Brett Wheeler was a retired MX’er and brick-layer, scraping through British winters trying to find time to ride.

After a last-minute trip to Portugal with Ben Deakin, Brett sold his house in the UK and shipped out to start his own family-run MTB business in Lousã.

5 years later, Brett and his little crew are living their own dream, full of mountains, good friends, family and trails.

Interview by Jamie Edwards,  photos thanks to Starling Cycles

This interview was made possible by Starling Cycles – a small scale British builder of beautiful, handmade steel mountain bikes.

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Okay Brett, so first one. Who are you?

I’m Brett Wheeler, I’m a bricklayer turned mountain bike coach in Portugal at Wheeler’s Mountain Bike Holidays.

“Brett, this is like motocross”.

Let’s start at the start. Tell me about life in the UK before you moved out to Portugal?

I was a bricklayer and my wife Joanna was an accountant.

Being a bricklayer, winters were pretty shocking in the south. Everything is frozen. Unless you’re over 2 degrees you ain’t gonna do a lot.

We bought a house when we were young and sort of did everything you want to do. I started mountain biking five years ago and just did a year in the UK, racing the local stuff.

It was only meant to be a hobby to start with because Joanna was like “This ain’t gonna be like motocross!”.

My background is motocross and I was racing every weekend. I swore mountain biking would be just a bit of fun but two weeks later I bought another bike because the first one wasn’t good enough. And then, kept on buying stuff and again I think two months later bought another bike because the last one wasn’t good enough.

I started racing every weekend and Joanna was like “Brett, this is like motocross”.

Tell me about when you were young, where did riding bikes start for you?

Like I said, my background is in motocross. My dad and grandad did it. My grandad had a motocross shop in the eighties, and did the world championships and toured.

And dad, when I was two years old got me a BMX and took the crank straight off. He didn’t want me on stabilisers and he said “As long as you’re crashing, I can see you’re trying” so that was how I grew up.

From six years old I started MX on a 50cc motocross bike, and then I did that until I was twenty-four.

Towards the end, it was quite a high standard. I got 6th in the 125 British championship, and 7th in the 125 British Championship, and was happy with that. At that point I wanted to do more family life. So I gave up when I was twenty-five, and we bought a house and got married.

Was your dad pretty pushy with it or was he chilled?

I remember my first race. The gate dropped and Dad ran up the starting straight behind me cheering me on. Yeah that was one of the fondest memories. He was there before and after.

To start with he wasn’t that pushy and then as I got a bit older and he could see that I was getting a bit better, then he became a Moto-Dad.

If I did well in one race, I had to do well in the second race. And if I didn’t do well in the second race, we’d probably go home.

But dad was always the man behind everything, he’s always pushed me and always been there for me. If I needed something doing on the bike he was there, he was my mechanic until I was eighteen. He’s the man that made it all happen really.

Was there a particular moment where you and Jo decided that it was time to do something different?

Me and Jo met at eighteen and we always said we would like to buy a house before we were twenty-five. I also said that I wanted to have done well in motorcross by twenty-five, and at twenty-three I had my best year.

And at the end of that year, it came to a point where one of my ankles was deteriorating. I had to have a bone graft from my hip and I decided that it was a good time to have it all done. And a good time to call it a day.

So I gave up on September 21st, which is ironically my son’s birthday. And two weeks later I had the operation, and then I’ve never touched a motocross bike since.

So where did mountain biking start?

I had a group of friends who were friends with Ben Deakin, and we all sort of knew each other.

When I got healed, I got friends with him and I went and bought a GT Fury 3 and loved it. I couldn’t believe it took me so long to try downhill.

Ben lived about twenty miles away from me so we both rode at UK Bike Park a lot. I did the UK Bike Park stuff, Forest of Dean, some other races. I did the BDS at Combe Sydenham when it was really wet. I think in 2013. I think Sam Hill was there. They wouldn’t let him practice on Sunday.

Yeah, and came out here on holiday to Portugal in March 2014. And saw that there was a load of mountain biking going on.

So why Portugal?

Like I said, I came out on holiday with Jo. My wife is Portuguese and her family and her nan, uncles, her mum, they all grew up here in Lousã, Portugal – so that’s why we came here on holiday.

And the mountains are massive. I’ve never seen mountains like that in England and when I was just in Lousã one day, pickups would go by without mountain bikes on the back.

I spoke to Jo’s cousin and her friends and I went up the mountain with them. They leant me a bike and I was able to ride with them… and I was like “Holy Moly these are downhill tracks!”.

And you just moved out here after a quick ride with the locals?

It was never in my mind to move here or do anything with Lousã or anything as a business.

I went home and carried on working and I had a really cold winter in the UK. For bricklaying it’s got to be over 2 degrees. And if it’s not, you have to just sit there and wait and wait and wait. I think I went two months with no work just because it was so cold.

I went to a Forest of Dean winter race with Deaks and we decided we’d had enough of the cold. We went home from the race, slept for three hours, washed the bikes, drove to Lousã. Twenty hours later we arrived and just started riding.

