Pinkbike: A Wolf Amongst the Sheep
Some names have been changed to protect the innocent and unfortunately not-so-innocent.
Last month local police executed a warrant for a home in a middle class neighborhood in Vancouver; they were searching for stolen bikes. The house belonged to a businessman, his wife and children - your average nuclear family. Nothing stood out about the property, a well kept house with a nice car parked in the driveway, that would alert you to any wrongdoing within. Next to his kids' pedal bikes in the garage hung the owner's mountain bike, next to that police found roughly $20,000 of suspected stolen bike parts.
Pinkbike: Endless Biking - Mother Huckers
No matter how passionate you are about riding, having a child changes your world. It changes how you do things, how long it takes you to do things, and most importantly, how much you do for yourself.
At one time in your life you may have looked outside to a sunny day, grabbed your bike and headed off for hours of riding without a care in the world. Days like that feel like a distant memory when you are trying to get out the door and your child is having a meltdown. You are almost always late by the time you make ten trips out to the car, are confident that you have everything, the tears are dried, the pouting has subsided and a suitable distraction found. Technical climbs and rocky descents used to be the hardest part of the ride, but now simply exiting the house leaves you exhausted.
The B-Side: Death and Tacos
I spent much of last year with my head deep in bikes. I rode bikes, photographed races, organized the BC Bike Race, and wrote a column for Bike Mag; it was an amazing year where a biblical
Crankwor and an Apocalypse Now-esque Red Bull Rampage, on behalf of Pinkbike, were just two of the many highlights. Over the years, my social circle has become very two-wheel oriented; when I was not out riding with friends, I was making plans to go, or meeting new people with the same passion. Mountain biking has slowly infiltrated every part of my life, even to the extent that my work and personal time blend together around events, parties and contracts. But then suddenly, it was all gone.
It would be three months before I finally pulled my bike out of storage and started to think about my new column with Pinkbike again; now 90 days overdue. The only problem? I would not know if I liked riding bikes anymore.
Pinkbike: Endless Biking - The Roots
Endless Biking is celebrating 10 years of building riders, as part of their celebration they are sponsoring ten articles that revolve around the fundamentals of their business; bikes, community and learning.
The roots of Endless Biking push back beyond their inaugural camps in 2004 to the early 90’s and days of riding in hiking boots and chasing buffalo on borrowed bikes. Raised in non-mountain biking families, Kelli and Darren, owners and operators of Endless Biking, both still remember the moment that riding came into their lives and the profound change it brought with it.
In Nelson, British Columbia, Kelli remembers a purposeful adventure on borrowed bikes into the mountains that made her both want to puke – on the climb – and feel the spark of addiction – on the singletrack. Immediately she began to dream about the feeling of being a kid again and it was not long after that she got her very first bank loan and purchased her very first mountain bike.
Pinkbike: Race Report: FrostBike Finals 2014
Racers woke up yesterday to a powder day, loose track and freezing temperatures. Despite a frozen generator for timing and the course markings obscured by the new snowfall, the event started on time and ran smoothly. Standing at the start line, racers looked like they were dropping into a snow globe as the flurries of new snow continued all day. Most came in hot to the first berm during practice, kicking up snow as they got a foot out in time or didn't. Resort staff skied down the track in intervals to pack down the snow and by the time the race started everyone was used to the new conditions and the times were fast with some racers even boasting clean runs!
True to a grassroots event there was nothing but fun with crowd approved grandstanding, good-natured heckling and plenty of Tippie jokes. Even mechanicals and crashes that often warrant angry adult tantrums at the more serious races where embraced here with laughter and head shakes. More that anything, FrostBike gave us the chance to get in some pre-season practice, see our long lost racing friends and drink beer.
Pinkbike: Practice Makes Perfect, Right? FrostBike 2014
With temperatures low enough to make Farley Mowatt proud, this year's FrostBike course is a little faster and a little less treacherous (only a little) than the inaugural event last year. The crew at SilverStar Resort worked hard to prep a course this year that has not only provided a little extra challenge and fun in snow, but with below freezing temperature, has kept the ruts to a minimum, speeds high, and with some smoothing out overnight, the berms feeling luge-worthy.
