Straitline Components Sadly loses a Titan of a man.

I kept this quiet to allow us all time to get over what had happened to us this past Friday, but our CEO/President Mike Paulson passed away from his battle with cancer.

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To our valued customers/suppliers and friends:

On Friday October 14, 2011 Mike Paulson President of Straightline Precision Industries Inc.  aka Straitline Components, passed away after a short but tough battle with lung cancer.  Mike loved the direction the company had taken over the last several years of moving into the mountain biking world.  Although Mike was not heavily into mountain biking himself, he was surrounded by people who were, from his own sons, to his grandchildren, and also the employees of the company that he also considered family. This is why he was so willing to risk a large part of his life savings on this market.

His passing is a huge loss to all that knew him, his devotion to his family was commendable, and even though he could be hard nosed,  he always treated friends and business associates with kindness and respect.  He will always be remembered for what he was, and that is a truly great man, father, husband, friend, boss, grandfather and great grandfather.

Mike had been planning his retirement for a few years, and had stepped away from most of the daily business here at Straitline Components.  His two sons Dennis and DJ, have been running the business on a day to day basis for the last couple of years, and although his loss will leave an un fillable void in the company  it will still be business as usual.  We plan to continue what we have been doing - designing and manufacturing innovative high end products for the mountain biking industry.

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Mike allowed us to build bike parks urging us to resurrect the local FreeRide park www.freeridebc.blogspot.com As long as we pushed the sport it was worth doing in his eyes.

In the photo: Mike, Greg, DJ, Eric, Jay, Dennis –off camera Kyle, Mathew, Ashley, Melissa and his lovely wife Marlene- a true family run business.

Once I posted information online with a Slipknot video that captured our excitement… and it derailed a $300,000 deal. He never fired me for that! Instead he simply used it as a lesson in life and business so that I would learn from my mistakes.

Thanks Mike!

 

Fogelsode Season 3 #1: Average School Day

Season three is here, with new episodes every two weeks!

For most of September, I found myself in a constant routine: load up my bike/gear at night, go to school in the morning, grab a burrito, and head straight over to Post Office for a little sundown sesh. Sometimes a bunch of people would be out there, other times it was just me. It never really mattered too much though, as any ride turned a stressful school day into a good day. I brought the camera out one day, and self filmed for this edit.

Enjoy!

Photo: Davin Pena

-Fogel

Syndication / Blog / Facebook test

This better syndicate to the Facebook pages, been pulling my hair out trying to find a way.

FYI I like the second song in this video

amazing street trial film on pinkbike.com

New Limited Editions Greens!

 

Here they are, matching limited edition themed kits!

Limited AMP Stem 70/90mm -160/175g

Limited Edition Silent Guide 32t-36t – 176g

Promo video here: Silent Guide Limited

Limited AMP Pedal - 324g or 272g with Titanium axles…

Psst, the titanium is from the ex F-22 Raptor project, so its the best of the best aerospace grade you can get, off limits until recently.

Also… when Riding our limited edition kits Danzig may appear in your head, side effects to the Steeze we were told, he will go away when you stop riding.

Straitline clients kick ass!

This is why I love Straitline Clients! They just don't give a shit and I salute that! Adam Kral's Student Presidents Submission!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72EZg60y7fY

Casey Groves in the Red Light District!

Sorry Red Bull District... he was at the Red Bull District Ride

I know, I am shocked too but he can write! Here is a little update from Sir Groves on his first big Euro trip.

<b>Being invited to Red Bull District Ride was a real honor. Growing up I watched the old District Ride events and thought it was so cool that there was a course through a beautiful city and a drop off of a castle. It was an inspiring moment last year for me making it onto the podium in Crankworx last year. Going to Germany, was wicked! I had never been across seas before and was looking forward to it.



I was travelling with Mitch Chubey, so I was pretty stoked to have companion on a trip for once, especially a long one. We flew from Vancouver to Toronto where we meant up with Anthony Messere, his Aunty Cheryl, Cam & Bonee McCaul and the Morpheus film crew. It was going to be a good plane ride J



After a long plane ride of watching movies and playing games on my iPhone we finally landed in Munich Germany. Wow this place is beautiful! The country side was amazing, and being a hunter I couldn’t believe all the deer in the hop fields. I was simply blown away in a matter of miles. We stopped at a gas station on our drive to Nuremburg for some beverages. We made Anthony buy them since he had never bought alcohol in his life. A few rode pops and we arrived at our hotel. It was a really nice set up they had for us. Red Bull pretty much owned the hotel for the week. Getting out of the van and having everything taken care of for you was a huge pleasure after a 36+ hour trip.



After building our bikes we decided to go check out the course. There wasn’t really much to check out other then the top drop and the final jump because they hadn’t finished everything yet but those guys know how to build! We met up with Aaron Chase the course designer, and amazing rider to show us around. We had some lunch and waited for everyone else to show up. We didn’t have anything to do the next day other then a rider dinner, which was amazing by the way. So we hit the town.



The next day was a struggle, now I am not saying we were hung over or anything, but because our sleeping patterns were totally out of whack. I went to bed a 4am and woke up at 4pm then the next night I went to bed at 12am and woke up at 430am and it just so happen that Greg Watts couldn’t sleep either so we met up and went for breakfast. Practice the first day was pretty fun, no one had any idea what to do so basically instead of a normal comp practice where everyone is kind of quiet and keeping to them selves, we all just hung out and rode every district together and figured things out. There was no pressure just a bunch of friends having fun, that’s the way it should be!



