Mondraker
Menu

19 | 10 | 2023

CONCRETE: THE ‘90s, ASPHALT AND URBAN CULTURE

GASPI GOES BACK TO HIS ROOTS AND TAKES HIS CRAFTY CARBON WITH HIM

Play video

URBAN CULTURE



Back in the ‘90s the streets were just as much our playground as the countryside was. Before skate parks became the norm in every neighbourhood, and before bike parks and pump tracks had even been dreamed of, riding your mountain bike on the city streets was about as normal as breathing. 


Join the generation of the ‘90s, CRAFTY CARBON style, through Richard Gasperotti’s new series. Sit back, relax, and enjoy CONCRETE: The ‘90s, asphalt and urban culture. 


Today’s fashion is once again heavily influenced by the styles of skateboarders and bikers who in around the year 2000 embraced the motto "the wider - the better" and filled the streets with a new, unconventional style.

Clothes a few sizes too big, often far from what the standard sizing charts would recommend, sometimes even pushing the boundaries of practicality. But who cared? Style didn't ask and it still doesn't today!

That fashion‘s back, and for those of us who experienced their teenage years or early adulthood during that time it may not excite us as intensely this second time around. However, it does evoke memories not only of what was “in“, but above all, of urban subcultures that profoundly influenced us all as well.

Mountain biking, BMX, skateboarding, graffiti, punk rock, hip-hop, metal... all these styles that had our parents worried sick about us have irreversibly shaped who we are today.

CONCRETE PROJECT

CONCRETE, Richard Gasperotti's E-bike project is not just a stylized ode to the late '90s and the new millennium but a reminder of a time when in every large town skateparks, bike parks, or pump tracks were far from guaranteed. It's a reminder of a time when riders were grateful for every small ramp that the city didn't remove from the streets and every modest trail that forest wardens didn't destroy. 

IT WAS A TIME WHEN STYLES MIXED

And experimentation was the norm. Half the day was spent on a mountain bike in the woods, and the other half was spent jibbing on the city streets. It's a reminder of a time when once-monumental structures from the communist era began to find new uses. All those concrete representations of size and strength often became an all-day refuge for young tattooed rebels with piercings.

This was the immediate post-communist era in the Czech Republic. It's good that it's gone, and that today's progressive young riders have the opportunity to start under far better conditions.

And even though we might not like it, it's good that some socialist-era structures, where concrete played a significant role, have survived to this day.

They are not just a reminder of the Iron Curtain era but also a reminder of an entire generation that popularized wide baggy pants, ridiculously oversized “chunky“ skateboard shoes, flex-fit caps, and grunge, punk or emo music.

This was the immediate post-communist era in the Czech Republic. It's good that it's gone, and that today's progressive young riders have the opportunity to start under far better conditions.

And even though we might not like it, it's good that some socialist-era structures, where concrete played a significant role, have survived to this day.

They are not just a reminder of the Iron Curtain era but also a reminder of an entire generation that popularized wide baggy pants, ridiculously oversized “chunky“ skateboard shoes, flex-fit caps, and grunge, punk or emo music.

Gaspi returned to the '90s not only to nostalgically reminisce about the places where his Freeride MTB journey began, and perhaps where his first photo was taken for the legendary Czech bike magazine Dirtbiker, but also to enjoy these monsters before they are replaced by modern, sophisticated solutions. Twenty years ago, urban subcultures were about sharing experiences, discovering new places and people, connecting, and seeking out new styles. 

And this is precisely the spectrum that Gaspi sought to connect in the BETON video. Jibbing on an E-bike, the Mondraker Crafty Carbon, in places where people were riding twenty years ago? And to the sounds of the most listened-to Czech artist on Spotify... the young metal-rap artist REDZED?! Why not?!! With this multicultural approach, Richard Gasperotti's generation (46) entered the scene and one day it will also leave. But until then the fashion that influenced us all back then will  come around a few more times again!

GASPI:

"It was here before I was born, and it will be here after I'm gone, and I think that I could... be there, dream, and experience it all over again - Wow, what a hell of a ride!"

DO YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT GASPI IS RIDING?

Find your store

Find your nearest store