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Mountain Life Magazine just ran an article that featured my photo of local Toronto board shaper James Grant from Five Surfboards,. You can see the photo and read the article here - summer 2008, page 37.
Design Engineering featured one of my shots on the cover of their June issue. The cover was part of a story they were running on Devinci Cycles. The athlete in the shot, and article, is Primary racing’s team manger Drew Pautler. You can view the online magazine here. The article in question starts on page 20.
Avalanche Suspension just got an internet facelift by Mediaslave which features one of my shots of Ontario riper Terry Leimonis. Check out their new look here
I have been branching off into some new areas with my photography for some time now; fashion beauty and portraits. The current layout of this site doesn’t really allow me to showcase all my work so I have a new photo friendly site in the works for you. Should be live in the next few weeks.
I was out shooting some architecture shots last week when I saw some billowing smoke in the distance. I got closer look and found that it was a garbage truck that had caught fire on the Gardiner expressway. I captured this shot of the truck mid explosion.
It’s been a busy couple of weeks over here. I am taking a few photography courses at Humber College. My new HD setup is nearly complete, just a few more components and I will have my dream suite!
My editing system finally arrived. It took about 3 weeks to have built, but it was worth the wait. After much research and thorough analysis of my workflow, I chose to stick with Matrox. I opted for their Axio LE boardset. Prior to making my decision, I tried a few non-realtime solutions and intermediary codec technologies. While some worked ok, I quickly discovered that not having realtime capability was not an option for me. The Axio card is lightning fast with no rendering or delay of the timeline. I find the non-realtime solutions, if you can call them that, are a real creative buzz kill. The intermediary codec solutions work well but there is a loss of quality.
So far, I am very impressed with my system. It’s incredibly fast and makes quick work of SD, HDV and HD footage. The system is built around a Tyan motherboard and the Axio cards. The basic hardware includes; 2x Intel 2.66GHz/1333MHz Xeon Quad-Core processors, 4GB ram, ATI Radeon X1950Pro 512MB video card, Sound Blaster Audigy SE 7.1 24-bit Sound Card, 160GB system drive and a 3TB Raid video drive. I had made a late decision in my build options to select the larger 3TB Raid array - thank god I did! My jaw hit the floor when I saw that 3min of uncompressed HD took up 22GB on my drive. Space becomes pretty sparse, pretty quick, with HD. I still need to purchase an external Raid array to be able to edit 2 streams of uncompressed HD in realtime. The bit rate is much higher and, even though my internal Raid array is quick, it can’t sustain the 120MBytes/sec required for uncompressed HD. My internal drive will hum with HDV though and, to be practical, that will be the bulk of my work. The HDV footage looks absolutely amazing! The last thing I will need to get is an HDTV to use as a preview monitor. I really should get a proper broadcast monitor but they are just oo expensive and I have always found a TV gives you a good representation of what your customer will actually see. The hurdle is to find an HDTV that will accept a 24p signal. My 42” Sharp Aquos does, so I am leaning towards a 32” Aquos. I moved my dual LG widescreen monitors over with my SD suite and purchased a new 30” Samsung SyncMaster 305T for my HD suite. I also just purchased the Adobe Creative Suite 3 Master Collection to complement the new hardware. Very impressive software collection, maybe the best.
All-in-all, I am happy with the transition and am really itching to get out and shoot. I am just in the process or redoing my demo reel and should have some footy up for everyone soon. I am contemplating giving my site another facelift, making it more blog and device friendly. I’m undecided though as I still get good feedback on my current design.
Did a quick and dirty crystal shoot last night at Humber. Glass is tricky to light and the studio condition I was in weren’t ideal as I had some light leaking in from other sources. It was a fun shoot none the less and I learnt a thing or two which is the best part! Here are some of the shots.
I am slowly but surely taking the plunge into all things HD. I have started things off by purchased an HDV cam, HDTV and home theater.
Your budget, clients and workflow are what determine what is the right solution for you. For me, that meant a top quality HDV cam with the best possible image quality and the ability to shoot in 24p - I chose the Sony HVR-V1U. I picked it up this week and am pretty impressed. The image looks amazing! I will post some footage and stills when I get some down time. I am going to film some trail riding this fall. I also picked up the VCL-HG0862K(Wide Conversion Lens). – Here are a couple of shots of the camera and lens – clicky, clicky
In my research, I found there was quite a bit of confusion about 24p and how to extract it from the cam. It is a bit tricky as this camera places the progressively scanned images inside a 60i field. They have to be extracted in post in order to be true 24p. In reality, it is 23.976 but the camera also shoots 24a which is true 24fps. You would only use this if you were planning on transferring to film. I did a quick test shoot in the yard and with no trouble at all I was able to capture, extract and edit the 24p video. It was simple as pie and looks amazing. Furthermore, I was able to burn it to Blu-ray and play it at 24p on our new 42” Sharp Aquos - I’ll get to that beauty in a moment…
To enjoy all the wonderful images we bought an HDTV and 5.1 home theater system. We have been waiting and waiting for the prices to drop and we couldn’t hold off any longer. We ended up going with a 42” Sharp Aquos. We’re movie buffs and this was more of a household purchase than a FastTimes purchase. Kelly had done more research on the TV than me and wanted one to enjoy the Women’s World Cup of Soccer. We both liked the Sharp line and the reviews I read confirmed why. Seeing the picture in person is what sold us though, it was far superior to all the others brands. The sharp factory is in Japan and it is state of the art. We also purchased a Sony Blu-ray player, Rogers HD PVR and a Harman Kardon amplifier to add some sweet 5.1 sound to the picture. We bought Reservoir Dogs on Blu-ray to watch once I got everything connected and my jaw dropped to the floor when I saw the picture quality - it’s crazy! If you are one of the poor saps holding out for HD-DVD, well…. I’m sorry but I think that battle is lost. We already had to suffer through years of VHS when Beta was the superior format, I don’t want to go through that again. The pissing match is still affecting the amount of movies out on Blu-ray though – it’s a pretty short list.
I am still not sure what I am going to do, editing suite wise, but am leaning towards Matrox again. The RT.X2 and Axio solutions are impressive. Both will do everything I need them to when using my V1U, including real-time extraction and editing of the 24p frames. They also support MXF files for Panasonic P2, Sony XDCAM, Sony XDCAM HD and the m2t files from the HVR-DR60 Hard Disk Recording Unit which I will be purchasing in the spring. The Axio however, will also handle 8 and 10bit uncompressed HD so that I can edit the best available image using a wide variety of cams. Further down the road I will be getting the Sony XDCAM EX, but for now, this setup will crunch video and give me some breathing room until true HD is more affordable. Maybe one day I cam even aspire to own a Red camera…drool. I am looking to expand my editing work and this suite will allow me to do just that. I have also wanted to take on a documentary and will finally have what I need to make it happen, other than a lot of help that is.
