Jess Hana becomes a viral sensation.

Story and Photography by Kai Caddy

Bikes were always there, creativity was always there, but it took the perfect storm of a career rut and a new home to catapult Jess Hana to mountain bike internet video stardom.

Jess, better known on Instagram as @jessthemaker, shares relatable hilarious mountain bike content a few times a week to nearly 80,000 followers. She started posting videos in 2022 and now works with major brands like REI, Dave’s Killer Bread and SmartWool among others.

Her love of bikes came at an early age while growing up in Pennsylvania chasing down neighbor kids with mountain bikes aboard her all-pink, banana-seated, coaster-braked bike with streamers.

Her first foray into “real” mountain biking came during a previous relationship.

“I was in a relationship with a guy who was really, really into mountain biking,” Jess said. “And so I think it was one of those situations where I wanted to spend time with him. So I also got into it, but it was definitely not love at first bike.”

On a borrowed hard tail that was two sizes too big for her and riding on ridiculously rocky Pennsylvania terrain, Hana was frustrated, but the challenge of it kept her coming back.

In 2012, now living in upstate New York, she finally fell in love with the sport.

“That’s when I met some other women that mountain biked,” she said. “The social aspect of it was really fun to be able to meet people who also love being outside in the woods doing a challenging thing together. But we would take breaks and the social part of it afterwards having a beer in the trailhead lot — that part of it was more my jam.”

From there, her love for the sport grew deeper. And in 2016 her first stab at making a funny video took things a step further.

Ladies All Ride, a mountain bike skills camp for women, was giving away a couple of spots to an all-expenses-paid clinic in Wyoming. All you had to do was submit a funny video. Jess jumped at the chance to attend a skills clinic. Her experience on the bike had all been self-taught to that point.

“I said to Tony, ‘Hey, what do you think about Arkansas?’ He was like, ‘No. Absolutely not.’”

“One of the things they asked you to do is show what your current skills were on the bike,” Hana said. “We did a funny skit where we hired stunt doubles. You see us pay them in the parking lot. We stitched together us riding and then we would cut to them wearing wigs and the same outfit. Long story short, they picked our video. So we won. And we went out and had this great weekend learning all of these different skills.”

That experience led her to begin coaching, something she continues to do amidst her viral fame.

But from 2016 to 2022 there were no more funny videos, no viral fame. Jess eventually settled in Idaho and met her partner, Tony Teixeira. With the arrival of COVID in 2020 and the daily monotony of staring at a screen, Jess became burnt out with her career. And the couple decided it was time for a move.

“We had been looking for a place to move that was affordable and had good access to trails,” Jess said. “I said to Tony, ‘Hey, what do you think about Arkansas?’ He was like, ‘No. Absolutely not.’”

Jess persisted. She had been to Northwest Arkansas in 2018, when Bentonville’s trails were still up and coming. It had always been in the back of her mind. She continued to send article upon article to Tony to try and convince him.

Finally, he was convinced. And in the summer of 2021, the couple did what any sensible mountain bikers would – they bought a house in Bella Vista, sight unseen over the Internet — because the access to trails was top-notch.

“Like we literally found a realtor, FaceTimed, and bought it over the internet,” she said. “Like we never saw it. We were Strava heat mapping the area and it all looked so cool. There’s a little connector trail that goes right down to Tunnel Vision across the street from our house. It’s great. The proximity to the trails, the affordability – that’s why we moved here.”

Now taking a break from work and riding more, Jess got plugged in with the Women of OZ and began coaching more, and in early 2022 decided to get back into the funny video business.

“I was in a creative rut,” she said. “And I’ve always enjoyed making things. Before, it was design, and I’ve always loved making crafts. And when I lived on the road, I had a whole separate Instagram channel called Trash Talk Diaries, where I was collecting litter that I would find, and I would hand-draw and paint funny sayings on these pieces of litter. I think that it just kind of harkens to this common thread of just humor and creativity together. And it being just the perfect storm at that time that mountain bike content creation just started to become a thing and I never set out for it to be my job. I didn’t know it couldn’t be a job, but it can be, so that was kind of cool.”

Major brands have understood the importance of influencers and brand ambassadors for a while now, but the cycling industry has been slow to move away from its athletes being the stars of brand campaigns. Jess believes people like her can make mountain biking more approachable, thus attracting a new audience to the sport.

“Many of those athletes, they don’t want to be filming stuff,” Jess said. “They want to focus on their training, and they want to focus on winning races. I would argue that content creators like myself — and there are a handful of us now doing this — help more people get into the sport, help it feel more approachable and less intimidating.

“All of those dollars are feeding the industry and therefore helping there still be race teams and funding all that stuff and getting more people excited about mountain biking. And so it’s like an ecosystem. I think, the more that we can help on that marketing side of getting people into this and helping people feel welcome.”

Not only do her videos bring people into the sport, she’s also been able to put some money into the hands of other local creators who help with her bigger projects.

“Now if I’m working with larger brands that have a bigger budget, I will hire people,” Jess said. “I can only get so far with my tripod and my phone. And, generally, if it’s stuff that’s for myself, that’s fine. But if it’s bigger brands that have a bigger budget, I will budget in hiring a videographer to come help. I have no problem with hiring people.”

In a collaboration with the Northwest Arkansas chapter of People for Bikes, Jess “prepped for work” all while riding with her hands off the handlebars.

There was no way she could shoot those scenes by herself, so she turned to local Anderson Ta of Benton Drones. Ta rode a one wheel alongside Jess and shot it all on a gimbal.

“That was definitely a challenging filming experience, but also one of the most fun,” Jess said. “Because we were laughing the whole day trying not to crash into each other. It was super fun. I love being able to also help other creators and pay them to do what they’re good at.”

So, what’s the one video that still stands out to Jess a year and a half into this new career? The one that got it all started: How to Afford a High End Mountain Bike, starring that fixer upper they bought in Bella Vista.

“Our house needs a lot of work. We just got so excited to move here and mountain bike all the time that we just didn’t really have time to fix it,” she said. “I think it’s funny — I’m going to make this funny video about how people can afford a high end mountain bike by literally deprioritizing everything else in your life. So I was showing scenes of how we haven’t finished our floors and how we don’t have curtains — we have a sheet. And instead of curtain ties, we use chip clips.

“And I remember making it and there was a moment I thought, ‘Man, I’m not gonna post this, this isn’t funny, people aren’t gonna find this funny.’ And then I was like, whatever, I’ll post it. And that was my first video that ever went viral.”

That video was posted Feb. 24, 2022 and has over 70,000 likes. Closing in on two years later, how’s the house looking?

“We have curtains now. But we have towel curtains in our bedroom,” Jess said. “So, one room at a time. It’s definitely not done. But, you know, the house will be there.”

And so will Jess, providing you with a good belly laugh and some motivation to hit the trails. 

“Our house needs a lot of work. We just got so excited to move here and mountain bike all the time that we just didn’t really have time to fix it.”