5 Japanese Guys in a Van

Posted on June 26, 2004 by Smoke

I’m ba-a-a-a-ck!

Say hello to Shin, Noz, and Takeshi (left to right). You’ll also get to know Koji and Toga as we go.

This crew comes to you courtesy of longtime Cove mountain bike legend Paul Chetwynd, who runs Freeride Adventures Japan. I’ll be doing an interview with Paul later in the season so that those of you who weren’t around in the early days can find out a bit about your Canadian Mountain Bike heritage.

Hi Paul. Whatcha doin?

A typical scenic rest stop.

Ahhh, jet lag.

Finally, we’re riding. An easy one, the Rusty Muffler to start. It turns out these guys are not only pretty good, but totally psyched to improve.

OK, here’s a classic on the side of the trail.

Is the name a coincidence or what?

Happy boys.

Surfing the clay.

The end of the trail ends up in the lake. The lake is up a bit from last time. The crew was BLOWN AWAY by the experience. Then again, so am I.

So…..Round 2 on the day was the Peat Bog and Code Four. Lets see if the boys can jump.

That’s Noz, who is the editor of a major Japanese bike magazine. Strong BMX background. No worries on the Canuck singletrack.

Here’s Shin doing his first huck.

…and Koji. Total wildman, that Koji. He has a new see through bike. Crazy Japanese and their technology.

Then it rained a bit. Well, 65mm to be exact. And tons of lightning. Here we are hiding out from it.

So there you are. The first day of the trip. Penticton is such a special place.

Especially when Elvis is everywhere…

Victoria Day Long Weekend — Day 2

Posted on May 27, 2004 by Smoke

Why did we stay up all night? It hurts so very much. Boo hoo hoo.

Friday was a mix of sun and cloud. Really nice temps for riding in. We were put up by the kind folks at the New Century Inn. Ron and Maria have just opened up a hostel catering to bikes there. You should give them a try if you are going to Penticton. They’ve got the inside line on the trails too.

Anyway, we started the weekend off with some Bog action. No good pics to show you from Code 4. The boys seemed to be a little HURTING after drinking all night. And I mean ALL night. I passed out at 4….

By the time we got down to SnakePit the ride and the riders opened up a bit.

Here’s Bob…

…and here’s Tony, proud owner of the Love Nest.

That’s Ron from the New Century Inn coming around the mountain on his Cove Stiffee.

This is Dom almost going over the edge on his Cove G-Spot.

Funny how one run just seemed to be enough. It’s like somebody drank all night…..

anyway, this is how the evening went.

For some of us anyway. For some of the others it looked a bit more like…

Easter Weekend, 1st Trip of 2004

Posted on April 14, 2004 by Smoke

Presenting Callum from the UK and Christian from Ecuador. Also our first Ecuadorian. Very cosmopolitan, this Bush Pilot experience.

I have to give a huge shout out to ChroMag Bikes for their awesome frames. Ian has no idea that I’ve been shredding it up on their bike lately, but I gotta say that it’s a good’un. I’ll be posting some gushing, unsolicited testimonials on the forums soon. If you believe in the power of steel, give the ChroMag a look.

Here’s a shot of one.

That’s the top of the tripod trail in the sunny Okanagan. Easter in Canada. 28 degrees Celsius, or about 80 in the old scale. Who knew?

Here’s another ChroMag style shot.

Apparently the local elk population likes to expire on bike trails.

Anyway, here’s another shot of the top of the Tripod trail. You can see the Cathedral and Pasayten ranges on the horizon.

Here you can see how pristine the riding is. This was more of an intro day, as Callum and Christian are both rookies as far as Canadian mountain biking is concerned.