Matt Reyes

BIO:

Originally from Gilroy, CA, Matt Reyes, more popularly known as Slumworm, got his start in the fixed gear world by documenting local scenes with his blog, slumworm.blogspot.com in 2009. 2009 is also when the original Wheel Talk crew was formed, including himself, Jeff Dempler, Scott Horton, and Colin Cable.

Around this time, Matt would start to become a staple in media coverage and creation around the NorCal area, from shooting pictures, to blog writeups, to videos and more. At this time, Matt’s riding would also continue to improve to the point where in 2010, he would become part of a secret frame project along with the other Wheel Talk guys that would later become the Specialized P-Fix, which himself and crew helped develop.

Matt’s videos around late 2010 started to take shape and would go on to create the “Matt Reyes style” videos that much of the scene knows and loves to date. These characteristics included HD heavy use of artistic B-Roll and punchy, quick edits. Paired with heavy riding clips turned Wheel Talk into one of the most successful media outlets in the scene, garnering tens of thousands of views per video. He then moved to San Jose to be closer to iMiNUSD, where most major riders at the time were centralized.

As for Matt’s riding, he found early success due to his signature fast paced, flowy riding which was difficult to find at the time. By 2011 he was on the Specialized, Sadio, iMiNUSD, and Breezy Excursion teams.

While Matt’s web edits were highly praised, his consistency would shine in competitions. In May 2011, Matt was one of the 29 riders worldwide to be invited to the first annual Red Bull Ride + Style invitational competition, where he would place 1st. The next 3 years of Red Bull competitions, as well as other competitions, Matt would take first place in 3 out of 4 competitions and take first in almost every competition he participated in.

Matt rode for Specialized from 2010-2015 and continued putting out multiple edits and video parts throughout those years on Vimeo and then Youtube. In 2015, he landed on the Bombtrack team alongside Elliott Milner and Johnathan Ball. Although he departed from Bombtrack when they dropped their Fixed Gear program in 2017, he still has a Bombtrack Zion as his primary FGFS build to date. When Bombtrack disbanded though, Matt would already start to lean into the Trick Track discipline of riding.

When Matt was put on Mash SF in 2018, this ushered in a whole new era of Matt and Wheel Talk. Along with crisper visuals, he started to cover more of the general Fixed Gear track bike scene and gained a wider audience by doing so. He would introduce fixed gear tricks to all new heads from within and without the fixed gear scene. He is often be regarded as the “Mayor of Fixietown” and continues to be a lead figurehead of the trick scene as well as outputting some of the highest quality media in fixed gear.

In 2021, his partnership with Mash SF lead to the creation of his signature frame: The Reyes Steel frameset.

The frame has been extremely successful and helped the 2020 Trick Track resurgence continue to thrive.

Riding Status: Active

Born: March 6th, 1990

Region: San Francisco, CA, United States

Nickname(s): Slumworm, Mayor of Fixietown

Owner: Wheel Talk

Crew(s): Turf Mob, Wheel Talk

Discipline(s): FGFS, Trick Track

Current Sponsor(s): Mash SF

Previous Sponsor(s): Bombtrack, Specialized, Sadio, Turf Bikes, iMiNUSD, YNOT Cycles, Breezy Excursion, Thunderkill