Larry Lawrence | June 27, 2021
Cycle News Archives
COLUMN
This Cycle News Archives Column is reprinted from the August 11, 2010, issue of Cycle News. CN has hundreds of past Archives columns in our files, too many destined to be archives themselves. So, to prevent that from happening, in the future, we will be revisiting past Archives articles while still planning to keep fresh ones coming down the road -Editor.
The Godfather of Freestyle
Mike Metzger has competed in EnduroCross, Supercross, AMA Pro Motocross, Supermoto, road racing and extreme enduro events worldwide. He’s also won gold medals at the X Games. Oh, and he’s got that little moniker of “Godfather of Freestyle.”
He’s also backflipped his way over the fountain at Caesar’s Palace—the same fountain that Evel Kneivel jumped on New Year’s Eve in 1967.
So, it’s not a stretch to say that Metzger has more than made his mark in the sport of motorcycling, but it’s what he’s most proud of that may surprise you.
Mike Metzger was a trailblazer when it comes to the sport of freestyle.
“The biggest thing that stands out from my whole career is, definitely, winning a Loretta Lynn’s Championship as a kid in the 14-15-year-old class,” the 34-year-old Metzger said on the eve of the 2010 X Games. “My goal as a little kid was to be the best racer, and, with a dad who was so committed to getting me to the races every weekend and building a career to ride a bike and make money, to go out and win a Loretta Lynn’s motocross championship as a minibike rider… I don’t think anything holds a torch to that. It’s super cool that I’ve won X Games gold medals, and my goal in 2002 was to leave the X Games and the Gravity Games with some medals, and it went better than I even expected. I got silver at Gravity, and gold for X Freestyle, and gold for X Best Trick. That was a great year and there are so many things that I’ve gotten to do in this sport that I never expected to do, but as a racer growing up, winning a National Championship as a kid is pretty cool. I know that’s the biggest thing my dad is proud of, because he was never too pumped on the freestyle thing.”
The “freestyle thing” came about mainly from Metzger’s love of BMX.
“I always wanted to go and race BMX as a kid,” Metzger recalls. “I was born into a family with my dad a gung-ho dirt-bike racer. Fortunately, I was spoiled by my dad to have dirt bikes, but as a little kid I really wanted to race BMX. My dad would say, ‘Why would I take you to the BMX track to do one lap at a time when I can take you to the motocross track and you can go ride for half hour, an hour?’ That’s the way he looked at it. I looked at BMX… freestyle BMX was where it was at for me as a kid. I remember going to the supermarket with my mom and it was never about picking up a motocross magazine, it was about picking up a BMX magazine so I could see what big tricks guys were doing. But as an 80cc rider I started doing Nac Nacs and Can Cans and heel clickers—just replicating what the BMX guys were doing.”
Metzger was a racer. And a good one. But it was in freestyle that he would make his mark, and it all came about as a side job. Albeit a lucrative one.
“In ’98, I was still racing and coming to the end of my racing career. And my goals, as a rider, growing up as a kid, was to be one of the best Supercross guys,” Metzger said. “When the freestyle thing started, to me it was, like, ‘What am I doing?’ I grew up with a dad who was my mechanic and a dad who pushed me to be the best I could be at racing. One thing led to another and I got a chance to ride with Fox Racing, and I got to travel around and do film shoots for Terrafirma while I was racing at the Nationals and traveling around in a little cargo van. I was actually making more money to go film than I was showing up at the motocross races and leaving with my earnings. Those years… thank God, I was able to go out and film with different companies, because that’s what helped me get around to the Nationals and stuff.”
Eventually, Metzger put the racing to the side and concentrated on freestyle. And he’s seen it explode to levels he never thought possible.
“Now, with the Supercross, all the semi-trucks and with those guys hanging out, it’s gone a completely different direction than when we first started,” Metzger says of the just completed X Games. “X Games started pretty much with skateboards, BMX and rollerblades. It was weird… and we were suddenly hanging out with BMX and skate guys. I don’t think it was as overwhelming then as it is today for new kids because there are so many names out there now. I just don’t think it was that big of a deal for us back then. I pretty much already knew the top BMXers and skaters from being into BMX throughout my life.
