Transfer Mike Nash: Mountain bike racing got me into engineering
Nash, 28, was a professional downhill racer for years until he found his passion in mechanical engineering
August 26, 2019
Mike Nash, 28, is from Auburn, California. (UC Berkeley photo by Brittany Hosea-Small)
“I’m a junior, and I’m 28, so I took a little bit of time off of school. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do in college. I was racing mountain bikes.
I was a professional — I raced downhill. When you’re in a race, you get a bunch of different sponsors. You get a frame from one company, brakes from another company, your chain and so on. You’re kind of your own mechanic. You design your own setup and everything. And you’re constantly changing it and tweaking it to get the most performance out of it.
I think it was racing that got me into engineering. Once I figured out that that was my passion, it was an easy decision. I went to Sierra College, and now, I’m a mechanical engineering major at Berkeley. I might go back to racing after college, but probably not. Engineering is my new thing. I’ve kind of put everything into that.”