Big Todd: The Instigator Behind Airborne's New 29er

Big Todd

Meet Big Todd. Todd isn't your ordinary guy.  For starters, he's 6' 5". Secondly, like the rest of us on the Airborne Flight Crew, he is crazy about riding mountain bikes! Specifically, he is crazy about riding 29ers. Shortly after the announcement of the new Airborne brand, I believe that Todd's first question was: "Are you guys going to have a 29er?" Todd was originally selected as one of the 10 members of the Flight Crew, but he turned around and refused the spot.

Yeah, that's a little crazy, right?  Who turns down a free trip to the Sea Otter Classic in California and a free mountain bike? Well, between the time when he sent his application letter off to Airborne and he got his acceptance letter back, Todd was diagnosed with colon cancer.  He was sadly forced to turn down the trip to California due to an ensuing course of chemo treatment.

While the Flight Crew was out in California, we decided to make Todd an "honorary member of the Flight Crew," despite the fact that he couldn't join us.  We wanted to do everything we could to encourage him in his fight against cancer. 

Fast forward 5 or 6 months, and after a long struggle Todd has beat cancer! This is no small feat, as colon cancer apparently only has a 40% survival rate.  Todd had a better chance of dying than he did of living, but despite that fact he successfully made it through to the other side!

Big Todd's personal 29er prototype.  Non-stock decals and components.

During the final stages of Todd's treatment, Jeremy Mudd, the awesome engineer in charge of product development for Airborne, was hard at work on the new bicycles soon to be gracing the Airborne line up.  The first bike on the list was a hardtail 29er made in honor of Todd and his fight against cancer... and partially because of his begging/whining/pleading for an Airborne with big wheels. Oh, and it was probably also developed because 29ers are all the rage nowadays!

Todd was truly the instigator behind this bike the whole time. It seemed like there wasn't a day that went by when he didn't ask Jeremy some sort of question about the progress of the 29er.  Well Todd, you have your Airborne 29er now!

Of course, Todd is one of the lucky few to have one of the prototype frames.  He has been out riding on it whenever he can get the chance, and in his own words: "I have to say, this is one of, if not the best, riding [aluminum] 29ers I've been on!"

When this new 29er hits the internet for sale in early 2011, be sure to pick up one of these truly unique mountain bikes!

PS If you want to read more about Todd's battle with cancer, check out the archives on his blog.

PSS If you want a free Airborne t-shirt, be sure to share this story about Todd and Airborne's 29er on your Facebook, Twitter, etc. Details here.