Company Spotlight: One Ghost Industries

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Clik here to view.This month we are holding our Company Spotlight on the people responsible for our frame on Project DH. One Ghost Industries. David Meredith, the main man behind OGI along with his business partner and close friend Rory Farrar have been feverishly ramping up the market with some incredible new bikes. Including their Musashi DH race frame, Ronin carbon fiber 29er, Morrow Dirt Club 29er, Tanto 4X/DJ and Wakizashi (still in development). That’s not all, they are also responsible for Candy Components featuring handlebars, stems and pedals with more on the way. We featured their handlebars in a review not long ago.

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DM on the Turner going WAY back!

We have been rocking the Musashi DH bike for the last few weeks and you will see MUCH more very soon. We have also been lucky enough to have an inside peek at some of their top secret projects and some of the latest stuff to come down the pipeline. Like the new Long Bow, a Super D slayer/AM Machine! As well as the new RaceDay pedal to be released later this year.

Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.: 6”s of Trail devastating travel for your elite Super D racer or aggressive AM/Trail rider, the LongBow.

Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.: The RaceDay pedal looks to be a solid contender in the flat pedal market. Featuring oversized bearings and a full length spindle.

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But the reason they are being featured here in our Spotlight is because they are a new ground breaking company with designs that seem to work. Not a big box brand or a fly by night brand. One Ghost Industries is backed by a strong racing background and by people who LOVE to ride bikes. Fueled by passion and support from industry friends and ultra rad wives, David and Rory are gonna be around for a long long time. Also resistant to putting out catalog bikes and products, the design is strictly OGI. David is the main man behind the designs and overall look of the product, while Rory supports the financial end of things. Rory’s son Riley is one of the key product test riders. Davids path has brought him through all ends of the industry from being a racer, a skilled wrench and a business owner of his own.

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DM the face behind One Ghost Industries….your gonna see alot of him.

I sat down with DM to get to know him a bit better, and I have to say I have made a new friend.

MBS – Tell us about how you met rory and your relationship with him

DAVID – I met Rory through his son, Riley. I sponsored Riley to race the Mountain States Series by providing him discounts and race tech support though my shop: One Ghost Industries and Base Camp Bikes (where we started). Long story short, he is faster to the fridge than I am!

MBS – What is your history in cycling

DAVID – Long story longer; I started riding BMX street back in 1985 after I saw RAD. I raced a little BMX but mostly loved street, freestyle and flatland. Fast forward to 1989 when I was “too big” to ride a BMX bike anymore (dumb parents) and I got my first “ATB”; a Univega Alpina Sport. I had to ride it 16 miles a day to and from high school out from Perris to Moreno Valley through the fields and housing developments.

I met some friends my freshman year and they wanted me to come out and ride real trail with them out in Box Canyon so I did and was hooked. They all told me to start racing so I did and that year I took 5th overall in the local race series out of Loma Linda, CA.

By my Jr year I was racing every weekend and had my first paying sponsors: Etto Helmets, Power Bar, Sunnymead Schwinn and Tioga. I also would get a free pair of Oakley Glasses every month! I was also top 10 in California as a Jr Expert XC racer. I caught the attention then of Fish Lips Cycles, T-Gear Performance Products, Profile Racing and Mountain Cycle (then only making the Suspenders fork and disc brake).

I graduated in 1993 with a 4.2 cumulative GPA and a train ticket to Colorado to race for the newly founded CU MTB program as a pro (where I promptly was handed my XC ass).

in 1994 I was kicked out of school because of a lack of money and spent the next year homeless with my bike on the streets of Denver, shacking up where I can and trying to make money as a bike messenger until my bike was stolen.

I took half of 1995 off to get back on my feet and moved to Colorado Springs where I picked up a Slingshot bike and started racing XC again and by 1996 I was racing for the Yeti grassroots program through Colorado Cyclist. I was racing XC and Slalom throughout Colorado, Utah and Wyoming when I discovered that I was significantly stronger and faster at gravity events than XC ones so I took up all the gravity events I could get to, racing DS and DH full time throughout the states closest to me along with going back to my BMX roots and racing cruiser class to train for slalom. As a privateer working for myself it made it difficult to get to the majority of the NORBA events but I did what I could.

