Grommits everywhere!

 

After hosting the Jumpship festival in our back yard a few weeks back, word has gotten out that Mike Montgomery left on of his signature custom AMPS in the office.

Mike was so engorged with his Dairy Queen he forgot to take his AMP with him, and he left his garbage on my desk too.

Now kids keep riding by on their way to the local Freeride park (we helped build) around the corner. By the droves they ride through the parking lot to ask for stickers then they quickly ask to hold the frame behind my desk.

These two are beyond stoked now that they know this bike may be built up and given away at Krankworxs with Straitline and all of Mikes sponsors onboard.

Odds of winning? 1:? or a brick through my window.

Mike Montgomery at Woodwards

Wish I had a RV in black.

Road Trippin with Mike Montgomery from Alpinestars USA on Vimeo.

 

Mike road his Banshee AMP and our Pedals to a second place win at Krankworks along with Casey Groves taking a epic 3rd on his Transition, look below to see how dumb he is.

So to see him with his Banshee MK11 rig seems a bit out of place, almost over kill but this is the steed he built up for The RedBull Rampage last month.

I set him up with 2010 JlO pedals but was out of the signature 24 karat gold pins, more like I was in a rush. Mike was up at Camp of Champions compound in Whistler along with 4 other Straitline riders Jack Fogel, Ryan Berrecloth, Alan Hepburn and Casey Groves. As usual I was late for the ferry off the island and in a rush grabbed a handfull of parts to build the pedals and made Mike and Fogel realize how simple they are to build up. They got a classy grocery store bag full of parts and a chain guide in pieces to build up, I used my leg injury as an excuse, it still works, and avoided all the work.

Then Mike called up just as I was heading to Europe for a show and asked for a 50 mm boxxer for the Rampage, so we hooked him up and check this footage out of him flat spinning his dh bike.

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=158320037520094 it’s on facebook only, sorry peeps.

 

Pretty sick color scheme, wish I had a Legend in black.

 

Mikes build goes as follows:

Medium Black Anodized Banshee Legend, Manitou Dorado with Custom Green decals, Cane Creek XXc II headset, Straitline Stem, ODI Handle Bars and Grips, Formula Brakes, XO Rear Shifter, Manitou Rear Shock, Race Face Atlas FR Cranks, Straitline Silent Guide ,Straitline Pedals, XO Rear Derailleur, Atom Lab rims on Industry Nine spokes and hubs with Geax Neuron Tires.

Fogelsode #25: Bend Slalom

I finally got around to putting some footage together from Cob’s and my trip to Bend for Jamie’s UpsideDown and UnderGround contest.  Unfortunately we didn’t get any footage of the contest, but Gunnar killed it with an awesome edit here.  One of the days was super windy, so the locals showed us around.  One of their spots was the slalom track, which we ended up riding until dark because it was so fun!  It’s a huge run down the hill with big berms and nice sized jumps, which left everyone smiling run after run.  I’ll let the video do the rest of the talking, but it’s definitely worth checking out if you’re ever near by.  The end of the video is just the result of a 10 hour drive.

Enjoy!

-Jack

Fogelsode #23: Some of My Sandier Days

After a few days of steady rain, most of the spots turned into swamps while the step-up got nice and soft.  The wet sand sticks together nicely, so we took advantage of it and rebuilt the trick drop.  After a solid and sandy sesh on that, we had the idea to build a lip next to it for a “trick step-down”.  Before we knew it, it was all ready to ride!  I had the urge to flip it, as one of my goals this year was to flip a step-down, so I took a few practice runs and went for it.  It felt super crazy flipping while falling, so I bailed and got a mouthful of sand.  Thankfully that was it, so I hiked back up and tried it again…and again, and again, until I finally started committing all the way.  I started landing on my wheels, but kept sliding out until the run I stuck it!  That’s definitely one of the best feelings!

We were back a few days later for another sesh.  David landed his first backflip, Kevin got used to his new bike, and Jeff worked on his barspins.  We had a fun sesh on a cool hip that someone recently built.  It’s a right hip, so it was nice to practice some tricks on, as almost every hip around here is to the left.  I’m getting pretty stoked on that place this time of year.  With all of these new lines and the ease of making more, it’s turning into a rad spot to learn and dial in pretty much whatever you want!

Enjoy!

 

-Jack

Fogelsode #21: Jumps in the Afternoon, Trails in the Evening

Another advantage of longer days: riding dirt jumps in the afternoon and trails in the evening!  David, Jeff, Kevin, and I cruised out to Post Office for a fun little ride.  Kevin was steezin up a storm with big smooth whips, and Jeff was styling through, throwing some sick 3’s!  David and I had a good time messing around with the different lines, trying to jump over each other and cross each other’s lines as close as possible.  It ended up being an awesome time, just taking it easy and having fun at the jumps. David had to go to work, so we dropped him off and continued into the mountains where we met up with Cob and Iggy.  Dan joined up a little later and we had a cool little session on some fun sections of trail.  Cob and Iggy were getting sideways off a nice high-speed triple, killing it as always.  Eventually we ran out of light, which nobody complained about as we were all pretty tired.  Solid day!

Enjoy!

 

Oh and earlier in the week, I met up with local photographer, Connor Luther, to help him with a project for his photography class.  Actually I don’t really know if “help” is the right word.  I just rode and he nailed some sick shots!

He did a cool write-up on it here.

-Jack

Fogelsode #20: Enjoying the Long Days!

Daylight Savings Time is upon us, and what can I say…it ROCKS!  Nothing like getting the chance to ride everyday, regardless of work or school schedules!  So it’ll be of no surprise to you that there’ve been seshes at Post Office everyday of the week.  It doesn’t get any better than that!

