Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Matt Takes 1st In Cali!










Backbone Adventure Cycling's Matt Thome took 1st in the one-day winner take all California State Championship race at Eling's Park in Santa Barbara last weekend! He is sitting squarely in 1st overall in the State Series, and has certainly been earning that TOMAC CARBIDE this year. That is one fast junior, eh! Thanks to Mark Thome for the rider update and photo. Great job guys, and thanks for getting to those races and R&D'ing all that product from our fabulous sponsors.

XPEDO Steps It Up!



Dirt Demo: Xpedo Pedals - New MX Force thin flatsMonday September 22nd, 2008 at 9:04 PM

Posted by: adam



http://www.xpedo.com/pedals/mf.htm

Xpedo pedals caught my eye a couple years ago with the MX Force Mag flat pedal. The weight, 408grams, but the pedals has always looked a little cheesy. But for $50 it proved to be an amazing pedal which I was sad to give up on my new Canfield F1 because I needed every milimeter of clearance I could get. Well, now Xpedo has come out with some super sick looking, ultra thin, and lighter weight (3909grams) pedals that will be on my bike as soon as I can get my sticky little hands on a pair.

There are several styles out this year, including pink pedals for all those guys rocking that color theme now!

The two piece have a smaller platform than the single piece, but from what I could tell, both looked fine to my eye.

Check these things out!….







Xpedo has really jumped forward for the ‘09 flats. Awesome!

Monday, September 29, 2008

Jim Roff's B-Day Today!












It's Jim Roff's birthday today, so everyone call the HOOTERS in Highlands Ranch, Colorado and say hi to him hile he's still there. Jim came to Interbike and helped out, and is currently weeping over the loss of his man-partner Jay Schippers..who moved from Colorado BACK to California. Call Jimbo and tell him happy b-day today!



Team Donations Keep Piling Up For Cancer Ride!







Backbone's team sponsors are still kicking down for the October 11th cancer benefit ride in New Albany, Ohio! Many were holding out for Interbike to get me some stuff, and WOW have they kicked down! Adding an additional $400 dollars worth of merchandise, that brings the team's donation total to $1,000 dollars! That's two separate bundles of $500 a piece. That is super frikkin' cool, and thanks to all who have had the chance to donate. Here are some of the new products in the packages..













A SICK new ROYAL XC JERSEY that is so new, it techically doesn't exist! Thanks Jay..this was brought from Interbike!


















A nice long sleeve black T-Shirt from NOMAD, with matching hat!


















A nice perk from KENDA, a set of Tinker Juarez C2C road racing tires, a hat, and 26 x 2.1 Small Block 8 and El Moco XC tires! These can be subb'ed out for the 2.35 Excavator depending on the winner..
















































Ken Yamakoshi at XPEDO donated this XL XC jersey (it's awesome!), and a tan XPEDO baseball hat! That is added to the MF-4B pedals he laready sent.




There are other things, as well....so come and bid on them and be set up for the year!

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Brant and Vanessa California State Champs!

Vanessa at Eling's Park in Santa Barbara earlier in the season.












I am still awaiting photos from the race (these are old, before the Carbide's arrived for Vanessa and Brant), but the text message just arrived from Interbike absentee Brant Hatton. It reads "30-39 Expert Super-D State Champion bitchezzzzzz...Vanessa as well! If u ain't first, ur last!"
















That makes me last again...DAMN! That is the early report on Super-D, but we shall see what happened during today's XC races.

























Brant at the start at Firestone.
















Brant on top of the box at the Fontana NMBS race.







This just in from Vegas Bob....he took 5th today in XC, Matt had a rear brake lock up on him which took him out on lap number one, and Vanessa took 4th for the day with a mechanical as well!. Pix are on the way, I just wanted to jump the gun a bit and announce our Super-D champs! It pays off to have DH racers on the team, right?

Interbike Day 7, Saturday







Saturday a little after midnight I burst from my bed and made haste to the ball-washer sink in my expansive bathroom at Excalibur. Known as The Technicolor Yawn, Talking To The Seals, and Blowing Chunks, the vomit was billowing forth from the depths of my bowels. Filling the sink with a mixture of vodka, Stella Artois, sushi and sake I was reminded that I am no longer twenty something. I am unsure how rice and cut up fish could have come out of my eyes.......but it did......and wasabi does NOT feel like Visine. I blame my wing-man Pete Obrien (heretofore known as POB) and wing-woman Mel. Amino Vital makes a great product called Kampai for hangovers. Yeah....uh....we didn't have any of that on us. If I look as bad as I feel, that should land me somewhere squarely between Ernest Borgnine
and that bloated hermaphrodite Brooke Hogan.


I made it here to the airport somehow...and back to my room last night....and have some time to kill. I will attempt to walk you through some of the events of last night.