And what made you decide “Right we’re coming out here. Bricklaying is done”?

We rode here for five days, got home, worked again.

In the back of my mind I had seen the other holiday companies and I thought “ahh, this place has got something”.

Me and Jo were talking about it long and hard and tried to decide if it could happen. We had just bought a house in the UK and got on the property ladder. But we just decided that we’re young and we don’t have kids. We had two dogs and a cat, but that was the only thing anchoring us down.

So we just thought, before we have kids, because that would be a bit more awkward – lets move to Portugal and lets start a mountain biking business.

We sold the house in August 2013 and moved here in November 2013.

How is Portuguese life different from British life?

I haven’t been to many places but they are the most friendly people.

They welcome outsiders with open arms. They love that people come to their area, their tracks, or their shops. All that sort of stuff.

The only thing is if you want something doing, expect to wait a few days. They’re quite relaxed. And they’re quite happy to just have a coffee and just chill. Being from England you want something doing!

Everything is very fast in England, whereas here it’s very slow life. Where we live is an old town, with old people, the generation is a bit older, you know it’s such a chilled life, it’s not too much stress.

Obviously you boys at Starling and Wideopen had a bit of a mixed week of rain and sun but 90% of the time it’s sun all the time, it’s a good life. It gets a bit chilly in the winter, but a very beautiful, lovely place to live.

So when you started out, you obviously had to go out and find the local riders and tracks. I can’t imagine that was easy?

In Lousã it’s run by Montagne Club at Lousã park, and straight away before anything happened I made sure I had their approval, because it’s their tracks, it’s their ground.

I didn’t want to tread on anyone’s toes. I had meetings and chatted to them, and they welcomed me like family  and they said “yeah, carry on”.

I put a lot of effort into cleaning the tracks for the locals and I’ve worked closely with them to help give Lousã a good name with the higher profile riders.

It seems like Portugal has a really big riding scene and a strong love for racing. Do you think that’s true? And why is that?

Yeah they’re very passionate about the racing. It’s not done by one club as such, each race is put on by the town, so the town puts the funding in.

To race here for me is ten Euro, and that’s even category one UCI races, and that’s sort of unheard of, but the Portuguese have got a good backing by their federation.

The downhill, I think it’s still a bit on the lower ranks of what they put their effort into, but they put so much time and effort into the racing, the tracks and the promotion. But again they’re so laid back, entries don’t open until the week before, you pay on the morning, they trust that you’re gonna turn up and you can get 12-15 runs easily on practice day.

The uplifts are bit ghetto – you sit on the back of a truck. But it’s just a nice chilled race scene really.

And tell us about the riding here in Lousã – for anyone at home that hasn’t been here.

It’s a bit of everything really. You can come on a trail bike with 156/160mm travel or a downhill bike.

We’ve got probably one of the gnarliest tracks in Portugal which I call “World Cup Track”. You’ve also got loads of trails that are three and a half minutes that are not too steep and they build you up.

We’ve got an Avalanche track, that’s a forty minute descent. You start on a fire road and absolutely bomb it down into some tight single track. They race that every year and it’s a 500 rider mass-start. It’s pretty chaotic.

You’ve got a good story from your Avalanche race, I think?

Yeah! So Jo got quite ill in the night before the race and we were at hospital all morning, and a bit worried because of some of the complications that were happening.

I wasn’t going to race but Jo had to stay in hospital anyway and she said “you’ve got to home, so you might as well do the race. Go race, do me proud, come back”.

The race started at 2.30pm, and we got the all clear at the hospital at 12.30pm. I had two hours to get back, kitted up, get the van, get my bike and drive. I arrived at the top of the hill and started on the second row, totally oblivious that I was meant to be on the first row. Matey said “dieth segundo” which means ’10 seconds’ and I was like “Woah I’ve actually just made it!”.

I put my goggles on with 10 seconds to spare and yeah… raced on down. It was a bit chaotic but I finished tenth. I was red lining pretty much the whole twenty minutes, but that’s just the sort of race it is.

I did it, got tenth, and then went back to hospital that night. So it was good.

So let’s talk about Jo for a bit. What’s her part in Wheeler’s?

Well Jo is the boss, she’s the brains. She’s the woman no-one really sees what she does. She’s the qualified accountant, the qualified chef.

I’m the front, I do all the promotion the riding, but Jo is the one who makes it tick really. Without her it definitely would be a struggle. She’s the Wheeler of Wheeler’s.

It surprised me to find out that you’re diabetic. Can we talk about that?

Yeah, I’m type 1 diabetic which is insulin injection independent, so when I was nine, this hereditary disease just happened.

In some ways it’s a blessing, because it keeps me fit. I don’t drink anymore, just because alcohol affects your diabetes more, and if you’re drunk you can’t feel your body.

It keeps me fit because I can’t just binge on biscuits. It keeps me fitter and healthier and I look at it as a blessing more than a disadvantage. I’m on insulin now and basically I inject every time I eat, it’s quite manageable. You’ve just got to be on top of it.

