This has nothing to do with anything

People carcassing at Beacon

This is Chaz. I just got back from the Beacon Hill race in beautiful Spokane, Washington. Unfortunately for your viewing pleasure, I didn't carcass down the steep spot at the end of the track this year. I didn't crash at all, putting this race report at risk of being pretty boring.

Fortunately, though, lots of other people did carcass down the last section of the track. Here are the pictures, all twenty of them:







































Real race report on the way.

Presidents doing what Presidents do best: kickin' ass

When things go south

METAL MOTHER FUCKIN MONDAY!

Pfunk

AFRICAN DRUMS

Sweet drift

Watch it:










Where I don't want to be next week:

Bend and Bending wheels

Last weekend I went down to Bend and had more fun than you did. It was 60 degrees, blue bird skies, and I got a nice little tan. On top of that , all the trails were dry, dusty, and fast as hell. It was like we drove three hours away from rainy dreary Portland and arrived in Southern California.

The only catch is, when it gets dry and fast, you ride a lot faster. And when you ride faster, you're harder on your equipment. And when some of your equipment is old as hell and is hanging on by a thread, sometimes that extra speed is all it takes to push your equipment over the top.

Which reminds me, Over the top is a great Motorhead song.






Here's my totally thrashed wheel for your viewing pleasure. If you look carefully, you can spot the four silver spokes that had already been replaced:



This wheel was pretty out of true. But, after turning it from a 36 spoke to a 32 spoke wheel in about 5 runs, it was a little worse for wear.






This photo's awesome, because this photo was not taken with a fisheye lens.






So I ended up riding the wheel for the whole day, then Sunday too. I even did a 30 foot gap for the first time on this wheel.




So I rode a wheel that was ready to explode. What's the worst that could have happened, right?

Baristas

Back in High School my friends and I used the codeword "barista" when we couldn't use the word d-bag in class.

This man, ladies and gentleman of the jury, is a total barista:

Racing

I really like this picture of Brendan Fairclough in the gate at Champery this past season.



This photo was taken moments before Brendogs final run. His final run made him the 3rd fastest rider in the world that day.

Heavy rain, Teammate Sam Hill hurt, most difficult track ever, most difficult conditions ever, top qualifier, high expectations. A lot to think about.

Metal

More Metal:



From the good old days. Why aren't bikes awesome anymore?

Skibowl

Two videos of me at skibowl, a place with many good and bad memories for me.



Video one is from my race run at Fluidride cup #4 last year. It was my best result ever at that point. The first couple seconds look pretty rough.








Last weekend we took advantage of the weather and went up to skibowl on Friday night. It was zero degrees before windchill, so no one was up there except for us.

The logical choice? Straightline the upper bowl. After attempt #1, we decided to time how long it took to get to the bottom. From starting next to the chairlift to stopping at the lodge at the bottom of skiibowl west: one minute, 20 seconds. Average speed was about 50 mph, so we're thinking top speeds were north of 70. pretty sweet.





The lighting is pretty crummy, but if you look carefully you can see me come onto the screen at 14 seconds, and see me crash at the end when I try to stop.

I ran the upper bowl 3 times. It was amazing. Definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Awesome

Awesome music:






Awesome idea:







And last but not least, awesome riding. This guy's riding reminds me a lot of Howie Zink. Rides like a gorilla, and tricks get stomped.

DIRT BROS WELCOMES JEFF SADLER from Dirt Bros on Vimeo.