The SMC 100 | 20-11 | Suck My Cog

The finish line is in sight! Let’s see the runner ups!

Nickname: Black Sunday

Years Active: 2010 – 2019

Region: Thailand

I remember Jaoa hitting the scene HOT in 2012 (he was riding before that, but it was the first time I saw anything from him) with a short video that just consisted of two tricks: an ice 180 and a tooth hanger 180, both NBD tricks at the time. Right then, we all knew Jaoa was a serious threat and was gonna be a problem if he stuck to riding. Luckily for all of us he did, and he became a massive name in the sport through his own endeavors with Black Sunday in Thailand, then linked up with Matt Reyes at Wheel Talk where they would go on to become great friends and make videos together for the remaining time that Jaoa spent on an FGFS bike. He set the blueprint for riders like Elliott Milner with extremely advanced rail tricks (thanks to his BMX background): loooong ice picks and ice pick variations, hangover tooths. Along with rail tricks, he was extremely comfortable with footjam tailwhips, nose manuals, and hop tailwhips: all extremely progressive tricks even for present day riders. Jaoa was also involved in huge projects at the time: Wheel Talk videos, Can’t Fool The Youth DVD’s, Turf Mob, and so many more, which turned him into a household name and someone you couldn’t refuse if there was a discussion about the best riders in the sport.

19 – Soil Thornton

Nickname: HFWIDO

Years Active: 2008 – 2013

Region: New York

Social Media: @___s_0_i_l

WRAHW head honcho Soil Thornton, aka HFWIDO in their early days and formerly known as Torey, has single handedly shaped the scene and left an impact in so many different ways. Before WRAHW even existed, Soil got their start as a long distance member of the legendary Council of Doom crew in 2008, having what many believe is the most memorable section of the DVD. After that, Soil began posting on their own accord, leaning into their personality and creating memorable videos filled with antics, weirdness, New York-isms, and cutty riding. With the creation of WRAHW, a fixed gear collective, Soil and associates would explode in popularity. These videos to this day, over 13 years later, are still widely considered the gold standard and peak content. The Witch Tapes would be an iconic casual mixtape series that would go on to inspire similar video series’ like Kvlt Klips and Privileged Bread. As far as the progression of Soil’s riding goes, they began their journey as a complete sender. Their video sections in Council of Doom, The Revival, and Death Pedal 2 would showcase high speeds and a lack of fear with MASSIVE stair set jumping and other technical maneuvers. As their riding progressed, Soil leaned more into the jibby, technical, spot oriented style of riding while picking and choosing their battles with big sends, all while iconically staying on a big 29er bike during their whole career.

18 – Marco Marquez

Nickname: Tested Antonio / Ghost Rider

Years Active: 2011 – Present

Region: Southern California

Social Media: @ghvst.rider

Who once was one of the most talented groms to come out of the golden era (2011), Marco has progressed his riding into some of the most aggressive, advanced riding the sport has ever seen. I know I’ve been referencing FGFS as a scene or community most of the time, but when Marco rides, it becomes a sport. He makes us look good to outside disciplines. Since his riding inception, he displayed great fundamentals and style that you just can’t teach. As he evolved from 700c on a Thrasher to modern 26″ bike, he’s adapted with ease and is now pushing the limits of what’s possible with double barspin variations, 540’s off of drops with ease, and calculated sends.

17 – Justin Mitchell

Nickname: Congo

Years Active: 2008 – Present

Region: Southern California

Social Media: @xcongomaniax

Congo is a larger than life FGFS icon, both physically and spiritually. This large man came into the SoCal scene hot with a clear set of skills transferred from BMX, showcasing progressive barspin variations, 360’s, and an early adopter of pegs. Starring in videos like Death Pedal 2, Revoked, Stay Strapped, and many Wolf Drawn videos in between, Congo’s riding and antics were well documented and presented to the scene, launching him into the spotlight and becoming one of the top dogs in the sport alongside riders like Ed Wonka, Josh Boothby, Matt Spencer, and more. Congo was early to the game in moves like 180 barspins, wheelie 180’s, feeble variations, and 540 cabs before any of them became a standard trick set for top riders. He was also the first to land a full cab bar as seen in his Revoked section. In the post 700c era, Congo showed that he could keep up with the shifting goal post on a 26″ bike and continues to show off his deep fixed gear wisdom to this day… sometimes. He set a lot of the foundation for the next generation of riders and helped show what was possible on a fixed gear bike.

