Sea Otter with Camp of champions was sick!

Well, we are back or I guess I – Greg- am back from California Sea Otter 2010 and my Apologies for the dead site, I fell of the grid and it felt great!
Fresh air and ocean…



So I promise many vids, pics and updates from it. I had missed two of the 4 days because something in my leg went POP then I went OWE  but managed to do a mini vid on the chain guide with Bike magazine.

Rockstar I tell ya!

Straitline's Silent Guide from Bike Magazine on Vimeo.
And our camp of Champions bus ride down was so fun, even though it took 36 hours when the norm is 19-24… not saying someone never knew where they were going or anything !! Plus the 5 hour free physical we received from Homeland Security / US border Cross guards didn’t help shave any time off. 
 
Check out Ken from Camp of Champions fast edit capturing what we saw.


Race Face invited us to their mansion –Pinkbike and RF always rent mansions to accommodate all the people and we enjoy crashing their spaghetti parties.

As polite guests we brought house warming gifts… the Mexican food store next to the hotel only had hello Kitty Piñatas and candy so we settled for that and coronas. Not going to lie, it was pretty sweet!

Gareth Dyer, head coach at Camp of Champions was in charge of the piñata ‘s safety during transport.

Well.. it was sweet until Tippie came along. Confused with the tradition of the piñata… he created a awkward moment for all.

There are more, Ill show them later on!

So I hope that tides you over, the blog had a big stall my bad!

Greg

New Aussy Distributor for Straitline!!!

It is no lie we like Australia and the people and it has been roughly 8 months since we had representation down under but we are stoked to announce a partnership with Groupe Sportif LTD!!

So stoked to have some home turf again in Australia!

Just as we penned the deal factory rider Alan Hepburn sent us a update!

 

Tasmania roadtrip 

 Two weeks ago I got on a plane and headed for Tasmania to participate in a couple contests. The first contest was held in a little town called Launceston. It was held on a locals farm with the course being short but sweet. It consisted of a small set up drop to right hand berm/speed jump/ normal jump/ big right hand berm and then into the ramp to dirt trick jump. There was an open class but i wasn't really aloud to compete because the prizes were bike products that i couldn't really use anyway. So that was a bummer but i did get to ride a fair bit and ended up judging the contest. I woke up the next morning with a big picture in the local newspaper tho so that was cool.

The second jam was at the Downhill nationals in Hobart. After a little tweaking with the shovel when we arrived the jumps felt alright, pretty small but good enough to pull out some tricks.

here's a real short edit of me from that jam.

It's good to see a couple of contest popping up here in Australia, there really is never any contest here through out the year. How ever there is a real decent one coming up on January 16-17th during the national DH event here in my home town. Its sponsored by Barspin Imports (dealer of Banshee) which is great, this contest will be great for the Australian scene. Keep in touch for a big right up on that event.

I'd also like to thank my sponsors for helping out too.

Banshee

Geax

Straitline

Raceface

:)

Alan

 

Now some flash back vids with Alan!

and my favorite to date, shot right in our backyard in Victoria BC for Arrons Larroque’s film Whats Next…

Expert Phase Complete!!

This park is going to be sick and as promised 100 percent free for all to enjoy! Half done with only the dual slalom course and pro lines to be designed and connected to the pump tracks hidden in the trees!





Another Teaser on the Park!


This is just the expert/ intermediate and learning area the sloped bank is soon to be a dual slalom course that will be the most used feature in the park by far!
Shout outs to follow, just enjoy the sneak peeks.

DJ's close call- moto crash!

Here is DJ one of the owners/ designers here at Straitline looking cool pulling high speed wheelies.




Now here is DJ not looking so cool in a slow speed wheelie!

3 inches from taking out the ladies car behind the shop. Look at his recovery, makes it look so simple.

We were focused on making tech videos then someone starts up a bike and we get distracted but take a look at our Laser etching a quick logo.



Side Note new 50 boxxer stem has finally been finished design etching wise here is the finished look

New bolts shave 8 grams off the final weight making it 139.8/140 grams!

Brooklyn Machine Works and Knitting Factories!

Luke of BMW I have been best of friends since we both realised we have a messed up sense of humour.

He has sent us illegal fire crackers via air mail, condoms, family friendly videos such as Hatchet vs Genitals, but the best was his touching letter...



Luke pretty much wants to be me ever since I showed him my pimped out van with glass a glass roof and beer fridge on the dash, this makes Luke feel like a small man so he sent me shots of his new pad in Brooklyn!


"Your Van might be rad, but my living room now kicks ass:
Booyah.
-Luke"

Videos sound track is fitting for sure!


Brooklyn Machine Works 007 from Dan Bowhers on Vimeo.


Old renovated Knitting Factory...

PaintHouse Helmet!

Not much to say on this... pretty stoked.


Too cocky? Good!

Thanks to Stacy at PaintHouse Customs for squeezing me ahead of the shady characters over at Decline Magazine!

I let Stacy do what ever the hell he wanted on my helmet, I gave him just a few likes and dislikes but this is his creation, here's what I guessed he would do!

Check out this link to Pinkbike and see his other helmets just released

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!

Happy Thanksgiving to all the Yankees!

I am betraying my own Country when I post this up, but I think it is unfair to keep lying to the world.

You guys want to know why us Canadians -Especially the WEST- Kick ass in any Big Mountain free ride event?

Because we shove cans of Kokanee up our birds asses!



It is what we do and how we achieve so much air. Screw RedBull, this is the feast of Champions the night of any event.

This is a rigourous and intense cross training technique, developed by our fore fathers of the north Shore.

I have outlined the program in order below:


Score Last Kokanee after cooking the bird:


Bring along personal trainer / motivator / saftey advisor:


Attend Luggage Cart Saftey Seminar:



Ignore Luggage Cart Saftey Seminar:



Strengthen legs by running like hell as team mates get caught:



Stretch muscles and loosen up in a Crack Dance:


Seek out Giant Kokanee for meditation and a place to digest Special Canadian diet




Wake up, make left over Sandwiches, Ride, Repeat!

Enjoy your Girly Man Thanksgiving America!

Alan Hepburn busting trixs with Chris Sonoinen!

Sweet little video sent in from Alan adn Chris, as we enter winter they enter Spring in Australia so lots of stuff to come. Alan is rocking our new 35 mm Pinch clamp Stem in Ti Grey, and Green grippy as hell JLO pedals.


Check out Alan's MySpace for more vids and be sure to scroll his photo album!
Alan's Myspace

An Chris's MySpace

Casey Groves sadly exposed....

I always wondered about Casey and what makes him Huck so huge almost ahead of his time, especially after seeing this photo of Casey taken by our web designer Jonathan of Spun Studios .

At first I thought it was the Hulk but after seeing this news flash posted up by the Transition boys.... I was Speechless! I was way off!

And the kid is a relentless vandal... or self promoter, as seen on this machine just south of Whistler. You should see what he did to front of it.

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!