The Sicklines crew is a blunt crew and we love that about the site.
Never Ever do you get a rainbows and butterflies review, they up hold a critical view on all items as they should as a consumers guide to gear. The flipside to that is brands want fluffy rainbow and butterfly reviews or they won’t advertise.
Hat’s off to not giving a f**k!
When Straitline is in need of accurate information so that we can design or research or simply buy something personal you’ll find the engineers on the Sicklines site.
This vid is mainly shot at the compound up in Whistler and it opens up with me walking into Ryans frame with my girlfriend staring into the lens scared. I told everyone that day I was going to try a flip into the air bag, but Ryan wouldn’t let me because as you can see me limp by with my bunk leg. Glad I never climbed the ramp with my aircast on, its not all what it cracks up to be when you land, you still take a bit of impact on the legs.
Alan Hepburn and Jack fogel rip it up in this segment along with Mike, check it out.
The night before the big show down Mike had a corona in hand, hanging out near the bar at the Camp of Champions year ender party. Jack Fogelquist who also rides for Banshee was off sucking face with a girl –go jack- and the entire place was gossiping on what Mike had planned tomorrow. Few days earlier Jack had a issue and needed a repair on his Banshee Rampant so Mike just handed him his and said use it , I’ll ride my hard tail. When I heard of the story my hat was off, true sportsmanship but we all offered to get him another Rampant, it wasn’t that hard to sort out the issue but he denied the offer, shrugged his shoulders and said, I’m cool!
The dude did the entire course with His Banshee hard tail amp! If you were not there in person you have seen the videos but nothing ever shows its true height or steepness when filmed… there was zero room for error! Not only was he to ride his hard tail on a course that demanded respect, he planned to tail whip the judges box, a cool 30 out 40 down drop.
Check out Mikes gopro footage riding a set of Jeff Lenosky flats while Jeff and I sat on the roof top in awe of the run.
This run set the pace, Fogel was slaying it but unfortunately made a simple mistake on a simple stunt that took him back to 17th, but anything can happen in slopestyle, Casey snapped his chain and had to pump his way down finishing with a sick on hander fist pump for the crowd.
This came in from Justin at Lama Cycles, one of our fine DH oriented distributors. It is all pretty much summed up for me in his email so I figured I’d just copy past and off we go. Click the links they definitely saw BC from the right angle and had a taste of what it can offer.
Wow, we had three riders in the finals Jack Fogelquist Casey Groves and our new comer Mike Montgomery, all of them stepped it up on a course that was not the best to date.
Mike tail whipping the judge box..
Casey right behind him with his whip, this box was very scary just to look at.
Jack took a spill in semi finals but threw down like a mad man having qualified days before in 2nd place with Montgomery 1st. Come showdown, it was the best event yet, the course was not a good one but the riders sucked it up and sent it for sure. Casey Groves took 3rd with Mike Montgomery Second and a well deserved 1st again for Cam Zink! Stoked to have 2 riders on the podium representing our gear.
It was a tough course and Casey and Mike ended up on that podium and Casey is on cloud nine, huge congrats Casey! Just watch the video and see for yourself how huge it was this year.
And of course… our legendary roof top party spot. Pinkbike did block our view a bit but we were cool with that and hugged to the right and watched it all unfold.
We crammed on the roof along with friends Kali Helmets, Transition bikes, Banshee bikes, Jeff Lenosky, Dylan Korba, Andrew Mitchell and friends. in the shade out of the 32 degree sun! I’ll post more up later.
Lenosky and Korba insisting that shot gunning beer can in fact make you a better person.
I found this shot on the web and I cannot believe the ingenuity and progression displayed before me. All jokes aside this is is an epic display of what can be done when you put your mind to it.!
And lots of progression this Canada Long weekend weekend on the bike as well! I spent Canada day up in Whistler at the Camp of Champions and was in awe at what I saw. Montgomery pulled a 360 body varial he dubbed the California roll and now everyone who wasn’t there is debating if it was the first but rest assure it is the first on a 26.
Here was my angle of it all…
I wish that I caught it on film but Greg was hitting the jumps with his hands backwards on the bars… wrist out. When I asked him why he is riding like that he just said “I’m bored”! He went through most of his tricks like that and landed everyone
This film is by Eric Peterson of Faultline, he is getting all the camp footage and carnage as it happens.