Any advice for mountain bikers who have diabetes and who just want to ride and have a healthy active life?

There’s always a positive. There are people with way worse diseases. You can live a normal life. Think of it as it will make you fitter an healthier because you will always check your food and look at what you’re eating, but you’re eating the good stuff.

There’s people out there with cancer and stuff that can’t be cured. Diabetes can’t be cured at the moment, but look at it as a blessing. You control it, don’t let it control you.

Okay, so on to a totally different subject. We’re out here with Starling Cycles this week and you’re riding one of Joe’s bikes. How did that come about?

I saw that Starling was looking for riders and we did a collaboration where they would come out and test the bikes and I would get a frame to test alongside with them.

Joe does custom bikes. You give him geometry numbers and he makes the numbers work. I basically had a Solid Strike and I wanted it to be similar to that but as an enduro bike so it was a bit more flickable. It’s built for downhill gears, no dropper post. It’s a downhill bike with enduro parts on it.

When you’re lift-assisted every week you just take advantage of the vans. There’s enough of pedalling up and stuff in the UK!

What are you like with your bikes? Do you look after them or are you a bit of a savage?

I like to look after them. I have to wash them and do all of the preparation straight away. I’m quite anal about my washing bikes, because I ride so much I want things to last as long as possible!

With downhill over the years I’ve become very particular. Every run I’m changing a click on the suspension always trying to find a little better. When I do start going fast then I know the bike is pretty much set up. I go to a race, and even if I think “oh that’s a good set-up” I’ll still twiddle with the compression, rebounds and stuff, just to find that extra little bit.

What is it that you love about the feeling of riding bikes?

I think it has the same feeling as motocross for me – just going fast on two wheels.

It’s a totally different ball game to moto but there’s trees, speed, it’s narrow, everything’s changing as you’re going down.

The hardest thing I’d say about the going to mountain biking from motocross is doing well with one run. With moto you’ve got twenty minutes and if you make a mistake you’ve got more time. With downhill, you’ve got one chance. I’ve messed up at a big race because of that.

That sounds like a story. Tell us about messing up?

I thought I’d have a go at Masters World Champs in 2017. I overtook three guys on my seeding run but managed to qualify first in my category.

Because I qualified first I was going to come down last. I was totally last on the hill, there was no-one else after me. It was just me and the commissioners at the top of the hill.

I was nervous as hell but as soon as you drop in it sort of disappears. You’re racing and you get your flow on and with Andorra being such a fun track, it’s easy to go fast and enjoy it.

I was up by a second at the first split but I blew through a berm at the bottom of a steep chute. It had been getting smaller and smaller all weekend but I just hit it fully committed and went through it. I was gutted but I got back on track and pushed on, just 15 seconds from the finish.

I crossed the line and saw that I was 2nd on the board… but I didn’t know if I that was overall or in my category. I ran over to the board and was just 0.18 off first place overall and winning World Champs.

That’s when I sort of lost it a little bit and was shouting at myself “really?! Did you really just do that?!”.

People started congratulating me though and I’m over it now. The guy who won was Myriam Nicole’s brother and is an ex-World Cup racer… so I didn’t loose to someone who is just average. I was happy with it eventually.

Still, when I talk about it I’m a bit devastated. But I try to look at the positives. I’m second in the world and hopefully I can go back again.

So, let’s wrap up. What does the future hold for you guys?

The future?

We’ll carry on as we are. We’re in a happy place where Wheelers could expand, but then it’s extra cost, extra vehicles, bigger villa, and we always wanted it to be family.

You know, our maximum number of guests is seven and even with seven it’s hard to give your all to everyone. We want to keep it small, keep the business coming in. We have to turn a group away every now and again because of that number, but it’s fine by us.

We’d rather have guys come, fours, fives, sixes, sevens and have such a rad ass time. They have fun with us, fun with Jo, fun with me, and carry on Wheeler’s as it is.

Racing we’ll carry on, masters – I’ll do my best at the World Champs next yea and at the Portuguese Cups… and yeah just carry on living in Portugal. Portugal just makes you wanna stay here. You can get by on very little and it’s just such a rad place to live.

Awesome – any words of wisdom for bricklayers out there who are grafting away in the cold?

Not just bricklayers, for everyone. Me and Jo were lucky. We’re in a good place with her family being from Portugal, but if you got a dream and if you’re young enough, and if you’re in the right situation, go for it.

Even youngsters who are worrying about school, university, all that stuff – you’ve only got one life, live it. You can do stuff later on in life. Owning a house isn’t everything. Property isn’t everything. It’s nice when you’ve eventually got a house and you’ve got the money, but you’ve got one life, live it. You can’t take money with you.

Just enjoy life, don’t waste it.

Thanks to Brett Wheeler and Wheelers MTB Holidays for a great week and for the interview.

Thanks to Starling Cycles for making this interview happen – Starling handbuild top quality, steel, custom geometry mountain bikes right here in the UK.

Brett rides the Starling Sturn (a single speed DH bike) and the Starling Swoop (a 27.5″ wheeled enduro bike).

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