Randy's New Tomac Carbide Pix!

Captn,

What's going on douche nozzle ? I wanted to send a couple pic's of my
Carbide as I FINALLY finished it the way I want it. I put XTR shadow rear
derailleur, Avid XX mag Elixir brakes 185 front and 160 rear, XTR rapid fire
shifters, and rock shox Sid team fork. After finishing it last night I put
it on the scale and it weighed in at a scant 24 lbs 2 ounces which is a
pound and a half lighter than my epic was.

I'm going to race it in two weeks at the Southridge Challenge along with Super
D and Downhill, but I can't wait for the winter series to start the second
week of January.

Hope things are good and I'll talk to ya later.

Randy

Winter DH Clinic Hosted By Charles!

Thanks to Chuck-T (seen in the first few seconds of class) for this video!

Fontana Sport DH Clinic from David Hardwick on Vimeo.

Yo Chris,
So last weekend, a couple of my local riding friends hosted a free intermediate level DH clinic at Southridge. I decided to roll out with them to have some fun and try to give my two cents worth of advice whenever I could. The turnout was great, about 12-15 people showed up, and it looked like everybody had a great time. This is a little compilation video that one of the riders took; the first few seconds are me demonstrating how to ride one of the lower rock gardens, the remaining are the other riders. I was really impressed by a few of them who claimed to have only been riding DH for a few months. Apparently they took up DH mountain biking as a "safer" alternative to moto and quads!


-Taylor

P.S. The annual Southridge fall race is just around the corner! Who's coming???

Halloween Backbone Style!

OH MY GOD! Is that a grown man, in a Star Wars outfit...NEXT TO A GIRL???? Can't be....Vegas Bob showing off his mad cardboard allocation skills.




Vanessa is seen here woefully unaware that it's actually Halloween.




Brant about to find out that the girl he's stripping for has no money.




Roger pictured here entering the party as a loaf of bread?? Somebody butter his buns!!




Honorary Backboner Forest Hayashi of PMBC spinning the vinyl.




Cheyne, confirming everything we suspected in Vegas for Interbike is actually true.


Ya wanna ride with the big boys, ya gotta party like 'em too. I love this team...

Ghett-O-Lanterns; Halloween In Columbus!

I coined a BRAND NEW WORD last night..the "Ghett-O-Lantern!" I saw this milk jug with a candle in it in my neighborhood and laughed for at least an hour.




Luka was Darth Vader, along with about 65% of the population of boys 5 to 9 years old.




Wyman Woods Park had a great little city-sponsored kids' party before Halloween. Free hot dogs, candy, soda and chips
with a hay ride and costume contest! Luka is seen here with the face he gives me when I tell him we are going for a bike ride..in the snow.


Lyd and I got to the hot-dog eatin' party early, so we could gobble up all the chili-cheese Frito's before everyone else got there!



Lyd was dressed up as Abe Lincoln, if he were mummified by ancient Egyptians.



Lizzie, Carolyne and Luka preparing to go out and get me candy. They had strict orders to weed out the crappy candy-houses and get me the good stuff.



Hundreds of families walked the streets in search of treats last night. The fall colors were great to trick-or treat in, and even better to ride the bikes in.










Please send any uneaten candy offering to me, as I am beginning the "bulking up for winter" process as we speak. Thank you and good night!

THANKS HYDRAPAK!

I handed over my new, Interbike-brought Hydrapak Morro (best frikkin pack EVER!) to a racer this week. In dire need, I called Matt at Hydrapak to inquire when this new UBERPAK may be available again (they are new).
He said "Did ya get the care-package we sent you yet?" I said no, and then told him I'd order my new Morro next week. I arrived at work today to find a large box from Hydrapak with my name on it. Inside it was a Cornucopia of hydrationy goodness. Like the water-proof covers! It was packed to the seams with Gel Bots, insulated tube assemblies, new FLUME paks, and a couple of STREAMLINE paks. WOW, these guys are just frikkin amazing. They take such great care of us, why WOULDN'T we want them in our booth hangin' out at Interbike? LOVE these guys, and their products. You do too, don't you? Yes, yes you do.....

Lydia Brownfield's After-Party!

**Lyd "busking" at Columbus' Great Southern Theatre**



On Saturday night, November the 7th, Lyd is throwing down with Shawn and the rest of the gang at Grandview's Trattoria Roma! Sponsored by Peroni beer,
the culinary ninja's at the Tratt will have a special apres-dinner and drink menu for this exclusive show. With extraordinary drinks like their world famous espresso martini, and a margarita that will make you kiss Charro the Tratt and Lydia brownfield are a combo worth hanging out late for!




