Growing up racing in the urban sprawl of Sydney, your world might be defined by sharp, frantic bursts. Short, hectic trail networks around Sydney’s north meant, more often than not, hammering out laps entirely by yourself. With the ‘community-built’ makeup of the trails around most of Sydney, their cloak-and-dagger nature means you run the risk of getting trapped inside your own head.
For Australian enduro racer and downhiller Toby Gibbons, that solitary racing mindset was all he knew. He was the classic young gun, swimming in training plans, working with coaches, and measuring his self-worth by the number on a timing sheet.
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Hailing from Sydney, after an injury, Toby Gibbons was forced to take a step back from riding. In doing so, he remembered that bikes are supposed to be fun.
“I think I was working with two coaches, I had a strict training plan, and it kind of zapped the fun out of why I ride,” Gibbons tells Flow.
Then, his shoulders gave out. Not just once, but over and over again. He went from U21 World Cup EDR top 20 finishes to a brutal 394-day forced exile from the bike.
Fast forward to late-May 2026. Gibbons is standing on the top step of the podium, freshly crowned as the Victorian Enduro State Champion. This win goes far beyond just the accolade; it’s proof of a competitive resurrection.
Instead of breaking him, those 394 days in the dark changed how Gibbons views riding his bike. Today, he’s based in Canberra, balancing a sports media and communications degree at the University of Canberra with working and running the social media channels for Norco Australia. If you catch him out on the trails today, he isn’t staring at a stopwatch, he’s probably giggling like a kid who just got their training wheels off.
Here’s how a fast kid from Sydney lost the love, found a community in the nation’s capital, and discovered that life looks better when you aren’t rushing past it.
The Canberra shift
At the start of 2023, right after finishing school, Toby packed his bags and moved to Canberra.
On paper, the move was for his studies, with the University of Canberra being the only institution offering a sports media and communications degree, tailored exactly to what he wanted to do.
Being honest, any rider moving to the ACT is really doing it for the dirt. While Canberra may not be the first place you think of as a mountain biker’s promised land, it provides a great base camp. You’re spoilt for choice within the Territory bubble, and you’re also that little bit closer to the likes of Thredbo, the South Coast, and the descents of Victoria’s High Country.
Gibbons is one of quite a few young mountain bikers who have moved to Canberra to further their studies.
“Growing up in Sydney, it’s always turning, always something happening, and Canberra has just a really nice chill vibe,” Gibbons explains.
The trails in the area of Sydney where Gibbons grew up are short and sharp, and part of this scene change to the nation’s capital brought with it the spoils of longer trails.
For an outsider, stepping into Canberra’s riding scene is an eye-opening experience. Through his friend Tom Locke, Gibbons was instantly drawn into a local crew that included flyers like Tim Eaton, alongside siblings Sian and Kye A’hern.
Beyond longer descents and learning to carve through the dust-covered hardpack of Stromlo, the biggest revelation was being thrown into the midst of Canberra’s riding community.
Gibbons tells us he found his people in Canberra, and it helped his riding tremendously.
“I think the biggest difference was having people to ride with,” Gibbons explains.
“In Sydney, most of the time I’d find myself just riding by myself, and that can only really push you so far in terms of your speed and your skill,” he says.
“Being able to ride with those that were better, and still are better than me, is such a bonus. You’re able to bounce off each other and get faster.”
That community has only evolved. With several heavy hitters taking a step back from the grind of World Cup racing to spend more time back home, the midweek and weekend group chats are constantly popping off.
“It distracts you a bit, it feels a lot less serious than when you’re stuck in your own head riding by yourself,” Gibbons adds.
Canberra has vastly more riding than you may think, with so much variety available.
And the variety of terrain means there are always plenty of options on offer.
“Stromlo offers some really good flow and tech. Out at Blue Range, you get that steeper, more hand-cut natural stuff, which is some of my favourite riding to do.”
The physical and mental break
Just as Gibbons was finding his rhythm in his new home, disaster struck. Over a brutal, repetitive span, he dislocated his right shoulder 11 times and his left shoulder four times. His upper body was essentially held together by stubbornness and a reluctance to go under the knife.
By October 2024, the party was officially over. He had to step away from racing plates and undergo a complete reconstruction of his right shoulder to repair a jigsaw puzzle of torn cartilage and shredded ligaments.
A shoulder reconstruction meant that Gibbons had to take an extended break from mountain biking.
“The worst dislocation I had was when I went to reach behind me to pull a blanket that was tucked over my couch. It popped out, and I’m in my apartment by myself with this shoulder out, trying to get it back in.”
