Deep Summer Slide show from Dirt Tales on Vimeo.

I had the opportunity to spend a day at Highland Mountain Bike Park in New Hampshire riding the Trek Session 88.

My first impression was that it’s a very light bike for being a full on downhill rig.  I ran SRAM x.0 shifters, Elixer brakes and Bontrager tires front and back.

When I first got on it, I was surprised by how tight the cockpit felt.  It’s a size large, but it felt too small for me.  I’m 6′ 1″ and normally ride a size medium Transition BottleRocket so this didn’t make much sense.

The fork was a Fox 40 and felt amazing.  I fell in love with this thing the very first run.  My normal fork is a Fox 36 Talas.  The stiffness of the 40 mm stanchions really showed through and the plushness was glorious.  This thing floated over everything.

For being a downhill bike, people aren’t generally concerned with pedalability too much.  But, I did a few tests on some short up hills.  I was able to pedal fairly easily while sitting down, but would not like doing a major climb.  If I had to climb to my hill, I’d probably be pushing up most of it or putting a larger cassette on.

Overall I like the bike.  I can’t say it was “amazing”.  I’m a Transition guy, and am use to their geo.  This bike didn’t feel as comfortable as the Transitions.

Here’s a nicely edited video from Silver Star

wow.  This video needs no remarks…

Patrick at Carlmont from keithdasneak on Vimeo.

A new event (or series of events) is happening this year.  They call it the “Freeride Mountain Bike World Tour“.  Or just FMB World Tour.  It’s organized by a new organization called the Freeride Mountain Bike Association (FMBA).  It’s board members include pro riders like Aaron Chase and Darren Berrecloth as well as organizers of some of the more well known events (26TRIX, Red Bull Rampage, etc.).

It looks like the FMBA accepts memberships from individuals sort of like the IMBA.  I’m not sure what you get out of it though.  It costs 25 Euros.  Google says that’s $30.

The FMB tour doesn’t actually create new events, it just links current events and ranks riders.  A lot like the World Cup.  There have already been 6 events with 12 more before the year’s out.

Current top 5 are:

1. Sam Pilgrim
2. Szymon Godziek
3. Jamie Goldman
4. Martin Soderstrom
5. Ray Samson

This week is a 3 part series.  I was blown away when I first saw the stuff the Life Cycles crew was putting out.  It’s probably the most “artsy” bike filming I’ve seen.  This is a 3 part ad series for the Saint components.  Man, if only they showed these ads on TV, late night Judge Judy would be so much better.

Stay tuned for the release of their full length film “Life Cycles”.  This film is already 2 years in the making and possibly the most anticipated bike film ever.  They say they’ve modeled their filming style off of Planet Earth and Baraka.  Both of these films are amazing.  I can only imagine what a bike film will be like in that style.

Trek resigned both Cam McCaul and Brandon Semenuk for 2 more years.  Trek is also starting a new thing called the C3 Project.  It has something to do with getting their riders to win events and film videos.  Here’s their description:

“The name of this new team, The C3 Project: Competition, Creativity and Cinematics, is a nod to the non-traditional nature of the sport and will allow us to further embrace riders’ activities through new team paint schemes on Scratch, Session, Ticket and Remedy frames,” said Browne. “We’ll also be sharing the amazing footage we capture throughout the season on a new website that will go live later this spring.”

My google skills haven’t found the site, so it must not be up yet.  If you find it, then share the link.

I decided to start something new.  Every week I’ll choose the coolest video I watched that week and post it.

This week we have a video out of France from the “INTENSE VTOPO Crew” as they call themselves I think.  Everything is in French so I’m not entirely sure.

If this vid doesn’t make you want to go on an epic ride, then go enter a hill climb competition.

Chapter Five : Secret from INTENSE VTOPO Crew on Vimeo.

Red Bull has announced the 2010 Rampage.  Oct. 1-3, 2010 in Virgin, UT.  It doesn’t look like a rider list is up yet.  Word on the street (well, pinkbike) is that the rampage will be a bi-yearly thing from now on.

Let’s hope for some more of this sickness:

Another 39 miles of trail has been added to the Great Divide Trail.  The extension goes through scenic British Columbia.  The trail now extends from Banff, Alberta, to Antelope Wells, New Mexico right up to Mexico.  That’s a whopping 2,747 miles and over 200,000 feet of elevation gain.

I’m all for hucking and ripping trails, but something about a month or more of self supported riding seems enticing.  Probably the same way a runner feels about running a marathon, it’s mostly the challenge that’s alluring.

If riding the trail from start to finish doesn’t seem hard enough for you…how about racing it?  The Great Divide Race starts the 11th.  To win it all you’ll likely have to complete the 2,747 miles in around 17 days.  Yup, that’s 161 miles a day….self supported.  And some dudes do it on a fixie.  Any fixie rider who completes this trail is alright in my book.  That’s just nuts.