16 – Antonio Wothe

Nickname: 2Tone / Antonyo

Years Active: 2008 – Present

Region: Milwaukee, WI

Social Media: @antonyoxvx

The original style god, Antonio Wothe from Milwaukee was a rider’s rider. He never got the huge sponsors or signature frames, but everybody in the scene knew that Antonio was the best of the best. His bag of tricks was unique to him: early nose manuals, footjams, and his signature sub tricks. On top of it all, his style was iconic. After seeing the way that Antonio did sliders, we would see numerous kids trying to imitate the signature “head stay“, although was never truly recreated. His addition to the WRAHW bloodfam led to some of the scene’s most cherished web edits, especially the 2012 one linked below. As a community leader, his work with the iconic Midwest Mayhem series and Fixie Factory related activities plopped him right in the middle of the scene, helping it flourish and inspiring the next generation of riders constantly.

15 – Chase Henley

Nickname: Yung Chase

Years Active: 2018 – Present

Region: Southern California

Social Media: @chasefgfs

I saw Chase start from nothing. From a 700c LDG Hammer that he could barely 180 to hitting kinked rails, Chase has started from the ground and worked his way to the pinnacle. If you were looking for a single person to represent how far we can take these bikes, Chase if our guy. A lot of this top 100 list involves legacy: how good were you for your current time of riding. If this was purely a skill based list, Chase is top 3 without a doubt. Any trick you can think of, he probably has done it or has the capability with a day’s worth of practice. From roof drops, to spin tricks, to any barspin variation you can think of, to any grind trick on both rails and ledges on his switch and regular side, Chase may be the most complete rider we’ve seen touch our bikes. He needs some time to catch up to some of the legends he rubs shoulders with, but he’s on track for GOAT status.

14 – Joe Mckeag

Nickname: Couch

Years Active: 2009 – 2019

Region: Southern California

Social Media: @irrelevantjoe

My personal hero growing up as a grom in 2011 was Joe. He was the first pro I met and he just came off of a 10th place finish at Red Bull 2011, which was actually a huge accomplishment at the time as one of his first pro contests. In 2011 and 2012, Joe was on an absolutely unstoppable path. His ability to spin in the air had never been seen before, doing 540’s out of flyouts with ease before anybody else had even done it yet. Although he wasn’t the first to do a truck driver, (he was 2nd after Boothby) he became the first person that regularly would throw them while they were still novel. His power on a bike was first properly displayed to the world in his first big edit for BiCi Concepts, displaying huge hops that hadn’t been seen since the likes of Tom La Marche, spin tricks, park flow, barspin variations, and big 180’s. His ability to ride street was a huge part of his arsenal and what makes him legendary, but where he outshined every single rider at his peak was his ramp riding. Before Youri, we had Joe. He also had a multitude of HEAVY firsts: 540 flyout, 540 truck driver, 720, double truck driver, and probably more that I can’t think of. Along with this, he was one of the first to get comfortable with 360’s in both directions (which if you know me, obviously heavily inspired me). If the trick involved spinning, Joe would find a way to make it happen.

