How To ride Dirt Jumps when you Suck from PlusSizeBMX on Vimeo.
Crested Roots - More Mountain Bike Videos
DJ Brandt Fall 2011 from Tim DaCosta on Vimeo.
Riding an older Zone on pinkbike.com
If you are not familiar with these races, the gist of it is we race around in one of several large parks mostly through the grass & twist around very tight corners around trees & other park obstacles. These races also always include man made walls that you usually have to dismount & run & jump over carrying your bike. You might be able to bunny hop them if you didn't have to run the seat super high for an efficient pedaling position. This race also included a sand section riding through the middle of a full size volley ball court at the end of a long sidewalk straight away that has us hauling into it.
That sand section was my favorite part of the race. I don't know if I was the fastest through it or if I just made it look harder than most after several almost crashes but I had the spectators cheering every time I made it through. It was super rutted & sketchy.
In the race I accomplished my goals. I got a good workout, had fun & got the Grassroots Cycles brand & my other sponsors in front of an unlikely audience. Regarding my actual placement I have 2 things to say about it:
The very next day I took my same Transition Bank. Made a few hardware changes & went to the Grand Valley BMX track for some more racing.
I was a little soar & tired from my punishment the day before but now it was time for some fun. I took my family including wife Sara, 1 year old Emmett & 4 year old who is becoming quite a BMX'r, Porter. The track was a little muddy & felt slow but the dirt had way more traction than normal.
I did my normal in the Expert Cruiser class which is I race hard but am almost always humbled by some punk on a little BMX bike about half the weight of my mountain bike. I had one shining moment where I had a great gate from the inside lane & got the hole shot, soon to be overtaken down the next straight away. Turns out however this particular punk is a pro BMX'r that used to teach classes for the popular Stiles BMX clinics that just moved to town. That made me feel a little better.
HUCKTOBERFEST 2011: Ride For Evan from Quinn Maxwell | RaTED[G]RaVITY P on Vimeo.
Grassroots Cycles Gravity Team Wins 2nd Overall
Two weekends ago was the Mountain States Cup Finals at Sol Vista Bike Park in Granby, CO. It’s hard to believe the bike resort season is almost over, so if you have any opportunities in the near future, get to a bike park fast! We had a pretty good turnout of racers and friends at the Sol Survivor which made for a super fun weekend. The 4X was on Sunday evening and was probably the most exciting I can ever remember. The course was so well designed that it didn’t really matter who came out of the gate first, it was almost certain that some other rider would take the win. There was passing opportunities in every corner and the number of line choices was mind numbing, especially at the speed everyone was going. Kazzy and Matt were the first of the team to compete and they did so rubbing elbows the whole way down. Mike McCoy had a few heats in CAT 1 but unfortunately took some hard spills in every one of them. By the end I think he felt like he had been thrown in a blender. Around 5pm, the pros came on and put on an absolutely spectacular show for everyone. Eric was lining up next to some of the fastest MSC Pros ever and threw down! He made it into the small final and ended up winning it to take 5th place! The Pro Finals were just as exciting with Brian Buell edging out everyone in the final stretch by taking an unorthodox high-line and flying past Ross Milan and Chris Boice as they took a high speed tangled tumble right before the finish line jump! The guys at Sol Vista Bike Park really know how to build a 4X course so if you haven’t seen one of these races, put it on your list for next year.
The downhill on Labor Day was on Cougar; a rough and fast course with times in the 2-3 minute range. It has two big step downs separated by the usual Sol Vista moon dust and rock gardens followed by the fast and flowy infield section to make it exciting for the spectators at the finish. Everyone that raced did well and had very respectable times in their classes. The winning pro time was 2:20:95 by the Reining MSC Champion, Chris Boice.
MSC Sol Survivor 4x Race Results
MSC Sol Survivor DH Race Results
Grassroots Team Race Results:
Kazzy Saito (CAT 2 30-39): Rode pretty consistently all weekend which well all know is the key to getting faster. Good work Kazzy! Way to keep it rubber side down!
