The SMC 100 | 80-71 | Suck My Cog

Day FOUR of the SMC 100 is here: ranks 80-71. Slowly but surely making our way through. Any surprises so far on your end?

Let’s get into it!!

80 – Christina Panteliodis

Nickname: n/a

Years Active: 2010 – 2013

Region: Baltimore, MD

Social Media: @cpanteliodis

Coming from a BMX background, Christina came into the FGFS scene in Baltimore and quickly made light work of the bigger medium. Truly one of the first women to come into the trick scene and have a well rounded complete skill set. Grinds, jumps, barspins, fakies all on lock while doing it with style and control. As part of the BMore fixed crew, it also gave her a platform to shine and be featured in a lot of video content and tons of photo content. When she got sponsored by Hold Fast, Christina became the first and only woman to have a signature foot strap.

79 – Ky Issawat

Nickname: n/a

Years Active: 2014 – Present

Region: Thailand

Social Media: @ky_issawat

There used to be something in the water in Thailand. Not many riders in history have had tailwhips dialed, but Ky at one point became one of the most consistent tailwhippers in the scene. Coming after the generation of Thai greats like Jaoa and Dew, Ky held the torch for the next wave of riders and made huge waves in the scene with his powerful bike control and large bag of tricks. I believe he was the first to do a 180 whip (on a bank) that wasn’t downside style. It wasn’t always pretty, but Ky made an impact on progressing what could be done on our bikes.

78 – Jamil Gray

Nickname: Need5m

Years Active: 2010 – Present

Region: Southern California

Social Media: @need5m

In 2010, Michael Chacon introduced us to his buddy Jamil. They rode similarly at the start in the Trick Track stage, then once BMX influence started taking over, Jamil separated himself and started turning heads on his own. At this stage in 2010, Jamil started to send some of the first big 360’s in the scene along with some more complex barspin variations that weren’t popular yet. His willingness to send himself off big stairs was nicely offset by his casual nonchalant riding style. FUCKING JAMIL GRAY!!

77 – Oscar Lopez

Nickname: n/a

Years Active: 2011 – Present

Region: Southern California

Social Media: @oscarlopez.mov

Before he was known as the media mogul he is today, Oscar started as a Culver City grom in the peak era of FGFS in SoCal. Having grown up in that, Oscar developed an incredibly solid set of fundamentals that he’d be able to pull out no matter how much time he would spend off the bike. If I had to use a single phrase to describe Oscar’s riding, it would be well rounded. He’s got the barspins, grinds, spins, bike control, style, everything you’d hope to develop if you were an up and coming rider. His contributions to the scene haven’t only been in the form of riding, using his film making skillset to create some iconic videos in the early 2020’s including City Boyz (linked below), trip videos, and the Send Saturday vlog series.

76 – Marcus Guthle

Nickname: 4130 Chromoly

Years Active: 2021 – Present

Region: Ilinois

Social Media: @aisi4130chromoly

If you looked at Marcus’ riding in a vacuum, you would think he’s been riding fixed gear bikes since the scene’s inception. You would never guess he picked up the sport in 2021 though thanks to his background in flatland BMX. Carrying the torch for some fixed gear flatland greats like Dre Reyes and Lindsay Bode, Marcus has shown a serious dedication and passion for the fixed gear scene as a whole rather than just a thing he got interested in for a little while. It’s hard to say how many of the tricks he does have been done before… I have an untrained eye for the flatland tricks. BUT, I think it’s safe to say he’s done a lot of tricks that haven’t been touched by fixed gears before. For someone who doesn’t take himself too seriously, his tricks are no joke. Trust me, I’ve tried one of them that he thought I could do. I tried it for hours and fell a LOT. He makes it all look way easier than it is.

75 – Sol Smith

Nickname: n/a

Years Active: 2010 – 2015

Region: London, UK

Social Media: @sol.dariwhal

Sol Smith, or Sol Dhariwal, is easily one of the BIGGEST senders our scene has ever seen. I used to just be nervous watching videos of him trying certain things. Absolute liability and entertainment whenever he touched a bike. The dichotomy of his riding was funny though. He would either send himself off a cliff, or do some creative jibs with seemingly no in-between. Along with some legendary video parts, Sol was the mastermind behind Ninja Cats London, the premiere crew and media company in London at the time that made some of the Euro scene’s most iconic videos to this day.

74 – Brad Parker

Nickname: ~@

Years Active: 2010 – 2012

Region: Southern California

Social Media: @gnarlivin

Gnar Brad, B-Rad, ~@Brad, Fixed Love, however you wanted to rearrange his name with the those words still accurately represents Brad’s energy. FIXED, RAD, and GNAR. In 2010-2011, there was a handrail cold war going on. The major players at first included Jakob Santos and Ed Wonka. Little did they know that an up and coming Socal rider by the name of Brad Parker would sneak up and take the whole scene by surprise. This dude was NOT SCARED of things. Huge rails and early to the game on big lofty barspins. Likely because of his wide background in pretty much every extreme sport.

73 – Sam Hanson

Nickname: n/a

Years Active: 2010 – 2013

Region: Baltimore, MD

Social Media: n/a

The blueprint for a modern day Corey San Agustin was created by riders like Sam Hanson. 29er, pegless, creative, and FAST. Baltimore’s Sam Hanson was entertaining to watch by true lovers of the game, a rider’s rider if you will. Sam thrived in touching all kinds of obstacles with his fork, jumping huge gaps, and tip tapping his way around everything you put in front of him. One of the first people we had the pleasure of seeing ride a 29er with negative BB, he rode it exactly as intended. Along with his riding, Sam was the mastermind behind the media and misc goods brand Balhogs, which created some extremely memorable content and products for the scene.

72 – Kohei Fujii

Nickname: Kozo

Years Active: 2010 – Present

Region: Japan

Social Media: @kozo_bmx

When Kozo came onto the scene, we weren’t sure what to do with him. He came from a BMX background, and rode a reeeaally small frame for the time. Was he just trying this out for fun? Did he want to actually partake in the scene for the love of it? His dedication to the craft answered all our questions. Unlike somebody who just comes into the fixed gear scene because they’re getting paid or as a gimmick like Chris Akrigg, Kozo really stuck around for a while. He would participate in big videos like Bootleg Sessions, misc web videos, and enter contests. At Shiozake 2010, Kozo made history by becoming the first fixed gear rider to actually send and land the dreaded backflip. He even did it multiple times during the day, then attempted a flair. He again made history in 2011 when he was invited to the first Redbull Ride + Style competition and became the first person to backflip a fixed gear stateside. After a long hiatus on the fixed gear, he recently resurged thanks to the efforts of 84kick Satoshi and we got new footage of Kozo over 10 years later.

71 – Patrick Golan

Nickname: Packy

Years Active: 2010 – 2014

Region: Southern CA

Social Media: @packdrawn

While more people know Patrick now for his incredible DP work with all kinds of celebrities and big brands, Packy (as he was known during his fixed gear time) was one of the hottest talents to come out of the Culver City area around 2011. Patrick early on showed so much promise with smooth style, fast riding, and amateur contest wins. As he further developed, he would become a majorly well rounded rider, especially when he introduced 26″ and pegs into his arsenal making for some very progressive peg tricks for the time.