I’ll caption this shot for everyone… “My name is Mike and I just did a California Roll, WTF have you done?”
Camp coach and Straitline factory rider Alan Hepburn
Alan again but this time he’s spicing it up on his Unicycle.
Camp coach and Straitline Factory rider Jack Folgelquist was right behind Alan throwing tricks.
Jack smiles a lot and if you watch him mid air he is perma grin.
Watts, Hepburn, Montgomery, Dyer, Cho Cho and Ryan Berrecloth somewhere out of frame. Mr Groves had to leave for Goatstyle, in fact everyone is heading to Goatstyle next week to earn a spot at Crankworks.
The man behind it all Ken Achenbach. He owns a backcountry cat skiing firm and runs a SKI/BOARD/BIKE camp in the summer aka my new BFF.
Found this thread and Kens response to player haters after viewing the video below. Sums it up pretty good.
“It's pretty classic how every thinks you get "Sent" to COC. Kids actually beg all year to come to camp and when they get here they ride from sun up to sun down because it's their dream to come to camp. It's why we work so hard to make every day absolutely insane. Coming from a single parent family without two cents to rub together I know how hard everyone works for the money that camp costs, whether you are rich or poor. It's my dream to enable people to ride in an amazing place, ride amazing bikes and meet amazing people and make friends with them. Give them the opportunity that I never had. So I can understand the "F that 2 grand" I can also understand the "I want that and I will do whatever I have to do to come to camp." I collected bottles, shoveled snow, and mowed lawns to get the things I wanted. Things taste the best when you work for it and 99% of the kids that come to camp work for it. Be it getting good grades, doing chores or slaving as a dishpig. That's why camp is so fun. Everyone here wants to be here. I'd kill myself if I ran a camp where people get "Sent" We teach riders to Send It! Bored kids go to the mall. Smart kids go biking. Ken”
Straitline Factory riders Alan Hepburn, Casey Groves and Jack Folgelquist doing some evening sessions at the Camp of Champions compound after a day on the hill.
I am heading up to Whistler this Friday, sadly missing Hepburn and Casey who are off to the Goatstyle comp in Creston but Jack will be there and so will the jumbo 365 stunt bag!! I am out of my air cast but I am thinking about putting it back on just to experience that airbag, too cool to be true.
Ps… the Freeride bc bike park in North Saanich is open and ready for summer.
Metzger is a funny guy and the only guy I have every met who is dumb enough to wear the same wakeboarding helmet for riding like I do. Basically picture a plastic ice cream bucket with plush foam inside. The difference is Metzger hucks cliffs and I don’t!
Metzger raised the bar pretty high in this video. The guys has skills like no other, never seen a crotch rocket manual before but he nails it!
And check out the Camp of Champions DH rig we had on display at Sea Otter. Custom paint job I think 8 in all were made just for camp and of course dressed in full Straitline kits.
I am still busted up with my Achilles snappage and pretty bummed out on missing the camp this summer. I have Andi Witman arranged to come over from Germany and he said that he would teach me to flip at the air dome. Now Camp scrapped the air dome and has a stunt bag coming in… like OMG, bff COC forever.
This shot sucks and hangs half way off the page but best I could find but can you say BOOING! So sick.
Pump Tracks just sound so wimpy so the title ensures that you understand this will be a epic new addition to the Freeride BC course. http://www.freeridebc.com/
Chris Lamb is the man behind many of the best trails we love to shred in Whistler and last Summer he visited the park and got stoked on what we had planned. We were stoked just to have a guy like him build our slalom track!
So He has signed on to help future track development next Spring in http://www.freeridebc.com/ our local project of love!
The amazing people of Rotary have also agreed to help fundraise and in return we will have Chris make the Rotary Fitness section the place to be!
They are what I like to call little MAC Bi***s and there is no easy program for Mac to blog from. It is like they are that annoying guy in the coffee line up. You know, the guy who is soo fancy and advanced his coffee order has 32 words in it.
But we forgive them like we have almost forgiven America for buying our beer companies and Whistler!
