Fact: most mountain bike videos typically focus on the riding, and not the fascinating characters professional riders are in real life. Sure, it pays the bills to feature high stoke shredding, good times, and making everything look as sick as possible – but in many ways that’s not really all that relatable. That’s pretty much right where 50to01 comes in, with a mission to celebrate what makes mountain biking fun for all of us. Yes, they ride on a whole other level than we can ever imagine, but it boils down to having fun on the trails with friends and pushing creativity in the sport just for the sake it.
Dan Paley (aka @donny_soulja) fully embodies the crew’s mantra. He absolutely rips on all kinds of two-wheeled craft, BMX and mountain bikes included, and is fully dedicated to spreading the word on all good things that bikes can bring us. Take a deep dive into the mind of the rider in Santa Cruz’s latest: All Wheel Drive.
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Let’s get one thing straight, Paley isn’t a mountain biker. He’s not a BMXer. He’s a man possessed with the need to just get his kicks and doesn’t care about the neat little categories other people have made fences around so it’s easier for them to build divisions of people. He’s a biker, but he’s also a boxer, clean eater, joy bringer, and a vocal supporter for his friends that are doing good things in positive ways. Which is why we are big fans of him.