By 1997 I was running top 10 in Colorado and was geting bored with the state and Colorado Springs in general so I moved to north Idaho where the WIM (Washington-Idaho-Montana) race series as well as all the NORBA events that came to Utah, Washington and Idaho. I was picked up by the local Intense regional team the Northwest Downhillers headed by Simon Elston. I was also picked up by Azonic because of my tattoo that says “beyond all limits” across my shoulders, along with SRAM, Hayes and Pedros rounding out my sponsor list.

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DM during one of his Pro races.

Fast-forward to the first race of 1999..Beacon Bomber in Spokane, WA. new bike from Turner, new privateer program (I turned down contracts from Kona and Mongoose).
..Televised event..first pro race of the season coming off a 5th overall the year before…my favorite (and local trail that I rode weekly)…my dear friend (now gone) Dave Moffatt was announcing the race for TV and he starts screaming over the mic as I came into the first mean section; a 22-foot step-down….BAM!!!!! I bottom out the bike and my knees but adrenaline and caffeine keep me running to a 12th place with a second run to go (2-run format one run down different trails) and the second trail was my favorite so I have a chance to get a top 10 easily and maybe a podium still so I charge the start and fall of the ramp, all 15-feet of it.
I get back up and go to push off for a re-count start and have no power in my legs and some amazingly sharp pain radiating from my knees. I begrudgingly coast to the finish and while gimping around the bottom of the hill a friend grabbed me and pulled my pant legs up exposing black, swollen knees…blown meniscus and tears in ACL/PCL and MCL in both knees.

The 1999 season was officially over.

By 2000, after a major recovery effort and no surgery I was racing pro DH again and running top 5 in the WIM series again and generally in the top 25 at all “major” events. My friend Cyrus Welk and I founded a new race team picking up from the dissolving of the Northwest Downhillers. The new program through the University of Idaho; the Off-Road Vandals.

By now I was working with Dave Turner helping him out with the new DHR and heading his regional Northwest race program. the season brought a 15th overall for me but a 3rd runner up for Slalom and a second for downhill (Cat 1/Pro) at the collegiate nationals.

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DM in his old Turner days…RAILING IT!

I was invited to race the “George Games”, a World Cup invite in 2001 and finished 11th besting Steve Peat and a few others (though I am pretty sure Missy Giove beat both of us!) and that finish put me at 57th in the world and 12th in the US at the halfway point that year…..blah blah blah… do I have to keep going?

By 2002 I was focusing on graduating from U of I with a double major and looking at grad school so I took a step back from racing only doing 2 events in the spring. I moved back to California and took a job at Marzocchi as Grassroots race support/marketing support and small OE sales and brought Marzocchi back into local racing at the Southridge Winter series.

2003 saw my official retirement from racing as I felt I lost the “edge” necessary to compete at the level I needed to. I also fell deep into depression and drank way to much (while working for Zoke and going to grad school in Santa Barbara).

I finished my school and moved back to North Idaho and ran the marketing/support for the Superheros movie production/race team with Aaron Peters, Randy Spangler, Cam Zink, Andrew Cho and a few other kick ass guys. That was a fun year year but by the end of 2003 I had ended up selling all my bikes and buying a bunch of camera gear to start using my degrees. I started doing marketing/web/photography work for Hair Gary Bicycles, met the love of my life (Stephanie) and we moved to Santa Fe for her to go to college (and to get her out of Idaho here she was born and raised).

Fast forward to 2005..One Ghost Industries and Base Camp Bikes opens up as the only gravity pro shop in New Mexico. I taught classes in mechanics and riding, ran a Iron Horse Prodigy race team program throughout the Mountain States Cup series and began working on my own bike designs with my new friend Gabe Plageman, a former dyno/suspension test analysis guy for Harley/Buell and a motorcycle mechanic. I also met my muse and best friend: Ghost.

