Attention all Mid-West rippers!

The Elm Creek Bike Park, located in Champlin MN,  is a Bell Built Grant Finalist in the Bike Park category and Copper Harbor, MI is a finalist in the Gravity Trail category. This is super awesome and a great oportunity for the Mid-West to not only get some bad ass trails but get some major national exposure to our incredible trails we have.

The super cool thing about this is that there are only 12 finalists total in the nation. The 3 categories are Flow Trail, Gravity Trail and Pump Track/Bike Park...online voting starting March 5. Bell and IMBA will be selecting one winner from each category and be sending out one of their Trail Solutions crews to design and build the winner a trail/bike park.

If you want to see a kickass Bike Park and a world class gravity trail built right here in the Mid-West then we need your support, the support of your friends and the support of all the mountain bikers in Minnesota & the Midwest!! Watch for more information over the next couple weeks and we'll let you know what you can do to help. Spread the word & let's get a bike park built at Elm Creek and a gravity trail in Copper Harbor, MI!

Ray's

Hey ya’ll, sorry for the delay on the shred report but man life is hectic! I am still trying to sort out all the details of this crash so I can be done with it both mentally and financially, not to mention all the other bike related things I’m trying to sort out prior to the spring thaw! This summer is looking to be pretty busy as well. I’m hoping to bang out the Lexington build/rebuild in 1 long weekend and then just have maintenance to deal with at that park. I will also be working with Tim Wegner to rebuild the jump line and build a pump track in Maple Plain, so there will be a small bike park on the west side of the cities. Last but not least, still working out the details on the Cottage Grove bike park and if that one goes through it will be the largest and most all inclusive riding area in the metro! More details to come when we get thing finalized. Oh and I forgot, as I’m not directly involved in this one other than being on the MORC board, Elm Creek is applying for the Bell Helmet/IMBA grant to get a bike park built at the trail head. Oh and Cuyuna has also secured a good amount of funding and a Lee McCormick design fort there bike park! Oh and I heard a rumor that Duluth is looking to add a bike park this summer as well! Ha, so crazy MN went from the land of no bike parks! I get one built and bam this phenomenon explodes across the state! Who’s next? Mankato? St. Cloud? Grand Rapids? Who knows?!?

Anyways on to the shred report, so Trevor and I left my hours about 645am on Friday headed east to Milwaukee and Ray’s Indoor Mountain Bike Park. The drive went super smooth and we got there bout 1215pm. We made a quick stop at Wendy’s for some value menu lunch and off to Ray’s. When we go there we were met with a surprise. The day we chose to go ride was the Wisconsin Bike Federation Winter Carnival! Yeah we got worried we drove all that way and weren’t going to get to ride and then they told us we could ride but we had to join the Federation and that was $35 bucks. We weren’t so excited about that but if they would have just explained the whole thing instead of just lighting the fuse and dropping the bomb on us we would have jumped all over it without having to speak to the manager. The manager came out told us by joining today we would get 10 drink/food tickets, get to ride today till 5pm and a free pass for another day. It actually turned out to be a great deal! We got to meet a bunch of cool people, ride, watch a stunt demo show and drink 3 glasses of premium Wisconsin brew, all for $35! Oh and now Trevor and I are official WI bikers, haha! It’s all good!

When we finally got to riding it was a bit confusing and overwhelming at first but we soon go the hang of it and got right to shredding. We started with a quick lap around the XC loop, followed by a stint at the pump track and then the Sports skills section. I couldn’t believe how fast that pump track was! It was fun putting on a show for some of the people that didn’t have a clue how to ride one, gave a few pointers out and then we continued on our way. After a few runs on the sport section Trevor figured out how to get to the big jump line and we spent much of the afternoon sessioning the jumps! They were a blast but you really had to be on to flow the whole thing. I would say it took me almost 2 hours to finally cleaning run through the 3 main jump lines. The 4^th jump line had an awkward blind hip in and after two pretty good crashes trying to air that hip out I said screw it and went into the Park area. Trevor had that line pretty dialed by the end of the day.

