Handle-Barging!

http://superstar.tibolts.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=532

I love wide bars.I really truly do,but it has to stop somewhere.I feel like this set of bars blew past the stop sign and had a head on with a bus full of children.915mm,for all us 'Merican, is an ass hair over 36''.That shit is just absurd.First off,who the fuck has a wingspan that requires anything near that?Also,how much stress is that putting on your stem,that's a whole lot of leverage for the average stem whose face plate width is maybe 2'' wide.And lastly I don't care what kind of butting you use,what kind of fancy version of aluminum you use,or what kind of heat treatment you use those fuckers are gonna be flexy.Really flexy.

All I know is I expect to see lots of brand new Demo frames,shiny D3 helmets,and these bars being piloted around by some 13 year olds.So just quit it Superstar.Let Renthal continue to make the best bars money can buy while you try to throw a yardstick of bars at me.

Nerd out.

http://www.mountainbike.com/mountainbikecom/bikes-gear/2013-mountain-bike-gear-news-and-rumors?page=0,0

Holy fuck.
This is the kinda shit that I get wayyyyy to into,so here's another edition of "my take on the shit in this article".

-Shimano,I fucking love you with nearly every millimeter of my heart,but quit it.We don't need a derailer hanger "standard".I am glad you're getting rid of the little bolt hanger on your rear ders though.That shit sucked and it's the only part I ever blew out from you guys.

-New Saint?!We all knew it was coming but fuck me I didn't know it was gonna be this good.Looks like Shimano will once again be raping my bank account for everything it's worth.Read the article for all the filthy,boner inducing details.Also some new flat pedals to finally kill off what I believe to be one of the worst sets there is?

-Cheap Saint with a weird name?Hell yeah!Now everyone can afford to have the most badass shit on the planet and I don't have to drop over $100 for a spare derailer.Redesigned SLX too,with  Shadow+?Please,please,please do a medium cage and Shimano I promise you i'll ride my trailbike's drivechain to shit and buy all new purdy stuff so you guys can further rape my bank account.

-Just kill the Gripshift off,Sram.The only people that use it are full blown quakers.They're no need to keep feeding their want for shitty stuff that became irrevelant 15 years ago.You're just making them,their custom steel hardtails,and 29'' Stans to King wheels feel like they still have a place in mountain bikes.Oh and what's that Sram?...you're playing catch up to a company who's main source of income is fishing reels?You're never gonna win.So constantly redesigning redesigned products is useless.Sounds like a new shock for,more then likely,AM/Enduro stuff and a new air spring for most of the air forks...hopefully they ditch the robot phallic damper,too.

-Oh great,a big name is supporting 650b horseshit.Now they have another reason to justify why their wheel size is better then the other 2.I knew it was gonna happen but I didn't want it to,the 160mm 34 for 26'' wheels.It'll probably be a 15mm axle,too.Fox,you crafty motherfuckers.Draining my pockets with the addition of my dream fork to your line up.Also psyched on the name change on the shocks,makes explaing Propedal settings easier to people who think they know alot.New DU bushings too...nice touch.Now maybe certain suspension designs won't eat those things for breakfast,lunch,and dinner.Not psyched on proprietary air cans.

-Crankbrothers,your new post sounds interesting.Make it 100% mechanical and you might,just might be able to knock off the reigning dropper post champion,the Gravity Dropper.Yeah,yeah all you Reverb nerds,"NO,NO FUCKING WAY MAN,The Reverb owns all."I'll see you in a few weeks when I have to send your post back to Sram.Then i'll see you a few weeks later when your main air seal gives way and you drop $80 on a rebuild.I'm content with my once a year $12 overhauls and a consistantly functioning seat post.

-I'm ever so delighted to see "standards" failing too.Overdrive headtube,you should of been shot down when the idea guy at Giant said "Hey,I've got a new headset system."BB30,I would be so excited to watch you go down.Anything Cannondale advertises as "theirs" typically has a track record of sucking...hard.2 tissue paper thin C-clips as bearing seats?No thanks.And Press Fit(PF) 30.You bastard cousin of BB30,I wanna watch you choke too.Special Loc-Tite to hold you in carbon frames,the fact nobody can get your O.D. right on BB shells,and your plastic cups all suck.Good-fucking-riddance I say.

"Secret" Training Center

So our "local" (hour drive) downhill trails that we have been building on for quite a while thanks to Taylor for showing us, have become like a drunk girl at a frat house. The trail is ridden by shuttle groups of goons who dont do a single lift of a shovel and trail clearing. So we went up to do some runs and of course we took shovels to do a fix it lap so we could ride the trail in its some what glorious conditions. I took my friends gopro and made this little edit.

loc'd out on pinkbike.com

So i wouldnt be mad about people riding a trail that weve built and maintained for all this time if they would just help some out and keep the trail we all love running and prime. Search the name of this place and youd find a grip of crappy edits on youtube. If everyone loves it like we do, why are we the only ones that care.

