Day three of the SMC 100 is here: ranks 90-81. I’ve been enjoying the dialogue surrounding all of these so keep the convos going on our IG!
Yes, the back end of the list is already so so so stacked, but rest assured, we will only continue to list heavier and heavier hitters. I think we forget how many killer riders have graced our scene with their presence over the years.
Click into post for the reveal!
90 – Gabe Winawer
Nickname: n/a
Years Active: 2011 – 2013
Region: Southern CA
Social Media: n/a
If you were there for it, you would know how much impact Gabe left on the scene in such a small amount of time. Not only was his riding super clean and progressive, he was a larger than life personality that made for some really entertaining content before we called it “content”.
When it came to his riding, he was first to do few couple things: flat truck driver (footage doesn’t exist anymore… trust me though, it happened), barspin rewind (seen as the ender to the video below), and a switch spin switch barspin 180 bar (as seen in the famous KVLT KLIPS X video). He didn’t take himself too seriously, but when Gabe tried, it was beautifully calculated destruction. Towards the end of his riding days in 2013, he developed a finesse that is really hard to come by. He made his bike look like it weighed 10 pounds and seemed to be on his way to the top. He quit riding at his absolute peak, so I fear that we never got to see the best version of Gabe.
89 – Jordan Ramos
Nickname: State Chump
Years Active: 2012 – 2015
Region: Southern California
Social Media: @statechump
Jordan Ramos came into the scene hot in 2013 and really stood out as a talented grom with so much potential. His ability to spin both ways, barspin in and out of anything, and deep bag of tricks really put him above the cut of upcoming riders, carving himself out a small segment of FGFS history (personally one that I think deserves more recognition, but he’s been lost in history a little bit). He had truck drivers both ways, incredible nose manuals, every barspin variation you can imagine, all on an outdated 700c bike. Ahead of his time with his tricks, but riding a dinosaur bike, as people used to tell me back in 2013. That’s right, he never made the jump to 26″, so I only wonder what he could’ve done with a modern 26″ bike. Although we did get a glimpse of it at some point when he borrowed someone’s bike well after he retired and landed a flat tailwhip, can anybody find that clip? It got lost on Instagram somewhere.
88 – Toyo Minato
Nickname: n/a
Years Active: 2014 – Present
Region: Japan
Social Media: @toyofixed
Toyo Minato is a Japanese rider that started making waves in 2013 with progressive maneuvers who quickly became a threat to any contest he entered during the peak of Japanese contests. During this era of riding, there was a huge push for progression. Barspins in and out of everything, bigger drops, NBD tricks, and Toyo embodies it all. Although progression came early for him, he really found his style as his riding carried on throughout the years. Even though he’s riding less now, every time he drops a new clip it’s got the same fire that his old riding used to have, but now is dripping with aggressive style. His mix of street, ramp comfort, contest results, and consistent edits land him a solid place in Japanese FGFS history.
87 – Bombay Chakrist
Nickname: n/a
Years Active: 2012 – Present
Region: Thailand
Social Media: @qomqayc
A veteran of the scene now, Bombay has been holding it down for Thailand since 2012. What once was one of the biggest regions for FGFS bikes, now (nearly) comes down to a single Bombay holding it down for an entire country. I remember his name back then, but he didn’t really start making serious waves until about 2015. His dedication to the craft started to pay off and it would set the tone for the tip tap tech wizard he is now. Bombay’s riding is defined by tight lines, jamming tons of tricks into confined spaces, and flowy style. He is the only rider out of Thailand to ever release an edit in 2012 AND 2026.
86 – Tang Junlong
Nickname: 855
Years Active: 2019 – Present
Region: China
Social Media: @855tjl
Tang, better known as 855, is one of the most progressive riders to come out of this new school generation of riders. Now training BMX at China’s olympic BMX park, 855 (seemingly) got his start to bicycles tricks on fixed gears in 2019 and has become a weapon ever since. His approach to riding seems to be to just push the limits of what is possible. He’s done moves that hardly anyone has touched like double truck drivers and flat tailwhips, but he’s also contributed to history with multiple NBD’s including a triple barspin, 180 triple barspin, and a 180 whip on a ramp. It’s rare we get park rats in FGFS, but 855 is built different and trains like he’s training for fixie Nitro Circus. I would love to see a proper edit from him some day, but his mind blowing occasional Instagram clips will suffice.
