of the Orange County Register...
http://www.ocregister.com/ocr/2005/01/06/sections/news/news/article_368239.php
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Pretty F'in Sweet!!
The Morning Read: Riding to extremes
We should all be as crazy as Hans Rey - a two-wheeled adventurer living his dream.
By JEFF MILLER
The Orange County Register
LAGUNA BEACH Hans Rey is not crazy, but if you ask him to, he'll plunge frat- brother-like into his swimming pool.
From the roof of his house.
While spinning 360 degrees.
On his bicycle.
But he's not crazy, because a crazy man never would have figured out that someone can make a living doing such things.
Lance Armstrong today is the most famous person on a bike. Hans Rey might be the funk iest. How else to explain tricks like riding over a Volkswagen, pedaling up a Jamaican waterfall and bungee-jumping 150 feet into a New Zealand river?
We're talking about a man who, in this SUV age of four- wheel off-roading, is the king of two-wheel off-rockering. He has ridden across everything from glaciers "You have to watch out for the crevasses" to volcanoes: "You're always looking out for the pock ets of hot lava that explode."
With the aid of a cable, he once rode down the side of a hotel, and this wasn't some pyramid deal like the Luxor in Las Vegas. This was a hotel built straight up and straight down. A 90-degree drop of death. No worries. Rey has survived much scarier situations, like appearing on the long-gone "Donny & Marie" television show.
"I've had people look at me like I'm fromMars," Rey, 38, says. "But I'm not outto die. I just know my limits well. I'm not like Evel Knievel jumping over a bunch of buses."
No, he's not from another planet, just another country, Germany. Rey moved here in 1987 for a year, before his plans would have taken him back home to continue his marketing education. Well, he still hasn't left, his business career dying after one semester of school.
Instead, he has won numerous world titles and national championships and enough medals and trophies to cause the shelves of his home to herniate. He also rode himself into the mountain biking hall of fame.
Rey's bike has taken him to 60 countries, placed him on the cover of 150 magazines and bought him one house here and another in Italy. He has met millions, including George H.W. Bush, who was president at the time. Instead of the two shaking hands, Rey popped a wheelie and Bush shook his front tire.
"I didn't want to meet him so much," Rey explains, "unless it was with my bike."
He has performed his tricks at everything from the opening of a mom-and-pop store to the closing of the Summer Olympics. He has done halftime shows at football games and pregame shows at soccer matches.
"Hans Rey," filmmaker Michael Graber says, "was extreme before there was extreme."
Rey's talents have been seen in full-length movies, on Regis and Kathy Lee and in several videos, including one in which he co-starred with a chimpanzee named Mr. Jiggs. He also appeared as himself - Rey did, not Mr. Jiggs - on the TV series "Pacific Blue."
His fame, though, is sort of like a Bic lighter. Some days it burns hot. Other days it's disposable. In the culture of extreme biking, Rey is a legend. As young rider Wade Simmons says, "We grew up on Hans Rey ... like Cheerios." But in the mainstream? A story on Rey did appear once in Sports Illustrated. You might have missed it. It was in the swimsuit issue.
He also might be recognizedmore often internationally than in his own neighborhood. Rey just found out his trip to pedal among the pyramids of Egypt received eight pages in Penthouse - the Danish edition of Penthouse.
"At a biking event, I can feel like Superman," he says. "But once I leave the show, I'm just a normal guy. I can pick my nose in public and not read about it the next day."
Many people make money riding bikes, but most of them are paperboys. How does a grown man do it? Rey does it by being accomplished at both pedaling and peddling. He didn't need that marketing degree to understand the importance of pushing his best asset: himself.
From the day he approached Swatch to be his title sponsor, asking the company for $500, Hans Rey has expertly packaged Hans Rey. He continues to be sponsored by giants like Adidas and GT Bicycles. This is a man who never has had an actual full-time job.
"I'd consider this a full-time job, but it's a dream job," Rey says. "My bike has opened so many doors for me."
Sometimes, what's behind those doors is nothing less than history. More than competing, Rey these days takes trips that involve biking and hiking. He has followed in the footsteps of Moses and descended Mount Sinai, climbed a mountain in Africa to look for an elephant's remains (he joyfully succeeded) and inspected Borneo for headhunters (he mercifully failed).
He also went to China in search of a tribe of small people from outer space who, legend has it, crash-landed there thousands of years ago. Of that trip, Rey says, "A lot of people thought I had lost it." But two months ago, the History Channel called, saying they were working on a story about the tribe, too.
"It's kind of like being a modern-day Indiana Jones," Rey says. "But instead of a horse, I'm on a bike."
Crazy? Hardly. It's the rest of us who should be admitted for testing.