After the long and boring day at the Hall, we tried to forget about the dirt-bags that were rolling up the carpet in front of our booth. Having lost their teeth from meth use at the early age of twenty two, these two men had a combined IQ of an average house plant. We rolled from the show around 7p.m. and each headed back to our respective hotels for a shower. Mandalay Bay was the destination, where we headed to Red Square for what would turn into about three hundred bucks worth of booze. It was to be four shots of vodka each...and TALL ones....with Stella chasers for each one. None of us had eaten since the day before, so it went to work quickly. By the end of shot #2, we all were done already. Thankfully though, alcohol makes you partially retarded, so we had two more. Good times..good times.

But wait! That's not all! There was a SUSHI place next door! Sushi and an ass-load of vodka sounds awesome, right? Oh, and I know, let's roll through TWO bottles of hot sake just for good measure. By midnight none of us could walk without the other, and it was a miracle any of us made it home. That's when the fun began. I managed to get to my room somehow. Then I had to get to the bathroom. Running drunk and naked has inherent problems. Have you ever sat on your own balls on the toilet seat? Ladies? (ok, I was just trying for an extra laugh there)


Putting my face in the same place my bag was laying all week during tooth brushing sessions was a sad little twist as I leaned in and filled the basin with tasty sushi-vodka. The sun came up this morning way too early and I am now here at the airport, praying for death. Please don't offer me a beer for at least three years. I'd say "Holla'" but it would just make my head hurt....oh god..someone just sat down with scrambled eggs...I gotta go...



ps..I added some new pix to Wednesday's report from the Arena X race!

Interbike Day 6, Friday

SRAM RED for mountain bikes????











Sorry guys....some days, what happens at Interbike stays at Interbike. Peace out bitches!

Friday, September 26, 2008

Interbike Day 5; Thursday

That's Mary's Olympic number plate, bitches!








The greatest female racer of our time..except Vanessa Humic...Mary Mac.











Ed Fonda of Voler showing you his favorite jersey.













661 and Sunline stuff on display























Mitch Delf's Tomac Primer.















An '09 Marzocchi 888, and the new CORSA w/handlebar mounted lockout.

















This limited edition Tomac is just frikkin bad ass.








Thursday was a mixture of things. The morning sucked at first due to the huge amount of standing at the booth. It was GREAT becuase Joel and Tomac Bikes agreed to stay with us through 2009! That means that Jeff Williams gets a Carbide to race on! I saw some of my favorite people in the entire world again today. Jim Roff arrived from Colorado just as Bert was heading back to California. I miss the guys and gals a ton, and was amazed to hear that Brianna Roff is heading to college next year. Wow! That's scary that it has been that long! I talked with Matt at Hydrapak who ensured me that he would cut me if we don't send him more pix of you guys on your Hydrapaks. I also saw our old 2005 team Tomac rep Mark Tipton, who set me up with a potential sponsor for next season!


I got to see Mary and Mike again today, too, while she had her Beijing Games bike in the booth! I saw Christophe Sauser's 19.5 lb. Stumpjumper, and some other great and NOT so great products. A company called WHEELTAGS had a great idea for the team's branding and bling factor.
They do these KILLER custom rim graphics, and I may be getting the DH guys a custom Backbone decal kit for their DH rims! I ran into old Supergo Santa Monica alums Rico and Jim also. Jim owns Cynergy Cycles in Santa Monica, the last great bike shop in the greater West Side. Rico is always a pleasure to speak to, and I don't see that guy NEARLY enough. Kinetic Koffee also helped me out big time today, keeping the java flowing that fueled my meal-free day at Amino Vital. Matt Patterson floated me a sweet Gel-Bot tonight, and I can't wait to use it!




Great booth redesign at KENDA thanks to Eric and Lydia, oh.......and they had a SICK skinwall Small Block 8 'cross tire! They also shored up the blocks on the DH casing KOT with tie bars, and that was cool. Ken at Xpedo listened to bert explain how he loves his MF-1A's, and James from SIGMA was barraged with people at Amino coming to him asking for deals via our team's good name. SIGMA by the way came up BIG this year...I have to keep it secret on the blog..but you guys are getting a deal of epic proportions thanks to James, Jenni, and Brian. The new ROX 8 and 9.0 computers were a home-run at the show..you gotta' see these things! I was fortunate enough to spend some quality time with the Amino Vital peeps, several of whom I had never met. They were great fun, and we were all on the same page and on the right track for the future. Look for some colaberations between sponsors soon!

After the show Wehe, Timo, her mechanic, and I went for dinner and a beer. Jim Roff and Jay are probably looking at other women's breasts, and those breasts probably smell like other men's hands right about now. I am sitting alone in my room paying $15 for internet hookups to post the team stuff on the blog. DAMN I am lame. If only I were good with the ladies..or had game..or even if I were attractive or smart or something y'know? I guess I'll end my night in Vegas the way I always do...





wiggling my junk in the window of my 10th floor panorama window to passers-by on the strip.....




gotta' love Vegas.





