With a dream debut at Red Bull Rampage, finishing fifteenth and a second-place finish behind Brett Rheeder at Proving Grounds, Californian Dylan Stark drops his latest and wildest mountain bike video yet.
After 'Homegrown' premiered exclusively at the YT Industries Mill Showroom in San Clemente, California, a few days ago, Dylan now drops his latest edit to his global audience on YouTube. Taking them on a wild ride to some of his most favored spots in Southern California, featuring a whole host of tricks aboard the YT Industries Capra, Decoy, and Dirt Love mountain bikes.
YT Industries was founded by Markus Flossmann in 2008 to give talented riders access to competitive dirt jump bikes. YT mainly focuses on mountain biking but has also recently delved into the gravel market with the YT Szepter. Renowned for quality and price, their bikes have seen success this year with Dylan onboard at Rampage and also at Downhill World Championships, and World Cups.
With his BMX background, Dylan is a jack of all trades and seems to be able to trick any bike you throw at him. The 30-year-old spoke about his latest edit, his thoughts on his YT Industries bikes and Red Bull Rampage.
You shot some pretty iconic spots in the video, but which is your favorite?
My favorite might be the Hollywood Rail or maybe the 6th Street Bridge because they’re pretty iconic. The 6th Street Bridge has been all over the news about possibly getting shut down because people kept doing street takeovers, partying on the bridge, and climbing the arches. It was pretty viral on social media at the time of shooting this video. So, I thought it’d be fun to ride down it before they made it not possible. We woke up super early on a Sunday after scouting the spot the day before, got 2 hits in before packing up and taking off due to the high police presence.
This video reminded us of the locations you rode in your video Real Heat, will we see another Real Heat?
I will start filming a sequel to Real Heat 2, but I may switch up the name. We haven’t started it yet, but we will soon! I am trying to keep the video parts coming every year.
In the video, you ride pretty much every YT bike, which is your favorite?
That’s a hard question, I ride my Decoy the most daily but I think my brakeless Capra is my favorite because of how simple it feels. It’s like a BMX bike but has that enduro capability to run over everything and handle big drops and jumps. The flair on the Decoy was sick!
Do you set up the bike differently to ride stuff like that?
I think I just turned all my suspension to the firmest settings and maybe added some air to the tires and shocks. My Decoy is pretty stock besides the E13 wheelset.
The pedal grind is pretty unique on an MTB, where do you find your inspiration for tricks?
Coming from BMX I love to grind. Sadly, mountain bikes aren’t made to grind but you can do pedal/crankarm grinds without any special modifications or goofy extras and if they are not carbon! Crank arm grinds were one of my favorite feeling tricks on a BMX so being able to bring it into mountain biking has been rad because I was bummed on no longer being able to grind when I first switched to mountain biking.
What did you think of your first Red Bull Rampage?
After my dad passed away, my main goal was to try to win Rampage, there isn’t anything bigger to achieve. I want to make him proud, also to blow everyone's mind, put BMX on the map and make it to the bottom, it’s so gnarly and you’ve got to give it your all.
I always come to the desert to ride, it’s cool. All the spots are beaten up and you need to figure out how to ride them. I never pictured being in Rampage when I was here last year. The hardest thing is there is no way to practice and prepare for Rampage other than riding the terrain out here, it’s something else.
You did most of the jumps build in Homegrown with shovels rather than tractors, was that after the build at Rampage and how was the build experience there?
I love just digging, in Homegrown the spot is on someone’s property so a tractor could cause issues if the landowner found out. I try to remain under the radar with the spot. I wish I could have used a tractor though, the jumps would be much bigger. Maybe one day I’ll have property where I can build freely. For Rampage it was everyone’s first time out here, so we went through the super gnarly experience together. The process of selecting the dig team is relatively simple, people who you can trust as well as people who know how to have a good time.
