MTB

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.

We're packing the van and headed north to Vermont for NEMBAfest this weekend—the best festival in New England, at the Kingdom Trails. Hope to see you there!

Thomas Prior is probably one of my current favorite photographers the last few years or so. He always finds some unique topics to photograph and has a great eye to boot. This new project titled “Tultepec” covers the annual National Pyrotechnic Festival in Mexico. Amazing to say the least. Click below to see a few more photos of the series. © timothyburkhart for Defgrip, 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: pyrotechnics, thomas prior, tultepec

From the press releases: ROS 9 : • ROWDY STEEL RADNESS FROM THE 29ER-ONLY MOUNTAIN BIKE COMPANY • ZERO MM OF SUSPENSION IS EFFICIENT IN EVERY CHAINRING • 44MM OS HEADTUBE IS COMPATIBLE WITH 120–140MM FORKS • GEOMETRY IS SLACK AND LOW WITH EXTRA-SHORT CHAINSTAYS • BIOCENTRIC II ENABLES PERFECT SINGLESPEED SETUP AND ALLOWS GEOMETRY FINE-TUNING • FORGED FRAME DETAILS AND INTERNAL OR EXTERNAL DROPPER POST ROUTING • 142MM X 12MM REAR SPACING The hardtail for riders that don’t like hardtails. No twitchy high-posting around features you would hit on your “real” bike. No need to back off because your XC racing head angle prevents solid roosting. The ROS 9 won’t judge your lines – it lets you write checks your skills might not be able to cash, and what is more exhilarating than that? Short chainstays, slack head angle, and oversized headtube nourish these Roots of Steel – all with the ability to tweak the geometry via the BioCentric II. Run this rig singlespeed, 1x or fully geared with a front derailleur if you roll that way. Remove the cable guides and front derailleur mount if you don’t. Stealth routing for the dropper post keeps the ROS 9 fresh and clean. Sorry, the ROS 9 is not compatible with heart rate monitors or training plans but it will certainly earn you some PRs when you do your part keeping the rubber side down. Ride Over S*!t – The new ROS 9 injects hardtails with a huge-ass dose of fun. WHAT MAKES THE ROS 9 TICK?  The 4130 Cro-Mo tube set of the ROS 9 is the trusted standard for durability and ride quality. Following the lines and design language of the SIR 9, these tubes have been beefed up to handle the abuse the ROS 9 is designed to shrug off. The super-short chainstays provide a lofty front end feel while the slack headtube angle keeps the front end composed at Mach Loony speeds. A neutral BB height can be made low or high to slay YOUR trails by positioning the BioCentric II where it will do the most good. Construction details abound – We borrowed the unique dropout design we developed for the SIR 9 to allow 142x12mm Maxle use and house the stout alloy derailleur hanger. The dropout designs allow the chain stays and seat stays to be welded at any angle and provide far more surface area for a full weld around the tube’s end. The front derailleur hanger is removable with an alloy cover. Internal dropper post routing is optional, another alloy cover closes the port if you choose not to use it. Externally routed dropper posts utilize mounts under the top tube. Tabs under the bottom bracket shell accept an proprietary MRP XCG bash guard for optional extra protection. Full-housing cable routing for front and rear derailleurs using Niner’s bolt-on double housing clamps along top and down tubes complete the versatility. If you don’t need the guides, take them off and enjoy the clean look of the frame in singlespeed mode. OVERSIZED HEADTUBE  The oversized headtube of the ROS 9 allows the use of tapered fork steerer tubes that measurably reduce fork deflection, which means your Niner tracks straight and true. The full spectrum of riders from xc racers to all mountain shredders benefit from these features which is why we incorporate the technology in all our new frames. The ROS 9 Lets you take full advantage of increased steering precision as you get yourself into trouble. BIO-CENTRIC II BOTTOM BRACKET SYSTEM  The Niner BioCentric II makes adjustments easy across a wide range of gears and eliminates the need for adjustable dropouts, giving the cleanest possible solution for singlespeed use. No bolt on hubs, no chain tensioners cluttering your ride, no brake adjustments with gear changes. Additionally, BB positioning allows fine-tuning of geometry. Want shorter chainstays? A lower BB? Steeper or slacker seat angle? It’s all achievable with the BioCentric II. Greater Range – The BioCentric II offsets the bottom bracket spindle 8.5mm from center, offering greater range of adjustment compared to a traditional EBB

Just spotted this image over on Niner Bikes Facebook page, Nate Adams shredding his favorite Fort Collins trail aboard Niner’s new ROS 9 hard tail. Photo steeze from Ian Hylands.