Pinkbike: Characters 7: Tara Llanes - The Warrior
I had the opportunity to photograph one of my favourite and most inspiring athletes, Tara Llanes, at home in her daily life for a project with Riley Macintosh.
The Bakery: My Road to Rampage
My road to Rampage started in Moab when I drunkenly arranged to become a stowaway in the Fox van. For more than six hours on the Monday before the event I stared out the window as the terrain changed like channels with scenes from “Indiana Jones” to the sand people from “Star Wars.” Each time the van braked, I expected to see a cartoon roadrunner being chased down by a coyote. I focused on being a good passenger, tried not to think about how much I had to pee and giggled quietly as we passed through Beaver, Utah.
Pinkbike: Scars
Scars and tattoos are often compared, however while tattoos are used to purposely decorate, commemorate or remind us why we don't drink tequila, scars are usually forced upon us. I got my first scar when I was eight, I went over the handle bars of my bike and landed on the jagged end of a stump. Your first scar in life gives you much freedom, like the first time you scratch the paint on a new bike or drop your $600 helmet, it's game on after that. Years later a friend's mom looked at me and exclaimed "Look at your legs! If you were my daughter you would be grounded!" If I had worried about preserving my legs my whole life, I would be boring as hell!
Pinkbike: 2013 Red Bull Rampage: THE DRAFT
This morning was reminiscent of Apocalypse Now as we drove along the rutted and beat down dirt road that winds into the canyon, the filming heli rose up from behind the ridge and ‘Ride of the Valkyries’ rattled in the back of our minds. The basecamp was quiet as racer awaited news about whether or not they would be heading into battle this morning; winds threatened to ruin the show as decisions that balanced risk and investment were made.
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Pinkbike: 2013 Red Bull Rampage: The Oakley Sender
The Oakely Sender has a life of its own at Red Bull Rampage, it is more than just a slopestyle-esque feature in a big mountain world, it is a labor of love for all of the many hands that have touched it since its inception. Born in 2010, the structure was originally the brainchild of Steve Blick and Todd Barber, the idea was sparked in an attempt to help Cedric Gracia with his run after his return to the event from an injury. On the way to the original construction Steve’s son, Tyler, went in the hospital, they would later find out that he had leukemia, and in an attempt to keep his spirits high, the original design took shape after his favourite movie, Indiana Jones. As Tylers’s illness continued, the Oakley Sender would become a project of solace for Steve, and a personal creative endeavor for many more.
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Pinkbike: 2013 Red Bull Rampage: Profile - Vanderham
Thomas is a quiet and humble soul, the type of guy who makes you feel like you are yelling because he is so soft spoken. He is also the only rider to have placed in the top ten in every Rampage, but who is counting? He certainly isn’t. This will be his eighth Rampage, he will be running plate number eight and you will never guess what his lucky number is. The stars are aligning for Thomas this year. With practice cancelled, I found him doing nearly nothing on a rainy day in Utah.
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Pinkbike: 2013 Red Bull Rampage: Profile - Norbraten
Red Bull Rampage is one of those opportunities you want to take advantage of and want to be a part of. For Kyle it has always been the style of riding that he enjoys the most, and a style that you do not get a lot of opportunities to do; flowing big lines and linking together things like big step-downs on this kind of terrain. The feeling of putting down a run and the excitement of just being around the event are what draws some of the athletes in. There are not a lot of riders in the big mountain scene, but it is a challenging area to grow with the venues being hard to access.
