What do we have here? NEW STYLES!

We just added two new styles:

Eagle Mtn Jersey

Flag T

Independence Day Travels

Long time no update, which means nothing truly unique has happened in awhile. To celebrate our American Independence Day, we headed up to Canada.

The plan was to drop in and see my ol pal Johnny Smoke of BushPilotBiking on the way to Silverstar bike park. Drop in we did- as soon as we got there, we headed up for a quick lap in Johnny's backyard trails, and off the bat Lyndsey hit what is probably the biggest gap she's hit yet. Not bad for the first 50 feet of trail since we left Bellingham!

Then Johnny's tour showed up. Some Brits from the UK, whose bikes didn't make it onto the plane. One guy flew out a day early so his bike showed up. The evening was spent watching Jim build his bike while we drank keg beer.

After searching for bikes most of the morning, Scott finally found a Giant Faith, with a blown Drop Off Triple fork. It was a rickety shitpile, and I was curious as to how he'd take it. I tried to get to know this quiet fellow on the way to the trails, but couldn't really get any idea of how good of a rider he was. It's difficult to tell, especially inter-continentally. Poews was another fellow on the trip and he fit right on Barb's bike after we flip-flopped the brake levers for euro-style.

who's the jovial lass? That's Barb, due with sometype of offspring here soon

Dropping in on Gillard, Seth shows the chicks how it's done

And they follow right along

Lyndsey launching some wood

Cheri hitting a gap

Then things got steep. Lyndsey figured it out

And Cheri right behind

Jim took a bit of a tumble, and here he looks a bit confused

A rare shot of the Bush Pilot

And in action:

Cheri reaching for it

Johnny took a shot of me riding Lyndsey's bike down a crevice on Dr. No

Lyndsey dropping into a coulair on Dr No

Scott getting techgnar with it

And then getting horizontal on the walls

Back to Powers Creek, Scott drops in on some wood:

Lyndsey bridging the gap on Builder's Only

And Scott

We went to Silverstar, but all we got was a sweatshirt, and a photo of Seth wearing it. It was much cooler than expected, though I think he really liked the shirt and would've bought it anyways.

We got an end of the day beer shot too, but were too busy riding to take any pics. If you like berms, Silverstar is your place. I think there are over 10,000 of them there.

After ride campsite drinking session. The BushPilot tour was at Silverstar too, so afterwards we had a few post-ride refreshments. Poews celebrated his love for Canada:



Jim: "They've got a tele in there, it's quite mad isn't it?"



Not bad reception for camping, and nice couch too.


Day 4- Johnny showing off his secret tech line on the Penticton trails

Scott giving it a go

Oh there's that fat chick again! Thanks for the shuttles Barb!

Scott dropping in on his POS rental bike

What's that in the bushes?

Just this guy:

Jim sending it with a busted wheel

And then Scott had to go and hit this thing on that POS rental.

That's the end of all excuses. Seriously, if you're reading this, you know now that I will never accept any excuses based on the quality of your bike. I wouldn't ride that bike to the grocery store and back, and here's Scotty sending it HUGE. He overshot it a bit and the front tire blew out, but he was okay. No thanks to Giant for spec'ing Presta valve rims. Luckily we had a 4" long patch to fix the giant anaconda-size snakebite on Scott's tube. Wow, I can't wait to check the BushPilot blog next week to see what Scott rides once his own bike arrives.

Justin Herx just got back from Peru on a riding trip with Sacred Rides. Amazing scenery.

Looks like Justin wasn't holding back on this adventure!

Glad the Spectrum gear worked well for you in Peru Justin!

Logging

My wife and I went to ride something different this past weekend. It was supposed to be a long out and back singletrack ride, but as we approached the 3/4 way up point, the trail vanished into a new clearcut.
I know you're thinking "boo hoo, it happens". That's true. But the trail in question is the nearly 900 mile long Pacific Northwest Trail, designated to become a National Scenic Trail this year. The trail was gone, as if never had even existed.

I'm not sure the span of the trail that was affected, but it must have been a considerable amount, as we could not find any markers pointing toward how we were supposed to continue onward.

I've ridden through clearcuts for over a dozen years, but this one was different. It was fresh, having just taken place less than a week prior to our visit. The trail was gone, a trail that many hours of volunteer efforts had gone into, a place where people go to seek refuge from their stressors, gone. I know it's necessary.

We need to wipe our butts. We need to write stuff. We need to build stuff. It's a natural resource. Renawable? Yes, but to what extent? Do these trees grow back fast enough to keep up with our demands and increasing population? Just something to think about.

Speedy Beavers PA race 2 results

The Speedy Beavers finished another race weekend at Port Angeles with great results!

Dawn 1st place Expert Women
Joy 3rd place Pro Women
Brooke 5th place Expert Women
Carolyn 7th place Expert Women


Great representation by these gals in the local downhill scene! Way to go!

Shuffling Around

No update in quite some time, so here goes:

Nearly 4 weeks ago, I went to visit some friends in Canadia. We rode all day, and at the end of the day, I felt the need to hit this big contraption here:


Well, I didn't make it all the way up there. Luckily, I fell inbetween all those trees there and landed straightlegged and flat footed on a couple of big logs. And then of course the bike fell and landed on my head. It really was not a spectacular crash at all, and I was fine for a few minutes.

Since then, my whole body has felt the jolt and I haven't really ridden my bike in 4 weeks. I have a slipped disc in my back, but apparently all is well again with some chiropractic assistance and heaps of stretching, so I can ride again.

One week after crash, I was still in denial and figured I could just "ride it off". I helped my buddies at Transition Bikes move to their awesome new building, and upon waking the next morning, I knew something was definitely not right in my back.

Here's some pics from the big moving day:

most expensive Jenga game EVER - I won, and got to keep 11 forks...NOT

Sam B loading up the truck

I hope you guys bought the $2 rental insurance

Out with the old...

In with the new!

Plenty of space to fill

The new lobby

Keep up the good work with such great bikes guys!