A few years ago Rick (Lumberjack promoter) sent out an email asking if anyone had race Lumberjack every year since it started. I saw the email and quickly emailed back "yes! me...me...me! Do I get a prize?" It's kind of a no brainer. I love endurance races, the singletrack is amazing and the course is only about 2 hours north of my house. After talking we decided that I should aim for 10 straight years!Anyways, that was a few years ago and this year was #9. I had planned on racing my SS again this year until I twisted my ankle. Since it was still swollen two days before the race I figured I better be smart and picked a bike on the opposite end of the spectrum. Instead of a SS hardtail I went with my Spearfish. Not only did I have a whole bunch of gears, but I had A LOT of comfy suspension.Thanks to Ted for getting it ready at the last minute...Friday night I drove up late to the race, picked up registration, went to bed and before I knew it my alarm was going off at 4:30 a.m. I was staying at the Day's Inn in Manistee (don't stay there) and when I woke up I realized that the refrigerator froze all of my water bottles and hard boiled eggs. Ewwww. Luckily I had some peanut butter and bread with me. Not necessarily the breakfast of champions but it did get the job done.I arrived to the race venue a little later then I wanted to and was directed into the overflow lot. Not a huge deal though I had to bike my supplies over to the pit area. In the past Scott would always come with me to do pit support but he and my dad had mega hockey plans for father's day weekend. As luck would have it my friend Eric (D2 racing) pulled in next to me and offered to do hand-offs to me so I ended up having help anyways.I had all of my hydrapaks ready to go so I showed them to Eric and went to line up. I probably should have been more nervous since my ankle was still hurt and I was racing on a bike that I hadn't trained on at all but mostly I was just excited.The first lap went by pretty fast but I could tell that my legs weren't completely rested. That's mostly my fault. I had one of those weeks where I tried to do way too much leading up to the race. Bad mistake on my part and a good reminder of how important it is to get enough sleep the week before.Half-way though the second lap my legs started to "open up" and I started to find my groove. I caught up to two guys and we were moving through the singletrack at a pretty fast pace when I smacked my pedal on a small tree stump. I think anyone who has raced Lumberjack knows what I'm talking about when I talk about the tree stumps. They are small (sometimes hidden) and scattered randomly throughout the trail. I have seen many, many people crash or almost crash on them. Anyways, there was zero time to react and I instantly flipped over my bike. I've had some pretty crazy crashes but this one might take the cake because I hit a tree with my hip, then managed to land on both knees before flopping down on my face. It hurt so bad that for the first moment I thought that I broke my hip. Finally Craig Morris (from the racing greyhounds team) pedaled up. He was nice enough to pick me up off of the ground. From that point on my race motto turned into "just keep pedaling."Here I am post-crash and deep in the pain cave...those are leaves in the front of my helmet from landing on my head!photo by Jack KunnenThe rest of my race was pretty tough. I bent my derailleur so I shifting issues. Then my legs started cramping and my hip hurt with every pedal stroke. I would be completely lying if I said that I was able to remain positive throughout the whole race. Ha! I definitely had a few low moments out there but I was able to keep pedaling.Finally I came to the last little climb and then the fun descent to the finish line. It felt really, really good to be done...especially with everything that happened out there. I finished with a time of 8:26. I was in such a hurry in the morning that it never occurred to me to bring fre

Some new 2-years-in-the-making-Danny-MacAskill-ness for you to marvel at. Sometimes you just need to session a yoga ball. © Nuno for Defgrip, 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Danny MacAskill, red bull

While his previous films have explored the Scottish countryside, Danny MacAskill's latest film goes inside his imagination. Enter Danny's mind and enjoy! http://goo.gl/mR1jX

BMX Union posted a great interview with Ron Wilkerson last week, that was pretty awesome, and then Scott Towne posted a photo of a Rainbow landing on his Gypsy Build up. There is a lot to learn from some of the elders in the BMX community about art, and purpose, and appreciation, I am glad dudes like Scott and Ron came before me and shared some awesome insights and riding with everyone. You can see their influence in a lot of what we do… Modern high fives to Analog genius’ in a digital tidal wave, surf’s up BARNEY”S!

My good friend Nicholas Maggio (who after a small hiatus, has been back to doing a bunch of posts on his site atimetoget.com) sent me a text with a photo of a Ray K. Metzker book and the words “buy this right now”. So I did what any like minded person would do… Go to google images and drag a bunch of photos to my desktop. Thanks to Nick for the inspiration and keep reading to check out a bunch of Ray K. Metzker’s photos.    © Harrison for Defgrip, 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Photography, ray k metzker