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Archive of "What's New"
March 1, 2005
September 12, 2004 )
The jumps on A-Line are much more lippy than last year, but once you get used to them they are much easier to launch. Dirt Merchant is a bit lippier, too. At the bottom of A-Line, off of Hornet, is a new section of three jumps that is very cool. This is a very nice cap off to A-Line and a good link to the GLC Drops (that's me above on the largest GLC drop, video footage courtesy of O.L.I. Productions). Both A-Line and Dirt Merchant now feature a small drop (like 12") at the entrance in an attempt to discourage less skilled riders from riding those trails. I think the entry drops should be a bit higher, but that is just my opinion. It is a good idea, though. The Garbanzo expansion is pretty cool, although not that great when wet. Because of mud, we mostly rode No Joke, which is featured heavily in the Jordi Lunn segement of the new video "The Collective". Pretty cool... Most of the Garbanzo stuff is techie/rooty/twisty, not really like A-Line at all. Personally I still prefer Dirt Merchant/A-Line over the new Garbanzo stuff, but there are still quite a few trails up there to be built. I've said it before and I will say it again, the Whistler bike park is the best place to ride on earth.
August 21, 2004 )
July 5, 2004
More pics here.
May 17, 2004
The Cobra is one of the new breed of upright rack that clamps the front wheel instead of the frame or fork dropouts. Thule and Yakima have both released this type of model this season, partially to cope with the new crop of DH and freeride bikes that have 20mm or QR20 dropouts and large disk brakes that do not work well (or at all) with fork mount racks, and that also have unique frame designs or wide tires that do not work well with frame mount racks. Actually, a couple of other companies (notably Sportrack USA) have had this type of rack design for a few years now, but only recently did the big two (Thule and Yakima) jump on the bandwagon. Also, Vancouver's public transit system has used a similar technique to hold bikes on selected buses for a few years now. I was tempted to go with the more expensive King Cobra bike carriers, until I was informed that the cable lock on the King Cobra does not lock the bike holder to the rack, and thus the King Cobra is not a fully locking system. The only difference between the King Cobra and the much cheaper Cobra is the aforementioned cable lock. I just use Yakima's accessory lock housing to lock my Cobra's down to the rack, and a conventional cable lock to lock the bikes to the rack. Yakima's new, smaller fairing does a remarkable job of cutting down on wind noise. I was skeptical at first because I was used to the older, larger fairing, but the new one works better in my estimation. Trailblazers does not stock Yakima products, but they can special order them if required.
September 29, 2003 )
The wedding ceremony was an unbelievable blast, but this is a bike page, so you probably don't want to hear about that, so... I rode the Whistler bike park the first weekend it opened in 1996, and have not been back since. Back then it was only a few trails, no stunts and not really any jumps. We got bored and ended up bombing the fire road until the bike patrol guys politely asked us to stop. Well, the new version of the Whistler bike park is beyond words. I love Bromont, but Whistler is by far the greatest place to go downhilling in the country. On the planet. In the Universe. Basically on any astral plane imaginable. Do the Dirt Merchant on top, Rutabaga drop, then join up to A-Line in the middle, the A-Line drop, then hit the big GLC Drop at the bottom. I could do that all day long, every day, until I can no longer ride because I'm 95 years old and dead. It's that good. If that wasn't good enough, we also did a helicopter drop above Pemberton that was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. We were dropped off on a 7000 foot peak in the alpine far above the treeline, surfed the scree slope down to an alpine lake, had lunch, then bombed a three hour downhill to the valley floor. What could be bettr than that. We finished off the trip with a shuttle run above Pemberton on Tuesday, doing the Cream Puff trail (see image at top of page). My buddy took me down the Cop Killer trail the last time I was out west, just before it appeared in every video launched around that time. Cream Puff is just around the corner from Cop Killer. Nice trail, and a good warm down from two days of the Whistler bike park and a heli-drop. Like I said, best vacation ever. Photos: Cat Ball Twonie
I also got a new front wheel for the Stab. It is a Formula hub and Sun Rhyno Lite rim, which is actally very similar to the Formula hub/Sun Ditch Witch rim setup I was using, except that this hub is configured as a standard 20mm through axle and not as a QR20 with quick release skewer. What this does is allow me to run the bolt through axle that came with my new Super T instead of the quick release. Why is this better? I dunno, I just think it looks cleaner. Also the Rhyno Lite rim is a bit better than the Ditch Witch.
August 5, 2003
July 7/03
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August 17, 2003