The park was a great time. I realized what I had been missing out on since I stopped riding skate parks at 17.  Met one of the workers that was off duty, his name slips my mind right now but he was fun to ride with. He was a ripper and had some good pointers. After a handful of tries I landed my first 360 to deck! It felt so great; I did it 2 more times! Then I had to make a trip to the truing stand where Trevor had to true my rear wheel! We rode for another hour or so but by 5pm we were absolutely shot! Maybe we could have rode more had we taken a couple hour break went and got food and came back but it was great ride! We finished off the day at Ray’s drinking good beer watching some rippers tear up the park!

The extra bonus of the location of Ray’s is that my uncle only lives 10 miles away in this sweet little town of Cedarburg. I called him up a couple weeks prior and asked if we could stay there and of course we could! We headed to Cedarburg to meet up and he took us out to this killer pizza joint. It was this little dive bar that made kill deep dish! It was so good! After dinner it was some hanging out and chatting and then passing out as fast as my head hit the pillow! I was wiped out!

In the morning we loaded up the car, thanked my uncle for his hospitality and headed to Rays. We could tell right away that we rode hard the day before. The muscles a little sore and the hands slightly raw! We shredded for about 4 hours with my buddy Brian from St. Cloud. It was great seeing him and his wife up there. It’s always fun to ride with Brian he is such a good technical rider! I learned a few things that I will have to work on this summer that will definitely take my riding to the next level!

After absolutely blowing out my leg muscles with 4 hours of straight killing it, it was time to call it a day for me. Trevor rode for another 20 minutes while I chatted with Brian’s wife Jenna. When we left we went to this little Irish Pub near the freeway and had some killer burgers and some good Irish brews and hit the road!

Over all it was a rad weekend and I can’t wait to get back there. Hopefully 1 more time before spring comes but either way Trevor and I both agreed that we will be hitting the street and park riding hard when spring comes, especially during that time when the roads are clear but the trails are still closed!

Good times! If you haven’t been there you need to get to Ray’s, even better we need one here in the metro!

Keep it real! 

Good ride cowboy, good ride!

As I keep trying to keep my goal of diversifying my ride portfolio to help me meet my end goal of being the best, most versed rider I can possible be I went to Rehbeins Indoor BMX track in Lino Lakes. It is kind of a long drive. It took me just about 55 minutes to get there but it was totally worth it! I had a great time. I had to go by myself since things fell through with a couple of my buddies. Even though I was going at it alone it was fine. I had fun and met some great people. I met a Cottage Grove native and dead ripper. He only lives about 10 mins from me and was super stoked when I told him I was the one that was behind the building of the bike park in Eagan, Lexington Street Bike Park, and that I was planning on building a bigger and better bike park in Cottage Grove. He said he wanted to help in anyway possible and I'm going to hold him to that. It was also great to hear there is about 3 or 4 other rippers that he hangs with that live in Cottage Grove! I hope that we can all get together and be form a great scene here in CG!

Anyways back to the riding. Well it was a lot more serious then I remember BMX practice being 10 years ago. It was gate practice all night, which I thought was odd and meant that you couldn't session any jumps or anything. I guess it has to do with 1. how serious all those racers are 2. the size of the facility 3. the size/length of the track. I would have loved to get to just screw around more but that's not racing. I did do about 25 to 30 laps which is a great work out. It was a slow start for me but it didn't take too long for me to get the hang of it again. I loved manualing the rhythm sections. Nothing fells that good to me. I still want to learn how to manual the whole thing with out putting the front wheel down! I think that would just be super sick!

I will say this it took some time getting use to trying to jump the jumps with those super mellow BMX lips when for the last two summers I have been primarily dirt jumping. I did case the jumps a couple times and tweaked my rear rim, so I will have to try and true that as much as  I can by next weekend! Off to Ray's Indoor Mountain Bike Park in Milwaukee for Friday and Saturday with Trevor. It will be a good time to get a feel for my new 2010 Chevy Malibu.

I didn't mention this before but last Sunday my car was totaled when a high school kid lost control and slide into me on the highway and spun me into the ditch. So I don't have the Sentra anymore. The saddest part is loosing all my dope stickers on the back window! Oh well I will just have to start over! Have to rep the rider street cred!

Keep it real!