--4X: 6th of 14
--DH: 10th of 16 with a 3:06
Matt Bollig (CAT 2 30-39): Showed up at the race after two nights at a Phish concert to race 4x... OUCH! Finished almost side by side with Kazzy!
--4x: 7th of 14
Adam Lavendar (CAT 2 30-39): His hands were still hurting him from his acccident a few weeks ago at Snowmass so he had very limited practice on the DH course. In fact he didn't do one practice run the day of the race and still had a great finish!
--DH: 4th of 16 with a 2:56
Blake Treadway (CAT 1 30-39): Blake had great expectations after his race at Snowmass and rightfully so with how he has been riding lately. However, he was really let down after he blew a corner at the top and had to come to a complete stop to get back on course.
--DH: 12th of 13 with a 2:54
Mike McCoy (CAT 1 30-39): After crashing his brains out in the 4x, he had another unfortunate incident on the DH. His right contact had slipped off eye (because he says he forgets to blink while racing) in the middle of his race run. He rode the rock garden and a significant portion of the course with only one eye open. Not an easy task!
--4x: 9th of 14
--DH: 8th of 13 with a 2:49
Eric Landis (Pro): The 4X was erics best race ever! His goal was to beat Michael Buell in hopes of securing 3rd place for the overall gravity title. Mission accomplished! He had the same goals for the DH but lost out to Micheal by 0.07 seconds! In the end he did manage to take 3rd overall in the MSC Gravity Series. Well done Eric!
--4x: 5th of 12
--DH: 8th of 25 with a 2:28
Myself (Peter Knepper) (Pro): This was my first ever pro race, and my first race this year since I broke my collar bone in May at Ranchstyle. Despite having not trained or ridden much this year, and my whole right shoulder/collar bone hurting pretty bad all weekend, I still pulled off a very respectable finish! I had some serious doubts if I should be a "Pro" but this race confirmed that I'm in the right class and I need to start training once I get this collar bone thing figured out.
--DH: 19th of 25 with a 2:34
Thanks so much for everyone that raced and supported the team this year. We have a team full of great people with some nice momentum. Lets keep it rolling into next year! If anyone is interested in racing for the team in the future, be sure to start lingering around the shop and riding with the locals. You'll have to be "approved" by everyone to race on our kick ass team! We're also looking to start a BMX racing division of the team if anyone is interested.
Another special note was that Jesse Kirkpatrick was there with us riding downhill!!! She isn't quite back where she used to be, but she is still shredding none the less. If you see Blake and Jesse, please be sure to congratulate them because it hasn't been an easy last two years.
Anyways, we had 5 team members, Kazzy Saito, Adam Lavender, Blake Treadway, Andrew Templin, and Eric Landis, in attendance for this year’s Blast the Mass MSC race. This race was interesting because it had two DH races instead of a 4X or Dual Slalom. The race on Saturday was mainly a huge let down to most racers. The race course was like a throwback to the late 90’s in that it was just tape flowing down the open ski runs with grass as high as your handlebars. This made seeing what you were riding over very difficult and dangerous! It was so bad a lot of racers boycotted it and decided not to race to try and teach Snowmass that they can’t get away with a course like that in this day and age. By race time, most of the grass had been beaten down (or weed wacked) and you could see what you were riding over. The fastest pro time on this course was 4:26 by Joey Schusler.
Adam Lavender didn’t get to race in any races at all because he ended up hurting his wrist pretty bad while out riding some fun trails around the area after practice on Friday. He says it’s probably just a sprained wrist, maybe a couple small fractures, but no noticeable separations. He thinks he’ll be good to go for Sol Vista in a few weeks.
The race course on Sunday was the same exact course it has been in years past. Fast and extremely Rough pretty much sums it up. I didn’t make it up to Snowmass until Saturday night and was planning on racing this course on Sunday. Well, according to USA Cycling rules you can’t register the day of the event for Gravity events so that plan was foiled. I did manage to steal Adam’s number plate (since he was injured and not racing) and take a run with Kazzy in the morning for fun. After that run I was pretty glad I wasn’t racing. You really need to have your suspension dialed to be fast on a course like that and I sure didn’t.