I have been holding off on making the leap to HD for as long as I could. The technology is still struggling to find a standard and the demand is not quite there, despite what the manufacturers are trying to tell us.
People, including myself, throw around the term HD but 99% of it is HDV. True HD cams are still around 200k which is out of most people’s budgets. Editing true HD is a whole other ball of wax and trying to do so on your home PC would be quite futile. I have been doing research for quite some time now and think I have settled on a camera and suite. Camera wise, I think I will be going with the HVR-V1U. Out of all the cameras out there right now, I think it will serve me best. Nice CMOS sensor and 1080/24p. Panasonic make a nice cam as well but the sensor is tiny and the P2 card technology isn’t practical and already out of date by tapeless standards. Sony’s HVRDR60 HDD is much simpler and stores a realistic amount of data for field work. The XDCAM EX is just around the corner but, although the picture will surely be better, I can’t justify the jump in price. I have always used a Matrox suite and have been quite spoiled with a realtime workflow but I am seriously considering software based and Avid for my HD/HDV workflow. The technology is so unsettled right now that making a jump into a hardware based solution is pretty dicey. The simplest solution is 20-30k and goes up from there with storage and i/o choices. I’ll keep you all posted on my choice.
Summer is my busiest (read craziest) season. I have the most content to post but simply can’t find the time. Here’s the Coles Notes for last week & this week – just got back from MSA documenting the ’08 XT and am shooting in this bad boy all weekend.
This past weekend was the 21st annual Toronto International Bike Show at Exhibition Place. I stopped in on Saturday and took some shots of the 4X race. It’s quite unattractive to shoot in that building but it’s fun to snap shots of your buds and good practice.
The team from Blue Mountain were there with their ’07 summer brochure and ads which have some of my shots featured in them. I also had 2 shots in the show guide itself, which is produced by Pedal Mag, but it seems they do not understand the concept of copyright as they neglected to provide the proper photo credits.
These are some shots I took while playing with DOF. The subject matter is not particularly captivating but I am happy with the shots non-the-less. I like snapping the shutter and trying to make something out of nothing. It’s in stark contrast to the high action shooting of the summer months where I’m lucky just to get the shot, let alone compose and experiment with them.
Here are a couple of quick shots from a recent downtown shoot. Nothing special, just some composition play. Check ‘em here.
As you can see, I have changed the look of the site yet again. After only a few months with the western/sepia look, I decided I wanted a more contrasty site that was better suited to showcase images. Guess the Ansel Adams show got to me more than I thought.
Along with the new look will come more images. I am going to post more of my day-to-day shoots and share more work with you all. I will attempt to pull some videos out of the woodwork and share those as well. Here are some shots from a winter’s day hike I went on with our little pup, Jessie. She’s famous now and doesn’t even know it.
Along with the refreshed look are many function and content changes. These are subtle, but long overdue. Have a visit and send me your thoughts. Thanks for stopping by, please do so again soon.
I checked out “The Lane Collection” at the AGO over the holidays. It’s a private collection, “on loan”, which we would otherwise not have had the pleasure of viewing. If you can make it before it ends, I suggest you do so!
I have just become aware of sporadic errors with the contact page form. The problem has been resolved. I apologize to anyone who has been trying to reach me, please try again and I will be sure to get back to you ASAP.
I’m sure you were all getting just as bored of the old blue monochromatic site as I was so I decided it was time to change it up. Please send me your thoughts on the new look. It’s always great to hear from you.
This quote was brought to my attention while watching the film “The World’s Fastest Indian”. This is an amazing film that really hit home with me. Read on…
The perseverance that the main character shows while pursuing his goal is amazing. At one point in the film, while being doubted by others, he lays this quote upon the cynics. It’s an amazing quote that I though I would share with you.
"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat." … Theodore Roosevelt "Citizenship in a Republic," Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910
Just did a shoot with Norco Factory ripper, Justin Brown at Blue Mountain. The kid hauls! Check em’ here!
All I can say is WOW! Darren at Push Industries was kind enough to tune the DHX off my Sunday with the new Factory Race System service he has recently added to their offering. After talking with Peaty at Sea Otter and reading Acadian’s comprehensive overview on Pinkbike I knew this was the right tune for my application.
I received the shock as you see it here. I couldn’t wait to get it installed and go for a rip on it. The shock popped back into the frame without any issues and I could easily access PUSH’s Multi-Stage Compression adjuster. For the first ride I set the rebound like I normally would, a few turns from all the way out, and turned the compression in only a few clicks so I could get a basic feel for the newly valved shock. Immediately upon throwing a leg over it I could tell that I was on, what felt like, a completely new bike. It was plush from the initial part of the stoke to the very end. No longer did I feel the pro-pedal fighting the bike when trying to settle into its proper sag point or the harsh feeling I got when trying to get proper compression from the stock Boost Valve setup. With my old DHX and a 350lbs TI spring I could not bottom out my bike, even on large drops and high speed g-outs. Instead, the bike felt like it lacked travel and I often got bucked, even when the travel should have been ample enough to have avoided this. When jumping, or entering at speed, into rough sections I often felt as though the bike was getting hung-up for the same reason. Like I was only riding a 6” travel bike instead of an 8” bike. The new shock is much more constant throughout the entire stoke and has all but solved these quirks. This is not to say it is linear, but that it has smooth unvarying damping through the entire stroke. Adjustments to the compression are much more effective and subtle than with the stock Boost Valve which affected all compression aspects of the shock, often making it feel overly harsh where it need not be. It eats up small bumps, is predictable over mid sized bumps and bottoms when it should. PUSH’s exclusive Factory Conical Bottoming Bumper System does a superb job of ramping up the travel at the very end of the stroke just enough to ensure you don’t have a harsh bottom out. You get a nice dull thud like you should. The Sunday is an incredible bike that does not require a platform nor does it require the level of bottom out resistance found in the stock DHX. The design itself has addressed these very issues. Having a properly valved shock and the ability to tailor mid to high speed bump absorption is all this bike needs.
I have adjusted the Multi-Stage Compression adjuster a bit to see how it reacts to different shaped and sized bumps and am impressed by the subtle affect is has on how fast and how much it reacts. The bike grips really well and I trust the traction much more than I did with the stock DHX. I am still playing around with the compression to see what works best as a general setting for my local trails and am excited to hit the road and see how it can be adapted to the different terrain I’ll be riding. I find the rebound much smoother as well and have since been able to back it off a turn from where I would have ridden it in the past. It is now independent of the compression stroke and is smooth and continuous. There is no longer that “oh crap, I’m dead” moment before the rebound catches like you get in some situations with the stock DHX. The rebound matches the compression stroke immediately and predictably.
