Vegas, Racing, Dogs and Tables.

This is my final Vegas post.

What I'm bummed about for the purposes of this blog is my lack of photos from my last night in Vegas. I hooked up with a friend of mine who I hadn't seen in..oh 10 years at least. We had SOOO much fun in the old Vegas. Saw a globe of death motorcycle show, and some crazy Gold Sprints at the Beauty Bar. Just good times.

Anyway, here's some news. Los Tonics / Team Robot flew down the mountain last week-end. I believe Chaz was 4th OVER-ALL in a very deep field. Congrats.


Raya and I took the hard way up. Riding up Ski Bowl isn't the most fantastic riding ever, but the views are excellent.


Back to Vegas...

Rode street some with Nick B. He's got some moves. Wall ride over a 3ft walkway. Word.


We locked bikes and traveled.


Nick was especially excited when we ran into...


...a Young Bill Clinton.


Of all the literature I collected at the show, I thought this was the best. A photo copied, stapled-by-hand 'zine. Word Up. Best video? Days of Dirt by All Out.


Atomlab is getting their forks tuned up in a big way.


Single Speed Cross Worlds..


Carter Holland digging on new the "Spank" product line.


Holy Crap, that's a brake.


Portland's Shad Johnson. One of the coolest and funniest people you'll run across.


Myself with a little table at the track...


-L

Howie and Fall Guy

At the moment, not a single bike on our website is current. Our new site should be up in couple weeks, but I've been saying that for about a year.

In spite of our archaic site, we've sold through nearly all the Howie's and Fall Guys we've built this year. Fortunately, there are a few left.

This is the Fall Guy. It's designed for 24" wheels. It's what I ride, and the new bike is bad-ass.


This is the Howie. It's designed for 26" wheels.
It's 5.25lbs, has 15.25" chain stays. Our team loves these.

Kent out of Norway sent a photo of his in:




Cheers,

Landon.

Some Vegas Photos

Doc, Terry, and Tammy from Superco let me roll with them in Vegas. Much Thanks!


I forget this guy's name, but he's Australian, raced BMX in the Olympics, and pretty much destroyed the BMX track on this Superco.


Tonic and Superco poached the track for a while. Myself, Terry and Tammy with all the sun and dust we could possibly handle. I fell asleep the night before in an awkward position and suffered the worst neck pain ever. Photo by Doc.


That's me enjoying some Vegas dust jumping. It's a kind of a frightening place for a NW'er to ride..all dust and rocks and cacti and GU wrappers.


Mid Berm shade adjustment. It's all about "looking cool" at Interbike.


The NORA Cup was EXCELLENT. Huge crowd, open bar, and lots to see.


They managed to dig up the guy who played Cru Jones in Rad to deliver an award. I kind of preferred to remember Cru as a kid with a paper route, rather than Hollywood D-Lister.


When they played a portion of Sean Burn's Dead Bang section, the screen just blew-up.


-L

The Shining

Just got back from Vegas / Interbike. The Hotel I stayed in reminded me of the Shining.


-L

Tonic Fab Squashes Cross Race

With a little luck and a lot of speed, Ian won the Hood River Cross race in the A's category on his Tonic Cross frame. After winning he predicted it would be the last race of the year he'd win.



Ian's girlfriend, Bridgette, also won the Woman's A race. If these two ever have kids..watch out. Anyway, part of their victory booty included this Organic Squash.


Next stop, Vegas. I'll try and update this with Vegas happenings.

-L

Too Fast For Love

I got hip to this form of skating a few years ago at Mt.Tabor in Portland. I have a vintage Mongoose BMX scooter. I used to hike up Tabor with my scooter, and bomb down. The cool thing about the scooter is it's all terrain ability. Pavement, dirt, grass...anything is fair game with enough momentum. I guess the un-cool thing about it is..how you look?

I noticed a few skaters bombing Tabor too, minus the off road courses. They rode long boards.

I like watching these guys ride. Fast, and very cool form. Anyway..I was stoked enough on my scooter that I never felt like I needed to try skating. And, to be honest, what they where doing looked a hell of a lot more dangerous. I might look stupid on a scooter, but at least I had something to hold onto, and more importantly, something to stop with. Anyway, watch this video. It's bad ass. From HTATBL.


Adam Kimmel presents: Claremont HD from adam kimmel on Vimeo.

Los Tonics. On Point.

Just a couple banger photos of our team in action. I've known Chaz and Looch now for more than a couple years, and watching them grow as riders as been something else.

Nathan, clicked. Photo by Andy Fitzgerrel.


Looch. Photo by Andy Fitzgerrel.


Chaz. Charging. Photo by me.


-L

Howie UK / Sin City Thrash Bike

Glyn out of England sent in a photo in of his new Howie. Looks strong, light, and good lookin'.


I like the use of a brake and top-tube pad. Let the world know it's not just "Safety Third" at the trails and park.



Hey...I don't know if I can attend this because I'm leaving early and I couldn't change my ticket without a sock full of $$, but here it is....
You may not see this at first, but there's actually bike in that photo and it's a Tonic. Thank Nick Brandreth for hooking up the flyer and the talent.


-L

Good people, Good photos.

Howdy folks.

Bad News first. Billy broke his elbow. Bummer.

Tonic Fab team injury list this year has gone something like this.

Looch: Busted Knee Cap.

Abbitt: Busted Collar Bone

Chaz: Busted Wrist.

Me: Abraded Crotch from last week-end's road ride.