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Pinkbike: 2013 Red Bull Rampage: Profile - Berrecloth
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| Photo: Margus Riga |
Darren Berrecloth has had a rough year. He rode the finals at the X-Games with a torn muscle in his arm that kept him off his bike until Crankworx, where he was injured again. Off his bike and out of the gym, his hips and joints began slipping and getting ‘out of whack’. He competed in his own event, The Berrecloth Invitational, back in August and post event he actively ignored his back pain until he simply couldn’t ride anymore. On his way to Rampage with Doerfling and Aggasiz, he stopped in Californaia for an MRI to find out that a blown disc, the same injury he had seven years ago, would keep him out of Rampage this year. Prognosis is a 100% recovery and Darren is focused on giving himself everyone opportunity to speed it up, including a healthy diet and quality time in a hyperbaric chamber. But regardless he is a spectator this weekend.
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Pinkbike: 2013 Red Bull Rampage: Profile - Gulevich
Gully loves the internet and it took some heavy negotiating to have him give up his phone long enough to chat with me, but after some pensive glares he submitted and settled into his regular character; a quirky individual who ironically uses YOLO more than a drunk high school girl. The ensuing banter covered everything from his preference of giraffes over goats to his childhood spelling bee trauma that has lead to his refusal to spell the word pterodactyl.
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The Bakery: Chasing Waterfalls with Team Gong-Show
Everyone has a friend like Jessica; whenever you are together chaos and adventure ensue. One minute you are meeting up for a drink and the next thing you know you are passed out on an inflatable dolphin in Mexico. There is a reason why Jessica and I do not hang out all that often: self-preservation. We ran into each other at a barbeque last week and today we crossed the finish line at the Tour de Victoria in the little-known-because-it-does-not-exist category of “Fixed Fifty.” Our victory came with Chuck Taylors so full of water that fish could have lived in them and two fixed gear bikes that didn’t quite fit in. Saying that we were unprepared for this epic event would be an understatement.
Pinkbike: Project Freeride
If you ride bikes then you have had a bike stolen or know someone who has. This is a fact. Bike theft is rampant. This summer we have seen an elevated profile of bike theft in the local media both with police work and vigilantism. August alone saw Dunbar Cycles team up with police on an undercover operation that recovered their stolen property, police recovered seven bikes through their bate bike program, and a local Vancouver woman steal her bike back from a thief when she found it for sale on Craig’s List. And these are only the stories that have been publicized.
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The Bakery: Season of Change
When the last downhill race of the season happened this past weekend, as a community, we were saddened. We felt the immediate void of anticipation for the next event. Practice and training suddenly took on much longer-term goals and the memories of the good times shared would have to suffice for the long winter months. Especially lost and forlorn were the racers’ parents, while they too look forward to the next season, they also feel the time slipping away. After another season spent driving their kids from race to race, investing time, money and moral support, it was over. And it might never be the same again.
Pinkbike: The Final BC Cup - Fernie
The BC Cup season ended on Sunday with the best race course of the summer at Fernie Alpine Resort; loose steep sections, wide open road gaps, tight trees and flat grassy corners. We spent Saturday evening at the 16" World Champ Dual Slalom which, post a major mechanical, became a big bike race, hanging out while the sun set and cheering for everyone who went by. Race day saw carnage on the steep sections with racers surfing their way down, many not only without their bikes, but on their faces. Well placed volunteers kept the section lively and spectators in the game with proper cowbell etiquette and well timed encouragement. After surviving that section the course alternated between wide open and tight in the trees, but the steeps were done until a fade-away wooded drop at the finish line.
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The Bakery: Evictions and Heli Drops…Turning 40 as a Mountain Biker
Kelli was 23 when she started mountain biking, 26 when she started racing and 40 when we hit the road to celebrate her milestone birthday with a few days of riding that included a heli-drop and an unplanned campsite eviction. A lot can change in seventeen years and as someone who works in the bike industry (Kelli and her husband run a mountain bike tour and instruction company) her identity is strongly tied to riding. Priorities change throughout our lives and, at points, bikes often end up collecting dust in the garage, waiting for years when work isn’t so busy or the kids are ‘old enough.’ But when it is as entwined in our lives as it is in Kelli’s, giving it up is not an option. Changing our perspectives is.