MTB

Last week a bunch of friends and FBM Affiliates went on Lords of Fun, Jason Morris posted some of the Instagram photos On Least Most. Keep tuned for more photos and a new video in the not so distant future. Below is a video from the second Lords of Fun… Lords of Fun 2 from terrellgordy on Vimeo.

New England is filled with BMX shredders, and kick ass local shops like Daily Grind and Fat Trax! Here are a few pics I swiped from the legendary Chuck Goldie from DG of all the hoomies pool sharking it hard! Lifes a beach!

It seems to be a normal thing now. Summertime is really "Mountain Bike News Time" anymore. While there will be things sprinkled throughout the warmer months for us dirt heads to chew on, I think it was rather odd and ironic that both Niner Bikes and Salsa Cycles released news of 2014 bikes yesterday. Let's see now....Niner R.O.S.9Niner actually announced two models, but the big news here is a AM hard tail called the "R.O.S.9" This burly steel hard tail follows in the vein of those that have come before it like the Kona Honzo, Canfield Nimble 9 and Yelli Screamy, and models from Singular, Diamondback and Cromag, not to mention some others. Same story here- Short chain stays, (sub 17"), slack head angle, (68° with a 140mm fork), and a 142mm X 12mm through axle rear end for stiffness. Dropper post compatible, yadda, yadda, yadda....While more choices in this category are fine with me, I find a couple of things jump to mind: First, is this kind of a fad? I remember 26"ers went through an "ultra-short" chain stay phase in the early 90's and there were several reasons that idea was abandoned. Are we going to see that happen again here with these crazy-short stayed 29"ers? It makes you wonder if the Trek Stache isn't so crazy now with its 17.5" stays and slacker angles up front. It just seems strange that Trek is the "odd man out" in this area. They either got it right or are crazy. Secondly- isn't it odd that, with a few exceptions, most of these bikes are steel? Makes me wonder if the designers like the failure mode better with steel considering the use group. Hmm...... I could be totally wrong there. It is also interesting to note that Niner's first proto of this bike they ever showed was aluminum.Image courtesy of Dirt RagSalsa Cycles Redesigns Their FS Range: Well, this cat is outta the bag, so I can talk about this a bit. I signed a non disclosure agreement back in February when I actually saw these rigs in the flesh at Frostbike. I gotta tell ya- it has been hard not to talk about this! Basically, Salsa called in Dave Weagle of Split Pivot fame and consulted with him to integrate his design into a new range of Salsa full suspension 29"ers. Still dubbed Spearfish and Horsethief, with the same user intentions intact, these new bikes are going to be pretty cool. Split Pivot is a concentric pivot at the rear axle which helps divide the braking forces from the suspension forces. That helps keep the suspension active during braking, and that means more traction and more control. DW Link designs also can have varying levels of "anti-squat" depending upon the finer details of the design for any particular client of Mr. Weagle. So that may mean the new Salsa rigs will have some cool traits during climbing. I'm sure all the fine details will hit when Saddledrive happens next month and some of the other dealers get schwing-dinged out there by QBP to try them. I'll be interested to hear what they think. Me? pfft! I can't afford to get out there, so I'll be lucky to get to a demo, like last year. We'll see.Salsa has more up there sleeves for 2014, so this isn't all you'll be hearing from that camp. And there will be more from other companies soon as well. "Press Camp" is happening in Utah right now, and more private dealer shows will be coming which are sprinkled throughout these high Summer months. Stay tuned for more....

Vans Classics Fall 2013: Inca Pack Vans Classics introduces the Inca pack featuring the Era, Half Cab and Sk8-Hi. Inspired by South American textile art, the pack is characterized by two Inca-styled patterns which adorn the footwear assortment for a total of six colorways. Intricate embroidery carries bright geometric shapes over each edition of the Era as the Half Cab and Sk8-Hi are further embellished with premium suede. The Inca pack arrives in two deliveries; the Era in (Inca) Blue/Black, Half Cab in (Suede/Inca) Adobe and Sk8-Hi in (Suede/Inca) True Blue varieties are available now at select Vans retailers while the rest of the collection releases in early July. Hit up Vans too. Click below to check out the rest. © Nuno for Defgrip, 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: inca pack, vans

From camp in PA to camp in the UP! I truly am living the dream. And this time it was even better to be able to give back and share my experiences with some up and coming rippers!Jr. Mtb Camp at Michigan Tech University is now in its 4th year. This year we had 21 JR's from 4 states! I am so happy that the camp is growing and more and more young riders get to experience mountain biking and the amazing trails the UP has to offer. We had a great camp. 2 rides per day, lectures from NCAA coaches, Professional Cyclists, Physiology Dr's, Trek Demo Day, and even a race.Yes we were non stop action. A normal day was breakfast in the cafeteria at 8am then riding at 9am. Lunch at 12:00. Lecture at 1:30 - 3:00 and then PM ride from 3:30 - 5:30 dinner at 6:00 back in the cafeteria and then another evening activity depending on the day. I think all the JR's had a blast and I'm hoping to see them all back next year!Yes I did mention a race. The Keewenaw Chain Drive also takes place the same weekend as camp giving the riders an opportunity to test out their new knowledge and skills. We had tons of our athletes on the podium! Luckily for me the coaches got to race too.Pete and I post race! Pete attended Camp the first year and now he is battling it out for the podium!The Chain Drive is a deceptively hard race. Lots and lots of techie singletrack and a point to point style that features a mostly uphill race course. With a little weather the night before the race the trails were a little heavy on race day. Making it harder than the norm.I was able to take another W in front of all the campers....an awesome feeling. I scoped out the river crossing with 3 miles to go on our pre-ride and told the campers this was a pivotal spot....it turned out I was right and thats where I made my winning move!Now its time to get back to some training...I feel like I haven't done a training ride in a month!