If you have a DHX and would like to have your shock PUSHED, you can choose from their Factory Rebuild and Factory Race System. Both are available to the public now and you can book an appointment on PUSH’s site. For me, there is no question this was the right choice for the Sunday, and am sure it will improve your bikes performance as well. Specially if you have a well designed bike like the DW-Link bikes are. The stock DHX is a great shock and getting it PUSHED only makes it better! I will have some more in-depth reviews after I get some decent hours on this shock but as you can see, I am already blown away with it’s performance.
While swapping out the shock I also decided to beef up some of the hardware on the bike as it had developed a bit of play. I installed these DU bushings, reducers and pins from TF Tuned Shox and this hardened steel bolt I got from Mad Catz Racing while at Mont Saint-Anne. They are all running the 07’ hardware which looks quite promising. Iron Horse is stepping it up every year. I am told this hardware will be available to purchase and be compatible with the 06’ frames. I am absolutely stoked with my bike and don’t see myself riding anything else for a good long while. Nice work guys!
It seems there has been more talk about the Iron Horse Sunday than any other frame out there these days. I had to see for myself what all the fuss was about.
The DW designed DH frame has proved itself on the World Cup circuit and has an almost cult-like following on forums like Ridemonkey.
I had a USA made “Factory” frame on order for the longest time but when they still weren’t available at the beginning of the season I opted for an Elite instead. The Elite comes as a complete bike only so I had to strip it and rebuild it to my preferred spec. I had the parts ready to build a Factory frame so it was all the same to me. The bike built up relatively well with only a few minor issues. I will be putting the bike through its passes over the next few weeks and will post a follow-up / mini review once I have more time on it. I am still waiting on some bits to polish her off but it's 90% done. A PUSHED DHX is the big bling I am waiting on and am sure it will “push” the performance envelope of this, or any other bike out there, beyond levels known to mere mortals. I will be running a 36T e.thirteen for rocky tracks but will run this 38T for smoother tracks, like our local hill is. Bike as seen here is 42lbs.
Thanks to Todd & Alex from Iron Horse, the lads at Shimano, Krispy from Go-Ride, John from e.thirteen and Darren from PUSH for their help with my sled. And as always, thanks to Acadian for his help and insight.
Here are some pics of the initial build. Giddy up!
Sorry for the lack of updates folks. I have just been absolutely buried here. The immense digital workflow from past shoots and planning for my upcoming shoots has all but consumed me. This is the busy season and it’s game on! I’ll post when I can, so keep checking back. I have some nice pics and stories coming down the pike for you loyalists.
While shooting the Symmetrics road cycling team in Mexico, I managed to snatch the odd slice of life. Here are a couple of quick shots from the car window and a few others choice selections from the trip.
The first of a series of how-to videos for Mountain Bike magazine is online over at Bikeskills. This first installment is a track-stand with Joe Lawwill. Check it out here. Keep checking back to view the series.
Still in a cast from his torn Achilles’ heel, Neil Mackinnon was kind enough to drop of my Norco Team DH for me yesterday. Can’t wait to get this work off my plate and start to get her dialed.
I could write an epic report on this trip but am jammed in the office and will have to keep it short. I was in Sonora Mexico for a week with the Symmetrics Road cycling team. Race organization was a complete nightmare but the shoot and the riders were great.
Although I was quite happy with my D1H, it was time to move up. I bought it at the tail end of the technology bursts for those cameras. At the time, it was quite fast and I didn’t really need a big monster mega pixel cam. I was just documenting my video shoots and using it for photojournalism on the web.
I decided to stick with Nikon and go with the D2X. It’s a real workhorse and I think I will be able to recoup my investment with it. The D1H was pretty much a wash in that respect. I bought it for $5000 and traded it in for $500. That hurts. When you get into this game you know that your equipment will depreciate at the speed of light but you should at least be able to get your money’s worth out of it. My Sony PD-150 for example, has paid for itself ten times over and I can’t see myself selling it anytime soon. I hope the D2X will be this DSLR for me. I added a couple of shots to the galleries from the cam. So far, I am pretty impressed. I also traded-in my 24-85mm - f2.8 for this new AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8G IF-ED. It’s a fine piece of glass. This will go with the AF DX Fisheye-Nikkor 10.5mm f/2.8G ED and AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G IF-ED I already have. This covers a pretty decent range. Let’s hope Nikon doesn’t go full frame anytime soon.
I just got back from a whirlwind shoot in California with the team at Bikeskills. I was there shooting some how-to videos with them to accompany a print campaign that will run in Bicycling and Mountain Bike.
Rob Howard is the man behind the operation at Bikeskills and he has a great team of talented riders taking care of the instruction side of things. Joe Lawwill, Chris Duncan and Brian Lopes are the three key riders I shot with for this installment. There were some organizational and planning issues on this shoot but everyone dug deep so we could pull it off. One of these said issues was nailing down the shooting dates. There was so much back and forth between Joe and me during the scheduling stages, that by the time dates were chosen, my flight choices became very limited. This inevitably made it such that I had to come in a few days earlier then needed. The night I landed I stayed at the Crown Plaza on the strip at LAX. Let me tell ya $169US doesn’t get you much on the strip. My room was a dive and the scenery wasn’t anything to write home about. Not how I wanted to spend Valentine’s Day, that’s for sure. I think the best part was going though US customs in Toronto though. I got hauled aside, raked over the coals and accused of working in the US. Yeah, good times! Everything was legit of course but sheriff, I have a huge chip on my shoulder from all the roids, felt it necessary to officially put the non-issue on record thus ensuring future agonizing trips to the US.
The following day Joe made the exhausting trip into L.A. and picked me up. Lawwill has a lot on the go these days with his company Solutions Graphic House, teaching with Bikeskills and his full-time day job at SDG. From L.A. we headed in to Orange County for some much needed planning. We went back to SDG where I worked on a script and template for our impending shoots. I got a workable outline done and we used Joe’s track-stand as the first model. Now it was just up to Chris and Lopes to tailor the template to correspond with their skill. Seemed easy enough…. During all this, Rob was coordinating heavily with the group at Rodale to ensure everything was happening on the back end. Everyone had their work cut out for them on this one.
