Forever Two Wheels

After many long hours on the road, and many more hours by Scott in, THE LAB, his project is finally drawing nearer to the grand finale. We all had a great time chasing our front wheels down the back roads and highways of the south west and although my time was cut short on some trips by training and the BC Bike Race, the guys went out and had plenty of fun nonetheless.

Next Friday is Scott's show which is going to be held at Secret Service LA, you guys should all head out and hang with us check out some cool pictures of kick ass dudes doin kick ass stuff! Maybe you can even get a life sized autographed picture of yours truly...
See ya there.
FTW

http://itsbetterinthewind.com/
http://vimeo.com/11486905

Sometimes You Gotta Let It Roll

Well, I split town this weekend, didn't have much of a plan other than lookin for a good time and seein some pretty country. Shady motels, cowboy bars, party down with Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys, swimming in rivers and oceans, train tracks, bridges. 
Mission accomplished:

(Sketchiest motel I've ever stayed in, which is saying a lot, I watch too many movies)

  
 (Me n' Kinky)

 
  

Good Ol' Days

 


Coulda gotten into a whole mess a trouble back in the days before we started sucklin' on the electronic teets... These guys knew what was up

FTW

I live the life I love

and I love the life I live...

 Gotta pay to play sometimes. 

I had the pleasure of once again spending an hour and change in a loud plastic tube this week. I'm not one to be afraid of the dark or tight spaces very much, but it's still a bit rough slidin into these things. I recommend you avoid Dr's and MRI's whenever possible. On a positive side, upon entering the building I found a big sign on the front door advertising baby abandonment. Always nice to know there's people who care out there. Never know when one might want to change their mind and just "surrender" the little human they've created. 

Check the finale of the H.O.L.T. tour, Cam Zink's incredible Kawasaki gettin airborn!

Keep on truckin

http://thesensus.com/ 

 

Good Morning America,

Arise and shine, I am your native son, New Orleans, by tonight I'll
 be 500 miles gone.

This weekend I went over to the Decker's house to hang out and was lucky enough to see some pretty special and very rare stuff. After calling Jake he told me his brother Jeff was in town and working on a 1914 Harley, that I would later find out, would be carrying him across the country in a vintage race with 100 other pre 1920 Harley riders would be competing in. 

The Decker's are an extremely nice and super talented family. I love hanging out there, it's like an escape from being in southern California. Allen and Jake are always friendly and incredibly knowledgeable. They have always been more than willing to help any time I needed it while working on my old jalopys. This weekend, Jeff was in town working on a special project. Jeff lives in Utah and is an incredibly skilled bronze sculptor. I highly recommend checking out his site. http://www.jeffdeckerstudio.com/  

Ride on

    

          

Beating the Dead Horse

But it doesn't really ever get old. I wonder if Matt knows the art center girl who likes the FONT in the owner's manual?

Hot Tub Time Machine

Yesterday was one kick ass day, woke up from my extended nap and drove out to Valencia to meet up with everyone at Carlos's house. After everyone was there and loaded up, we set out for Big Bear, after making one very important pit stop for the guys.

Snow Summit in their infinite wisdom closed it's lifts so downhill bikes some 8 years ago after a couple of deaths and some lawsuits from broken necks etc... Nevermind that those were in part due to their own horrible trail work and unsafe jumps. Regardless, we lost use of the mountain and subsequently the town of Big Bear was hit hard. It was pretty amazing to get up there after so many years and see how many business were gone or for sale. They still haven't opened the lifts up for big bikes which worried us some on way up. They limit the bikes to having under 2.5 inch tires, 2 chain rings, and under 35 lbs. Needless to say our "all mountain" bikes were pushing a few of those restrictions. We all hoped that we didn't make the long drive just to be turned away.

Anyhow, we got there after an exciting drive up the mountain in which race pace Pablo showed us all his F-1 skills while making multiple car passes over the double yellow before putting his 15 passenger lunch box sideways into corners. We were happy to be in the other truck needless to say. We put on our gear and made our way to the lift line. Now, I've never seen or even heard of this Hot Tub time machine until yesterday, and believe me I got heckled for it, but, being back in that parking lot and looking at the trails as we flew past them in our "high speed"quad, it felt like last summer we were up here for the Am Cup and other such races. Shit, I must be getting old if so many years feels like it was yesterday... I digress. The trails at Big Bear were silty and soft as usual. It was great! Except if you were behind someone, or let alone the last one in our group of 8, the chalk like powdery dust would kick up so quick that you literally had no choice but to watch the next person's shoulders and helmet, follow their moves and hope no head sized boulders were in the way. All in all we had a dirty, fast day with only minor flesh wounds and 3 flats. Gotta say, despite Snow Summit blowing it big time, we had a great time and there is no reason a 5-7 inch trail bike is insufficient for those trails. I know I'm excited to head up there again soon, and we probably will be in a few weeks. So, come on up, the more the merrier.