13 – Mike Schmitt

Nickname: MTS

Years Active: 2008 – Present

Region: New York

Social Media: @miketschmitt

Who is Mike Schmitt? Well where do I start. RVA fixed, Bootleg Sessions 4, Grime Bikes, Turf, Shredwell 2, Burro Mudflaps, the Capone Cardinal, and leader of the 26″ movement, the amount of high stakes projects that Mike has been involved with and the impact it’s had on our scene is hard to quantify, and I haven’t even mentioned his actual riding yet. Mike’s trick arsenal, like Antonio, was unique to him. Everything he did was unorthodox, but worked itself out. Mike early on became an expert in grinding things, putting god knows what onto ledges and rails (some mysterious combination of axle, pedals, chainring, and cranks most likely), then when 26″ and pegs were adopted he answered the call. Master of crooks, smiths, pedal grinds, and sprocket stalls, Mike made a name for bashing his bike’s things onto things. His approach to riding has been incredibly unique to this day and nobody has come close to replicating the Mike style. Also, he never threw barspins but was happy to throw it into a grind before anybody was doing that. What? Although Mike has been forced to distance himself from biking due to consistent shoulder problems, he remains a figurehead and voice in the community, making sure that things stay the course and people are rewarded for their hard work.

12 – Jimmy Watcha

Nickname: Watcha Flocka

Years Active: 2011 – Present

Region: Northern California

Social Media: @watchaflocka

Although a quiet man, don’t let it fool you. An absolute powerhouse in the NorCal scene, Watcha also came up as a grom during the golden era and was quickly taken under the wing of the iconic iMiNUSD squad. With so much talent around him, Watcha developed into one of the stand out prospects in the bay area alongside FBZ rider Valentin Racho. While a lot of his colleagues at the time slowly put the bike down one by one (not Kam and PVN though, shoutout to them), Watcha stuck with it and dialed in his craft to chaotic perfection. What do I mean by “chaotic perfection”? I mean this as the biggest compliment, but Jimmy’s riding isn’t perfect. It’s sometimes sketchy, got some Skavenger grit to it, and just isn’t polished like a Valentin. I think this adds SO much character to his riding though and makes him soooo entertaining to watch every single time. What’s he gonna do on any given obstacle as he approaches? I’m never sure. I remember the first time Watcha reeeaally caught my eye was in his Unknown Bikes edit. I knew he was good before that, but that edit made me think “oh okay, Watcha is on a different level”. In this video and videos to come, he would display an incredible proficiency in technical grind tricks, barspin variations, comfort on big obstacles, tuck no handers, and every combination of it all. Fast forward 13 years later after multiple pro contest wins, more parts in videos like Word is Bond, and a huge bomb drop of an edit with FOAD’s “WATCHABACK” edit (linked below), Jimmy now sits at the top of the hill of FGFS as one of its top dogs.

11 – Miguel Zendejas

Nickname: n/a

Years Active: 2012 – Present

Region: Southern California

Social Media: @i_rides_bikes

Last and certainly not least is SoCal’s weapon and absolute bicycle riding machine, Miguel Zendejas. I remember early on that Miguel had authority when riding the bike. Any trick he did, it looked like he man handled the bike, and the bike had no choice but to do what Miguel wanted. Miguel’s breakout section happened in 2014’s Young Guns, getting the end section for good reason, displaying high level grinds, barspin combos, and an early adopter of hang 5 comfort. From there, Miguel skyrocketed in skill. The list of NBD’s under Miguel’s belt is… a big number. I can’t even name them all of the top of my head. The ones I can think of though: feeble hard 180 bar, feeble hard 360 (still has not been replicated), smith hard 360, bar ice bar, 180 FUCKING TAILWHIP… and a lot of technical combinations like that. When it comes to tailwhips, nobody has been able to produce a cleaner tailwhip so consistently like Miguel. He can land pedals perfectly, and can land it nearly every time. When it comes to front wheel control, we’ve never seen anything like it. Elliott’s nose manuals walked so Miguel’s could run. Miguel’s riding essentially is what would happen if Steven Jensen and Elliott Milner created an FGFS baby. Although Miguel isn’t an edit or content machine like some riders are, everything that Miguel drops is a HAMMER. Notably his Anthem edit and his CJTY section (linked below). I personally think these videos have some of the highest level of riding the sport has seen to date.