Why I ride

What makes your heart beat hardest?

Answer this question for yourself. What lies therein is something that give you purpose and fulfilment to live. If someone would ask you “Why this?” you might not know. Your answer might be illogical, counterproductive or even irresponsible. But it makes your heart beat hardest.

So why do I ride? Let’s start from the beginning…

My first bike was a BMX, I was 3 years old and rode it away without support from day one (pretty much). Since then I’ve always felt like the bike, or whatever vehicle I was on, was an outlet for my ambitious side. Because it wasn’t about the bike itself, the free feeling or being able to ride anywhere. I loved the bike. Free I was. And riding everywhere I certainly did. But it was that deep desire and ambition of improving, being better, faster or jumping further. It was about competing. Competing with my present self to become a better self. And sometimes I also competed with others.

My dad was an accomplished motocross rider on Scandinavian level. My competitive instinct definitely stem from him. My uncle and cousins were certainly big positive contributors as well. And even though “Second place is the first looser” was a mantra we often played by, it was never really about the result. It was always about the thrilling exploration of your own boundaries and perfection of your own skill. And for my dad’s mentality on this I’m forever grateful.

Since my first few bikes I went on to motocross racing on regional level. Later I switched two wheels to four – racing karts on national and north European level and in 2006 I became the Swedish Champion in my class. But more on that in a later blog post.

Racing, competing, is in my blood. It’s part of me, it’s part of my life; I’ve been doing it all my life. – Aryton Senna

There’s no sugary cliché, so why do I ride? Because it makes my heart beat hardest.