09/28/08-post canyon

causey and i headed out to post canyon this morning for some end of post season riding...

weather was great...way better than i expected. It wasn't too hot (like back here in portland) it was in the mid 60's or low 70's. trails were great with maybe just a bit of sprinkle in the past couple days.

we met up with todd mccarthy out there and we headed to the top of the mountain in the maing bus. first run was good, not much carnage asada. second run was different...todd started to crash and crash and crash. he took a ladder bridge or two in the chest; but walked away from it.

i'm not sure how he is feeling now, but my i am having sympathy pains from watching him crash.

the day was great riding...i just took it easy and am getting ready for the winter riding and filming season.

09/20 & 09/21/08 Blackrock Shuttle Day

Well all of us WTF people put on the end of year Blackrock shuttle day for a fundraiser. I am not sure if the tiny bit of rain scared everybody away, but only about 103 of the 150 or so people showed up.

Jake and I headed down in the Maing bus with Carlisle following us. We couldn't fit all the stereo equipment in the bus, so some of it went into Carlisle's truck. The van was packed with gear as you can see from the stuff behind me.

We got down to Blackrock around five o'clock on Saturday to meet up with Hack, Joe Rykowski, Chip and Ryan. We did some set up of the Stereo equipment and then some trimming back of the trees along the route of the shuttle trucks....it sucks to get slapped on the face with a tree branch in a speeding truck.

Saturday evening we did the usual unusual night ride. some of us had nice lights and some of us had a blinking led on their forehead to light their way. There was not real huge carnage during the night ride...just chip trying to chip off the rest of his teeth on Bonzai Downhill. He also broke his visor and was feeling a bit sore. When we got back from the two night time runs, we started doing most everybodys favorite past time...drinking lots of beer. I made sure not to give Hack my keys.

On the second run, joe took my camera and filmed us coming down the hill. My camera isn't that great, so it looked a bit strange.

We got up nice and early to ready the area for the onslaught of shuttle riders that were coming from everywhere to enjoy our local riding. You can tell it was about seven in the morning from the look on Greg's face. He slept in the rocks by basic training, jim in the back of his truck, raul in his car, me in the back of the maing bus, joe some place in a field and carlisle in the back of his truck. jake was in the plastic bag in front of his stereo equipment.

at the end of the day, it started to rain a bit. some people had their bikes just laying down on the dirt when it started, then the picked up their bikes...leaving these weird dry spots on the ground. i do like the black rock sign that somebody had a plasma cutter and some free time.

the shuttle day went great and hopefully we made a few dollars for the cause.

09/13/08-blackrock

went to blackrock this morning with the chalupa, shawn and mormon craig. weather was great, there was hardly anybody there...only a bit dusty and my 888 worked like new...even better than new!

we rode sunday stroll, bonzai dh...the next downhill trail and hit the et jump and basic training for a while. went back to the maing bus where we had filled the coolers with ice and beer.

we then headed to paddington's pizza in salem for the usual pizza. actually it's way better than average, but it was great as always!

next weekend jake and i are taking the maing bus down full of stereo equipment and a couple bikes on the back for the wtf shuttle day.

i hope to see you all on the trails next week!

09/12/08-fork re build

i am going for zen master status on working on marzocchi suspension products. I have worked on super t's, dirt jumpers, monster t's...both old and new style and now a few 888's. the first time changing out the oil on hack's fork (new style 888) was a nightmare. the process took us around six hours...a case of beer and hack pulling the stansions out of the lowers once.

i was determined to make the process easier. I was also a bit frustrated that I took the fork to a local expert a few weeks back, just before the whistler trip to be exact; the person that worked on the fork did not cycle the legs to drain out the oil that was in the valving of the fork! I measured the amount of oil that came out of the fork and it was almost 50% more that what should have been in there....no wonder it was only getting about 4 inches of travel.

I took the fork apart piece by piece, cleaning each part as i laid it out on the table like a surgeon and body parts. after all was clean and taken apart and i CYCLED THE LEGS OF THE FORK TO GET OUT ALL EXCESS OIL i put it back together, filled it with the proper amount of oil and what do you know...it work like new!

I guess if you want things done and done right, you do it yourself!

We are riding blackrock tomorrow. I am excited, I haven't been there for months! report to follow; it's filming time!