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Nov 16
Thanksgiving Day Ride
It's almost time for the annnual ride. Lots of people and family and someone usually brings food. It's not a race so bring any old funky bike you like and start working off the calories Thursday morning.
2nd Annual Jump Jam
Big Jumps and more blood this year.
This is what Steve had to say:
Hey Guys/Gals, This past Sunday, Nov. 13th. was Matt Nascimento's yearly SWD BBQ/BEERS and MTB Dirt-Jumping Party out at his place in Turlock, Ca. For any of you who have attended, either last year, or this year, you know that LOTS of BEER gets brought by all and LOTS of beer usually gets drank by the late afternoon, early evening! This year was no exception, we had ice chests and more ice chests full of beers, from cheapies, to Chris Quintero's, ( Pro BBQ guy ), now famous FOSTERS, he doesn't leave home without it. Anyhow, it was another good time as always and there were the usual good crashes. Last year we had a kid from the bay area who came up just a bit short on a set of doubles and ripped the stanchion tubes right out of his fork crowns! Well, this year we had a couple of good ones, first was Matt himself, Matt built a step-up bar this year that I really liked and everyone thought was pretty neat and different. The bar was PVC pipe and the stunt looked just like you would see on the Freestyle MX comps. Ok, so early in the day, before a lot of people had shown up, Matt got a good run at the pretty huge take-off jump and literally launched, over-jumping the landing. As he flew at least 12 + feet in the air, Matt began to lose the front end as it began to drop to flat, he bailed pretty hard and ripped a hole in his face just below his left eye! He looked like a Rocky movie as everyone came around him to snap photos. The next good one came early in the afternoon also, Hank Matheson was at the party for the first time after not being able to make it down last year and was hitting a set of doubles when something let out a huge snapping sound upon landing. As Hank picked himself up off the ground and everyone scrambled over to see what had happened, Hank's bike was found in 2-pieces! No, it was NOT an SWD Frame failure, but a steer-tube from his dirt-jump fork that had snapped in half. Look for some good photos soon of these happenings. Lots of pics were taken again by George Crawford - www.trogspace.com and also by John Morris and several others. There were some new faces this year as well, Troy Carle from Califas Bikes, www.califasbikeco.com came down from Napa with his new bike that SWD built, it is very similar to our 6-Gun frame, in fact it is the same frame, but Troy's is a bottom-bracket-pivot bike, has 4.5" of rear travel and can be built as a single-speed. The standard SWD 6-Gun features 6" of travel, has a low-pivot placement and a 12mm thru-axle. Well, Hank promptly put the bike thru a real test day, doing huge jumps and tow-in runs with the aid of a motorcycle and went huge many times without a single problem! Lastly, we would like to thank Justin Frey - Semi Pro Dher, Ryan Cornilsen - Semi-Pro Dher, Casey Cornilsen - Jr Expert Dher and the entire Cornilsen family for coming down. Also, Sebastian Ubillos, Zach Miller, Andrew West and all others for attending. Look for cool pics on the website and hope to see you all again soon! Steve - SWD Bikes
I also got a couple quick vid clips of Hank getting towed into the big jump by a motorcycle.
Good to hear he's OK, but the bike was totaled.
Old News.
Just incase you haven't heard by now, Heras was found positive for EPO.
Zap's 180 update.
Double Backflip on a motorcycle.
SF Grand Prix in trouble.
Nov 6
Red Bull Road Rage
Miles Rockwell takes it down... on a road bike. A DH'er took the fastest time, but he didn't do it on a mountain bike. It wasn't even a supped up rig. It was his stock road bike.
The Tour of California
It's going to be right in our back yard and it's only a few months away. The Tour of California looks like 7 stages of racing from Santa Rosa to Thousand Oaks.
Stage 2 goes from Martinez to San Jose, it'd be cool as hell if they threw Hamilton into that race. Maybe take mines road up the back side and they'd be climbing all those switchbacks.
Big Auburn Ride
Looks like pics are up for the big group ride in Auburn.
High School Mountain Bike Teams
In there last few years there has been a NorCal High School mountain bike racing series and there are a lot of great people helping make this happen. Berkeley Mike from is on his third year of helping kids learn how to race. Not every kids can afford a mountain bike so Mike is asking for dontations of old parts.
From Mike
"A lot of this stuff gets swapped onto bikes for upgrades (canti’s to v-brakes, 7-8 spd to 9 spd), a better fit (riser or stem) or repair (a broken derailleur is replaced) or someone gets their first set of clipless pedals or finally a decent seat. A frame here or there and a bunch of parts and before you know it someone without a bike has a ride; a bit of patchwork but solid; I ride them hard twice myself before I give them up or I trust Lincoln’s (Dr. Link) skilled hand,......"
We all have spare parts hanging around in boxes and garages. If you're not using it, give it to a kid who could use it.
"So I ask you all here if you will support us with your cast-offs. Look in your garage or shed or under your bed for that box of things which gets created when you satisfy your Thompson Jones, set aside that shock for the new 105mm, or replaced your Lx with XT or Sram. Would you help us out?
As Treasurer (and Director Sportif) I am privilaged to recieve donations and provide a Tax Deduction form with our Tax ID number as these are Tax Deductible donations. If neccesary i will cover shipping, come by your place and pick-up, or arrange a drop off at an LBS. I do this faithfully. I will also send you a Team Picture and we look goood!"
I've been to a couple of NorCal HS Race series and these kids give it their all. Some of them are on some beaters but they're still out there racing their hearts out. It great to watch, make time this next year go to one of these races and cheer on the kids.