Friday, August 20, 2010

Guess who's back???

Square One MFer's. I couldn't be more pumped on this news. Some of the best bmx videos ever in my opinion came from Square One back in the day. The team looks bad ass as normal. Congrats Bennett. Their website is now in the links. Here is a quick video I found of Bennett for Demolition. Watch it kids and learn to do no-handers proper.

http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/demolition-bennett-vid/db4f4224cbf5dd7c29e5db4f4224cbf5dd7c29e5-138002497713?q=kris%20bennett&FORM=VIRE3

Brad is a beast



What the?













Head tube view.













Top & Down tube view













We all know Brad's a beast. I beat him to the trails and he was riding towards the chill zone and when he rounded the corner his bike looked pretty weird. His rear triangle was atleast 20 degrees bent to the side compared to the head tube. Riding in he thought his cranks were bent. Once we noticed the sliver of metal keeping the bike together, one more twist of the handle bars and it snapped. He is probably lucky he did not die last night riding, because it was definitely broke by the end of Thursday night's session. It was sort off funny, because he checks his frame weekly for cracks. He has wondered since day one how much abuse a 4.75 # frame could take. I would say Brad never abused the frame like I have seen some people do, but he rode the hell out of it. Its also why I run a 6# frame considering I'm twice the weight of most kids now a days.

Hopefully he can get his new frame next week, because the Welcome Jam at Potoczny's is next Saturday. The jam the last 2 years has been a great day of riding, chilling, bbq-ing and what bmx should be about. Check out the info at http://roundtwobmx.com/r2wp/

Check out the new link for the Penn State Trails. I remember going there for the first time in 1995 / 1996 when I was attending PSU and not believing what I saw. Unfortunately, I was into MTB-ing at the time and just thinking about getting back into BMX. I was helping my brother build dirt jumps when I would visit home and it definitely influenced me. The PSU trails have been great some years to horrible others. Looks like they are back on the rise. Awesome.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Future Heathen???


Dinger with his signature one-hander.
Dinger left this weekend to start school at the Pennsylvania College of Technology in Williamsport. He will be in Heathen's territory for the next year and a half with some quick visits back here and there. Hopefully he meets up with them soon and starts helping them out and keeps riding and getting smoother. Check it out. http://www.theheathens.blogspot.com/
I will have you graduation card and gift the next time I see you. Good Luck and try your best.

3rd Sunday Funday for August

It sucks not having pictures to post. Who real gives a crap about what I have to say. Pictures are worth a thousand words or so the saying goes. Digital was charged up and the same with the recorder and the goal was pictures at a minimum and footage hopefully. Original plans was to go to the Meadville area to ride some trails for a change of pace. Cleveland guys got going early and was going to met us there. Unfortunately we got news it was pouring in Meadville and we turned around 10 minutes after leaving the shop.

Brad checked the weather and we started heading to our trails with the Cleveland guys about an hour behind hoping to dodge the rain. Got everything un-tarped, watered and did some dialing until the guys showed up. They showed up and had the normal meet and great and everyone started to get padded up and heading towards the roll-in. I could hear it coming. It started sprinkling, but P'Simer was going to get in at least one run and dropped in and flowed like normal. Brad made a run and mud was already slinging in the flat bottoms. It looked like it was going to pass pretty quick, so we left them untarped to help with the watering.

It stopped raining in about 5 minutes, so we chilled, bs'ed, did some more dialing, some drainage work and about 45 minutes later they looked good to go. Brad, Dave and P'Simer got a run or two in and it started down pouring. Their last runs were in the down pour and quite amusing. Instead of the normal knobbies buzzing sound that is heard through out the trails the squishing sound of mud seamed pretty funny. We called it a day.

Saturday was a chill day and Brad and Joe T worked on and rode the bowl area. Brad has been working on this area again along with the start of the new lines heading back to the beginning. Everything is making progress and is going to be super fun. The bowl was riding in nicely and I was told actually feel pretty good considering it was only roughly formed.

Brad's Mini-Road Trip

Brad went on a quick road trip the beginning of last week. We had a project finish up at work that needed to be in North Carolina on Monday morning. Friday afternoon we could not find a trucking company that could get it there with out charging an arm and a leg or garanteeing it would be there Monday. He left around 8:00 Sunday night after a good trails session with the Cleveland guys and drove throught the night to get it there before 7:00 Monday morning.

Monday morning he made it back to Richmond Virgina and found a hotel to crash at to get caught up on sleep. Tueday he got some directions to some local trails from some guys that came to the trails earlier in the year. No name for what they were called, but there was a good variety of stuff to ride. With the 100+ degree summer weather there, the trails had seen better days. We are guessing it is the off-season and they are jamming in the fall, spring and maybe the winter. Brad took alot of cool pics and they definately had some cool and unique lines. Hopefully we can make it down once snow flies here.

Tuedays evening he made it back into PA and went to York to check out the concrete park there. I have been wanting to go there since it was built, because concrete is the next best thing to trails. I love the feeling of coming up with lines for the first time and dialing them in. It was what we were hoping for and can't wait to get the crew down that way. The park is exactly what the city of Warren should have built, instead of the piece of crap pre-fab cement park that they paid good money for that fell apart with in 2 weeks. Street stuff for the skaters and flowing transitions for the bikers. Everyones happy then. Brad got some riding in and a couple of hell yeahs from some locals on some lines he was doing. There was also some dirt jumps right next to the park also. Pretty dry, but Brad took a couple of trips thru the 2 lines. Check it out at http://www.reidmenzermemorialskatepark.org/ and http://www.concretedisciples.com/skateparksdb/skateparks_display.php?id=3712

He made it back to work Wednesday and had some good stories and pictures to share. Nothing like going on a road trip and having work pay for it.

08-08-10 Update



Trail start overview.
Far right, Geronimo
Dead center, Roller Line into Main Line
to left, Main Line
Far Left, 3 berm Line








Main Line's 3rd lip on right
Geronimo's 3rd lip on left
NBL Line start between the 2 lips









A week late, but here is last weekends post. What can I say, there are not enough hours in a day or week. Trails were rocking. Cleveland guys came out for some riding on Sunday Funday. A crew of racers from the Buffalo, NY area also made it down for part of Saturday and most of Sunday. Pretty much everything is being hit, besides the bowl area. I was hoping for some good action pics, but everything was turning out too dark. Above are a couple of pics I like. Got some good video footage of Dave and Brad training and ripping before I had to leave early.

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Sunday Funday


Dinger 3ing the step-up in the Main Line.












Brad 3 tail tapping the set out of the 3 berm.













Went to ride the trails today and a skatepark contest broke out. Not really. Just a little jibbing on the set out of the 3 berm that resembles a street spine. Brad was pulling some trickery that I had never seen before and Dinger was hucking and coming close at multiple tricks.

I missed it, but Aaron made it down to the trails with a 26" MTB jumper. We have had many discussions on whether a 26" bike could make it thru the trails or not. Some of the MTB guys that don't ride trails, I think were thinking that it couldn't be done. I was positive that the correct rider on a good 26" MTB jumper could get it done. Aaron and Brad were making it thru the Main Line and Roller Line after a couple of tries. Being 36, I don't know when I will outgrow a 20" little kids BMX bike, but there is some hope I will have something to ride when I finally do.