“It’s amazing how far freestyle has come. Yesterday, Travis Pastrana came out and did a double backflip in his final run, and he didn’t even have to do a final run. However, many years ago, he did a double backflip and said, ‘I hope I never have to do one again.’ A couple of years go by and he’s doing a couple of backflips in a run and that’s how we are—we cannot not up the ante. When someone comes to the table with something big, it’s our personalities to want to go out and at least do what that person did or go above and beyond and say, ‘Okay, you did this, well I just did this.’ The rate of progression is so rapid now, especially with people having foam pits.”
More than anything, the foam pit has changed the sport. Now you can practice a trick and not hurt yourself when something goes wrong. But, as Metzger says, you eventually have to land the trick on dirt. And that’s where things can go wrong.
“The things that we do, you are going to get injured,” Metzger said. “Every guy is going to get hurt and that’s the name of the game—you can’t go out and not crash a dirt bike when you are pushing the limits of things that you’ve never done before. Thank God for foam pits, but you can only do a trick for so long into a foam pit before it’s time to prove to yourself that it’s time to step up and handle it on dirt. And it’s not a guaranteed deal that you ride it away.”
Eleven weeks ago, Metzger didn’t “ride it away.” He crashed and crashed hard, suffering a broken femur, a broken hand and a destroyed elbow.
“I was filming for On The Pipe 6 out in Reche Canyon and flipping this 120-foot dirt jump pretty much all day,” Metzger said. “It came down to the end of the day and it was time to go, and I was riding back to toward my truck and all of a sudden I saw Miles Richmond getting ready to hit the jump again, and I just thought to myself, ‘Oh, this will be cool to just do a train behind Miles and throw out another backflip.’ Well, unfortunately, I was going too fast coming up on his rear wheel so I had to back off on the throttle off the lip and I knew I was going to come up a little short. I didn’t think it would be that big of a deal, but the way I landed… it catapulted it off the side of my bike where I was getting dragged in a sidesaddle pull. My feet were getting dragged and then at the very bottom I lost my balance, and it did a low-side slap on my right side. Got my head, shoulder, elbow and femur… all I could think about was ‘Man, it’s time to call an ambulance and get to the doctor as fast as I can to slam a rod into my leg so I will be okay.’ I didn’t know how bad my elbow was, but it turned out to be super bad. That was all she wrote. I was back on the bike three weeks after my surgery; and six weeks after, I was doing trails and then got stronger and stronger. I probably have 30 degrees of movement in my elbow, and that will take some time—like any injury.”
And so the X Games were possible. At least in theory.
“I’m only 11 weeks out today from shattering my femur, my right elbow and my hand. I really wanted to do Best Trick this week, but my doctor told me it wouldn’t be the wisest decision. I will just do Speed And Style. I’m probably 80 percent. The femur was one thing, but the elbow was disintegrated and pretty much tie-wired back together. There’s always next year.”
Metzger’s first passion was motocross.
As much as he’s been involved from the beginning of freestyle, Metzger is hopeful of being just as instrumental in the future of the sport. And the evolution is right around the corner, he says.
“I think in the next couple of years, the progression of the motorcycle… the guys can only do so much on the machines now because they weren’t made for freestyle,” Metzger said. “We’re riding dirt bikes that were made for motocross racing and then we cut ’em up and make them comfortable for what we do. If all of a sudden, we are manufacturing what are freestyle-specific dirt bikes, it’s going to take freestyle in a whole new direction. That’s where I am now in the sport. I just got my hands on a rotor bike from France. It’s a Suzuki 250 with a full rotor front end where you can do bar spins, backflip bar spins, tail whips… it’s like starting all over again and it’s awesome.”
When he looks back on where he’s been and looks forward on where he’s going, things always point back to the same thing—his early days of being a kid racing a dirt bike.
“I just always liked jumping as a kid,” he said. “My dad actually made me do some jumps as a kid and I look back now and think, ‘Wow, what was my dad really thinking? He was having his 10-year-old son jump 85-foot jumps that most big bikes weren’t doing. I think that’s the way I am now. I just love catching air, I love pushing the limits of what I can do and what my motorcycles can do. That’s the story in a nutshell. I’m nutty for dirt bikes and just doing what I can do to progress myself and the sport.” CN
