Rocco Quintiliani, Italo-Irish do it better!

Most of us think that mountain bike as well as bmx pro riders are people who have always a good financial backing from parents and they’re good because the talent and the fact that they can train all day long.

But it’s not always like that, infact many times happens that those guys not only do not get a single coin from their sponsors, but despite reaching the pro status, they continue to struggle to get his trips and riding properly done.

Rocco is one of those guys: he’s a truly talented rider and a street 26″ scene pusher, you can find him around the web in several videos and also in published full lenght things like Here we go again, but he works every day and train in the time left. So hats off please, here’s Cape Cod son Rocco Quintiliani.

Hi Rocco, How’s going? What are you doin’ right now?
I’m doing well, right now I’m in a hotel up way to early considering last nights events

Let’s start from your name: you claim undoubt  Italian origins, who was the last Italian born in your family?Where did they come from?
Ya I’m 50% Italian, other half a scotch/irish mix. My fathers side of the family is my connection to Italy. My gradparents where the last relatives born over there, unfortunately they passed away before I was born and my father passed when I was four, so i don’t have much knowlage of my past. I had to ask my mother where they where from, she says they where from Sicily, San donard val cumeen I believe

Seems that you’re a local rider at Ray’s right? What is like to have a spot like that all year long?
Well, I’m not local to rays at all, it’s a 12 hour drive to get there! But the place is amazing, u can spend a week riding there and never get bored, and ray is the nicest guy. I try to get there at least once a year.

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/21566016[/vimeo]

You’re from Cape Cod,  a quite small and real nice place to grow up, but it could appear far from a bike spot. However your tight crew is pushing hard both street and dirt riding on a 26″ rig. How happened all that?
Ya the cape is not a bike spot, but it has had some heavy hitters. The ones you probably would know the most is Josh perry and markus tooker, they live in Greenville NC now but they kill it! It’s a real tourist spot, everyones job/life depends on people coming to the cape and spending there money. There’s lots of rich people, million dollar homes stuff like that, then on the other hand there’s lots of drugs, violence, crime, wanna be gangsters, check out capecodtoday.com and click on police news, you’ll see what I’m talking about. It’s hard for us to make the riding happen, thankfully we got a sweet back yard with jumps and ramps to keep us going.

Talkin’ about your crew, who are your usual riding buddies?
My normal riding buddies/roomates are Mike Kent and Clint McMahon. We always ride and travel together. There’s some bmx kids that we ride with too but other than that there’s not to many people to ride with.

In your latest edits we saw you riding rigid forks, it’s a tryout or e real switch? How’s riding with no suspension cushioning?
I don’t like when suspension forks creek, it scares me a lot, I had one break on me years ago, all I got was a bloody nose but the memory of my front wheel snapping off will stick with me forever. I can go either way tho, I do need a suspension fork for the bigger, bumpy stuff, and I love the rigid in parks and on smooth dirt jumps. I don’t have a squishy fork right now because of the cost, you can’t get a crappy one because they weigh a ton and work like shit, so you need the good stuff which is nowhere near cheap, I refuse to pay over 400 dollars for a fork, that’s crazy.

How came out the idea of  your Rays Odd Couple clip idea with you and Mike Kent acting the full lycra XCer? Is there a true abyss between freeriders and others kind of bikers?
I got the invite call from ray to come out to his new rays mtb milwaukee. They where super busy getting the new rays ready so not much time got put into the comp. They couldn’t get Bmx guys there fast enough for a regular odd couples. That bummed me out because I was riding a Bmx all winter long and I wanted to be on the 20 inch with mike on the Mtb. After I found that out I had to figure out how to make it “odd”. There kinda is a true abyss between freestyle and other types of riding,  there’s nothing in common except a love for bikes. Everything is completely different. It’s all personal preference, some people wern’t meant to fly.

You’re currently riding the new cody frame: which are the fresh specs of this new rig? Which others custom setups you’re riding right now?
The new Cody is a sweet ride, I got hooked up by DartmoorUSA so I got the frame a few other dart parts. I’m not sure of the numbers on the frame but I kno rear end is slammed there’s good room up front to toss the bars around. Right now I got a cable disc brake with a gyro, pretty much the best thing I’ve done, no more worrying about a cable or leaking fluid. Not to much custom stuff on there tho.

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/17023852[/vimeo]

You’re a true street 26″ ambassador; do you think there’s room for street mtb movement to grow in the future? Do you think people stopped to call it a “bad bmx imiation”?
A tru ambassador, wow, thank you! There’s always room for Mtb street as long as people keep doing it. As for it being a bad Bmx imitation, fuck that. Mtb is it’s own thing. Ya we ride like Bmxers and “steal” there tricks, but at the end of the day its still a bike. It gets a bad rap from goofy Mtb people cruising around getting in the way of bmxers not really knowing what there doing. I get weird looks when I show up somewhere on the 26, then I bust a few moves and it’s instantly cool. People are strange

Who’s supporting you with goods and coins?
Right now I’m getting goods from DartmoorUSA, highland Mtb park, dick mauls bike shop, and Yowelli bars. As for coin, I provide that, 40 hours a week as an electrician.

Do you consider yourself a competitive being? Are you going to enter some contests this year? If yes which?
Somewhat competitive, I’m not trying to one up everybody but it does feel good to win. I plan doing some contests this year, I did the odd couples, I’m at river rock right now, claymore challenge, and hopefully getting to teva games.

Don’t know if you’re according with me, but It seems both street/dirt riders and companies are popping up everywhere in the east Europe territories as well as in Russia.  I’m talkin’ about your sponsor for example, or NS, or again Ridelite and riders like the Godziek bros or Jan Toth..I also checked some nice edits from unknown Russian riders who seem to rock hard..why so big right there?
I couldn’t tell ya why it’s big over there, I’ve never left the US of A. But those guys kill it, there so good. The web edits they put out blow my mind sometimes.

Do you also enjoy riding full suspended bikes down the mountain or only hardtail things?
I do enjoy dh riding, I don’t enjoy the price of a dh bike. I take runs at highlands on demo bike weekends, that’s the closest I get to owning one.

What do you think about the fixed gear movement?
It’s strange, but who am I to talk, i jump a mountain bike.

Who did you looked up to while growing up as a rider?
Pro Bmx! All of em. Kyle Ebbett worked at a bike shop near my house as a kid, at the time he was one of the first people doing things on big wheels, he got me into the Mtb scene.

Thank you for your time Rocco, we wish you a bright season and big result at the competitions you’re entering…any last shout?
Well thank you for the interview it was a pleasure. I have to give a shout out to all my sponsors for helping out with the goods, my mechanics at dick mauls, my friends for riding with me, and websites like you guys for wanting to put me on the world wide web. Thank you!

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/8463630[/vimeo]