Return of the Jedi Council — Part VI

Posted on July 19, 2005 by Smoke

Ahhh yes. Harper Mtn. My faaaaaaaavourite. The best flow is here, and it’s a bonus when you camp half way up the mountian in that youget to ride out of camp first thing in the morning.

There’s a couple of new additions this year, mostly wood to wood moves.

They really make nice ladders around here.

Barb

Barb’s new pedals are working really well. She’s always smiling.

Barb’s shin

Some of the newer lines are multi use. Skinnies and hucks…..

Look out Mark! I think you made him angry.

Skip

Barb

Tysun (the Mini-Pig)

Sunset Roncil. What’s a Ron-Cil? Well, all I know is that it does exactly what it says on the tin, and Canada seems to have a lot of them.

With everyone riding Specialized on this tour, it was only fitting that we rode the spiral.

Pierre

Now, why couldn’t we run into these gnarly birds yesterday? Heartbreaker…..indeed.

Gnarly birds

Return of the Jedi Council — Part V

Posted on July 18, 2005 by Smoke

Time to head out of the sunny Okanagan. The bugs were freaking the boys out a little too much anyway.

Up to Kamloops for the crew. We went to the Ranch after fixing up the bikes. The Ranch is the first municipal bike park in the world. It’s pretty rad. A bit more hardtail oriented than A-Line, but you get the idea. Once the trannies get beat down, it will be better. they’re kind of short. We didin’t spend much time there as it was just too hot for mad-dogs and Englishmen.

Instead we went to Rose Hill for a few laps of the famous gully.

So much fun stuff here, like wall rides.

Skip

In case you were wondering, there were a few more riders on the tour than what you’ve been seeing in the pics. Here’s Pierre, who rode virtually no stunts last year, dropping the Diving Board.

Pierre

Mark has an injured shoulder, so he’s been taking it pretty easy, but Rose was just too much temptation.

Mark

…and this stylish devil is the man usually behind the camera.

Smoke

We sessioned this hip until nearly sunset. It was awesome.

Stu

Even Paul got in on the action, and he never jumps.

Paul

Ed, riding the pony.

Finally, Jedi had to throw down the Rose road gap.

Jedi

Which got the ball rolling for Stu to hit it.

Stu

Stu landed in a forty foot manual. Sweet.

Stu

Jedi’s tire mark

Then it was up to Harper for a campout, fire, and S’mores.

Return of the Jedi Council — Part IV

Posted on July 17, 2005 by Smoke

Today was another day of popped cherries for all of us. For some strange reason, I’ve never ridden Gilliard in K-Town before. Today was high time I remedied that situation.

I think you may have seen this gap before. The general consensus was that the landing is just too roached to be practical now, but personally I don’t care how cherry the landing looks. I’m sure that some punk will be hitting tomorrow on a hardtail but whatever. You can have that thing.

Anyway, on to Ker-Plop. Origianlly cut by my man Vince, this trail has gone through an evolution of sorts, especially following the big fires from a few years ago. It’s got a lot of rocky terrain, but also a lot of big linked moves. Like this fence gap.

Barb

Or this series of stepdowns callled the 3 Bears.

Skip

As the trail gets going, there are more and more technical lines like this skinny section that alternate with little gaps and hits.

Barb

There’s also some great constructions. This stepdown is the 8 foot culmination of a long ladder with a four foot stepdown to elelvated landing that crosses a swamp.

Barb

Stouph

The last line on this trail is a combo of several skinny lines that drop you onto a road over another barbwire fence.

Stouph

Jedi

Those little combo moves were just a warmup for the main event. Lick-Her Sore is essentially one big continous linked stunt. It starts pretty mellow, with some nice skinny to skinny lines….

Jedi

…that go into ladder ramps…..

Paul

…that kick you to tranny…

Several more brain twisting stunts later it gets a bit bigger. Get over a couple of rocks, ride a sick high skinny….

Stu

…step down 10+ feet to a step up wooden lip gap, then rail the wooden berm to another 10 foot stepdown to wood lander.

Panama

I shit you not. After that, it’s constant skinny line to tranny to skinny line, etc. You need your speed from the previous landing to line up the next move, every time. Finish off with a serious tetter across a gully and take a deep breath.

Stu

Now there’s some uphill to be had. Short though, as Boss Hog is only about 300m up the road. This has been shot to death recently, but no surprise. Step up turtle back stunts are pretty neato.