Fluidride Race Clinic set for May 3rd and 4th

Fluidride is pleased to announce the "Pre Fluidride Cup # 2 race clinic" in Port Angeles, Wa on May 3rd, & 4th- The weekend before FRCup # 2. Ready to improve your results and ride faster with more control? Come and attend the first racing clinic of the 2008 season at Port Angeles’ Dry Hill on Saturday and Sunday May 3rd and 4th.

The clinic will offer riders the opportunity to learn with Pro riders/instructors Simon Lawton and Lars Sternberg. The use of our follow cams and our Freelap timing system will allow riders to make tangible improvements to their race times.

We’ll start each day with an hour of ripping time to get the blood flowing, then it’s on to in depth analysis of PA’s varied terrain and rider movement over technical ground. Our instructors will be ready to follow you with HD head cams, and Simon will be on hand to revue each riders footage to help make positive changes to body position as well as line choice. Beginner through Pro racers are welcome as we’ll have several instructors working the hill each day. Keep in mind that Dry Hill will otherwise be closed during this weekend for course preparation for the race the following weekend. The clinic will go from 12-6 on Saturday and 10-3 on Sunday to ensure everyone gets plenty of time on the hill.

Cost for the two day clinic is $329.

Call the Seattle store to book your spot at 206.547.0712, or email Simon at Simon@fluidride.com

Missing Ledbetter!

Ledbetter was a patch of woods right down the street from me that lots of people had built trails and drops in. Well now it is home to McMansions and it sucks! but its making a comeback with some new building going on, including yours truly building a sweet one minute DH run. stay tuned for more pictures but in the mean time enjoy this one from 4 years ago

Willamette Pass race video

A pic of me hitting the latter bridge on my second race run and having so much fun doing it at speed!

Post Canyon dude

Here is a pic of my friend Mike ripping it up on his new Brodie DH bike and he is rocking some new Rockgardn gear as well!

Post Canyon Trail day

looking for a few good men! The boys up in Hood River are looking for any able bodied people to help with trail maintenance.

go to this link to find out more http://www.pinkbike.com/news/post-canyon-cleanup-day-2008.html

any help would be much appreciated and will go a long way to all the good Karma you will need this summer of injury free riding! haha

Fluidride Cup #2 venue changed

Fluidride Cup #2 Moved to PA DUE TO HEAVY SNOW AMOUNTS on Mt Hood
Published by Simon Lawton
Hello fellow racers! After a bit of deliberation we have decided to move the second FR Cup race to Port Angeles where the first race was held. There is still about 4-7 feet of snow on the lower course at Mt Hood, and much more at the actual resort where we normally race there (Ski Bowl). So…bring your dh bike and your slalom rig, and get ready for another round of fun May 10th and 11th. We are currently trying to work out putting on a racing clinic the weekend prior to the race (May 3rd and 4th - waiting on approval from the land managers). Stay tuned for more on that. We broke the record for attendance for a regional nw gravity event last time; let’s do it again! Tell your freinds to come out and ride! Looking forward to seeing you all again soon.

taken from Fluidride.com

Mt Snow Nationals Circa 1993

This is a gem from way back in the day! I just crashed my brains out about 200 feet before this picture was taken! notice the bar ends and my helmet all askew. this was my first expert DH race and I think I ended up like 25th out of 40 or something like that. Also the whole week of practice I flatted nearly every run so I only got about 3 complete runs without flatting the entire week, it sucked to say the least.

Sea Otter photo

Came across this sweet pic of Nathan Riddle during Pro DH practice!! Let's hope Nate smokes them all!!

Sea Otter Classic this weekend

Well it supposed to be a decent weekend down there will no rain forecasted. which will be the first time in 3 years that will have happened.

Now you get beautiful weather for the worst DH in the country. Flat and lots of pedaling! if you are going enjoy the atmosphere but your legs will hate come monday

Race Schedule

I stole this off of my friend Mike's blog but is very relevent to my blog as well!
Pacific NW MTB DH Race Schedule for 2008
(All Dates are as of Feb 9th 2008 and can be changed, to verify check the appropriate websites for changes prior to race)

#1 April 4th-6th Fluidride FR NW Cup #1 DSL & DH
Port Angeles, WA
#2 May 3rd-4th OBRA Spring Thaw DH
Mt Ashland, OR
#3 May 9th-11th Fluidride FR NW Cup #2 DSL & DH
Mt Hood Ski Bowl, OR
#4 June 6th-8th Fluidride FR NW Cup #3 DSL & DH
Port Angles, WA
#5 June 21st-22nd Shiloh Challenge DH
Mt Hood Ski Bowl, OR
#6 June 28th Return of the Jedi DH
Grants Pass, OR
#7 June 28th-29th Willamette Pass #1 SuperD & DH
Odell Lake, OR
#8 July 11th-13th Fluidride FR NW Cup#4 DSL & DH
Mt Hood, OR
#9 July 19th-20th Willamette Pass #2 SuperD & DH
Odell Lake, OR
#10 Aug 16th-17th Willamette Pass #3 Super D & DH
Odell Lake, OR
#11 Aug 22nd-24th Fluidride FR Cup #5 DSL & DH
Port Angeles, WA
#12 Sept 13th-14th MHSB Series Scotty G Memorial DH
Mt Hood Ski Bowl, OR
#13 Sept 26th-28th Fluidride FR NW Cup #6 FINALS
Mt Hood Ski Bowl, OR

Original Plattekill racing

This is a photo from Plattekill circa 1995. If I remember correctly this is the first race held at Plattekill. It was fall and they had a speed gun clocking people just after this picture was taken, I was pushing a 50t x 12t gear spread and was clocked at 44 mph. I think races need to have speed traps again, don't you?

Long live Dual Slalom

This is from the Mount Snow Dual Slalom back in 1996. I was racing for Team X Ray which was SRAM/Gripshifts grassroots racing team. I was also sponsored by Bell Helmets as well.
I was racing on a Proflex P.O.S. bike that was just awful, my Mongoose Amp broke for the 10th time the week before and I couldn't get the replacement in time from FTW. those were the days my friends when nationals had 20,000 spectators, 2,000 racers and you could practice all week with the pros on the same course!! Oh yeah and the camping in the parking lot was free.

people used to bitch about racing then, if they only knew how bad it would be 12 years later.

Old School Speed racing

This is from 1997 at Hunter Mountain NY. I put 200 screws in the front tire and 300 in the rear! the tires were heavy but I did 63 MPH on that run missing first place by 1 MPH!

Oh yeah check out the no front brake!! I think I am going to start racing DH this way, maybe I'll go faster

TAX DAY!!!

when I was little we used to have a vacation house in Pennsylvania and there was a billboard the had a picture of a cartoon devil and under it was the caption " pay your taxes little devil" or something like that. We used to joke about that all the time. Now I find myself paying taxes and it is no longer a joke!

You can get away with a lot in life but death and taxes are inevitable !

BUT when you get your tax return back you can go out and buy new bike parts!! hooray

NW racing at it's finest

Well I have entered the world of blogging and I will be reporting on races here in the NW and the general riding scene as well. enjoy the future!