Some
news...
On Friday morning I was loading my car with my bike and protective
gear when I realized that the left front tire on my Subaru
was flat. Oh damn. Not a good way to start the day. I pulled
out my floor pump and filled the tire with enough air to coax
it to the gas station where I filled it up and headed to work.
I almost dropped my plan to head to Petaluma after work to
ride Nor-Cal's main indoor park, Ramp Rats. <more>
Posted 9/26/05
New trailer for East Bay Grease II
Check out Theo's newest trailer here.
I made the cut on this one! Sweet.
Just about everyone I've been riding with lately headed out
to Mammoth for a weekend of racing and fun. I've been getting
low on the funds lately (someone buy my Heckler plu-lease!)
and I have homework to get to, so I'm going to have to wait
until next year. However, I really needed to get my riding
fix in, so my buddy Frank and myself headed out to Livermore
to check out Sandhill
Ranch. I've heard all about it, but have yet to make it
up there. I have been thinking about trying some Mt Cross
racing, and P&R Sports hosts a Biker Cross series, starting
next weekend. <more>
Posted
9/13/05
I posted
the rest of my favorite shots from Saturday's Mt Cross at
Infineon. Ivan at HubTV has a gallery of the MX as well as
the Downhill on HubTV.net
- go to the gallery page and click yo.
Check
out this clip from the Ride-This Traffic Jam in my home town
of Portland-pretty cool.
Grubworks dot com.
Yesterday
the mountain cross was held out at the Infineon Raceway. Maybe
you heard about it. Although based on attendance(vendors,
spectators, and racers alike) I wouldn't have been surprised
if you hadn't. This event didn't seem to be very well promoted
this year. I stopped by to visit with my buddy John that was
working for Sram in the race truck last year, and it was pretty
cool. Then. I was surprised to see that the number of vendors
present this weekend was miniscule compared to the previous
year. Apparently most of them decided it was a waste of their
marketing dollars to attend an event with such poor attendance
and promotion. I can't blame them though, as most companies
are probably gearing up for Interbike on the 26th.
This
was kind of a bummer, but the Mountain Cross was fun and happening
as far as I was concerned. All the Nor-Cal locals were out
in force, either riding or cheering on friends. I've been
feeling bogged down with classes three days a week plus work
myself, and wasn't feeling motivated to get out there and
race. I did check it out though, and showed my support for
the guys. It was a great chance to get more time shooting
with my digital SLR as well.
Posted
9/11/06
E13 Stem acquired!
I'll
admit it, I'm a geek when it comes to certain, ok, most, bike
parts, and I've been on the hunt for a direct mount stem for
my Boxxer since I got my Demo 8. I saw pics of a prototype
version of this stem on Ride Monkey some time ago and have
been bugging the guys at E13 off and on again for some time
now. As soon as it appeared on QBP's on line catalog, I made
sure I had one coming to me. Check
this bad boy out!
Posted
9/6/05
A Weekend in Southern Oregon
Day
one: Dusty's Pad still
under construction...
I still
have a ton of photos to sort through from this weekend. I
filled the memory cards in both of my cameras this weekend,
so I'm hoping I got a few good shots.The lighting wasn't very
good, and most of my photos were disappointing. I guess I
can't expect to be a pro photog right out of the gate, even
with a prosumer camera. I did get a lot of time with my camera
in though, and am learning more about the settings on it.
It took a bit away from the riding experience, but I did get
a lot of riding in over the weekend. And I got to hang with
one of my favorite riding buddies, Rocker Dave, the original
East Side Bastard! (as well as the rest of the rad posse,
Cedar and Scott.)
I'm still
working on a redesign for the site, which has been taking
a bunch of time. I hate tables. The sooner I get the bugs
out, the better.
This
weekend is the big race out at Infineon. I'm going to get
a lot of practice shooting with my 20D. Should be a fun time.
I am torn about not racing, but with school and work, I'm
happy I get to ride at all.
Posted
8/30/05
Pleasanton Session Report
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
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?
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.
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