Some news...

pleasanton hip
photo: Kevin Huffman

Posted 8/30/05

Sunday's session at Pleasanton was a blast. We jumped dirt, raced on the bmx track, got dirty and had a great time. We even had some out of towners( Kelly and Chris from Sac and Monterey) come in for the session. It was hot as expected, but we came prepared this time with a cooler full of ice and gatorade. This makes a big difference; don't head out here without stopping off at the grocery store if you plan on riding for a while.

You will definitely want to ride for a while, this place is fun. More and more lines have been showing up. Multiple hips, transfer lines, it's starting to come together. The major construction is done, and the cat has been returned, so now it's up to us, the riders, to grab shovels and make the park a better place to ride. There is a hose, and it's good to go. If I lived closer, I'd definitely get to digging. Right now, since it's so dry, the best tool out there is the broom.

The park is definitely set up more like a bmx track than trails. You do have to pedal your ass off to hit any of the bigger stuff. If you're into flowy bmx style trails, you might not be stoked. That said, Pleasanton has a wide range of stuff to ride, and is a great place for beginning jumps to head to and build their skills. I imagine BikeSkills.com will be utilizing the park in the future among other groups.

Next time we'll have to try and get a bigger group. The park is so big it can accommodate a lot of riders- it would be fun to have a big train through the bigger jumps! I have a stack of images to dig through, hopefully I'll be able to make a gallery soon.

On a side note, I'm in the middle of reorganizing the site, and it looks like my mouse over images aren't loading..it may be a few days before I get it all sorted out.

Posted 8/26/05
Sunday Pleasanton Session!!

This Sunday, we're meeting up at the Pleasanton BMX Park for a riding session- It would be awesome to get a group out there. The park is really coming together and becoming a lot of fun to ride. To get there, use maps at google and search "stanley blvd & bernal ave, Pleasanton, CA 94566." (cut, paste! It's the big dirt area to the right viewing with Satellite view)

We'll be there by 11. The plan is to ride and take some pictures, with a session at Shells in the afternoon when it gets too hot to ride.

And yes mom, we're going to wear our helmets this time!

On a side note, last weekend at Shells I met one of the guys from HubTV. (forgot your name already sorry!) These guys are working on a Alternative Sports & Lifestyle show that is currently being broadcasted on local cable. They do have clips of the show posted on their newly redesigned site. Check it out: HubTV

Posted 8/25/05
Novato riding session part 2

I'm not finished with this update yet! A few more words about my current favorite non-friendly park, and we find jumps on the other side of a ridge, just off the freeway. Who knew?

Posted 8/21/05
Novato Post-work riding session

On Friday, my buddy Kevin and I headed up to Novato for a post work riding session. The plan: session the Novato Skatepark, and then check out this jumping spot with sick berms. It was a good time.

Check it out.

Posted 8/19/05

I've been doing this site for over a year now. Yippidy doo!

Posted 8/16/05
Check out this cool site: Wolfhound Cycles

I haven't been updating the site as often as I would like these days. Hopefully this will change here soon. I've been busy with all sorts of things. Right now I have some art work up at the Cafe Show at SomArts in San Francisco. I just started night classes in Quark and Advanced PhotoShop at a local community college in Oakland. The cool thing is I can use my class assignments to create more content for the site. I've been thinking about doing a redesign for a while now anyway.

I've been working on creating a web site for my friend Fred in Ashland. He makes custom steel hard tails. Pretty cool stuff. My brother Izaak already has two of Fred's bikes. He's having Fred build him a free ride hard tail now, so I guess he likes them. I'll be rolling one of his frames myself here pretty soon. It's going to have to be tight if it's going to replace my Seven Sola, which, while it was a custom frame I picked up from a co-worker at River City Bikes in Portland, it wasn't built for me. Having a frame built exactly to one's specs is a very cool thing.

I tried having a custom bike built for me once several years ago. Unfortunately, it didn't turn out the way I hoped it would have. Here's hoping the second time's a charm!

Posted 8/13/05
New spot report- Mill Valley Jumps

I've been having issues with the my lack of rhythm at the trails, primarily on the technical line at the 101 Jumps. I have new resolve, and a solid steed to do it on: get my jumping skills to another level. Towards this end, I have been riding as often as I can with the hard tail riding San Rafael Crew. The guys pretty much just ride Bmx. But on mountain bikes, new school style. I got Drew to show me where the Mill Valley Jumps were. It was good to get a warm up before working getting through the line at 101.

Posted 8/13/05
Bike Check: Evil DOC update

After sessioning the jumps in Medford some time ago, I broke my XT crank. I've upgraded my cranks to some sweet Saint cranks, and picked up an SDG I-beam saddle and post. The only problem is she now weighs in at 36lbs. I guess this is nothing a bunch of money won't fix.

Posted 8/3/05
STUFF FOR SALE

I have some new gear I decided I'm not going to run. Check it out, make me an offer I can't refuse!

Posted 8/3/05
I finally ride some street.

This isn't huge news or anything, but my Evil DOC is getting close to dialed, and other than being manualed around the Lake, or random bunny hops over rocks, logs, and geese, I haven't had much to write home about. Last night I stayed in the north bay to ride with the San Rafael crew, and we jibbed it up in SR.

Those kids gots skills. Eric pulled my favorite line of the night, an abbubaca on a ledge, to half-cab to manual to 180 out. Then he 180'd into another manual to 180 out. WTF? Yeah, boyiee! It was tech. Stupid video camera, still broken. I need to get that on film.

On the subject of bunny hopping, I was reading up on Revolution Freeride, and followed this link to Pain Incorporated dot com. It's footage from the WeThePeople bunny hop contest in Germany. I love how no one can straight up hop the pole, they all trick it. Sweet. I'm getting the itch to ride some BMX!

Posted 8/2/05
Pleasanton BMX Park Update

A lot of dirt has been moved around. And while it is a ways from being finished, it's apparent that this park is going to be a really fun place to ride when it's packed in and dialed. Check out this panorama I shot. The view point is from the top of the dirt halfpipe. <more>

Posted 8/1/05
The 2005 Downieville Classic

Last weekend we headed up to Downieville to meet up with the East Bay Crew to do some camping and to race the downhill at the Downieville Classic. If you haven't been yet, I would recommend checking it out, as a good time was had by all. The downhill consists of a 16 mile trek that is mostly downhill. The average times to do the ride range from 40 minutes to an hour. You're charging the whole time down(and up), which doesn't leave you with much by the time you get to the bottom. (more)

I didn't get that many photos with my camera as it was at the campsite far far away from all the action.. I found links to some galleries though. Check out some of Photo John's pics here.
And some more here.