Martyn Ashton
Animal Bike Tour, Aberystwyth, June 2007
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| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Martyn Ashton |
| Born | 2 December 1974 |
| Team information | |
| Discipline | MTB |
| Role | Rider |
| Rider type | Trials |
| Professional team(s) | |
| 1997 | Volvo - Cannondale |
| 2005 | Animal MBUK |
| 2008– | Team Ashton Diamondback |
| Major wins | |
| 39 world championships | |
Martyn Ashton (born 2 December 1974) is a former British and World Championmountain bike trials rider, stunt rider and team manager. He had been riding professional trials since 1993 and is often described as a mountain biking legend. He has been credited with turning trials from a niche form of riding into the sport it is today. Ashton was paralysed in an accident in 2013, during a bike trials demo at the British Moto GP.
Ashton started out as a motorcycle trials rider, and only later took up mountain bike trials. He has been the front man for The Bike Tour since 2002, and is a four-time British Biketrial Champion and former World Expert Biketrial Champion. Ashton is the High Jump World Record Holder. In 2008, Ashton entered the Mountain Biking UK 'Hall of Fame'.
Ashton not only rides trials, he has also designed the exhibition stages and has been designing products for his own Ashton Bikes range since 2002. He has appeared in TV shows, magazine covers and MTB videos, and also has his own column Hop Idol in the MBUK magazine. Ashton lives in Port Talbot, Wales.
Ashton broke his back in 2003 when he compressed a vertebra and fractured it during a fall, having misjudged a landing, but he soon returned to riding.
Ashton established Team Ashton Diamondback in order to provide support for young riders. Although they are top level riders nationally and capable of achieving results internationally, Ashton does not believe competition results are the be all and end all, and the team concentrate as much on gaining positive attention in the media as competition. A range of Team Ashton bikes was released in October 2008 as part of the 2009 Diamondback range.
Ashton again broke his back on 1 September 2013 during a demo at Moto GP. A 3-metre fall from a high bar left him with severe damage to his spinal cord and dislocated T9 and T10 vertebrae.
On 2 July 2015 Ashton rode a modified bike down a mountain, which was featured in the YouTube video "Martyn Ashton - Back On Track" by Global Mountain Bike Network.
Martyn launched his newest film "Down Not Out - Mountain Bike Party" on 12 June 2016 in which he rode a modified Canyon Sender bike and was published by Global Mountain Bike Network, where he hosts the weekly Dirtshed Show.
On 9 October 2012 Ashton published a popular video on YouTube called Road Bike Party, where he takes an unmodified carbon road bike and performs a series of acrobatic tricks. Shot in various locations around the UK, the video was viewed millions of times, receiving tens of thousands of likes and over ten million views by early 2014.
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