Martyn Ashton

Martyn Ashton (born 2 December 1974) is a former British and World Champion mountain 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 within the sport. 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.

Biography

Martyn Ashton is a retired trials and stunt cyclist who started-out as a child motorcycle trials rider but took-up mountain bike trials in the early 1990s. He is a four-time British Biketrial Champion and former World Expert Biketrial Champion. Ashton is also the High Jump World Record Holder. In 2008 he entered the Mountain Biking UK 'Hall of Fame'.

Ashton not only rode trials, but he has also designed 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 mountain biking magazine. Ashton lives in Port Talbot, Wales.

Ashton broke his back in 2003, when he compressed a vertebra and fractured it during a fall after misjudging a landing, but he soon recovered and returned to riding.

He established Team Ashton Diamondback in-order to provide support for young riders, but although they are top level riders and are capable of achieving results internationally, Ashton doesn't believe that competition results are the be-all-and-end-all. The team concentrate as-much on gaining positive attention in the media as they do competition. A range of Team Ashton bikes was released in October 2008 as part of the 2009 Diamondback range.

Ashton made YouTube fame with a video titled “Road Bike Party”, where he rode a road bicycle in stunts typical of trials.

Ashton once again broke his back on 1 September 2013 during a demo at Moto GP, but this time it was more serious and left him paralysed. A fall from a 3-metre high bar caused severe damage to his spinal cord and dislocated T9 and T10 vertebrae. Since his accident, Martyn has used a variety of wheelchairs, including ones adapted to allow him to continue outdoor pursuits. He has also returned to mountain bike riding using heavily customised mountain bikes; even competing in the Crankworx Air DH, a world-famous race in Whistler, British Columbia.