller, she enjoys the freedom from car ownership and commutes via public transportation with her bike. She has worked as a Data Analyst for several non-profits. In addition to her addiction to bikes, she loves traveling, road trips, bodybuilding, surfing, yoga,  rock climbing, and fashion.

She is also a certified Personal Trainer and understands the value of exercise, nutrition and alternative medicine.  Several days a week, she trains and lifts with her friends in a gym.  She is a firm believer of weight training and wants to continue to educate men and women on the benefits of bodybuilding.
Inga’s favorite trick is a fat powerslide. She recently learned how to bunny hop, and is stoked on how much her riding and technically skills has progressed this year.  Her current goal is to continue to develop her emerging bunny hop skills and apply it to dirt jumping and downhill trails, as well as training for Super D events.

Follow Inga on Twitter
http://twitter.com/IngaBeck