For those not tapped into their extreme side, biking is biking. Whether mountain biking or racing, it’s peddling to get from point A to point B. Highlights include helmets, spandex, taking up lanes meant for cars and plowing over pedestrians on city sidewalks.

For us Adrenalists, however, the world is so much bigger. When we hear “biking,” we, who live life on the edge, think of all the complex variations of the sport and wonder “what kind?” Trials? BMX? Motocross? We like that we know the difference. Fancying ourselves aficionados, we welcome anyone to challenge our understanding of what’s what and why.

Then someone like Benny Phillips comes along and shakes up all our classifications. We watch him pull stunts like he does at 0:29 in this video and we think, “BMX’er for sure”. But, the precision with which he lands into wheelie at 0:36 makes us think trials. Contradictions continue to run rampant as we watch.

“So, what exactly is Benny Phillips?” we wonder. Then it dawns on us: he’s all of the above; a barrier breaker, a model of what can be done, not what has been.

And we decide to forget everything we thought we knew about the sport that takes place on two wheels.