Stop by the restaurant about 10:45pm, and grab a seat. Ask for Pakito (if he's working) to be your server, and PLEASE ask him to do "Jub Jub." Have the camera ready, this is a real treat! Lyd and I were engaged at the Tratt, so it will be very fun to be getting my face rocked off whilst enjoying their polenta and other fine foods!

**Pre-show prep at Undone Lingerie**


Be sure to have some coffee and stay up late for saturday the 7th at the Tratt! If you ride your bike in, Peroni will take a dollar off every one of their beers you drink! YAY beer!

Oh My God.

This is Backboner and DH racer Austin Benge. This is how he was dressed for his high school homecoming activities. This is frikkin awesome. Sponsors take note: You too can reach this prime demographic! Sweet Moses I can't wait to blow this up and send it to everyone he knows. Love it.

Almost Ready; First Look At Sean's Carbide XC1

All I have left to do is run the front derailleur cable and bleed out/install the rear brake..but here's the ALMOST finished project. Sean is away in PA today racing on his hardtail, completely unaware of how bad-ass his new rig is going to be upon his return. With 4" of travel in the rear, this bike will weigh what his hardtail weighs..if not a touch less. That is SWEET!




The SUNLINE portion of the build kit keeps this bike durable and light, with things like the rarely seen aluminum flat XC bar, V1 stem in 110mm, Sunline seatpost and black saddle. The grips are the color-matching-to-our-jerseys light blue Sunline lock ons! The stuff looks great in the grey color.


The bike is a mix of XT and STX parts, with some spendy new XPEDO XMF4AT Ti xc pedals thanks to Ken Yamakoshi and Xpedo. roll: bikes in Columbus helped out with the drivetrain parts, and SIGMA graciously provided the BC 1706 super-computer. Tires are the new-favorite KENDA DRED TRED in the rear (1.8 casing) and the KENDA BLUE GROOVE up front (2.1 casing).


How do you make a TOMAC CARBIDE look frikkin mind-blowing and give it a huge performance boost? Add a set of RED spoked SPINERGY DISC wheels to it, that's how! So here she is guys. sad thing is, Sean's season all but over after this weekend, so there may not be much but some sick winter riding reports from him on the new bike until May!

'Cross Bob!

Hey Chris!
These are some pics from the Long Beach CX race, taken by PMBC member and TransWorld Motocross stud "FoFo" Forrest Hayashi. I finally broke my 14 streak, but with a 13! I got a good warm-up in and even got to the start early. But with 53 guys fighting for position before the first turn, unfortunately trying not to get involved in a crash is just as important as getting out front. The hot 70 mile ride I did on Saturday didn't exactly make me spry either (to quote some old guy I know). Lot and lots and lots of turns and super-lumpy gopher-holed grass made passing tough as well. I lost a few places on the 3rd lap, and had trouble with the sand pit, but I was able to rally back and pass 4 or 5 guys on the last lap. Brant ended up 2 places ahead of me in 11th. Thanks to Rog, V, Cheyne and Keyontae for cheering, see you next time!

Dirt Bags In Dirt Rag!

Thankfully, this is NOT the photo you will see in NEXT MONTH'S ISSUE OF DIRT-RAG MAGAZINE! One lucky Backboner's picture has been selected from a fistfull I sent in last week. I don't know which one it will be yet, but it's probably one of Darter's photos and it will be in the back of the mag, in "Rider's Eye." Look for it freaks!

Jim Roff's Childhood Dream

When Backbone's very own cracker-ass-cracker Jim Roff was a young boy walking the streets of Eagle Rock, he dreamt of one day becoming the greatest break dancer that ever lived. He spent hours strolling the barrio with his 4' X 4' square of double laminated cardboard, just in the off chance he could imitate some of the moves laid before him in his favorite film (even to this day), "Breakin' 2, Electric Boogaloo." It was during a dance-off that Jim would suffer a major injury that would never again allow him to partake of the street-side voodoo that was breakin'. While performing a perfect "inch-worm" maneuver, Jim's spine severed so badly, he had a mass of convulsions that actually would win him the dance contest! Unbeknownst to the spectators, who had simply thought he was "popping and locking," Jim was permanently damaged. The shame of not earning that trophy would haunt Jimbo for years, and led him to cycling in an attempt to forget about his past as the greatest caucasian break dancer of all time. Please take a moment of silence for Jim and all the other white break-dancers out there who's dream were dashed. They are not alone...