Jumping at the Opportunity: Lebron James and Fabio Wibmer

Fabio Wibmer: The plan is basically to jump backwards off a van and do a 270-degree turn as a rider passes beneath me, so it will be tricky to get the edge perfectly. And it will be after dark with lights shining on me, which doesn’t exactly make it easier because the lights can be a little blinding. But I’m looking forward to it.

Yeah, it’s crazy—I got to meet him yesterday. It’s overwhelming to be a part of. Everyone knows him; he’s like the biggest sports person. Being in an edit with him is something I never would have thought could happen. I’m really happy to see him on a bike, promoting biking and spreading that spirit. That’s something that I also try to spread in my videos, to get more people to bike.

My style reflects how I’ve evolved as a rider and how I see the world. When I walk through a city, I see a fence like everyone else, but I try to see it in a different way. Also, my style is versatile, a mixture of very technical trials riding and doing big jumps on a downhill bike. I’m always trying to combine those two things.

Yeah, that’s why I started it—and why I’m still doing it. It’s pure fun. I go out on a bike and there are literally no boundaries. I don’t do competitions, so there are no rules. So I can do whatever I want and it never gets boring.

I’m amazed that after flying 13 hours to get here how many people I meet who follow me and tell me I inspired them to ride bikes. That is pretty incredible! And there are amazing spots here. Filming something big here has been in my mind for a long time and I really want to make that happen. And yesterday, when we were driving around, I couldn’t believe how many spots I recognized from playing GTA V.

Yes, totally. That’s what makes some athletes the biggest athletes in the world. They are bringing their sport to a broader audience by being more than their sport. And that’s what I want to achieve. Not just speaking to bikers, the core audience, but being a person who is inspiring people who are not even riding bikes. Sometimes in a video I show how I train a trick 500 times and crash 300 times—and then there is one try when it works. Hopefully I can inspire people with whatever they want to do through trial and error.

That was the case when we started. I started developing a bike with Canyon about four years ago. We then set out to make a carbon trials bike, which actually is quite tricky. Because a trials bike is not a normal bike—it needs to absorb really hard impacts, and you’ve got different tensions on it because you go forwards and backwards on it. They’ve always been super stoked to make this project happen. And then about two years ago they actually put it on the market so consumers can buy it. It’s really cool to see a big brand like Canyon stepping into the trials scene.