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1 little run at the jumps
Aaron Larrocque is kind of a big deal these days and with the release of a free online video called What’s Next, he set the bar pretty fricken high for his next release.
Here are scenes of our riders Alan Hepburn, Dustin Greenall and Casey Groves rocking Straitline pedals and stems and levers.. Enjoy the tunes!
What’s Next Full Feature film put it on full screen and crank it up, seriously epic film!
I was talking to Eric Peterson of Faultine today and checked out his website where I saw a refreshing video from this summer in Whistler of the Spaniard, Xavier Raventos or “CHO CHO” for short!
This kid is REDONKULOUSLY fast and he uses our Straitline levers and pedals for what they were designed for… Whistler runs!
The rest of these videos are from Eric as well, I had him send me all his summer links from Camp of Champions since he documented the entire summer up on the slopes who else can supply proper “Ode to Whistler” vids in a pinch!
Camp A
Camp B
Camp C
Camp D
Gereth Dyer - Air Dome
Casey Groves - Snakes the Boneyard weeks before Crankworxs
And possibly the most important video Faultine has and will ever make… The Straitline Bear Bell Public Service announcement!
Not shot in Whistler at all I just look for excuses to tie this video in, it was done on a very generous budget of $60 dollars in Guerillabear suits and Eric worked for Break Levers and world wide fame!
For all of you who just hear about BC and our beautiful surroundings check out this guys photo blog I found on BC and a bit of Alaska- close enough! And after visiting Europe where they have cut all the trees and eaten all the animals I can understand why people get so excited seeing a whale or a bear, BC is pretty sick place to live and ride but not the best, plenty of places in the Alps that will make your jaw drop!
Know a little plug for our little know Bike park www.freeridebc.blogspot.com we have been hiding it until it has fully completed so that people see it and go WTF? We just secured a fund raising grant from The Rotary club along with a few municipal awards for bridging community health with such a ambitious project! So we will make a announcement in the Spring inviting all levels from Pro DJ riders to Olympic XC hopefulls to coem and ride it for free!
Okay the following sentence allows me to post and laugh at this video because it is ridiculously bad and not really meant to offend anyone…
“Straitline Components does not endorse or support any views or beliefs depicted in the following video, viewer discretion is advised 18+!”
Now we also do great business in Germany as well and this does not reflect on us in anyways or on the amazing German friends we have, history is history but just take a peak and have a sense of humor.
Ready?
Now more promised shots from Eurobike that I promised ages ago!
In random order…
It was so jammed packed this year our options were to hang with the Transition bike crew 2 hours away in Austria, Sleep i na drained indoor pool with Ruedi of TSG and all his athletes or buy a sweet ass tent and camp 300 ft away from the show! Slept like babies and could roll out of bed and walk to the show. We left the tent when we left all made up like as if we were still there camping, not sure how long it took them to figure out that we were 5000 miles away already!
These guys are the reason you stay on site because a two hour commute still half drunk in the morning sucks- Thorben, Christian and Cuz Cuz the only dude I have ever met that can sleep sitting up in any situation.
Tim has a slight touch of down syndrome but he means well and just sits in the corner quietly when not selling Straitline Components in Germany for SportsNut!
Wine festivals and any form of drinking is highly endorsed over there, old ladies pour you shots of Schnaaps and drink you under the table!
That's actually the Mayor of Saarburger and his son pouring me wine as they rolled by on a tractor!
Dennis insulting another fine distributor of ours! Fritz of Indian Summer does have a pink blackberry cover!
Just my hands, bored on a flight!
This is the point of the night where everyone goes to the washroom and stays as long as possible, bar bills as long as your arm are a sad reality when visiting the Eurobike show.
Just enjoying the luxury toys on a British Airways flight and checking our airspeed trying to figure out how fast I would be if I ran down the aisle. I can’t sleep on flights and the next shot is of the worlds most annoying guy who sat in front of me.
I threw one of his shoes up the aisle out of jealousy of his 3 seat set up and 9 hour nap!
Epic little towns with homes older than Canada!
Lets end this on stupid bikes that sadly dominate the scene and make you realize how niche free ride/dh really is.
License plate almost says what I am thinking!
Wait, lets end on a Straitline Silent Guide installed on a Morewood!
