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Brian lopes blocked me on Instagram

Thanks for this story; best one here so far IMHO. Put a melancholic smile on my face.

You guys are going to think I'm full of shit, but these are completely true: -I used to work at Suzuki headquarters. Ricky Carmichael gave me the " 'sup" head nod when he came to visit once, because he recognized me from a previous media event. -The drummer for No Doubt is my cousin. He introduced me to Gwen Stefani backstage once, right before they got real famous, and for a little while, I felt like I had a chance with her. -I partied with Ron Lechien about a dozen years ago at a convention. Yes, that Ron Lechien. Yes...

That's quite some negativity towards people who have most likely never harmed you in any way. How do you decide what's ”washed up” an what not? And, please excuse me, who are you to decide? I have met Jill and Bryn at times. They have always been nice, every single time. I can't wish them anything but the best. And I actually have the same thoughts towards anybody who tries to make a life from riding and racing. These are the people that we look up to, riding-wise, and many times are involved in the development of the bikes we...

We saw Rachel Atherton at the Safeway nearest Laguna Seca and asked her if she wanted to come party with us. She said no. I got smoked in sport DH the next day.

So much fun reading everyone's responses. I've been fortunate to cross paths with many of my MTB 'heroes,' and it always cracks me up to think how what are core memories for me are likely lost memories for the other person. I'm always desperate for MTB clout, so here are some of my fav memories: - 2012, hiking to the start in Port Angeles, I was next to Mick Hannah, and he looked at me and said, "You're the kid who came from moto racing, yeah?" He was thinking of Charlie Harrison since we were on the same team at...

Lopes yelled at my son and his friend to "put their helmets on" during a transfer at an enduro once.

Luke Strobel and Bryn Atkinson told me my chain guide wasn’t clocked right in the lift line of the Mt. Hood Fluidride Cup in 2009. I built Christian Wright’s 2011 Champery World Champs race bike, where he proceeded to be the fastest junior American male, in 38th place. Shaun Palmer stopped by the shop I worked at on his way down to Sea Otter and I installed a bottom bracket into his girlfriend’s Intense XC frame. He paid me with a copy of his autobiography DVD, I was psyched.

I consume quite a bit of MTB media, but the only stuff that influenced how I ride is the media I watch the least: jib edits. Something about slowing down and having fun on every little feature appeals to me way more than racing down every trail. Hiking back up to hit that one corner juuuuuust right wasn't something I used to do but after a few edits burned into my brain here I am turning a 2 minute trail into a 20 minute ride. Otherwise I do enjoy POV footy of trails I'll never get to ride, they're fun...

I gave up on that and settled on partying like Steve Peat in Earthed

I just wanna ride like Sam Hill in Earthed

As a CFO (outside of the bike industry), and a lifelong mountain biker, I've been following the current boom/bust cycle in the bike industry. I have very reliable sources at GG and banker friends who lend to multiple bike companies or their parent companies. @whitesq comments on GG are basically correct, they sold a majority equity position to a private individual investor. Initially they believed that investor had a shared vision for the company which included developing high end bikes and ebikes, in addition to growing their in house domestic revved carbon manufacturing as a contract manufacturer to other bike...

Will they host masters worlds beforehand? I’ll buy a DH bike and plane ticket today if that’s the case. Always dreamed about tomahawking myself down that track.

If somebody is more savvy than me, could somebody explain what it means? It makes little sense to me that WB pumps money into GCN, builds audience, and brand recognition, generates traffic with their right acquisition then sells it without the rights ( which is kind of worthless.. a platform without content). I guess they want to consolidate their own platform discovery+ ( I heard from people working at WB that is already what they are doing for other types of content) or/and want to quickly cash out and don't care about the future (which would not be too surprising:-(...

The purpose of DH racing isn't to sell dh bikes. It is for general marketing and to sell mid to high level trail and Enduro bikes.

Ok not technically racing but keep seeing this on BK LSd videos about him and Jenna dating. Can someone make me feel better and tell me this not a thing.

Are we gonna talk about the pads being bottom-loaded or is that not thing people care about?

So strangely, there doesn't seem to be any DH fantasy for 2023... So I went ahead and created an app so we can all still play and follow along with the 2023 season. https://www.downhillmtbfantasy.com/ I've been testing for a couple days, hoping I got rid of all of the bugs. If I didn't, just let me know and I'll patch it ASAP. Also welcoming any feedback!