Busy Busy Busy

Hey all,

I know it has been a long time and man have I been busy! Well I promise there will be more to come. I have some cool stuff in the works. Elm Creek, 3RPD and MORC are applying for the Bell/IMBA Grant. We are contining to move forward on the Cottage Grove bike park, it also looks like Maple Plain will be referbishing their jump park. So big things happening in the Metro for bike parks.

As for me, I am going to try and hit up Rebiehn's Indoor BMX track tonight in Lino Lakes and then next weekend Trevor and I are heading to Ray's Indoor Mountain Bike Park for a guys weekend! More to come on this. Hopefully a little interview action! Also found out about a sweet indoor skate park in Zumbro Falls, MN about 1 hour from my house! So plans on hitting that up in the near future as well!

Stay tuned! and keep it real!

oh the holidays

Well it sure has been a long time since I had a rant on my blog but man I haven’t been this frustrated in a long ass time!

First off I think I have ordered my last thing from Price Point. You might save some money but in the end if it isn’t what you want you end up spending way more!

So here we go. I always get to purchase my own Christmas gift on behalf of my mother because she doesn’t like to give me cash or gift cards and never knows what to get me.  Nothing new here, I went online to get something bad ass for biking. I checked all the sites and none of the had the shorts I wanted.

 I wanted some loud colored mtb shorts. I searched and of course it ended up that Troy Lee would be the brand to go with.  I was really digging the Cam Zink’esk TLD Moto shorts. Started looking for the best price. I found them at Price Point for what I thought was a good price, $84. Went through the check out and $11 bones for the shipping. I was like dang that’s a lot but no big deal, it will be worth it and no other shop had them in stock. So click and purchased them. $95 bucks total and got them in a week. Sweet they are so dope, try them on they don’t fit…WTF, I wear 32inch pants, I followed the sizing chart and ordered 34 inch waist! I know I didn’t gain that much weight in 7 days. I waited 2 days tried them on again, nope they just don’t fit. I looked at the return policy.

Pricepoint: customer is responsible for all shipping when product is returned for not fitting… Ok that is lame. I wanted to make sure that the shorts were not just mis-labled or something so I called around and of course no bike shops even carried TLD products at least not clothing. I called Bob’s Cycle and they did, so I drove over to Bob’s and they didn’t have any shorts but they did have few styles of pants. I tried them all on and the 34’s fit a little better but definitely needed 36inch! Damn it. Well time to return them.

I went to the post office yesterday to send it, wow what an experience. I show up 1 person in line. I walk up to the lady and was like, hey I need to return these and would like to ship them as cheep as possible what is my best option? She says all the boxes are there on the shelf and the price is on them.  Ok? Zero help. So I went  to the shelf and start looking. Find a box that works and by that time 5 people have walked in. Back of the line I go. I get everything filled out and box loosely put together make my way back to the front and the lady is like, what are you not going to tape it? I was like I don’t have any tape, can you tape it? No we don’t have tape for the public but you can buy a roll right there for $3.50. I stood there for a second, like are you serious? So I ask well do I have any options that don’t require me to go get tape. She is like a priority package. I was like I don’t really need priority but how much is it? She is like $10. I was like no way and she was looking at me like hurry up, making me all nervous and the line was growing behind me, so I was like fuck it give me the box and I will go home and tape it and come back. $2 for a box. On the way home I was like that was dumb I have a box at home for sure. Oh well $2 down the drain. I get home pissed off at this cumbersome process growing ever more frustrated with Price Point and now the US Postal Service. I get it all packaged up but now it is too late to take it back so I ask Kelly to take it back today.

To put this inter prospective. Per price point policy I have 30 days from delivery to return the produce. I received the shorts on 12/14/12 that means  I have till 1/13/2013 to get it back to them for them to except it.

She is there going to send it and they said standard shipping could take up to 14 days. So that is cutting it super close so she has to send in priority anyways and price point requires insurance and I wanted delivery confirmation. All in all it ended up costing almost $13 to ship it back! Plus $2 for the box, so $15! Totally not Kelly’s fault and I’m thankful she could help me out but that sucks big time! Thanks super unhelpful USPS lady, you could have told me when I asked what the cheapest way to ship it back that regular is not cheaper!  I should have just shipped it priority to begin with and saved my self $5! Man postage has gone to the roof. I was just a pair of shorts going to CA. I’ve sent packages to Germany way heavier then this for the same price or less!