Friday afternoon Joe and I got rolling and headed out to shoot his skill. As with many video shoots, this is the time when things tend to go wrong. I have unfortunately learned this the hard way and like a buffer day for this very reason. Case in point - Joe found a rather large anaconda in his tire and the weather took a sudden turn for the worse on us. The only rain they have had in weeks, typical. The shoot wasn’t a complete bust though - Joe got a handle on his script and was able to hone it in for take2 the following day.
Saturday was crunch time and I was stoked that we managed to get both of Joe’s how-to clips in the can. He nailed them both and I think these will be quite informative once I get them edited and ready for the masses on the web. Now I only had Lopes’ and Duncan’s to complete, things were starting to come together. Chris spent most of his time driving around looking for a tabletop jump for his how-to. Seems there are no tabletops anywhere in SoCal. Chris’ shoot was starting to worry me but I thought we would have it dialed by the next day in time to roll. Lee Mcormack, author of Mastering Mountain Bike Skills, drafted a script for Lopes based on my template and we were slated to shoot with him sometime Sunday morning. Lawwill and I got word late on Saturday that Lopes was a go for 8:30am Sunday. Game on!
Sunday morning I woke up to rain and wondered if the shoot was going to happen. Some quick calls confirmed that things were dry where Lopes was so Joe and I headed for bluer sky. Lopes’ how-to skill was how to ride a rock-garden. We decided to shoot this just outside Laguna, near Telonics, where I shot with him last summer ‘round this time. Wicked trails ‘round those parts I must say. Lopes was sporting all his new gear for 06. The guy killed it last year on every level of racing. We went over his script, made a few modifications and then proceeded to shoot. Lopes is the man and, once setup, promptly showed the rock-garden who’s boss. I miss watching Lopes ride DH, after winning the Air DH in Whistler last year, it’s clear he still has what it takes. Lawwill is still a honch on two wheels and had a few runs down himself. Was a good shoot, although slightly improvised, I think it will come out great.
Chris was still driving around looking for a tabletop as the one he had finally scoped behind Oakley was a wash after the rain. Having spent the last three days not being able to find one, we decided to call his shoot a bust and try for a re-shoot at Sea Otter. Joe and I were on our way back to L.A. but at the last minute we decided to salvage what was left of the day and try to shoot Chris destroying some jumps. Calls were made and we headed to hidden valley for a quick session. Chris had some issues with the fork on his MTB so he pulled out the 20 inch. Check out what he threw down for us. clicky, clicky, clicky, clicky Kid’s got skills.
All-in-all this turned out to be a good shoot and I think the finished clips will be impressive. Rob is a solid business man and I think if we can get over these initial growing pains we will have a great thing going. I’ll keep you all posted about where and when the clips will be available. Keep checking back here, on Bikeskills, Bicycling, and Mountain Bike for updates. Thanks Joe, Rob, Brian and Chris for your hard work and great time. See you at Sea Otter!
Irvine, CA. –February 6th 2006. DHRacers LLC. with the ongoing support of Honda North America, are proud to welcome new sponsor Iron Horse Bicycles and top USA pro downhiller Duncan Riffle to their program.
DHRacers LLC. are delighted to begin a relationship with a company who is as passionate and dedicated to racing as we are. Iron Horse are regulars on the podium internationally and we will ensure that this trend continues in North America with the signing of Duncan Riffle who will be competing in both the World Cup and Norba circuits as well as all the other major North American races.
Todd Seplavy, Iron Horse Bicycles brand manager says, "Iron Horse is stoked to have Duncan onboard the dw-link Sunday downhill race bike for the 06 race season. Duncan represents the future of American downhill racers and he is among the most committed athletes I have met. We look forward to great things working with Duncan and the rest of the Honda/Iron Horse Team for 2006." Duncan, the 2004 US National Champion, 2 time Worlds team Member and most recently 2005 Norba Final winner says, “I am extremely excited to be involved with such a great program. I have wanted to get involved with Iron Horse and new Sunday bikes for some time now. They are a great company with a great product that has been proven over and over again by international riders. They wanted a strong American Gravity racer and am happy and honored to be on the forefront of the world wide Iron Horse American Revolution."
We are also happy to welcome two other new co-sponsors; Avid and e13 components. They will join Honda, Sram, Rockshox, Truvativ, Yakima, Michelin, SDG, Hadley, Mavic, Crankbrothers, Troy Lee Designs, ODI, Sign Source, Cane Creek, Push and The Bike Company in supporting the team in 2006. Honda Iron Horse will be traveling in the 2006 Motor Trend Truck of the Year; the Honda Ridgeline. Designed to meet the needs of a growing population of consumers purchasing trucks to support their active, outdoor-oriented lifestyles, the Ridgeline delivers a proportional mix of overall truck capability, towing performance, ruggedness and value in a fun-to-drive and responsible vehicle built around Honda's standards for reliability, safety and performance.
DHRacers LLC 19 Goddard Irvine Ca. 92618 www.DHRacers.com
Just got my fresh copy of the newest Modest Bike Mag. This issue may be one the best yet and I can’t wait to peruse its beautifully laid out pages. Looks like the editor, Ian Miller, is trying to raise questions with my mail delivery person and neighbors with this clever address label . You’re dead Millar!
Been kinda quiet around here for the past little bit. Not a whole lot going on that’s of interest. Went home to Ottawa for the holidays and spent a quite week here with Kelly for New Years and my birthday.
Things are slowly shaping up for the ’06 season. Companies are starting to firm-up their budgets, media requirement and are committing to productions with us. Most of FastTimes’ loyal customers are committed and more are jumping onboard every week. The summer calendar is filling quickly and it looks like before I know it, it will be September again. I have been out a few more times on the 6.6. When it’s 10º in January you can’t not go out - it’s cycling blasphemy. There isn’t a lick on the white stuff anywhere in sight - no complaints here. I have a nagging shoulder injury that, although does not bother me while riding, prevents me from my usual off season weight lifting sessions. Shoulders are a tough thing to not use. Not having to shovel has been a real blessing I can tell you. No good can come to a shoulder from shoveling. Ergo shovels my ass.
Often, there are moments of clarity when you just have to dive in, no matter how busy you are. Having developed the Hoots brand now for 8 years and culminated partnerships and friends in all parts of the world, I have had some of the greatest opportunities to discuss trails to politics on a global scale.
Hoots gear now extends beyond the traditional protective gear and clothing and embraces involvement in trail advocacy, bike skills parks and teaching. Dedication to our killer sport, straight up!
The boys at Trident Performance Sports stepped up with a great idea of having a web page that would serve as a medium for Hoots freaks, trail advocates and anyone interested in seeing or contributing to our revolution, The Wheel Deal. Post ride contemplation led to commitment and I dove in. Hoots Nation is an information exchange on the latest riding gear and Dreaded updates to politics and The DIRT Club providing a back drop to inspire positive and enlightening user dialogue.
