The Bakery: The Other Frostbike
This past weekend, over a hundred racers took part in FrostBike and wound up performing something akin to Bambi on ice. I, myself, spent two days falling down the ski hill, trying to capture some of the action, and not get spotted while peeing in the trees.
The event attracted a solid group of BC Cup regulars and, with the race season still three months away, it was a great excuse to hang out, ride bikes, and punctuate every other sentence with a high-five. This was the kind of rowdy, pre-season event that had the pros out at the bar until close the night before the race. It was a weekend more about bonding than about winning, more about bananas, beers, and hugs than about medals and cash prizes. Although, there were cash prizes to be had.
The Bakery: Must Love Bikes
Until recently, unless you were an entrepreneur or a retired athlete, finding a sustainable career in the mountain bike industry was like finding a unicorn; a unicorn that paid minimum wage, but let you crack a beer at noon at your desk.
Slowly opportunities have materialized and with them there is a growing need to hire experienced personnel from other industries. We are starting to see more and more outsiders with the necessary skills, but lack of passion for our culture. So, how important is it that our help-wanted ads include “must love bikes”?
The Bakery: Wear a F*cking Helmet, You F*cktard!
I am not one to tell other people how to live their lives. I am usually the supportive friend, the one you go to when you know your life decision is terrible but you want someone to agree with you. Recently, however, I have had to restrain myself from opening my living room window, leaning out in my pajamas with mascara under my eyes and shaking my fist like an old person while yelling at the douchebag riding by without a helmet on. He rides by every morning and I have actually thought about lying in wait and jumping out from behind a parked car to push him off his bike just to prove my point.
What’s my point?
Riding without a helmet is a total douche move.
The Bakery: Why I Own a Guitar
I have a guitar that's been collecting dust in the corner for the better part of six years. I keep it for the same reason crazy bingo ladies keep troll dolls. I'm superstitious. I believe that selling this unloved, unused guitar will result in an injury and I would need a new hobby to fill the temporary void left by mountain biking. This new hobby, obviously, would be learning the power cords to Rock You Like a Hurricane.
Why are we so afraid of getting injured? There are the obvious reasons, like pain, inconvenience, expensive medical bills, and bad hospital food. But what else is going on in our heads about it? There is almost a competitive nature to our reports on how quickly we've gotten back to riding post injuries. I've watched people shave down their casts so they can fit their hand on a set of drops and hit jumps in Whistler after much too recent concussions. One friend is the proud owner of a cadaver ligament as his eagerness to ride post surgery resulted in unsatisfactory healing. I like to ask him if his leg feels haunted.
When I broke my collarbone, yes it is ironic that the one injury that has kept me off my bike for any length of time also kept me from mastering any Hendrix, the doctor told me that I would be off my bike for six weeks. Somehow this information triggered an outpouring of boastful reports of 4-week or less recovery times. Apparently there was a race for me to get back on two wheels and I wasn't entirely sure that my underachieving collarbone was up to the challenge. In the same vein I often see status updates on facebook to the effect of "The doctor told me I can't ride yet, but I'm going anyway." What are we so afraid of missing by being off our bikes?
The Bakery: Don’t Call it A Comeback
Tara Llanes is the Queen of Comebacks. When you hear her name most people will think of the 4-Cross crash that left her with a complete spinal cord injury, but there is a lot more to what Tara has overcome and what she has done to stay connected to an industry that she calls family.
Tara fell in love with bikes when she was eleven, the year she started racing BMX. Eight years later she made the switch to mountain biking and shortly thereafter won gold at the X-Games. In her first year of racing professionally Tara crashed and broke her collarbone at Nationals in Washington. In an interview in 2000 Tara expressed that she thought no one would want to sponsor her after that, little did she know that the support of her bike family would see her though a lot more than a broken collarbone, or three.
The Bakery: The Dangers of Riding in TIght Pants
I like men who ride in tight jeans. I enjoy watching them struggle to pull their jeans up over their kneepads, I think because it looks roughly as awkward and exposed as I feel when I’m peeing in the woods.
I am not really one to worry much about what other people ride in, aside from a slight jealousy when I see 16-year-old boys looking better in tight pants than I do, but a simple Google search reveals scads of people with strong opinions about this particular fashion choice in our riding community.
There is nothing that ages you more than criticizing the fashion choices of a new generation, and yet there are pages and pages of references to “girl jeans”, emo kids, and the superiority of riding in tights. Among these opinionated folk there also seems to be some debate about the appropriate age for tight pants. Forum experts weigh-in with everything from no appropriate age, to you have to be pre-pubescent, or pre-thirty. This is something I probably should be taking into account.
Are fashion trends really all that dangerous to our health? We still see girls in stilettos regardless of all the public safety announcements about the damage they can do to our feet, legs, and backs. I decided to spend some time researching the dangers of riding in tight pants. The Internet will have you believe that there are some real disadvantages to making yourself into a mountain biking sausage, and some of them are kind of gross.
The Bakery: Don't Be a Dick, Talk to the Bun Guy
Four years ago I finally got my driver's license. It was a novelty at first. It was nice that friends no longer smiled sympathetically and questioned my ability to lead a fulfilling and independent life without a license. The days of showing leg on the highway for a ride to Whistler or being the one that couldn't contribute to sacrifice shuttles were over. I even started driving to work. Then, as the high of feeling like a real adult wore off, I realized that my morning commute had become more of an observation than an experience; it felt like I was watching a movie. There was a subtle disconnect from my world. Pedestrians, people turning left, and even cyclists all annoyed me. Apparently I was a driver now; I couldn't interact with anyone beyond turn signals and brake lights.