We all pretty much had our runs figured out mentally. We were supposed to do the first runs of qualifying that evening but none of us had enough practice and it was lightly raining which made all the features slippery, which is how I got hurt but I will to that in a second. It didn’t help that we were riding on cobblestone streets which were even slipperier that the wood. So we all came together and organized everything for tomorrow.



Woke up pretty early and went down for breakfast, couldn’t really eat much so I grabbed my pads and rode over to the course with Kurt Sorge and Eric Lawrenuk for our warm up session. We had to do 3 runs before finals. First run was to make sure the camera crews were set up in the right spots for the live feed and video production. Kind of a pain in the butt if you ask me because its one heck of a tiring ride down to the bottom. In my first run I was just styling and having fun on the course flowing my way down not doing any trick just getting my speeds right. I came into the skate park district and stepped up onto the box and that’s when it all went horribly wrong for me. It was early in the morning so the wetness on the features was not 100% dry yet. When I jumped on I planned to hit the step down transfer from the yellow bank to the purple hip landing. My front tire slid out on my as I was going up the bank and sent me half on the landing and half onto the fence. I slightly remember a second before impact that I knew this was not going to go over well. I slid my face across the cobblestone and hurt pretty much every part on my body. Being super winded on the ground gasping for air when I opened my eyes all I saw was German dudes hold white sheets around me as if I was dead or something. That really freaked me out so I torn the sheets out of there hands and slowly got up to my feet and walked away with the doctors. My injuries were a bruised sternum; both rib cages were bruised as well. My knee was super swollen, burn mark on my face and a nice wood cut on my hip. I couldn’t take deep breaths or I was in a lot of pain, walking hurt so much. I tried to ride but any quick movements put me down. It was not a good morning…. The Claw told me that I am lucky even to be walking from that crash. He watched it on the TV above, as he was next in line. So I guess I got out of it pretty well.



At least the bright side was that I was in Germany, a beautiful place and at an amazing event with all my friends and fans. So I sat back and watched the show go down!



Overall I had the best time ever, wish I could have ridden but that’s the she goes in this sport. One season you’re on top of your game, the next your injured at every event you attend. Puts a huge damper on everything.



I’d like to thank Tarek Rasouli and the Rasoulition Team for hosting a great event and end to the world tour. Also to all the sponsors of the event, thank you!



Well that’s a wrap on my first time to Europe, I know it won’t be the last so stay tuned!



Casey Groves

Thanks to:

Transition Bikes

Pinkbike.com

Fox Racing Shox

Straitline Components

Troy Lee Designs

Gravity/FSA

TSG

Chromag

SPY Optic

Five Ten

Industry Nine

Demon Dirt

Geax

Rock Star Energy Drink

Cyclepath kelowna

Camp of Champions

MyPakage

See you in Vegas!

So, this is it. We are off to Vegas for our tv premier at the IMX for http://www.edgefactor.com/ef_ep2 

If anyone is attending the show and if you wish to view our gear please swing by outdoor demo booth # D4901 and Indoor #3088. It will be marked ELKA suspension but Hosted by our Friends at Cove bikes.

See all of you soon!

Cheers,

Gregory George Parish the 14th

(You can call me Greg)

Marketing and Brand Development

Off to Interbike as terrorist cells!

Every time I travel I enjoy playing with the system and what really gives me pleasure is attending Vegas under fake names.

It gives me great joy to show  little that show screens it’s attendee's especially when people spend a lot of money getting there to meet key people.

Here is my dream team for 2011 listed in RED

Primary Contact Information
Order Number:  38216 Badge Number:  230520 Reg Type:  Pending Buyer Name:  AL KEIDA Company:  Straitline Components Street Address:  2-10019 Galaran rd Street Address 2:  City:  Sidney State/Province:  BC Zip/Postal Code:  V8L 5X3 Country:  Canada Phone:  2506556603 Email:  GP.SPI@SHAW.CA

Primary Contact Information
Order Number:  38216 Badge Number:  230521 Reg Type:  Pending Buyer Name:  HUGH G. RECTION Company:  Straitline Components Street Address:  2-10019 Galaran rd Street Address 2:  City:  Sidney State/Province:  BC Zip/Postal Code:  V8L 5X3 Country:  Canada Phone:  2506556603 Email:  GP.SPI@SHAW.CA

Primary Contact Information

Order Number:  38216 Badge Number:  230522 Reg Type:  Pending Buyer Name:  KIM JONG-IL Company:  Straitline Components Street Address:  2-10019 Galaran rd Street Address 2:  City:  Sidney State/Province:  BC Zip/Postal Code:  V8L 5X3 Country:  Canada Phone:  2506556603 Email:  GP.SPI@SHAW.CA   Primary Contact Information Order Number:  38216 Badge Number:  230522 Reg Type:  Pending Buyer Name:  FIDEL CASTRO Company:  Straitline Components Street Address:  2-10019 Galaran rd Street Address 2:  City:  Sidney State/Province:  BC Zip/Postal Code:  V8L 5X3 Country:  Canada Phone:  2506556603 Email:  GP.SPI@SHAW.CA

And in case my team gets tasered by Homeland Security I go as myself just to be safe.

Primary Contact Information
Order Number:  38216 Badge Number:  230517 Reg Type:  Pending Buyer Name:  Greg Parish Company:  Straitline Components Street Address:  2-10019 Galaran rd Street Address 2:  City:  Sidney State/Province:  BC Zip/Postal Code:  V8L 5X3 Country:  Canada Phone:  2506556603 Email:  GP.SPI@SHAW.CA