Well almost.  It could have been better if our buddy Brad didn’t break his ankle.  There’s this cool new transfer off the new wood lip onto the landing to the right.  Brian Miller has been killing it, throwing huge 360s and tailwhips over it.  Brad wanted to try to ally-oop 3 it, which would be super crazy because he would be turning left off the lip, but have to transfer over to the right.  He went for it, transferred over perfectly, but ended up over rotating and over clearing.  He landed on his feet, but the way he landed caused his left ankle to break in 3 places.  He handled it like it wasn’t a big deal at all, and ended up driving home later that day!  He’s going in for surgery on Monday to get it reset, so hopefully it won’t be too long before he’s back in action!  Get well soon Brad!

Towards the end of the week we realized that with a new berm and a few rollers here and there, we could have a little pumptrack that would weave through parts of the existing lines.  By that evening it was done, and after a classic sundown sesh on the jumps, we turned it over to a big pumptrack session.  It ended up being a great (and tiring) time, finding new lines and racing friends.  With the warmer weather, the longer days, and events like Sea Otter around the corner, the “off-season” is beginning to transition into the on-season! 

Enjoy!

 

-Jack

Fogelsode #18: Bike Building and the Sandiest Step-Up

After about a month of the Amp being out of commission from snapping the fork at Woodward, I got a new fork, along with quite a few other goodies!  Huge thanks go out to Nuke Proof, Straitline, and Gamut for getting me all set up with a new build for the Amp!  I loaded up my truck and drove on down to Scotts Valley Cycle Sport to build it up.  I got more and more excited with each part installed until it was finally complete!  It’s basically a brand new bike now, and I was stoked that it ended up being so light, coming in at just under 25.6 pounds!

With huge amounts of stokage, I grabbed a burrito, put my pads on, threw my bike in the truck, and drove straight over to the local step-up.  As I was driving it started raining, but I didn’t care, I just wanted to ride!  As soon as I pulled in to park, the rain stopped and I cruised down the trail to meet up with Justin, Max, Cob, and Clay.  Justin did what he does and nailed some awesome shots of my bike before I got it all sandy!After that, the sesh was on and everyone started throwing down!  It rained on and off throughout the day, but that just kept the landing nice and moist!  Clay nailed a couple flatspin 360s and Max learned sick no-foot-cans!  Cob was killing it with some huge no-foot-cans, supermans, dumped 3s, and tabled-dumped 3s!  I worked on getting used to riding a hardtail again, which luckily didn’t take long.  It was crazy tricking this bike after riding my Rampant for so long!  Don’t get me wrong, the Rampant tricks easy, but this bike is almost too easy.  The first tailwhip I did was around before I even knew I kicked it!  I was stoked to get some flip-whips, 3-whips, no-foot-can flips, and superflips in throughout the day!  Soon the sesh came to an end and we packed up and cruised out.  I’m absolutely stoked on the new set-up and can’t wait to ride it some more!

 

-Jack

Aaron Laroque product vid!

 

Well I’m off to catch a flight to Minnesota where it is –11 armed only with a light stylish jacket, bike gloves, one toque that matches my open toe air cast and anti traction crutches!  Why because I am a man and the cold is good for you. And I need to attend a small bike show.

 

So check out this Banshee Amp video the Aaron did for the AMP starring local Mark Mathews, the kid goes pretty big!

 

2010 Banshee Amp from Aaron Larocque on Vimeo.

 

Also take some time to watch this video he did on a recent trip to Thailand, great job of capturing the vibe there, most of it was shot in hectic Bangkok and Hua hin, south of the city on the coast.

I have been to Thailand ages ago and I loved Bankcock and a funny story about Hau Hin where the King has a residential palace at the south end of the city. I was snorkeling along the rocky cliffs one day when scootering around head down eyes looking for fish.  When I Pop my head up to look at shore all I see a beach full of every shell imaginable, totally found the mother load. 

So naturally I start looting the natural treasures when I noticed two machine guns pointed at me from a tower on the cliffs, I somehow managed to ignore every warning sign and fence propped up along the cliffs. I  basically shit my pants and this was about 15 days after 9/11 happened that's when the low flying fighter jets started making sense… Thai people are so touchy about White guys creeping up like navy seals.

 

So I did moonwalk back into the ocean where I cleaned my shorts and swam back with a rad story.

Enjoy the vid.

Thailand from Aaron Larocque on Vimeo.

Banshee AMP decked in Straitline gear

Again we popped up on Sicklines this time as a build kit to show off Banshee Bikes new AMP hard tail.

Sicklines chose a pretty lean build at 24.2 lbs, all the while choosing a strong component package over chasing grams and compromising what the bike can take on the jumps or street.

"The Straitline SSC (Split Steerer Clamp) 50mm stem is up front and looking sexy. Matching blue Straitline pedals as well to complete the subtle yet bold blue look we were going for."





I am digging the subtle look for sure with slight accents but I think it would be cool to see a Banshee decal underside the down tube but I think this is a proto fresh off the line.

Regardless this is a sick little bike!

Check this Ride out!

Because I got the skills to pay the bills I snagged a shot of Banshee Bikes new AMP hardtail. Okay it was actually directly sent to me but check this out.



The guys at Sicklines just built up their new AMP and dressed it up with some fresh new Blue from Straitline.

If I was more organised I would tell you the release dates on the new AMP but I'm not. Just really cool to see more BC firms step it up against the big corps

Stick it to the man!

This is my Friday filler, watch this to the end!