“I remember knowing that I wasn’t going to be able to ride for some time, that really affected me, and I almost hated mountain bikes for a bit. I lost the love for it a little,” Gibbons admits.
Living by yourself while recovering from a major surgery is an isolating mental battle. To keep the head noise at bay, Gibbons focused on gym workouts three to four days a week to lock his shoulder into place. He also toned down the risk, turning to the road and gravel for a little long-distance pedal therapy.
“I kind of set myself some dumb rides on the gravel bike that I wanted to do, I rode from Canberra to Thredbo in a day,” Gibbons reflects.
This was a 200km journey climbing 800 metres from the Monaro plains right up into the Snowy Mountains. A massive day on the bike indeed, it was a way to redirect his energy, pushing his body to the limit to keep his mind quiet while his shoulder healed.
“Those big rides almost became a coping mechanism. On those solo rides, you do kind of get in some dark places, and you really get to question yourself.”
The injury and time away from riding helped Gibbons rediscover that there is more to mountain biking than training plans and race results.
Being injured and off the mountain bike for so long, Gibbons’ turning point came on the sidelines of Thredbo’s Cannonball MTB Festival in 2025. Holding a camera instead of handlebars, Gibbons watched his good mate Tom Locke storm onto the podium.
“One of my really good friends got up there, and seeing him get on a podium that I’ve been so close to in the past relit a fire for me. I was like, ‘I need to get back there,’” Gibbons tells Flow.
By taking the pressure off, I’m riding the best I ever have.
When the medical all-clear finally arrived after more than a year away, Gibbons didn’t return to the trails with his eyes on TSS and prescribed training. He went back to the basics.
“I told myself from that day onwards that I’m only going to ride if it’s fun,” Gibbons says.
“I tried to ease back in, but the next thing I know, I’m throwing scrubs and gapping out of berms and getting a bit carried away. I was just giggling to myself the whole way. It felt like being a little kid again.”
“If I don’t want to do intervals, cool, I’ll go ride jumps and focus on riding just to enjoy it. By taking the pressure off, I’m riding the best I ever have.”
Gibbons learned about burnout the hard way. Now he’s trying to help young riders avoid the same fate.
Having been through the wringer himself, Gibbons is now passing those hard-earned lessons down to the next wave of local talent, mentoring young riders like Jackson Semenas, Billy Henderson and Lincoln Reed before they head overseas to race.
“One big thing I’ve been drilling into them is ‘don’t care about the result, just go and have fun and enjoy it’, because that’s something that I didn’t really make the most of when I was overseas. They need to force themselves to smile; they’re riding bikes in Europe. It doesn’t get much better than that.”
Cutting through the marketing landscape
While his racing goals took a detour, Gibbons didn’t let his time go to waste. He chipped away at his university studies, and his recovery aligned perfectly with a career opportunity, stepping into the role of social media manager for Norco Australia.
It’s a fascinating and chaotic time to be in the digital marketing space. Between the rise of AI and the absolute deluge of daily content, bike brands are working out how to cut through the white noise of the internet. From his position in the thick of it, he has some distinct, surprisingly traditional ideas about what actually works.
Finding a point of difference is key in today’s doomscroll internet. Gibbons still thinks quality is king.
“I think high-quality content is something that’s overlooked by a lot of brands nowadays,” says Gibbons.
“A phone just doesn’t cut it, even though social media is so disposable, having a really high-quality video has the ability to capture people’s attention straight away.”
“I think a lot of brands lack creativity. Some big brands just think that their name is enough. If you get an Instagram ad and it’s just a photo of a bike with a white background, or somebody in a car park with a cheap helmet on, just standing on it (the bike), it looks rubbish.”
Instead, Gibbons advocates for high-production cinematic content to connect with the market. The endless short-form ‘scroll-hole’ content and generic talking-head content are out. A focus on quality, and consistent quality, not just one-offs, is in.
“It’s not just about doing one short film or one photo shoot, but that consistent push to output quality, I think, is what resonates. And part of that is having their own image (as a brand) figured out and leaning into that,” he says.
That need for quality and consistency extends beyond the physical media to the reputation of the voices presenting it. Social media has democratised the town square, and user-generated content is all the rage, but it comes with an opportunity cost.
“There is a place for user-generated and influencer content, and it can have value. But it’s important to get legitimate names with a strong reputation, regardless of the industry. You see a lot of the time there are influencers that are talking about how good this tyre is or how good this suspension is, but their reputation is built on their followers, not their experience,” he says. “That just doesn’t add the same value.”