Thursday, September 25, 2008

Interbike Day 4; Wednesday

So let me just say that I miss Lyd and Luka back home. I'll deal with the comments from you jackals later, but right now I wish they were here.











The alarm blew up at 6a.m., and Bob immediately rolled over and hit snooze. What do you expect from a grown-ass man with a Mohawk and a black eye from a mosh pit? The snooze button, that's what! We gathered our weary asses and ran to the Hall, paying $20 for coffee and a mufin at the Excalibur wallett draining facility near the exit. We had a quick meeting with Joel Smith about re-upping our contract for 2009. I have met a tremendous number of people in this industry, and as an outsider (I really am..I never have really worked in the bike industry until I moved to Columbus last year) I have seen some crazy people. Joel is one of the nicest, calmest, most accomodating people I have ever met.










We rarely get a chance to talk, but he always treats us as if we just had dinner at his house. Happy with the team, he has AGREED TO KEEP US AS THE SOLE TOMAC MTB TEAM IN NORTH AMERICA! Thanks again to everyone at Tomac cycles for all the great help. You people are seriously crazy if you buy anything else than a Tomac. The support is uneqaulled, and the bikes have been perfect.









This muscle shocker looked great, but the guys who repped this product were mere inches away from an ass-kicking for two days straight. D-bags.










Bert ogling my bike w/out permission. That TYPE X is MINE!












The newly redesigned KOT.













Kenda road brand manager Stefano Lumbaca showing off the new tires..and new booth.

Kenda rolled out a re-vamped KOT today. the larger DH casing showing up with a much improved tie-bar to the soft and otherwise pliable spikes. Road tire brand manager Stefano Lumbaca (still healing from a hand injury suffered at Phase 2 trail in Ohio) showed us the product line, and had some top secret news about road racing for 2009!! SIGMA rolled out their software-included ROX 9.0, already in use in Europe, and it was a show stopper. They also had the coolest schwag of the show...a business card on one side...




and a beer-pint checker on the other...just in case the barkeep tries to hose you on you Amber Ale.


The Amino Vital booth was busy as all hell today, and Vegas Bob once again grabbed all the camera time between the NOMAD booth and A.V. The uber-hotties at NOMAD slapped some stickers on his Mohawk and he went to work.










Remember that Amino ad from a few months ago? They made it into a huge poster of our very own Charles Libolt for the show! That's Ming Tai of MFactor w/Vegas Bob in the background.












The NOMAD crew showing off their favorite team jersey.














Vegas Bob and his new imaginary wife. I could see babies w/ a mohawk and freckles, couldn't you?













Bert and NOMAD super-model Rebekah Mitchell trying to get Bert to stay focused on the product.


MING TAI arrived via McCarren airport around 9a.m., and he spent the day as if in some orgasmotron machine...rubbing Italian bike parts on his underpants, eyes spinning wildly in a cacophony of joy. It was great to see Ming, and he enjoyed his first Interbike a little too much. Bert arrived at the time Ming left, and we walked to Tomac, Kenda, etc. to say hello. Bob went home, too, today..but will be replaced by Colorado team manager Jim Roff! Jimbo arrives tomorrow..can't wait!


After the Hall closed, we all convened on the first ever Arena X bike race! It was an invitation only race that was like a Supercross for 4-Cross guys. Friends James Schwanke and Evilio Suarez both raced against the best, and it was great to watch! Bert and I had to think fast. Olympian Mary McConnelough and Mike Broderick (7 Cycles) were trapped outside the door with no tickets. Bert and I had come in the pro rider area, and since I had my jersey on..they never asked for our tickets! Thinking fast, we ran to the door and handed them our passes. I haven't seen M&M in a long time...so long in fact that they had NO IDEA that I was in Columbus now and with Lydia. They also had no idea that Lyd was a famous rocker, or that Ara had returned from Armenia. I called the Fuzz and let them all talk for a while. It was really great to see many of the people I hold so close all together and happy, living their cycling dreams out and enjoying what every day brings them.
Seeing Timari, Tom Wehe, Bert, Jim W., Vegas Bob, Ming, the Sigma peeps, etc. made me feel like I was whole again...even if it only lasts until Saturday. Everyone was amazed that Kenda didn't let Lyd come to the show. They all asked where she was and it was nice to see that everyone misses her as well.









James "Stellar" Keller and Bert sharing an intimate man-moment and a beer at the SIGMA booth after the show closed down. Pickle-smoochers.

It's now 11:45pm, and I am exhausted. Bert's already out, and I am crashing hard. More tomorrow...