We are stoked to offer www.hootsnation.com
Props to Trident, and our other supporters for getting this forum online.
Jay Hoots
I have a few more rides aboard my new 6.6 now and thought I would share my impressions with you. A shorter stem, more precisely dialed suspension and a little more saddle time has helped make a great ride almost perfect.
I swapped out my 90mm stem for a short little 40mm Truvativ stem. The 90mm really was way too long, not sure what the heck I was thinking there. The shorter stem got me positioned better over the front end and I instantly felt the confidence I had originally expected to feel on this bike. This 6.6 now feels like my VPX did on descents. The bike still feels a bit out of place in the tight stuff though. At first, I wasn’t sure if it was the cockpit, the wheelbase or the suspension causing the tight nervous feeling but now am certain it is the overall length. I don’t think this is a design oversight on Intense’s part though as this is only apparent in the tightest of situations where you must come to nearly a dead stop to negotiate the corner.
Correct sag is critical on these VPP bikes and it took a few rides to get it right. If it’s not bang-on it can actually make your suspension work against you. Fox’s recommendation is for 14.7mm of sag but my experience with VPP bikes is that they require a bit more than most designs do. The Santa Cruz setup guidelines for the Nomad are a good starting point as these bikes are similar. Once I got my suspension dialed the bike really started to shine. It seems most at home on fast rolling trails. The bike climbs remarkably well and traction is abundant. There is a definite learning curve to master riding this bike but once you get the gist of it you’ll be flying. Once I found my balance point and got used to the suspension behavior, I found the bike to be very playful and couldn’t wait to see what was around the next corner of the trail. I have done a few more 5-6’ drops on it and the bike soaks it up no prob! I will slowly be pushing the bike to see what more it can handle. I expect to be pleasantly surprised by its capabilities.
On my last ride up at Ravenshoe with Clem, I snapped the derailleur hanger off. I must say, I was pretty surprised it let go so easily. You can tell from the picture that there isn’t much meat to it where it snapped. Yes, I know that’s what they are meant to do but this let go pretty easily. In my 20plus years of riding I have only ever snapped one hanger previously to this one. It was a stump that got me this time. It happened around a bend on an uphill switchback. I came to a dead stop immediately after the stump caught my derailleur but when I looked down I saw that it was too late. I was pretty surprised to see it had busted but my derailleur seems to be ok so I shouldn’t complain, it did its job. The following Monday Intense had 4 new hangers off to me which I received the next day. Thanks guys! Clem and I played on some stunts on the way out of the trail and I noticed something I had not prior to now. There is an issue with the front derailleur hitting the rear triangle. Now, I have yet to take the shock out and cycle the suspension to see what’s up so I’m not sure what is hitting what. Like I mentioned in the previous review (see below), there was an issue with the new style “wide-swing” derailleurs on previous models but this was apparently solved. It could be that because my front derailleur was in the small chainring position it was hitting the chainstay on bottom out and wasn’t the swing-link like on previous designs. Either way it’s not ideal ‘cause sometimes you will need to hit something when you are in your small ring and that could cause some nasty problems on the trail. If you need to climb a stunt before you drop off the end for example. I will have more details on this for ya soon. I snapped a few more pics of her for ya - side, front
I look forward to every ride on this bike. It’s just so much fun to ride. I have never experienced anything quite like this - just a blast to ride. Gonna be a tough bike to put away for the winter.
Little break in traffic here - been trying to get out on the new sled as much as possible before the snow flies. It’s been worth it I must say. I have had some really great rides as of late. The last installment was a snow covered ride op at Ravenshoe with Clem last weekend - so beautiful.
Just finished authoring a DVD of last year’s video I made for the Ontario Association Of Triathletes. The particular project was for their Kids Of Steel program, which I am proud to be a part of. Anything that gets kids outside and on bikes is something I want to be part of.
Was at the DFA1979, Queens Of The Stonage and Nine Inch Nails concert last night. All I have to say is that Queens owned that show in my opinion. NIN was amazing, lots of lights and theatrics but no amount of light can outshine amazing rock, something Queens never seems to lack.
My Intense 6.6 arrived Thursday. Since its arrival I have been running around trying to get it built and on the trails while we still have some decent weather up here. I wanted to get out on a worthy trail in order to make good use of this burly trail bike.
Let’s start with the build! I chose Satin Black for my frame colour and was quite pleased with my choice once I saw it in person. The finish is really close to matte black but with a little more shine to it. I like a stealthy looking frame and with all the bike theft as of late being inconspicuous isn’t such a bad thing. The frame built-up without any issues and was straight as an arrow. I often read about alignment issues with Intense frames but I have only experienced a slight misalignment once with one of the first generations of M1s I owned. It was so minor I kept it regardless. The frame came properly reamed and faced. I still need to face the disc brake tabs and check the dropout alignment but it built and rode well despite my not performing these pre-build musts.
Previous versions of the Uzzi have reportedly had issues where the new “wide-swing” style front derailleurs hit the inside of the rear triangle as it cycled through its travel but that problem has since been addressed. Intense has machined out material and made room for the derailleur to clear without any trouble. My VPX, from this past season, had this same material removed but I did not run a front derailleur so cannot attest as to weather or not it was an issue on this frame. I am sure they have it sorted for all models by now though. I chose to use an FSA ORBIT Z 1.5R headset to keep the front end low. It went in painlessly and seems to have lowered the front end quite noticeably. This is just another advantage of buying from frame manufacturers who are part of the OnePointFive standard. Even with the lower stack height the forks clear the downtube on full bar rotation with room to spare. Intense clearly anticipated that people would want to run this type of setup and planned ahead for it. The cable routing was well thought out and is pretty much identical to what it was on my VPX. The dropouts are beautifully machined. It is a small hanger as used on the 5.5 but still much burlier than the average run of the mill variety. All-in-all it was a joy to build. The whole process took about 25min not including time to bleed the brakes.