Oh well, shred it till it dies right?

Import Impossible.

So,there's a little thing in this "industry" that always kinda bums me out.This little thing would the lack of being able to get cool shit from places outside the good ol' US of A.

I love the bikes that the UK produces.I mean really,who hasn't wanted to own an Orange 2Twenty-whatever at somepoint in their life.I'd do some favors and drop some coin if I could get my hands on a Five.66 headangle,low ass BB,and a long top tube.Yes please!Not to mention the ever boner-inducing Lapierre DH 920 from a couple of years back.Fuck me,I would have given some parts of my man hood for that thing.Let's not even dive into all the little brands from across the pond that i'd very much enjoy throwing a leg over.Cube,Labyrinth,Curtis,Last and Sacren among many,many others.Then there's all the other cool little shit I can't get my grubby mitts on.The supposed warm butter silkiness of Bos suspension,those awesome crown/stem combos from Chunked,and the cheap yet rad stuff from Superstar.All of these products plus a million more out of my reach,all due to patent infringments,dodgy distribution over here and a big ass lake inbetween 2 masses of land.

What really bums me out is it seems as though all the other contries in the world have little to no trouble getting stuff from us.Intense,Santa Cruz and Turner frames are no big deal.Point One pedals and stems,fuck yeah no problem.WTB tires and seats,have that shit to you in a jiff.Sure,they have to pay quite a bit more then us Yankees but man...absolutely no way to get their good shit,but all they have to do is phone up the local distro and they can have every amazing piece of two wheeled machinery we produce.

I guess it's all relative though...have fun waiting for the box link on your M9 Europe,I can have mine by the weekend.



Droooooool.



Carlmont

So i get bored of riding the same stuff pretty easy, so when winter hits and the water starts falling (which hasn't really happened yet) I go and try to ride a bunch of different stuff. Over the weekend me and Evan headed out to the bay area to ride Carlmont and ride some jumps. I borrowed a gopro and this is what came of it.

a day out at cmont on pinkbike.com

Awkward.

There's always that bike.That one bike I don't quite get.The same question runs through my head everytime..."Does that really need to exist?"Apparently it does for some unknown reason.

You know the bikes i'm talking about,the bastard child of a DH bike and trail bike.7-8'' of travel,room for a front derailer,full length seat tubes.They're always set up the same,too.Long travel,large stanction single crowns,a heavy ass set of wheels,full Sram drivechain and brake set up,and god forbid the repuslive Hammerschimdt.The pilot of said machine is of a similar type as well,middle aged,visor down,sunglasses in place of goggles,and a set of hardshell knee/shin guards.

Maybe it's just me,but where in the fuck do you need such a bike?You mean to tell me the only way up to your DH trail is by pedaling?I call bullshit.There's an access road somewhere,or you need to build trails that are shuttleable.Or is it that your XC loop is that gnarly?If it is,and there's no way it is,you need to get yourself on a slack 6'' with some strong wheels.Really...where do these places exist?

I guess I just don't understand them.But come on...even on paper you have to be able to see they suck.66 headangle with a barely sub 15'' BB all paried with a short top tube and portly weight.They suck going up and they suck comming down.Hey,whatever floats your boat.That is,if your boat is set aloft by an awkward conglomeration of shit.



The ringleader of this band of shit,the Santa Cruz Driver 8.



Products I can't live with out,Vol.1.

The Thomson seatpost.

Elegant.Understated.And flat out the single best piece of cycling product,ever.Your choice of every diameter in the cycling industry,straight ot layback,and black or silver.Machined out of one piece of aluminum right here in the good ol' USA.All for right around $100.

I couldn't even count how many of these beauties i've owned.Building up a new bike?It's always a must,Thomson seatpost in the QBP cart,please.In all of those posts i've never once had an issue.Never stripped a bolt,no creaks,and never slipped.The things just work.I'm throughly convinced when the nueclear destruction of Earth happens there'll be cockroaches and Thomson posts left.Gleaming brightly in their little grey bags.

Thomson posts,to me,are the start and finish to every fresh build.Grease down the seat tube,Thomson in,clamp frame in the stand,start build.Finish build,pull bike down,adjust seat angle and height,go do skids.It will more then likely be that way 'till the end of eternity,too.

So,here's wishing that LH Thomson Co. decides to never stop their little side project.



THE one and only,Thomson Elite.