85 – Kai Nashimoto
Nickname: Fixika
Years Active: 2007 – Present
Region: Japan
Social Media: @ikafix
One of Japan’s oldest legends, Kai, aka Fixika, has been part of Japan’s scene since its early documentation. Naturally, being big player in the scene so early on means Kai played a big role in experimentation and establishing what were considered “cool” tricks to do. Early keo spins, no hand wheelies, line linking, and a little bit of BMX trick exploration on a full sized track bike with tall handlebars established Kai as a lesser known pioneer of Fixed Gear tricks. He was even the first to do a 180 disaster on a quarter pipe on his track bike in early 2008. Partaking in legendary DVD’s like Fumikiri and Bootleg Sessions v.2 even further establishes his early contributions to our scene.
Although considered “retired” for a long time, he was recently featured in some recent photos taken by 84Kick of him back on the fixed gear bike cruising through the city.
84 – Snow O’Connell
Nickname: Oak Ghost
Years Active: 2011 – Present
Region: Northern California
Social Media: @oak_ghost
Bay Area’s most elusive rider Snow O’Connell tries so hard to stay out of the spotlight, so here I am to unearth him and make sure his presence is known. One of the greatest creative minds to ever come out of our sport, Snow’s take on riding is unlike anybody I’ve seen on our bikes. Fast and loose, slow and (semi)controlled, dangerous, out of the box, all these phrases I would use to describe how he rides. His edit that released in 2012 linked below put him on everybody’s radar, then he vanished like the Avatar. He didn’t stop riding, just kind of stopped showing up on camera. Luckily for us though, he started slooowly showing off the riding he’d been up to in 2014 and slow rolled us with mind blowing clips ever since. If we ever see the edit he’s been working on for the last 14 years… I will eat my arm.
83 – Justin Schual
Nickname: JSchual
Years Active: 2011 – 2014
Region: Southern California
Social Media: @jschual_
Justin Schual out of Ontario, CA made waves in the FGFS scene in 2013 with a feature in the Altar Tribe launch video. He showcased great back wheel control, big scale tricks, and the ability to link lines everywhere. In the short amount of time he was active, he managed to release multiple full edits a year and bank one of the most significant NBD’s to date: the ice hard 180. Clearly with that one, Justin’s biggest strengths were his tech skills and ability to use his pegs. Unfortunately for history’s sake, a lot of Justin’s videos were deleted from Vimeo and may never be found again. I was able to recover some, but definitely not all of them, which is heartbreaking. His most significant ones were saved though, so at least we have proof of his ice hard 180.
After putting down the FGFS bike in 2014, Justin found success in the BMX world and locked in on honing that in for a while.
82 – Sean Coats
Nickname: n/a
Years Active: 2010 – 2012
Region: Southern CA
Social Media: n/a
Looking back at history, it’s kind of nuts that Sean was only actively riding and putting out content for 3 years because of the huge presence he had. Sean was one of the biggest names out of the groms that came out of the golden era (2010), and he lived up to the hype that was generated around him. He stayed jibby but did some big stuff when he felt like it, which makes for some exciting unpredictable riding. His bike setups were always dialed, tricks were creative, and oozed with steez. Sean was one of the first I remember seeing experiment with switch 180’s in an impressive way, actually utilizing them at hard spots rather than just peppering them in on flat ground. During the later era of his riding, he rode with the wisdom of a veteran and pick and chose his tricks very well. he also was way ahead of his time with the tall seatpost on a 26″ bike.
Unfortunately for us a lot of his content was deleted from Vimeo and not saved anywhere. If you have Sean Coats edits from 2010-2011… you know who to call.
81 – Mike Dinh
Nickname: Micro Dinher
Years Active: 2009 – 2013
Region: Southern CA
Social Media: n/a
Where do I start with Mike. First of all, most of his bikes were too big for him. Second, that didn’t stop him from becoming one of the earliest people to get properly good at barspins and send them off fucking MASSIVE drops. Mike had an odd mix of tricks in a good way. First one to explore the suicide no-hander in an interesting way and had massively clean barspins like I said before. Some of the memes surrounding him and edits that accompanied left a massive crater in the scene that still resonates today.
Tune in tomorrow for rankings 80-71!
Suck My Cog 