This week-end was a good one, photo wise. We are attending this bike show and are producing a couple bikes for it, and some of the photos from our shop turned out pretty well.

I also attended another Fluid Ride race at Ski Bowl, and watched the Barron, Chaz and P Funk FLYING down the mountain. I rode my XC bike up, and back down part of the course. That's a gnarly piece of bike riding, and racing down it is even more nuts.

Unfortunately I left my camera cord at a friend's house, so all those photos will have to wait.

On the topic of photos, how about these from Walter out of Austria? Walter a friend bought a couple Howies and have been getting after it.

What a gorgeous photo!


There's the quick and the dead. Walter must be quick.



Finally:

We do have some Howies for sale. Painted, and ready to ship.

We probably won't be building Howie again this year, so this may be the last chance to get one for a while.

-L

Alfred / Good Cartoon

Alfred gets a Supernaut and sends us a crazy photo...



A Cartoon worth 11 minutes..


-L

Dex-In-Effect / Howies For Sale

Howdy.

Dex checks in on his Dukes-Of-Chazzard Howie. Dex got a Fall Guy last summer, and now is on a Howie.

Speaking of Howies..we have a few ready to go. Black / Baby Blue / Coated.

E-mail me if you'd like any more info...

Dex wrote "I finally got it built up and it rides amazingly well. The best hardtail I've ever ridden..."

Looks like a sweet build. Light and fast.


Dex with some snake-run hip action.




NICE.

A Spot Of Bother

Last week I got invited to fill in on the Cars-R-Coffins team doing the Rapha Gentleman's Race. Each team has 6 riders, and the entire team has to finish.

The "race" is from Hood River to Portland, via Lolo Pass. 125 miles.

The concept of this event is cool. Basically a couple check points, and the entire team has to be present in order to continue. It's completely unsupported, and unsanctioned. You had to find your own route, carry all your own food and water, and make sure everyone on your team finishes. This was no standard road race.

I didn't wonder how a summer spent doing 2 hour MTB rides and buzzing around a skate park prepared me for this. Physically,I wasn't prepared at all.

I decided to do this because of the quality of my team-mates, the fact that this time last summer I was on crutches with a very badly broken leg, and hey...what an adventure!

What have I got myself into...?


Daniel from Rapha described the course as very "front loaded." 50 miles of climbing right off the bat. I rode the Tonic cross bike. Which, except for a lack of water bottle mounts, was excellent.


Slate, one of the organizers. Entry fee was $10 and a case of beer.



This was my view from 10am to 8pm.


James...a very strong rider with one hell of a recipe for Brownies.


Hurl. The guy behind Cars-R-Coffins and way ahead of me for most of Saturday. Flew in from Minnesota.


Daryn. Another Minnesotan who was way too fast in the hills.


Chris J..our team's downhill specialist. Couldn't keep him in sight on the way down.


Lots of gravel road climbing. Lots of climbing period. The course wasn't exactly all down hill after the pass. I don't know how I survived it all. I thought of Biz Markie (?), I drank a lot of water, I sang to myself, I ate a lot of Payday Candy Bars, a Special Brownie and some Ibuprofen.

Mostly, I just tried to stay positive. I thought of how much my leg hurt when I broke it, and how small the pain I felt compared to that. I didn't want my experience to be that of dropping out. I really wanted to finish. For myself, and for our team.


James said we hit 46 at one point. That's miles per hour.


A checkpoint after Lolo. We picked up another rider here who's team abandoned.


As we approached Portland, we rode by a lot of "Modern Americana." Not the best riding, but plenty of scenery, and...


...places to stop and get food and water.



And beer. We stopped at the Copper Rooster with about 40 miles to go.


The final climb. See that river in the photo? With over a 100 miles in our legs we made the final climb up a gravel road to one of the highest roads in the Portland area. Even though I hurt more than at any other time on this ride, stopping was out of the question.



Finally on top of the last climb. The checkpoint folks had packed up by the time we arrived. We blasted back into town down Cornell. A very fast decent, mixed with some bike messenger style get-through-traffic action to the finishing bar.



Done. And not in last place either. Amazingly. I'm very grateful for the team invite and to Rapha. Excellent stuff. I'll be back for more.


-L

Penny Jam

I was too wrapped up in All-Time High off road testing to make this, but Tony went and said it was awesome. Little Jeff Super Banger at the end.

PennyMarket Jam from Jason Black on Vimeo.

Couple Decent Photos

The Baaron Flying at our trail jam. I've been saying it forever..Aaron's tough to get a good photo of. He's just normally going way to fast to get much. Fortunately Cory was on hand, and (I think) this is one of best photos from our jam. We'll have another..


Supernauts. We've been keeping information about his bike in the dark...


However, we are tooling up for this bike. Hopefully people will like it. Enough to buy it that is...


Fall Guys will be available again soon.


Finally got some good samples of our All Time Highs. This has been a mere 18 months in the making. The good news is that they are mostly correct. And they feel EXCELLENT!!!! This has been the bar I've wanted for a very, very long time. Some typical Taiwan screw-ups on the samples..but over all, they are pretty much dialed. We'll make sure these are the correct alloy and butting profile, and then it's green lights.

The graphics are pretty minimal. And although these are painted, the production versions will be anodized. I think the paint makes bars look cheap, but speaking of finishes, is there anything you'd like to see? I don't get very creative with the colors on my parts, but we could do something else if there was enough interest. I'd prefer to keep the finish anodized..so if there was a color that people really wanted, we could do it.


-L