Putting in the hard yards brings success for this rider

Sixteen-year-old Levi Love has been around bikes all his life. At three years old, he was already riding up and down the driveway on his plastic kids bike, now he is riding head to head against people who have been racing longer than he has been alive.

He joined the Hamilton Mountain Bike Club in 2018, racing his “fluoro black” Giant in the Sprocket Rockets, a class for intermediate-aged kids ready to ride and burn all their energy.

“Racing gave me a sense of competitiveness. I was trying to pass people right from the start and had some near misses with trees, to get closer to the rider in front of me.”

He discovered success, coming second in his first season and first in the club championships. And became one to watch in the upcoming season.

Levi did not just race, he also helped the club out on the odd Tuesday night, joining working bees, from blowing away leaves to a bit of digging to help out the people who made the races happen for people to enjoy.

“Arriving on Wednesday night is always a treat when the track is tidy and fresh ready for racing.”

Levi was riding dirt bikes from a young age before he got into mountain biking at Pukete.

“I tended to be up in the air for most of the race and had a great time riding my bike. If a part of the track didn’t have a jump on it, I would find a way to turn a tree root or a bump in the track into a jump to use to my advantage.”

Currently he has moved from the sport junior men to the electric bike (e-bike) class on a Specialized Kenevo, “a beast of a machine” equipped with a 500w battery. He says there are many similarities between the motorbike and the e-bike.

“They both share speed and acceleration, but the e-bike still needs pedaling to operate and does not have a throttle which most non-e-bikers joke about.”

This season Levi will defend the e-bike champion he won in 2021 in November and has no plans of slowing up anytime soon.