This credibility is derived from reputation, and reputation from experience; however, maintaining that positive reputation is not guaranteed. Gibbons notes the general public can spot inauthentic or generated material from a mile away.
“I think there is a place for AI in marketing, but it should have nothing to do with the production of the visual content or something front-facing. It can be a great tool for help with a shoot itinerary, guidance on creating captions, and creating subtitles. There are a few brands in the bike industry that are using it to generate images and video, and it’s terrible — everyone is calling it ‘slop’ for a reason,” he says.
The Gibbons horse, his custom Norco Sight
The daily driver | Toby’s Custom Norco Sight C MX 150
Gibbons’ history with Norco goes right back to his early days, having ridden the Canadian outfit’s bikes when he was first starting out. Coming back to the Canadian brand was a genuine full-circle moment for him, remembering the old 2009 Norco Fluid he originally stole off his dad and an old Norco Atomic downhill bike he traded a BMX for as a kid.
“It’s so cool to be back and actually be a part of a company that had such a big role in my early stages of mountain biking,” Gibbons reflects.
Gibbons dug up a photo of his old Norco Atomic for us. Things have come a long way, to say the least.
His daily driver is a heavily customised Norco Sight C MX 150. While Gibbons says he can generally hop on any bike and make it work, there are a couple of points he refuses to compromise on.
“I have a really particular bar roll, it’s pretty far forwards, and my brakes are pretty flat. If my bars are too rolled back, I can’t ride. It feels weird. Everybody talks about Jackson Goldstone doing it, but I’ve been doing it for years,” Gibbons jokes.
Gibbons has a unique cockpit setup, with his bars rolled forward and flat brake levers.
Toby Gibbons’ Norco Sight C
Frame | Norco Sight C 150 MX
Fork | Fox 38 factory 160mm
Shock | Fox Float X Live Valve Neo 205 x 60mm
Drivetrain | SRAM XO Eagle AXS, RaceFace Era 32T Chainring, RaceFace Era 165mm cranks
Brakes | SRAM Maven Silver, Galfer Shark rotors and Galfer Pro pads
Cockpit | RaceFace Turbine 35mm Stem, RaceFace Atlas bars 20mm rise and 760mm wide, RaceFace Chester Grips
Wheels | RaceFace Era
Tyres | Pirelli Scorpion Race DH M
Pedals | Shimano Saint SPD or RaceFace Atlas when riding flats
Why trash-free trails matter for access
Gibbons’ connection to keeping trails trash-free started long before his move to Canberra. Growing up hitting the Hornsby dirt jumps in Sydney, local trail advocate Dan Smith pulled Gibbons and his crew aside for a reality check.
“He was like, ‘If you guys want to keep trails and continue to grow and get more trails around Sydney, it’s important that you keep these spaces clean,’” Gibbons recalls.
“‘It’s not just about protecting the environment, it’s also about protecting mountain biking as a sport.’”
That lesson stuck. When Gibbons’ local trails in Sydney were routinely flattened by the council, the excuse was always the same: rubbish. By clearing out the litter themselves, they aimed to dismantle the stereotype that mountain bikers leave a mess behind.
Mountain bikers are often cast as the boogeyman: littering and destroying the bush. That could not be further from the truth, and Trash Free Trails is aiming to change hearts and minds.
Gibbons is an active partner of Trash Free Trails Australia, pushing for trail stewardship and protecting what director Tom Hutton calls the ‘mental magic’ of a ride.
“When you’re riding along, you’re in such a flow state and a special moment that needs to be protected,” Gibbons says.
“There’s nothing worse than when you’re riding down a trail, and you see a Coke can, and it’s like, ‘Oh, that just breaks it.’”
“It’s not like people are doing it deliberately as well. It’s just a lack of awareness, like what I had when I was a kid. I think a really important thing with Trash Free Trails is that we can raise awareness to the mountain bike community to help get rid of that crap that ruins the environments we ride in.”
We all love riding bikes after all, and that is what drives Gibbons nowadays.
Flow’s final note
Toby Gibbons represents a refreshing shift. He’s a speed merchant who has completely stripped away some of the pressure of results-oriented racing, replacing it with a genuine, infectious love for the simple act of rolling on two wheels.
Whether he’s ripping an enduro stage, whipping up the next post for Norco Australia, mentoring a new generation of Aussie racers or charging down steeps at Blue Range on a Sunday afternoon, Toby is a stark reminder of a fundamental truth we often forget.
At the end of the day, we’re all just kids riding bikes in the bush. Don’t forget to smile.
Photos: Joss McAlin
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