Photos: Mike Headford
Chris is one of those dudes that I’m always psyched on seeing footage of and hearing from. The other day we were talking and while I was catching up with him, he mentioned that he was building up a brand new bike. Anyone who knows Chris knows that he will ride his shit till it’s dead, so with this occasion, we figured that it was a perfect opportunity to take a closer look at this dialed new rig of his and to find out what’s new in his life. Let’s take a closer look and see what he had to say!
Name: Chris Silva
Location: Toronto, Ontario Canada
Sponsors: Animal & Macneil Bikes
Years riding: 17
Frame: MacNeil Borato 20.5
Bars: MacNeil XLT 8.25
Fork: MacNeil CKS
Stem: Animal MR. Front Load
Grips: Animal Edwin
Headset: Animal
Cranks: Animal Akimbo
Pedals: Animal Hamilton
Sprocket: Animal V3
Chain: KMC
Seat / Post / Clamp: MacNeil Capital/ Animal Post/ integrated clamp
Rear Wheel / Tire: MacNeil Network/ Animal GLH 2.1
Front Wheel / Tire: MacNeil Network/ Animal GLH 2.5
Pegs: none, just custom made grindable axle nuts
Hub Guards: custom made rear guard
Brakes? Demolition
Mods: Ground down edges and bent brake lever, ground down cone nuts, ground down dropouts to be flush with axle nuts, cut bars and steer tube.
What’s the newest part on your bike? Almost everything
What’s the oldest part? The custom hub guard
What do you usually go through the fastest? Pedals
Does your setup change much or are you pretty consistent how you have it put together?
It’s always the same; long cable and pegless.
Do you have anything, like your bars are just the right angle, that needs to be done or it all feels wrong?
I’m pretty crazy about my bike setup, I hate changing parts and if I do it needs to be the same or fairly close. Any big changes like sweep of bars or top tube lengths and I feel like I can’t even ride properly.
How are things going with Macneil these days? Any trips, videos or anything you’re going to be doing this summer with them?
Everything is going well. We are in the process of filming for a DVD, there should be a couple more trips this year before everything is wrapped up.
What about Animal? Anything you are getting excited for with them?
Animal and everyone that is a part of it are awesome, I’m so glad they understand what’s real. I’m always excited about Animal, there should be some cool stuff coming out at the end of the year that I’m really stoked on.
Any other sponsor news you can tell us about?
No, there’s nothing I’m looking for, I’m really happy with everything that’s going on right now.
A few months back you decided to put your brand, Sour Fever, to rest. What lead to that decision? Any plans of starting something new?
Damn, I didn’t even think people would know or notice that, haha. Yeah, it was a fun project to do with my free time and help out local friends. People moved on from the team and after 3 years things changed a bit and it was just best to finish on a high note rather than drag it on. I don’t have anything else in the works.
Have you been filming much lately? I feel like we’re due for a new edit from you soon.
I don’t think I’ll be dropping any serious edits soon, last one I did was the MacNeil Cali edit from a year ago. I really like to sit on clips for a long time, haha. I have a bunch of cool stuff and I’ve continued to film like crazy for this MacNeil DVD. I’m going to wait till the DVD comes out and whatever clips I have left over I’ll make an edit of. But then again I might get the editing bug and drop something during the summer, we’ll see…
Do you have any travel plans coming up? Anywhere you really want to get at some point?
I just went to Austin, Texas a couple months ago and I’ve been dying to go there for years. I don’t have any plans for the rest of this year besides just small trips to maybe a few Canadian places like Ottawa and Montreal, I really like riding in Ottawa. I want to try and get out to Calgary at some point cause I’ve never been there and the riding scene seems pretty good.
What have you been up to when you aren’t riding these days? Working or anything like that?
I was working a full time job for the past year and a half at a bottled water company but gave my 2 weeks notice and left about a month ago, I don’t think I can ever work in a place like that again. I’m just going with the flow for the next bit, right now I’m actually working with my friend “Butta” on a studio that does movie effects and stuff, we’re building one of those green screen walls, more or less it’s building quarter pipes and curved walls, haha.
How can people keep up with you these days? Are you on Instagram, Twitter and all that social media stuff?
I don’t have any of that stuff except Facebook to keep in touch with people.
Do you have any shout outs or thanks?
Yeah of course. Ralph and everyone at Animal, Everyone at MacNeil and also Prashant at MacNeil/TenPack for helping me out a lot, all the Toronto ICC street cats, Rexdale Trails crew, Chijioke and George for always being there whenever I need a camera man, I wouldn’t be doing anything if those guys didn’t mission out of their way to film some stupid crap I wanted to do, Mike Headford for also coming along to shoot photos and anyone who comes out riding with me that keeps the spots and sessions on the down low.
Anything else you want to say?
Yeah, thanks for the opportunity to do this little bike check/interview and thanks to those who read it. Support companies that support your local scene. BMX is a creative outlet; do what feels right to you and don’t worry about what’s cool right now cause in 10 years none of that will matter. BMX needs Jay Miron back. That is all.
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