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I Love Enduro!!! If you haven't tried it you need to, so much fun. I'm planning to attend three series this year: North American Enduro Tour (NEAT) http://naetmtb.com Big Mountain Enduro Series (BME) http://www.bigmountainenduro.com/ Enduro Cup http://endurocupmtb.com/ Both the NEAT and BME series contain 2 days of racing, between 5-7 timed stages per weekend. So far I have raced three enduro races, one from each series. 2nd this weekend at the BME #1 race New Mexico photo in Velonews by Daniel Dunn The Taos/Angel Fire race was held on great courses, this race was my favorite of all three series so far. However there were issues with bike transportation, getting folks to the start and with timing. Results took a while to be posted the second day and they were awarded based on points not time, so as an example, in the above photo, Jill (pictured in 5th) actually had a better overall time (all 5 stages combined) than Sarah (4th). Not sure how that is worked out. In the other two series lowest time wins which is pretty straight forward. That way it awards the best overall racer over all stages and it makes you choose more robust parts, you can't afford a mechanical. There was good coverage of this race: http://velonews.competitor.com/2013/06/mtb/gallery-2013-angel-fire-big-mountain-enduro_291248 http://www.bicycling.com/mountainbikecom/featured-stories/park-slope after stage 1: http://www.pinkbike.com/news/BME-1-Angel-FireTaos-2013.html Before that was the Hood River, OR race photo by Trent Hightower NEAT #1 Hood River, OR. Received a ton of grief for the old-school full-face with the lost visor... Enduro Cup #1 in Moab: Enduro Cup Race #1 Moab, UT photo by Daniel Dunn I wouldn't call it a true Enduro in that is was basically XC, with more down than up, but no tech. These guys had the best promoter performance of all three, timing was perfect, communication was great including emailed start lists. Now I have a focus, it's Enduro, I love it. I love racing, I love "training": Lots of firsts this year including shuttle runs and bike park riding. I even did a little radio show with Macky about getting into Enduro: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/mountain-bike-radio/2013/05/15/into-enduro--krista-park One of the cool things has been that Todd is getting into it too, since it doesn't take hours of intervals a normal working guy with good skills can be competitive in his class. I am looking forward to racing together again. Or, more like against each other, Todd beat me in Oregon and I beat his time in New Mexico. Todd finishing Hood River Todd's Enduro bike, Cannondale Trigger 29er It's almost all shuttle riding right now, but I'm still putting in a few XC rides, can't help it I have an awesome XC bike. Durango Devo short track, photo by Sven Brunso Cannondale Flash 29 small carbon Earlier this year: Showing off my Cannondale Jekyll to kids. Chloe and I had an amazing day speaking to 600 high school students then to almost 200 8th graders about bikes NICA coaches and ride leader training in Mesa, AZ 24 hours of Old Pueblo 4-person win with the Devo boys 4th in men's SS class at MBAA race Cycling News photo by Dave McElwaine 4th in SSAZ against the boys Climbing up stuff I now go down, photo by Chad Brown more AZ riding with friends

BREAKING: Salsa Cycles has partnered with suspension guru Dave Weagle (of dw-Link fame) on a new split-pivot suspension design for the 2014 Spearfish and Horsethief. The press introduction is going on right now, so watch dirtragmag.com for more.

Saying goodbye with a foamy toast.“The only way I’d drink beer up here is if it were dropped from an airplane,” I told friends last Friday as we settled in for the night at Devil’s Pass cabin on the Kenai Peninsula.The first drop.(This and top photo by Joe T.)The line got a laugh from people who had spent the afternoon hiking and mountain biking about 10 miles up to the pass, but no one took it seriously until a couple of hours later, when a small plane passed high overhead, then banked and turned up the valley as it lost altitude. “Does anybody want a cold beer?” I asked.The only thing better than a bike trip in the backcountry is a backcountry bike trip with an airdrop of food and beer. My friend Stacy had arranged this one with a friend of hers who has a plane and welcomes excuses to fly it. I had provided info on how to find the cabin, but was sworn to secrecy until the plane arrived and Stacy began chucking bundles of foam and duct tape out an open door.The natives are thirsty. (Photo by Stacy S.)They made drops on three passes, nailing perfect shots that made it easy to retrieve the bundles – two six-packs of cold beer, and a box of sandwiches and cookies.“Oh my god, this is awesome,” Emilie said as we laughed and cut open the bundles. “Only in Alaska would you see something like this.”I suppose it could be done anywhere, but she had a point. Alaska is full of private planes owned by the kind of people who think it's a cool idea to fly into the mountains and chuck beer at thirsty mountain bikers.That's part of what makes this place great.