The SMC 100 | 50-41 | Suck My Cog

Top 50 here we go!

Full post after the jump!

50 – Matt Dizon

Nickname: Matt Bastard

Years Active: 2011 – Present

Region: Northern California

Social Media: @matt.bastard

One of the great masterminds of FGFS, Bay Area’s Matt Dizon (better known as Matt Bastard) has been in this game for longer than most people think. I remember becoming a huge fan of him when he was dropping his early edits on Vimeo, which he still had a lot of the signature style we see today, just less refined. After disappearing from the scene for a bit, he reemerged and came back with even more style, grace, and utilizing his 3rd eye to ride spots in ways most people couldn’t fathom. When he came back to the bike around 2018, I actually didn’t even realize it was the same bay area grom that I became a fan of 5 years earlier. It made sense though, because he had veteran levels of bike control where I thought “there’s no way this guy just started riding”.

49 – Burd Phillips

Nickname: Burd Phil

Years Active: 2007 – Present

Region: Indianapolis, IN

Social Media: @burdphil

As the head honcho of trackstand technicians, Burd Phillips carved out his own niche of fixed gear tricks with his complex trackstands and creation of the very first Fixed Gear trick specific DVD series, Bootleg Sessions. Although trackstand tricks were nothing new, Burd took them to new levels of never-been-done variations that don’t even have names yet. His contributions to the sport in terms of tricks of his own and documentation of the sport in general have been incredibly important to the culture.

48 – Dylan Hurst

Nickname: Fish N Chips

Years Active: 2009 – Present

Region: Southern California

Social Media: @fishxchip

One of the OG’s of the Trick Track and FGFS scene in the LA area (although he’s England born), Dylan aka Fish N’ Chips Hurst cemented his legacy with the creation of, you guessed it, the Fish N Chips maneuver, a trick that has become a global phenomenon. Although a very strong rider in the Trick Track era, Dylan adapted to modern FGFS well and kept his signature smooth style through it all. Dylan doesn’t release much footage of his riding these days, but you can count on seeing him rip around the streets of LA and pop out to most local events.

47 – Gus Molina

Nickname: The Honduran Hammer / EYELURK

Years Active: 2008 – Present

Region: Southern California

Social Media: @eyelurk

One of the first big personalities in the scene in my opinion was Gus Molina. His antics, humor, and general vibe just fit right into what fixed riders seemed to enjoy. Top that off with killer riding and you’ve got yourself a fixed gear superstar. In his early days, Gus progressed the sport with advanced barspin combinations like 180 bars and fakie bars early on before they became a standard. As time went on, Gus settled into a groove which excluded barspins, but really thrived when it came to tight technical prowess. Behind the scenes, Gus has had his hand in many endeavors such as Fast Pace Zine, Altar Tribe, Master, and so many more brands, often becoming FGFS’ go-to-guy for anything design related. Although Gus has removed himself from social media, he stays riding his bike and involved with top brands in the space.

46 – Kareem Shehab

Nickname: Killa Kareem

Years Active: 2006 – Present

Region: Seattle, WA

Social Media: @killakareem

Kareem is one of the longest standing riders and figureheads in the scene, period. Getting his start with fixed gear bikes in 2006, and continuing to ride and be involved with his brand Master to this day, leaves a lot of room for legacy. During the journey from fixed gear conception to the creation of Master Bike Co, Kareem took his blading background and just like Ricardo Lino, was immediately very comfortable doing big scale grinds on rails, hubbas, and ledges. Picking up a camera early on, Kareem went on to film and create some of the scene’s most important full length content of all time with the Death Pedal series, Big Money Hustlaz, and Southern Safari. After creating Master Bike Co in 2017, Kareem used his engineering experience to create and supply the scene with parts that were becoming hard to come by such as hubs, frames, forks, bars, and small components in between. Kareem’s involvement on the bike and behind the scenes has shaped the sport in ways that most modern riders probably don’t realize. I would go as far as to say he’s single handedly helped save the sport.