While riding to work I had connected with the people around me. Riding had removed the barrier for communication. Sometimes the communication was, "Hey you asshole! You had a stop sign!" but more often than not, it was saying "good morning" to people collecting bottles in my alley, nodding hello to other commuters, or thanking pedestrians for giving me the right of way. I especially missed the occasional flirtatious interaction, chatting at stoplights or trying to look cool while I painful slipped a pedal into my shin. On a snowy commute one day a woman driving by rolled down her window and commended me for riding, I fell over about a block later, but that interaction made me smile all day.
The Bakery: I’ve Found Religion
I’m not what you would consider a religious person. In fact the last time I was in church the priest interrupted the marriage ceremony to tell me not to stand on God’s furniture to take photos. I think God would want you to have nice wedding photos, don’t you? There’s also the small matter of religion rejecting me before I could reject it. My parents tried to have me baptized because it seemed like the right thing to do, unfortunately the minister in our small town refused because I was a bastard; my parents weren’t married. The little old ladies were up in arms over it and protested, but the minister held his ground. Good for him for believing in something. For me it took a little longer to find somewhere I wanted to be every Sunday.
The Bakery: My Mom is the Bob Barker of Mexico
My mom is the Bob Barker of Mexico. If your dogs aren’t spayed or neutered, she will get on her bike and hunt you down. Truth.
Ten years ago my mom started rescuing dogs in her village in Mexico. Five years ago she got a bike and a friend, and now rescues dogs in the surrounding towns. LaRae and Donna may seem like your average Mexico living, cruiser bike-riding, margarita-loving, cookie-making moms, but they’re not.
At the age of 56 my mom discovered biking when Fibromyalgia stopped her from participating in other activities. I helped her pick out a sweet pink cruiser bike, suitable for her retired life in Mexico. Within a few months she started asking for a better seat, then a mirror, then a computer to track her mileage. Mileage? Really? She was riding upwards of 20 kilometers a day, sending me photos from the middle of cow herds, mud puddles and new spots that she had once thought were much too far to ride to. One of her favorite stops when she comes home now is my local bike shop. Her most recent acquisition was a basket, but not one of those trendy wicker ones, nope. Mom needed a basket with support, one that can hold a lot of dog food, or a dog when needed.
The Bakery: The Trail You Have Loved and Lost
As mountain bikers we have all had a 'Big Ed' in our lives, that trail that was a secret or not-so-secret-but-not-so-legal gem. You loved it and then you lost it. This is a eulogy for all of the trails that have been taken from us too soon.
Big Ed touched all of our lives in my neck of the woods. From the first rumors we heard of his inception, we had big plans for his future and our future rides. The countless hours that the builders contributed to creating Big Ed were out of dedication to their vision. Their work built a beautiful resource that we all came to love.
Through all our seasons he was there for us. At times he required a helping hand; some new rockwork here or a ladder there, but he never forgot our actions in those times. Big Ed always repaid our kindness with the loyalty characteristic of a good friend. He was there for us on the best days and more importantly on the bad days; days when we just really needed to get out and ride our bikes.
The Bakery: For the Love of Independent Bike Shops
Six years ago I showed up on the doorstep of my local bike shop and sheepishly admitted that I had broken up with my boyfriend before I had learned to fix my own bike.
Six years later I probably spend a little too much time there. I have been known to show up at their Christmas parties and the coffee place next door gives me a staff discount. It’s the kind of place where everyone knows your name, or some variation of it. They hassle you and high-five you. They give you hugs and lectures about not taking better care of your ride. They are family.
They are so much my family that I have introduced boyfriends to my dad before I have taken them to my bike shop. True story.
The Bakery: The Power of Not Giving a F*ck
Be more like a skateboarder–that’s the latest life advice I have been given. Apparently I need to take a page from skate culture and learn how to not give a fuck. Mountain bikers are just too caring.
In an attempt to embrace these new words of wisdom and learn how to not give a fuck, I recently asked a friend who works in the skate industry to teach me.
He didn’t show up, because, clearly, he doesn’t give a fuck.
Bike Mag: What I'd do for a Bike Hat
2. I would show you a boob, but just one.
3. I would show you both boobs.
Rig Life: The Full Story
Vid: Karla
Marx Conditioning
Pinkbike: Complete
Diagnosed with a complete spinal cord injury following a crash at the Jeep King of the Mountain race in 2007, Tara Llanes has worked hard to build a complete life without limitations. After years of a successful professional BMX and downhill racing career, including 2 US national championships, 4 World Championship medals and 4 ESPN X-Games medals, Tara has developed a focus and drive that continues to serve her in every challenge she faces. Most recently Tara is preparing to get back on technical riding trails for the first time since her accident.
Read more on pinkbike.com
Vancouver to Canmore. . . Almost
My 6 day, 900km solo bike tour from North Vancouver to Canmore, Alberta was cut short when I was found unconscious on the highway just outside of Merritt.
I left North Vancouver in the afternoon on a Thursday and spent half the day trying to avoid traffic jams and construction sites. I consulted my iphone for directions often, and made ambiguous turn after ambiguous turn though residential neighborhoods to find my way safely out of the city. I must have looked lost and confused, since a man with a bike loaded down with garbage bags of cans and a beard that looked like it’d been around since the ’80′s stopped peeing off his bike long enough to turn and ask if I needed help. I make friends everywhere I go.
Read more on CCNbikes.com
Bike Mag: Jump Ship
Jump Ship, a Silver stop in the FMB World Tour, saw over 20 professional riders flock to the jump-filled barge in Victoria Harbor, British Columbia.
The battle for first place in the slopestyle event was a tight competition between Brandon Semenuk and Mike Montgomery–who just came off a win at the Teva Mountain Games. In the end, Semenuk came out on top by just under three points. Montgomery did however win the best trick contest on Day 2 with a butter-smooth 720 (See video bottom of page).
Check out more of my photos on bikemag.com
