brits

Return of the Jedi Council — Part V

Posted on 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.

Ed

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 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.

Ed


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…

Ed

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.

Stu

The ramp into this sucka is fun all by itself.

There’s a bunch of killer rock drops in there as well, and then one monster sized rockface to roll down.

Stu

The last move is this crazy berm/wall to rail around.

Panama

Jedi

After all that heat, it was time for the beach, and some well earned frosty ones.

Ed likes to have things stuffed in him.

After another gourmet meal, it was time for the nightly Northern Light show.

Yeah, Canada…..

Return of the Jedi Council — Part III

Posted on by Smoke

Day 3, and the crew is just getting warmed up. A little re-match with the Arawana trail today. I happen to really like this trail, and so do the mosquitos. However, you have to have a good tolerance for flat landings to really enjoy this one. Poor Pete (the builder), he got roundly cursed all day for his penchant for stupid trannies. Well, I guess the local bike shop likes him, but he really needs to learn how to make good landings.

He does great things with skinny logs though.

This is where I got stung by wasps. Note to self, dont stand right on the nest, even if it is a good angle.

This used to seem really hard. Now it gets nailed on sight by nearly everyone.

Barb on a natural line.

Skip really benefitted from his trip out here this winter. He went from the back of the pack last year to right up front this year.

Marvellous Ed was on a mission today. His mission? To do all the really dumb lines. Here he is on an 8 foot “dorp to falt.”

Paul, in his natural element. The skinnier, the better.

Bud Height. The big wood to wood. Just about the entire crew hit it today. I used to fake this shot with Photoshop to make it look cool. Now everyone just nails it on sight.

Poster shot of Skip.

Marvellous, on another skinny “dorp to falt.”

…and I quote, “That looks impossible. Wanna see it done?”

It lands you in a small gap almost immediately. It’s really stupid, and loads of fun to watch Ed pile into the bushes from.

Right around the corner, Paul proves that he can hit the air when necessary.

This is a wicked little road gap. I finally did it after looking at it for a couple of years. Pretty easy, but another stupid little micro tranny. Jedi shows us how its done.

Not to be outdone, Barb puts her stamp on it.

And the big stupid drop award goes to….

…no one. The jump immediatley after the flat landing from 25′ up is uber stupid and makes a potentially good move ridiculous. Oh well, maybe another time.

Here’s Jedi leading a train across the barbwire funbox gap. Where’s that train?

Well, Ed paid the piper for his earlier antics by face planting the first step up. There’s video of this, but you’ll have to wait months for it. Sorry, but I’m sort of busy to be editing video.

We still had enough in the tank for another half lap, so we cracked off a quickie of the fast part, and then hit the beach for some well earned swims and beer.

Ahhhh, beer at sunset. What will tomorrow bring I wonder?

More weirdness. I am sure. Ed, you slut.