Setting up this bike was a little trickier than setting up any of my previous bikes, mostly due to the fact that this bike would have to perform as well going up as it did going down. Long travel trail bikes aren’t anything new but this frame is in a class all to itself, it needed to be perfect to take full advantage of its capabilities. Air shocks for XC riding are typically pretty easy to set up but this DHX Air has a few more adjustments than your average air shock. For my initial ride I set the shock and fork up as recommended per the manuals. The shock came stock with 150psi in the boost valve which I left untouched for this initial ride. My experience from running the DHX 5.0 on my VPX this summer lead me to eventually disagree with what I had read in mags about how to set it up. Popular advice was leaning towards higher psi in the boost valve, anywhere from 150psi and up. In my opinion this made the shock feel overly harsh without any noticeable benefit in other areas. This is of course highly subjective and dependant on the frame you’re riding. I think with the VPP bikes, it’s just not needed as much as with other designs such as a single pivot. I tried many different settings but eventually settled on the 75psi mid-season, which is the minimum recommended by Fox. I ran the bottom out adjusted with only one turn in or completely off depending on the course. I never found a need to use the Propedal ‘cause the bike pedaled like a champ without it and running it made the bike feel unnecessarily stiff. I ran the forks with the compression, both hi/low, and rebound completely backed off. I thought this would be a good starting point for the 6.6 and I would go from there on the trail. I don’t believe you get an accurate feel for what your suspension is truly doing if you try to adjust everything at once. Starting by getting perfect sag is KEY and I don’t feel this can be achieved with other settings masking the basic functions of the shock which is to track the trail to the best of its abilities.
For her inaugural ride I decided to head up to Porcupine Ridge in Bracebridge. While not quite as epic as the famed Moab trail, it is one of the most technical trails in Ontario, or anywhere else for that matter. There is little vertical but lots of climbing due to the ever changing elevation and rolling nature of the trail. The majority of the climbs are quite short but very technical and steep. Most of the climbs have some sort of rock garden or ledge that requires explosive force to jockey up, all while keeping from spinning out on damp roots. No So-Cal switchbacks or fire road climbs here. The trails are heavily rooted and much of the trail is interspersed with great Canadian Shield - the best stuff on the planet. The trails are fairly slow and tight so I wasn’t sure it would be the best test for this bike but it would certainly expose its strengths and weaknesses in a hurry. I went out with a good buddy, John Scharff, his girlfriend Sheila Norris and a young buck named Greg Parker. These are all super fast DH folk but John and I both share a great love for trail riding. We were all on completely different style of bikes for this ride. John was on an old Giant hardtail, Sheila on a Blur and Greg on a borrowed Norco 4X. I like to head out on group rides like this, where everyone is on a different setup.
We eased into the trail and the bike felt good. The bike made quick work of anything in its way. Roots and rocks were all but eliminated under the bikes plush travel. Every so often I would stop and make adjustments to the bike based on how it was functioning on the trail. The first thing I noticed was that the bike felt steep and a bit stiff. I backed off the air spring on the DHX which seemed to help for the rest of the ride. I ran the Propedal a few times but it just made the ride harsh and really just seemed to provide a sticking point in the suspension rather than a platform. The shock felt as though it would sit too high in its travel and needed a hit to engage, much like lockout feels on a fork. I guess, in the end, that is its function but I find it numbs the point at which your shocks reads the terrain - the point just into the positive portion of the travel. I left the Boost Valve at 150psi for the ride which seemed to be ok. I only bottomed out the shock once and it was in an appropriate setting. For my next ride I will back off the boost valve and try the Propedal once again. The Bottom-Out and Propedal are directly affected by the Boost Valve’s air volume. Every turn is greatly exaggerated when there is more air in the canister. It is quite small and it is not recommended that you adjust the settings with more than 125psi in the reservoir due to the fact that you can damage the shock while making adjustments if the volume is too high. The Propedal is most useful on long steady climbs where it can be dialed in for the climb and backed off for the ride down. Not the kind of trails we have here really. I have yet, for these VPP bikes anyway, found it to be beneficial for overall trail and DH riding. As a whole I really liked the feel of the shock, it didn’t take long to break in and it tracked very well. It felt very progressive and I think once I find the magic numbers it will be set for the season. I didn’t push the bike too hard on this ride but will on the next few. The shock hardware is much smaller than that found on the VPX and I am somewhat worried about bending them. A lot of guys are building these frames up for freeriding but I really don’t think it could handle anything much larger than smooth 6’ drops. It’s an aggressive trail bike, prolly the best one ever made. For freeriding I would stick to the VPX which I think was amazing for just that.
I am 5.7” and, as with all of Intense’s lineup, fit smack dab in the middle of their fit chart. 5’0” – 5’8” is the range for small and 5’6” - 6” for med. I have always opted for a med because bikes are generally designed around this size and I like a longish toptube. The size felt good in the parking lot and the reach was bang on. I did however find this bike felt a wee bit steep in the rough stuff and a tad long in the tight stuff. The front end felt a high during steep climbs. It was hard to get over the front end and remain neutral enough not to spin out. The minute you unweight that rear end it just floats up and spins out. Now, that being said I am running a 90mm stem which may be the issue. The frame size and angles may not be the problem - only more tests will determine that. I will try a 50mm stem for the next ride and see how it feels. Whatever micro-adjustments where troubling me on the climb where quickly erased the instant I pointed her downhill though. The bike all of a sudden felt like my VPX, stable and plush. The bike cornered very easily and remained neutral throughout the turn, entering quickly and exiting even faster. The front end still felt a bit steep in the really steep chutes but I think a shorter stem will allow me to get further back over the saddle which will help make it feel a little slacker. Momentum is your friend with this bike. Once you stop rolling in the tight stuff it’s hard to get going again. The center of gravity is quite a bit higher than your average XC bike and you need to keep rolling or your suspension will start to work against you. Once I started adjusting my body position more like I would on my DH bike things got a bit better. With the parts spec I have the bike comes in at around 32lbs, with PD-M647 platform style SPDs. The weight was only apparent on the really steep parts of the trail where the bike had to be muscled up sections of trail and rock ledges. That is to be anticipated and I wouldn’t expect otherwise. I will require better fitness and more time in the saddle to take full advantage of this bike. It felt very neutral and inspired confidence on all but the nastiest stuff. Most of the points raised in this review are suspension and fit related. I don’t think I can provide a more accurate frame review until everything else is perfect. That is the only way to really be fair and review the frame itself.
This is the kind of bike that makes you want to pack up and head to Moab, which I think is where this bike would be most at home. I would recommend this bike to anyone who loves trail riding and is looking for something that can make your favorite rides even better. This is one of the frames that will be looked back on as groundbreaking, it’s that good. I think I will eventually get to a point where I will feel as confident on it as I did on my VPX. It really is a thing of beauty and I look forward to the trails I will have the pleasure of riding this bike on. Sorry there aren’t more photos of the actual ride but after a summer of having a camera strapped to me 24-7 it was time to just get out and ride. John left his camera in my trunk for the ride but maybe if we go out again we’ll snap a few for ya.
Thanks to everyone that helped me put this bike together. Jean-Martin at On The Edge, Joe at Shimano, Dave at OGC, Lee & Theo at Orange Sports Supply and Nelson, Dan & Andrew at Cycle-Solutions.