FTW

Jimmy Mac's

 Last month's issues of Mountain Bike Action had a great how-to article on building your own quality pump track. Aside from making me want to find a plot of land to build a pump track, it got me thinking about how I could get an invite over to Jimmy's wonderful ranch style home. Well, this week fortune fell in my lap and I found myself leaving work early headed due west for Somis. After rollin up to Jimmy's, we unloaded and made our way to the side yard where Eric Carter had worked his magic. Well, that's enough of that. The pictures aren't much but in a scramble to get outta work in time, I forgot the camera so all we got are the some camera phone shots. Tomorrow we're headed up to Big Bear for some good times and riding. 

  

http://www.declinemagazine.com/drewrohde.php

Howdy all, in preparation for this evenings adventure to the legendary Jimmy Mac's house, I have dug through some pictures from my recent trip to BC. During the BC Bike Race we made plenty of great new friends and shared a bunch of laughs together. One of those people was JJ, who I'd like to call Nacho.

The final night of BCBR was a huge banquet party at a very swanky Whistler hotel. After spending the final evening with the 700 or so people who were our family for the week, we parted ways. Nacho, like many of the other race workers lived near Whistler and plenty of hot tips for the goings on for the week we were staying. The Chromag Family has an incredible pump track hidden back up in the woods at a top secret location which I can not share with the likes of you. However, what I can say is that everyone there was super friendly and welcoming. Although we brought a total of 5 bikes with us, neither of us had the appropriate machine for the pump track and subsequently we were allowed full use of the slut bikes. Pump tracks may not look very fun to an observer, though it is one of those things that, when you're on it, you'll be huffing air and feeling weak long before you get bored. Each time we exit the track for a breather we all share the same stupid grin on our faces. Here's a video from Chromag's site, this video does not do the track justice however. Nonetheless, enjoy and stay tuned for pics from the MBA pumptrack tonight.

(Pumptrack Tuesday's, it's about half way down for the illiterate)

http://chromagbikesblog.blogspot.com/

On another note, the rest of the pictures are from the drive home. Seattle has an incredible bike park under the I-5. If you have driven through the city you wouldn't have even know that there were people like Scott Toepfer getting sick air and crashing his face off right below your very car! If you are ever driving up north and looking for a "break" I highly recommend a stop. It'll certainly wake you up for the last little stretch of driving up to Whistler, a nice warm up too. Though, it is a bit of a bummer when it's as hot as is was while we were there. It's not always the most comfortable thing being completely sweaty and covered in dirt then have to hop in a van for several hours. Though, we made good use of the local hose. OH and I totally forgot. Portland Oregon is home to quite possibly the coolest donut shop in the world, http://voodoodoughnut.com/ This visit we were luckier than most. Upon walking up to the counter to order, our punk rockish bohemian looking server asks us if we're planned on buying donuts. Naturally, we did come to the best donut store EVER, to buy donuts. She informs us that if we are nice, she will give us a special donut surprise. How can I resist, I have a sweet tooth the size of Texas. "I'm the nicest guy you've ever met!" She is quite surprised at this response and she lights up as she says, follow me. I turn and look to Colby and Scott with what I'm sure can best be described as my usual shit eating grin, and prepare to be amazed. She points to a 5 gallon bucket full of donuts that were left over from that mornings grave yard shift. "Take em" she says. I'm in disbelief, all of em? How much? Why? All thoughts running through my head, like it was some sort of horrible prank and she was waiting for me to grab em before she slapped my hand or something. Nope, it was true, the donuts were ours and off we were back on the road with a van that stunk full of deep fried goodness. Next stop, Lipitor.

Bring the fun

Vodka Water

 This kinda stuff is pretty amazing to me, I mean, not only is it surprising because of the incredible number of people who have drowned, but the fact it's avoidable, and on top of that, this "crazy" heat wave is not even breaching 100 degrees! I thought Russians were bad asses? Down south, them good ol' boys can drink in way hotter weather, play with guns, swim, and think of crazy games to play, while bein wasted on moonshine. 

Russians are flocking to local beaches to escape soaring temperatures in Moscow -- leading many, unintentionally, to their deaths.

Area lakes and ponds have been packed with groups and families, including some with small children, with a three-week heatwave sending temperatures up to 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit (37 degrees Celsius).

And now, officials say the heatwave has lead to a spike in drowning deaths in the Moscow vicinity. More than 1,200 people have died recently from drowning as they tried to escape the heat; between July 5 and 12, a total of 233 Russians were reported to have drowned -- the alleged result of carelessly swigging vodka before swimming. More than 1,200 people have died from drowning.

Last week, five children and a summer camp counselor drowned in southern Russia's Sea of Avov, while the other counselors who were supposed to be minding them were found to be drunk.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/15/drunk-russians-drown-esca_n_647991.html

Just another reason I'm proud to be an American!

  

http://knightsmsa.blogspot.com/2009/09/summer-redneck-games.html