By 2007 my depression returned as I was forced to close the retail shop and we decided to move out of New Mexico for a younger environment. Portland: the land of the vegan bacon cheeseburger, the bicycle way of life and the perfection of the IPA.

At this time in 2008 Rory and myself working now with Rick Zitzmann (my engineer) and with the suspension guidance and friendship of Gabe we all tried to start our own bicycle fabrication plant out in Oklahoma with another individual and possible investor/owner. When the plans and funding fell through we went to plan B which was to go to Sapa in Portland (home of Turner Bikes’ production fame) to contract our bikes as well.

When Sapa charged us over $36K per frame to make samples we went to plan C..Taiwan.

I could keep going but longer story short we are in full production on our bikes and I am working daily to be able to bring plan A back to life. It is a VERY hard process, one that is much harder than anyone can realize so people, PLEASE believe in my own patriotism and that I am trying to bring our bikes and parts back to USA production but it is an almost impossible task for 2 guys, their wives, 2 dogs and no money.

MBS – What news do you have you can release right now, as in who is riding for you or any teasers in the works

DAVID – It’s no secret I am working on carbon and have been for a while but see the last paragraph above. Look for the 6″ Longbow to come soon though but in Aluminum first.

MBS – What drives your passion

DAVID – This comes from my personal belief as a Bushido. To be Bushi is to serve and my service to the world is through bicycles and to show the world that you don’t need to be a faceless, soulless corporation to be a kick ass and successful bike company.

It is truly in my blood. If I could quit, I probably would, get a “real job” and just ride my bike, spend time with my family, afford to eat out once in a while and not have heart/brain issues and stress. But I just can’t. I won’t. My grandfather was an entrepreneur as was my oldest uncle, Randy (R.I.P). It is part of my blood and part of me. To make the world better.

MBS – I know you have a remarkable person that stands behind everything you do and are, tell us about Steph….

DAVID – one word: AMAZING.
This woman is the strongest, kindest soul. She gives herself to the world and embodies te spirit of the Samurai and Bushido also (though she probably would never admit it). She has helped me through my darkest times and has given me the greatest gift I have ever received, My Ghost Dog. I love Stephanie with all that is me. Every quark, every atom.

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DM and Ghost Dog…...

MBS – Its also no secret there is another special soul in your life, Ghost Dog. Tell us about Ghost Dog and your relationship together….

DAVID – I met Ghost at the Santa Fe animal shelter. He was in a pen with his liter of other Queensland Heelers. He was the littlest one and having his ass handed to him by the others in the pin, about 7 of them I think. I looked over the pen wall and time stopped. He looked up at me and in a fraction he looked into my eyes and I heard ‘I am yours, I am your Ghost Dog. I am here for you and we need each other”. I swear to you and to Dog I heard that. The only other time I have heard a voice in my head so calm and relaxed was when I died from Heat stroke at 16 and I heard “No, it is not your time now, you are not done yet.” and the second time when I met Stephanie and looked into her eyes through the window of a laundry mat and heard “She is the one.”

so yeah, I hear voices.

Anyways the Ghost Dog is the spiritual protector of the samurai. A Samurai lives their life according to the code of the samurai and they live their life from death to birth so they always know the move their opponent will make and they always know what will happen to them. The Ghost Dog is there to protect the soul of the samurai, to be their “spiritual retainer” where if a samurai is to die before their time, the Ghost Dog will take the soul of the samurai to heaven for them.

Ghost has been that retainer for me. He has literally told me to put the bottle and the gun down, he has saved my life and he has inspired my life to live free and happy and to love everyone and take enjoyment in everything that is life.

DM, thanks for taking the time to sit with us today and share a bit about you, your inner spirit, your past/present/and future. Its great to see progress in the sport of cycling.

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