My new Intense 6.6 should be arriving from On The Edge distribution tomorrow. This frame will be one of, if not, the first of these beauties in Canada. I have a pretty sweet all mountain build planned for this frame and the parts are slowly trickling in.
Here is the planned build:
Intense 6.6 – Size Medium Satin Black
More pics and build info once I get my hands on the frame and start on the build
The fine folks at Velocycle sent me this sweet Fox poster to drool over and I thought I would share it with you. Fox make the best suspension on the planet. I will be rocking my trusty Fox Talas 36RC2 again this year and adding a DH 40RC2 to the stable. My rear shocks for 06’ will be a DHX 5.0 and DHX 5.0 air.
Just got back from one of my typical by-weekly rips through the Don. We are very fortunate to have such a great trail network so easily accessible to the average Torontonian and that is thanks to dedicated people like Mark & Lora from IMBA Canada.
This weekend IMBA Canada was on hand in the Don doing some much needed trail work to ensure the preservation and longevity of the trails. Many dedicated volunteers came out to lend a hand - Neil Mackinnon and Brian Gilliland from Norco, Mike Buhler from Troy Lee, city of Toronto employees and many Don riders came out to do their part. They are completing some of the excellent work done last year near the “crap factory”, just south of the Loblaws. The crew has bermed and shored up many of the volatile and washed out sections of the trail ensuring proper drainage and wear. They have even added a drop-in to step up for the more advanced riders in the same area. All-in-all it’s a great improvement. I generally enjoy natural structures and unpolished trails but realize, as others should, that the Don is not this type of trail and will require maintenance and planning to survive. It is possibly one of the most widely used trails in the country. Today alone, in the short few hours I was there, I saw at least one hundred trail users. Hikers, dog walkers and riders all share this great trail system. Most riders just rode by the work site, which was a bit disappointing, but I think the enthusiasm and dedication of those who took part was enough for all. They worked hard and did some great work. Once I did my loop I stopped in and helped out for an hour or so. In the future I will post information about these trail days and I truly encourage all of you to come take part in this - It’s a good thing. Props to Mark & Lora from IMBA and everyone who make the trails better for the rest of us. Keep tuned to IMBA Canada’s site for upcoming events in your town.
I have been anxious to get back and roll on the sweet rock sprinkled trails typical of the Gats since my last trip there. A guy can only take so much Ontario before he packs-up and heads for the laisser-faire ways of Quebec.
I headed up on Thursday morning with Neil from Norco. The plan was to get in town in time to check in and head up to Champlain Lookout for a burn down Wolf Trail. We pulled into the nation’s capital and stopped off at the Clocktower Pub for some lunch before heading over to the hotel for check in. While there, Jose from Joe Mama spotted us and came over to say hi. Jose’s a good guy and has been a big part in getting the scene in Ottawa to where it is now. After lunch we stopped in to check out the shop and shoot the breeze with Jose for a while. The shop is really well laid out, clean and has all the right goodies. You should check it out if you’re ever in town. The shop is on Pretoria at Bank St.
I had booked us at the Best Western/Victoria Park Hotel because I had stayed there numerous times, including while shooting for ES2 with Ryan Leech. It was always a decent place to lay your head and it was never a hassle to bring the bikes up to our room, which is why I stayed there. On this occasion however, “something to prove manager guy”, informed us that we could not bring our bikes in to the room and instead offered up his trusty bike racks in the underground parking area. When I asked him if HE would then be responsible for them then, seeing as they would be out of my sight, he of course had nothing to say. At that point, I really just wanted to check out and find a place with a little more respect for my property but we were already there and were really just anxious to get riding so I gave Jose a call to see if we could leave the bikes at the shop during our stay in Ottawa. Jose of course said yes, which was super cool of him. Thanks Jose!
Once fed and unpacked we headed to the Gats to ride Wolf Trail. I hadn’t ridden there in at least 5-6 years and it was time for me to get reacquainted with this nugget of a trail. It’s an illegal trail but hey, I was good all year and don’t break much so… giddy up! It’s a pretty rocky trail, but still an XC trail in my opinion, so I did it on my NRS and Neil rode his Fireball. Guys go in on their big-bikes but that’s pretty lamo. If you can’t clean it, ride something you can. The place is enough of a heat-score as it is. It was as I remembered it, rocky and flowy - such a gem. We only came across a few hikers and they were pretty cool with sharing the trail. I only heard one, under-the-breath, comment from a woman hiker while riding by her. I just said, “have a great hike” and kept on, life’s too short.
It rained all day Friday. It was a chill day for us anyway so we just walked around the city and hung out until our third rider, Dave Hord, showed up. Dave was racing his Audi 90 Quattro at Shannonville Raceway and headed over afterwards to rip with us Sat. and Sun. Dave rolled in around 6:00 and we headed out for some grub on Elgin Street. Dave was out most of the season with a broken collarbone and I had promised him a good ride when he got better so I invited him up. Glad he came and I know he was too. I respect guys who get out and ride the good stuff rather than sit around and whine about how bad the riding is where they live. Get off your asses and you too could be riding the good shit!
Rode Fortune Sat. and Sun. and had a blast. It was sunny, about 10° and the previous day’s rain had left the trails wet and tacky, perfect conditions for DH. We rode hard all day and got 14-15 runs in the 6 hours we were there. That’s a pretty good day for Fortune, let me tell ya. I would venture to say it “feels like” doing about 100 at Blue Mountain. The place works ya! It was a great day and we hit most of the good trails before calling it a day.
Sunday, the lads were a little hurting and it took some convincing to get them up and down the lift. Dave had his little MiniDV cam and we managed to get a couple of shots of what the place has to offer. I am just waiting on the uncompressed file from Dave and I will post up a clip for ya’ll when I get it. I got in 8-9 runs before the guys called it and we rolled for the tdot. Was well worth the trip and I am in fact contemplating a trip back next weekend for more. Think I’m hooked? I know I am.
I want to say a special thanks to Jose at Joe Mama for letting us store our bikes there during our stay. Thanks Jose! If you’re in the city, make sure you stop in and check out the shop, it’s the real deal. They have all the 411 on the 613.
Now that I have a bit of down time I will be adding some of the missing content like videos, equipment, services and clients to the site. Last night I added two Ride Guide segments from their ’04 season. One is an interview they did with me at Sea Otter in Cali. and the other is a segment I produced on the Toronto urban scene.
While at the BTAC show Pete Stace-Smith gave me Norco’s 2006 media kit. It included a pre-production version of Backstage Pass, the DVD we produced in ’05. I think they did a pretty slick job on the artwork and the kit was quite impressive as well. Good job guys!