Needless to say I am super annoyed. I spent $26 to find out that the shorts I wanted didn’t fit and now I have nothing to show for it! So I might have well said fuck it and donated $26 to a good cause and not to Fed Ex and the worthless USPS! Oh and forget PricePoint not worth it they have low prices but get you on the shipping… I’m not sure I’m 100% done with online shopping but I’m not happy with this experience at all! I can’t say it isn’t some my fault for not being patient with the online shopping and doing some more reviews but if the sizing chart says it will fit it should damn well fit!

That said I don’t have much of a choice since the local bike shops aren’t that great they don’t stock anything that I would ever want. If you don’t ride road, are a fixie riding hipster, ride XC or a fat bike your fucked! Yes they probably can order just about anything that QBP sells but at an inflated price!

I’m at a loss. I don’t know what to do! I wish I could just move but that isn’t realistic at this time! It would  be great to be able to just go down the street and buy cool shit locally. No waiting, no extra costs, no head aches and good for everyone!  Heck the closest bike shop is 10 miles from my house and there isn’t even one in Cottage Grove…. Oh well thanks for letting me rant. I feel better now and I guess it is another life lesson learned!

Keep it real!

Survey TIme!!!!!!

Hey everyone it is game time! MORC Gravity Advocates has released a survey to gauge the interest in alternative riding such as gravity, freeride and BMX

Click here for survey

..... hmmmm

Hey hey hey every buddy! That was my Fat Albert reference of the day for all you old school lovers out there! Anyways, life has been going in warp speed but it's going great. Heck we finally got some snow and it is finally starting to feel like winter and I love it. I still live in this state because I love the seasons. I love riding my bike only second to my family but even the most hard core riders need a break to recover and refuel our drive.

I don't plan on taking as much time off as I have in the past. I want to come out of the gate full speed next spring so I have decided to bust out the trainer and put some flats on the Surly LHT and tossed that in the basement, along with my kettlebell and hope to get tons of use out of them to stay sharp for next year. On top of that the really money training will come from racing indoor BMX. As you know I bought a 24inch BMX bike and I plan on using that and honing the skills over the winter by going back to my roots and racing BMX. I hope to learn some new skills from my BMX cohorts!

I was going to start today but this awesome winter weather has kept me home bound but I did get to rock the XC skis so that was cool. Hopefully next week! On top of the XC skis I got to spend some serious time with the family! It was awesome, did a little back yard sledding with Kelly and Jerry. We then went to Kelly's parent's house and helped clear snow and decorate the Christmas Tree. Tis the season and with this new snow it is really starting to feel like it. I will tell you, you know that you are a dirt bag mountain biker when end up shoveling your drive way with a flat shovel, haha. That definitely makes it take way longer! Menard's here I come!

Things have been moving quickly with MORC and other bike related endeavors. I hope that some of them can come to fruition. I have a meeting with Cottage Grove Park's Commission to discuss building a bike park in Cottage Grove. I hope that goes well, it would be great to have another bike park in the metro and great form me to have one this close to my house!

Vail Resorts purchased Afton Alps, also really close to my house, and this could be huge news for mountain biking but we will have to wait and see! Vail Resorts owns Vail, Breckinridge, Keystone, Beaver Creek, Heavenly Valley, Kirckwood and Northstar. Keystone and Northstar are home to two of the biggest and best
bike parks in the nation and almost all of their resorts have mountain biking and they are expanding into lift access riding in many of their other resorts.

Afton has tons of potential and the best possible terrain near the metro area. They have close to 350ft of elevation loss, 300  acres of land and multiple chairs. They could run the bike park off of lift 2 and 14 and with a few pedal strokes you could access the entire ski area and since you are on a bike you could even ride to areas that do not have ski access as riders could cross the rode and trails could be built through tree areas! The potential is massive and I hope that Vail realized the potential market here as there is no other lift access gravity riding near the metro. Only time will tell. It would also be awesome for them to redo and upgrade some of the XC trails. Per the US ski association, the average ski hill that runs a lift access bike park they average $190,000 in income during the bike season! That is better then letting your lift sit still and doing nothing and this would not interfere with their Golf area!

Well enjoy the snow and keep it real!