While waiting for our first racer on Sunday, Kazzy, to come down, my phone rang. It was Kazzy to tell me he crashed in the top section and dislocated his pinky finger. He went straight to the emergency room where he found out it was dislocated and he had a small bone chip on it too. No surgery, just a splint and he thinks he’ll be back racing soon for sure. Our next racer down the course was Blake, who came blazing through the finish line into 3rd place for CAT 1 Men 30-39…. His best finish yet (See the picture)! Andrew came in next with a very respectable time, but was disappointed with his run because he crashed in the waterfall section. Finally, Eric came flying through the finish line with a great solid run. He and blake practiced all three days together and said they dissected the course more than they ever had before. Apparently it paid off for both of them! The fastest time of the day on this course was 4:03 set by Pro rider Trevor Trinkino
Team Results:
Kazzy (CAT 2 Men 30-39): Race 1 – 3rd 5:12 Race 2 – DNF (Injury)
Adam (CAT 2 Men 30-39): Race 1 – DNS Race 2 – DNS (Injury)
Blake (CAT 1 Men 30-39): Race 1 – 8th 5:04 Race 2 – 3rd 4:41
Andrew (Pro Men): Race 1 – Did not register Race 2 – 28th 4:35
Eric (Pro Men): Race 1 – 7th 4:36 Race 2 – 14th 4:17
~Peter Knepper
I’ve rode long XC trails and raced downhill on it. While the bike worked great on 99% of our trails around here (Grand Junction, CO), the rear suspension (Fox RP23) felt sort of harsh when we would go to resorts to ride. My husband told me about PUSH Industries, which is a company that can tune these shocks specifically for you , your bike, and your riding style. We had my shock back on my bike one week from when it left the house which is an awesome turnaround time for something like that! We got the works in this shock which ran about $210 total which basically rebuilt the entire shock with a lot of proprietary parts including a huge bottom out bumper for those big hits.
My first ride with the new shock was “The Whole Enchilada” in Moab. I usually can’t tell the difference with the adjustments to my bike, but this time it was different. I didn’t feel like I was bouncing off the trail anymore in the fast and rough sections and it seemed to have calmed down the trail chatter I was experiencing before. I rode at Winter Park a week ago with the new set up and this was the first time this summer that I hadn’t wished that I had a DH bike for the bike parks. The PUSHed Fox RP23 shock made a great impression on me. I’m now taking my Covert to bike parks and loving all of the DH runs. If someone is looking for a bike that can ride ALL trails, the Transition Covert with a PUSHed shock is perfect. What I’ve learned is that it’s not how much suspension travel the bike has, but the quality of it.
~Amy Knepper/Team Rider
During practice on the actual race weekend Jesse went down again in a strange way not even riding hard. He caught a pedal & hit a tree causing his shoulder to pop out. He just recently recovered his other shoulder from surgery & now he will probably need surgery on the other one. That Stinks for him. Good Luck J.
We had a pretty large crew of Grassroots riders hanging out & riding together this weekend. Not everybody raced but we all had fun. With Jesse T. out that left me Blake, Andrew Templin, Chris Hale, & our adopted redheaded step child Noah Sears.
Next on course we had Blake Chris & Noah.
Amy (my wife) and I decided to ride in the heat of the day last week. It was hot, but felt good to get out and ride some XC. I haven't done an XC ride since I broke my collar bone 10 weeks ago. We rode the trail "More Fun" in Loma, CO which is an extremely technically challenging trail. The climbs are very tough with lots of ledges, switch backs, and loose rocks and the downhills are rough, tight, steep, and loose.
Other than a few wind gusts that would roll through in the afternoons, we couldn't have asked for better weather. To add to our excitement, the man, the myth, the legend... Matt Bollig came to throw down! He pinned it on the DS and DH in CAT 2 30-39 and got the taste of racing back. Before the race he was explaining his racing as "It's like racing, only slower" but after the race he said "I've got a lot more left in the tank for DH racing." 