Rey has traveled around the world on two wheels. We struggle every day just to conquer the 22 freeway on four.
http://www.ocregister.com/ocr/2005/01/06/sections/news/news/article_368239.php
login = Ridemonkey
Password = ridemonkey
Pretty F'in Sweet!!
The Morning Read: Riding to extremes
We should all be as crazy as Hans Rey - a two-wheeled adventurer living his dream.
By JEFF MILLER
The Orange County Register
LAGUNA BEACH Hans Rey is not crazy, but if you ask him to, he'll plunge frat- brother-like into his swimming pool.
From the roof of his house.
While spinning 360 degrees.
On his bicycle.
But he's not crazy, because a crazy man never would have figured out that someone can make a living doing such things.
Lance Armstrong today is the most famous person on a bike. Hans Rey might be the funk iest. How else to explain tricks like riding over a Volkswagen, pedaling up a Jamaican waterfall and bungee-jumping 150 feet into a New Zealand river?
We're talking about a man who, in this SUV age of four- wheel off-roading, is the king of two-wheel off-rockering. He has ridden across everything from glaciers "You have to watch out for the crevasses" to volcanoes: "You're always looking out for the pock ets of hot lava that explode."
With the aid of a cable, he once rode down the side of a hotel, and this wasn't some pyramid deal like the Luxor in Las Vegas. This was a hotel built straight up and straight down. A 90-degree drop of death. No worries. Rey has survived much scarier situations, like appearing on the long-gone "Donny & Marie" television show.
"I've had people look at me like I'm fromMars," Rey, 38, says. "But I'm not outto die. I just know my limits well. I'm not like Evel Knievel jumping over a bunch of buses."
No, he's not from another planet, just another country, Germany. Rey moved here in 1987 for a year, before his plans would have taken him back home to continue his marketing education. Well, he still hasn't left, his business career dying after one semester of school.
Instead, he has won numerous world titles and national championships and enough medals and trophies to cause the shelves of his home to herniate. He also rode himself into the mountain biking hall of fame.
Rey's bike has taken him to 60 countries, placed him on the cover of 150 magazines and bought him one house here and another in Italy. He has met millions, including George H.W. Bush, who was president at the time. Instead of the two shaking hands, Rey popped a wheelie and Bush shook his front tire.
"I didn't want to meet him so much," Rey explains, "unless it was with my bike."
He has performed his tricks at everything from the opening of a mom-and-pop store to the closing of the Summer Olympics. He has done halftime shows at football games and pregame shows at soccer matches.
"Hans Rey," filmmaker Michael Graber says, "was extreme before there was extreme."
Rey's talents have been seen in full-length movies, on Regis and Kathy Lee and in several videos, including one in which he co-starred with a chimpanzee named Mr. Jiggs. He also appeared as himself - Rey did, not Mr. Jiggs - on the TV series "Pacific Blue."
His fame, though, is sort of like a Bic lighter. Some days it burns hot. Other days it's disposable. In the culture of extreme biking, Rey is a legend. As young rider Wade Simmons says, "We grew up on Hans Rey ... like Cheerios." But in the mainstream? A story on Rey did appear once in Sports Illustrated. You might have missed it. It was in the swimsuit issue.
He also might be recognizedmore often internationally than in his own neighborhood. Rey just found out his trip to pedal among the pyramids of Egypt received eight pages in Penthouse - the Danish edition of Penthouse.
"At a biking event, I can feel like Superman," he says. "But once I leave the show, I'm just a normal guy. I can pick my nose in public and not read about it the next day."
Many people make money riding bikes, but most of them are paperboys. How does a grown man do it? Rey does it by being accomplished at both pedaling and peddling. He didn't need that marketing degree to understand the importance of pushing his best asset: himself.
From the day he approached Swatch to be his title sponsor, asking the company for $500, Hans Rey has expertly packaged Hans Rey. He continues to be sponsored by giants like Adidas and GT Bicycles. This is a man who never has had an actual full-time job.
"I'd consider this a full-time job, but it's a dream job," Rey says. "My bike has opened so many doors for me."
Sometimes, what's behind those doors is nothing less than history. More than competing, Rey these days takes trips that involve biking and hiking. He has followed in the footsteps of Moses and descended Mount Sinai, climbed a mountain in Africa to look for an elephant's remains (he joyfully succeeded) and inspected Borneo for headhunters (he mercifully failed).
He also went to China in search of a tribe of small people from outer space who, legend has it, crash-landed there thousands of years ago. Of that trip, Rey says, "A lot of people thought I had lost it." But two months ago, the History Channel called, saying they were working on a story about the tribe, too.
"It's kind of like being a modern-day Indiana Jones," Rey says. "But instead of a horse, I'm on a bike."
Crazy? Hardly. It's the rest of us who should be admitted for testing.
Rey has traveled around the world on two wheels. We struggle every day just to conquer the 22 freeway on four.
!!!