Devinci had a mock-up of their 2006 catalogue which included a shot I took of Primary race team founder and racer, Drew Pautler. Their catalogue looked pretty slick as did the ’06 bike lineup.
Shimano had a killer booth as usual - tight, clean and ubber tech. They had a Norco VPS SIX decked out with Saint that had done a tour of duty on the rental fleet at Fanatyk Co in Whistler. The bike’s rental life had been catalogued and over the course of the summer had clocked more than a million vertical feet. The bike had been maintained but no parts had been replaced. Some cosmetic damage was apparent, as you would except with newbs crashing constantly, but all the parts were original and in 100% working order - pretty impressive for both Norco and Shimano I’d say. I can say from personal experience, having ridden a similar setup all year, that it is not implausible as I haven’t had to touch a bolt on my bike - replaced brake pads, that’s it.
Shimano was also running their ’06 international dealer DVD which includes the Saint, Dura-Ace and DCL videos I produced this season for them on a sweet Plasma set up. Looked pretty dope!
Sorry for the lack of updates. The tail end of my season was insanely busy and I was scrambling hard to wrap things up. Once I finally got all my projects completed I decided to take some much needed time off to ride and relax before the ’06 season crept up on me.
I had the chance to ride Bromont with my friend Miko for a few days and we had a blast. We scored huge on the weather and only rode in the wet for a few hours on the first day. The trails were as good as ever and the new trails they have added are schweeeet! All year I had been planning to head out west at the end of the summer but it hasn’t worked out thus far – stupid work! Bromont’s “North Shore” style offering was enough to tame the beast though and I left satisfied and challenged. They have really done some good work there.
The next two weekends I rode in my hometown, Ottawa. I grew up riding there on the tech great Canadian shield style trails in the Gatineau hills and have never found anything I enjoy riding more to this day - Moab was damn close tho let me tell ya! Most of the trails in the Gats are illegal so being a more mature cyclist now I felt the responsibility to try and stick to the legal offering. I wanted to try something new and I had always heard good things about Kanata Lakes and thought I would give it a go. My local riding buddy Clem Hobbs recommended an Ottawanian buddy of his, Mark Slobodian, as a guide. Mark took me out for a ride there and he turned out to be a fantastic guide. I had a blast riding with him. He is a very capable rider and a perfect riding partner – must be an Ottawa thing. Kanata lakes is an ubber tech ride and it proved to be more then my pour little NRS could handle - next time I go out it will be on the SIX. The trails are rock strewn and laced with steep faces and tight lines. My kind of place!
On the following Sunday I rode Camp Fortune. Mark was kind enough to be my trusty guide for a second time and he once again proved to be the right man for the job. I suspected Fortune would be a tough ride and having a guide saved me from what could have been some nasty first runs. Fortune has extremely tech, steep trails with many drops and even a few wallrides – both natural and man-made. Mark hit up everything the place had to offer including a step up to 10’ that I have yet to hit. I think the most tech line in the place is a completely vertical rock face followed by a nasty, wet, no-line possible trail to a gap drop. Yeah…that’s what I said. Neither of us hit it this trip but it’s on the plate for next time, that I can assure you. Pretty sure Mark has done it in the past and will again when we ride there next.
I spent the next week in Northern Quebec fishing with my old man. It was a trip long overdue and I had been trying to work it in to my schedule for quite some time. I’m glad it worked out and it turned out to be an amazing time. Life moves pretty quickly for me these days and I never get to see my folks as much as I would like to so I am happy this worked out. The weather and fishing were great! It was nice to be off the grid for a while, even my Blackberry was incommunicado. We rolled back into Ottawa on Friday night and I booked some train tickets for the Bicycle Trade Show in Montreal. I was sick of driving at this point and the train puts you right across the street from the show. Win-win!
Saturday morning I rolled into the show and was greeted at the door by Norco’s marketing guru, Pete Stace-Smith. It was great to see Pete. I hadn’t seen him since my last trip out west but we had been working remotely together quite a bit recently on “Backstage Pass”, Norco’s 2005 promo DVD. I had been working super hard on the project before I left town and even cut into my vacation time to get it just right for Pete. It was all worth it in the end as Pete and the sales staff were stoked. If there is anyone worth going to bat for its Pete, he gives it back to you ten fold. The show in MTL is always better the the Tdot show but the aisles still looked empty to me. I got to say hi to all my contacts and take a peek at some of the new product offering for the ’06 season on the way - some neat stuff coming down the pike. I was focusing on DH sleds and suspension obviously. Giant, Intense and Foes looked to be the top contenders, no surprise there. Manitou’s Travis fork line seems to have what it takes and they feel more like their old TCP platform which is great. Yay, no more SPV! My videos were playing in different companies booths and I got to see some of my shots that had made it in to next years catalogues. Well worth the trip! I knew there would be many in-booth parties that I would get pulled into towards the end of the day so taking the train was a good way to be able to partake in all the show had to offer and get home safely that night.
I opted out of a night of après-show parties and headed back to Ottawa so I could hit Fortune again on Sunday. Mark came up with me again but we headed up a bit later than last weekend as it had been raining non-stop for three days and the trails were soaked. This place is treacherous enough in the dry and adding wet to the equation seemed just plain silly. Mark and I did a few runs and took it easy cause it was still wet and greeeesy. After our second run Mark started to feel a sharp pain in his back that was not passing. After some trail side chiropractics and stretches it was still not letting up so Mark offered to chill out and let me do a few more runs while he waited - pretty cool thing to do on his part. Earlier I had run in to the Primary race team riders, Drew Pautler and Peter Mclean and they offered to let me tag along for some runs. I had three blazing fast runs with the seasoned pros on the sloping wet trails and it turned out to be one of the best riding days I have had all summer. I even hit my first big wallride on a full-squish! What a great way to finish the trip. While at Fortune on those two days I ran in to some of my old riding buddies, Bass, Rob and Emily. These are people who I have had the most epic of rides with and are the reason I ride today. These are the people who where riding Fortune up and down before lift access existed anywhere. It was great to see you guys, stay in touch! I am planning on heading back with “Norco Neil” thanksgiving weekend and look forward to it already. Sorry for the lack of pics, after a season of hauling camera gear up and down everything east of Whistler I just wanted to ride. Next time maybe….
A shots I snapped of Carter Holland earlier this summer will be blessing the pages of Modestbike’s next issue. I can’t post the pic cause Ian Miller(the editor) is serious about the progression of the mag so you’ll have to go buy a copy to peep it. If you dig deep in these news pages you may find it tho ;)
Picked up one of these about a month ago. I needed an all-in-one email/phone solution and this seemed