45 – Anthony Combs

Nickname: Wreckless

Years Active: 2010 – Present

Region: Northern California

Social Media: @fgfsanthony

Another HUGE personality in the scene, Anthony Combs, or as he was known in his early days, WRECKLESS Combs, is a San Jose native that left his mark on the scene with wild barspins, big tuck no handers, HUGE hops, and an unpredictable bag of tricks. Most of the iconic moments we’ve seen of Combs over the years have come in the form of either hilarious moments or big scale tricks. Although he has never had a solo web edit or dedicated video part, Combs has been involved in some of the scene’s biggest names and projects like Grime, Can’t Fool The Youth features, Wheel Talk edits, Turf content, and more. In addition, he is still to this day the only fixed rider to land a superman. He also, arguably, has achieved some of the highest bunnyhops on a fixed gear bike.

44 – Takahiro Hizono

Nickname: Osaka Funny

Years Active: 2010 – 2015

Region: Osaka, Japan

Social Media: @osakafunny

Takahiro Hizono, better known as Osaka Funny, is one of Japan’s most decorated riders to ever come from the region. From 2010-2014, Funny placed top 3 in nearly every single competition he entered. His mastery of both street technicality and ramp riding on 700c made him a stand out rider in the midst of the 26″ street riding era. Even in 2014 when he made the jump to 26″ and pegs, his bike control carried on and Funny showed that he can perform and be consistent no matter what kind of bike you put in front of him. The finesse that Funny displayed on fixed helped show the world that FGFS didn’t have to be clunky and awkward.

43 – Matt Montoya

Nickname: Monte

Years Active: 2010 – 2013

Region: Northern California

Social Media: @m_m0nt0ya

One of the smoothest styles to ever do it, Matt Montoya from San Jose made waves with his Welcome to Macaframa video which featured crazy sliders (before they were mainstream), dirt riding, and a massive nollie that personally blew my mind when I watched it for the first time. From 700c to 26″, Matt flowed like water on the bike and was always in the discussion when it came to best riders to ever do it. In hindsight, it’s kind of nuts that he was only active for about 4 years in total because his impact on the scene had a giant blast radius. His bag of tricks was extremely well rounded: barspins, grinds, fakie wheelies, sliders, weird flatland tricks (sorry Marcus, I don’t know the name of these), and especially hang fives. In the Halloway edit linked below, he does a hop into a hang 5 going mach 10 and I remember that being a really mind blowing, “next level has been achieved” moment.

42 – Chris Clappé

Nickname: The Butcher

Years Active: 2008 – 2014

Region: Seattle, WA

Social Media: @chris_clappe

From Zlog to CSK to The Revival and beyond, Chris Clappé was one of the riders that helped put Seattle on the map and solidified it as one of the major players in the global trick scene. In 2009 with the release of Zlog’s “The Butcher” edit, the scene was put on notice of Chris’ Trick Track skills and bike control. Then immediately following that was the release of the extremely popular DVD, The Revival, which Chris had a full section in and even furthered the point that he was damn good at riding bikes. The Butcher was mostly known as a 700c / 29er rider, sticking with the bigger wheel size throughout the height of 26″ builds, and managed to make his own creative lane of pegless jibs in barspin-heavy era. Chris’ riding in his later years was characterized by weird spots that weren’t really spots and big drops/gaps.

41 – Devan Gallagher

Nickname: n/a

Years Active: 2010 – Present

Region: New York

Social Media: @devanofnine

Devan may be the CEO of barspins now, but she’s been working her way up to this point since the early days of the scene around 2010. With not enough women representation in the scene (especially in its early days), Devan made a name quickly when she triggered the scene jumping a 5 stair on a Cinelli Vigorelli. From there, Devan went on to progress the sport on camera and behind the scenes with more videos showcasing her growing understanding of the fixed drivetrain, along with huge efforts to highlight other women in the scene through magazine articles and blog posts. Devan’s early riding was good, then she vanished like the avatar for about 12 years. Sure enough, Devan found her way back to our scene and picked up right where she left off and beyond. Her second wave of riding has displayed a deeper understanding of bike control coated in endless swag, landing her the first women FGFS rider to ever have a signature frame colorway with Master.