Nigel Quarless: Gorilla style.

Take one look at Nigel Quarless and you can immediately see he derives his unique riding style from strength and power. At 6’2” and 200lbs with a muscular build, Nigel definitely stands out in a bike-riding crowd. His unique ability to combine smooth technical skills with the might to bully his bike, allows him to go where many riders fear to tread. However, despite the power-riding persona, Nigel is one of easiest going people you’ll ever meet. His background and work in art, painting and design, combined with interests in music and comparative mythology give him an entirely unique perspective on riding and the bike industry.



Born and raised in Victoria, BC Canada, Nigel currently resides in Vancouver where he works for Next Level Games as a concept artist. His mountain bike roots can be traced all the way back to 1987 when he started riding the hiking trails on a small local mountain close to his house. However, it was moving to Vancouver opened his eyes to the endless possibilities of freeriding. Nigel reflects on those early days, “When I moved to Vancouver from Victoria, I actually ended up getting a summer job as a mechanic at Ontop Bike Shop, which is THE hardcore shop on the shore. I met a lot of the local riders and trail builders and they took me riding on all the North Shore trails.” Both his riding style and bike evolved quickly those first few years of north shore riding: “I shifted from XC stuff to more “freeriding” type stuff. It is actually pretty funny, my bike went from XC to freeride part by part as I broke them all. I lived in North Van for four years and rode the shore all the time.”

It wasn’t long before Nigel was experimenting with dirt jumping, park and urban riding. His thoughts on the progression, “I got interested in jumping and I started riding the local skate bowls on my way home from the mountain. I also started riding urban stuff at night during the winter to work on skills and learn stuff, I gradually got more and more interested in that until I had a bike that was more set up for street than for trails.” Like a lot of riders, Nigel’s riding progression has definitely been effected by where he lives. After moving from North Vancouver and not having the same access to the trails, he began turning more and more of his attention to street, park and dirt jumping.

Nigel is currently sponsored by Evil Bikes, E.13 Components, Deity Components, Atomlab, and Manitou with some additional help thrown in by Hayes and Kenda. Having a great day job that he loves has given him a slightly different perspective on sponsorship than most. Nigel’s view, “All of my sponsors are cool people and I really like that. I wouldn’t feel good representing for a company I don’t totally respect. I’m personally interested in the companies I deal with and I believe in what they are doing. If my sponsors pressured me and were demanding I’d just totally walk away from it, I’ve already got a job. My riding time is my relaxation time, if I felt too much pressure or responsibility it would ruin it for me.”

Nigel’s stable currently consists of two hardtails. Both bikes are Evil Sovereign frames with decals designed by Nigel, himself and painted in a brown powder coat with red metal flake. One is built for street the other trails. He describes the street build, “The street bike has a Sherman Jumper, a full deity parts kit, kenda kiniptions, a rear hayes mechanical brake and lever, and 24” atomlab trailpimp dhrs built on Atomlab hubs, SS in the back. I run a 36x15 gear.” The trails version is built for serious abuse as well. Nigel’s spec breakdown, “The trail bike has a 6” Sherman Flick, E.13 guide and sproket, Full deity parts kit, Hayes Hfx9 brakes, 26” Atomlab Trialpimp DHRs built on Atomlab Aircorp hubs and Kenda Blue Groove and Nevegal tires. It’s single speed right now too, 36/18. I like having blast into all the skinnies on the shore to carry speed. I might run gears on it eventually but I’m enjoying the simplicity for now.”

Despite the fact that Nigel is fearless and a self-motivator, there are a couple riders who have influenced his riding style and progression. He explains his trail influences, “Dan Sedlacek and Johnnie Smoke rode with me a lot back then and showed me the trails. They set a good example of how to ride the terrain too and I learned a lot from them by just following their lines. They were really hardcore old school Shore riders and I was lucky to learn from them.” Nigel’s street riding is certainly a personal expression of who he is, but there have been a few influences here as well: “I spent a few years just figuring out jumping and street riding on my own and then started riding with Chris Donahue a lot. We had a couple years there when we lived fairly close to each other and rode a lot together, he definitely helped push my street and park riding further and we’d learn a lot of stuff together.”

Nigel has a serious passion for riding and that passion has sparked some pretty intense feelings about a changing street/park scene.

In his words,
“The level of riding is getting very high. Progression is moving faster and faster every year. It’s cool to see things going so far so fast.

But, with that growth more money, fame, glory or whatever is now available to people and companies through their involvement in street mountain biking and some people will get too competitive, narrow minded and discriminative because they’re interested in it for the wrong reasons. It’s starting to be less about the riding experience and more about the scene… we’ve got to have definitions and categories now. To compete in something or to make it an industry and promote yourself or your product you need a defined category. Now these definitions are getting clamped down on what a “real” mountain bike is and it’s really taking away from what the scene was about before, which was the riding and being a relaxed, cool, friendly bunch of people. It’s also that open atmosphere that attracted a lot of talented riders who are relaxed, cool people to the scene and now that it’s being ruined you are going to see people who have a lot to contribute either leave it or not get interested in it because it’s just like all the other uptight bullshit scenes out there. That kind of stuff always comes into play when things get big and it sucks to see it start happening with something I’m into.

This is really taking away from my respect for a small but vocal and publicized minority. I don’t know what is driving the agendas of some of the pros and media out there to get super anal about what they choose to call a “real” mountain bike, they’re certainly not as anal about what they allow a mountain bike to be ridden on… so why apply it to the bike setup? Why isn’t the versatility of the way you can set up a mountain bike as legitimate as the versatility of how you can ride it? Why do you need a “real” mountain bike to ride street or in a skatepark? Where’s the mountain? Some of these guys have probably never even ridden up and down a mountain but they’ll talk about what a “real” mountain bike is until they’re blue in the face. It makes no sense at to me at all.”

At the end of it all, Nigel is a pretty damn cool guy – great rider with a laid back attitude, but certainly able to speak his mind and make a solid point.


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