Inspired Bikes - Danny MacAskill

I've watched this video about 100 times over the past year and it never ceases to amaze.

With the year rapidly coming to a close, I figured one last time for 2009.

Danny MacAskill ladies and gentlemen.

2010 Vertical Earth Series Gravity Games

Vertical Earth has released the race and event schedule for the 2010 VES Gravity Games at Blue Mountain.

Kicking off on May 22nd with a Le Mann's Style Super D race and a Big Air Downhill Race on the 23rd, the series promises to be a great opportunity to get on your bike and test your skills...or just catch some awesome race action and see some of the best riders in the East compete.

Over the summer the VES Gravity Games will feature Downhill, Super D, Short Track XC, 4X, and Dual Slalom races. No matter what your age, skill level, or what kind of bike you ride, there is a class and race style for you to compete in.

  Gravity East Series



The Gravity Series East will also be featuring a Vertical Earth event...dates haven't been announced by the Gravity East Series yet, but expect it to be the 3rd or 4th weekend in September.

Check out the Schedule below and the Vertical Earth website for more info.

DIRT Magazine World Cup Roundup

Who are we kidding....even if most of us don't actually race, racing is pretty cool. And let's face it, whether you are racing your buddies to the bottom of the mountain or trying to clean a section better than the guys you're riding with, racing and competition is a part of mountain biking and freeriding.

So even if you don't race...have no interest in racing...or don't like racing....check out this little trailer from Dirt Magazine UK b/c the World Cup Racers are pretty rad.

Dirt Magazine will be releasing their World Cup Highlight Video soon.

Check back for the full video when it is available.

For now...check out the trailer below.

More Mountain Biking >>

The Ultimate Freeride Feature????

What the What????

Some kind of multi-use bridge feauture posted on Ridemonkey....probably a little overkill.

Blue Mountain Snow 4X / Mountain Cross Race - 1/9/10

Mark your calenders and start screwing studs in your tires!!!

The Blue Mountain Snow 4X Bike race is set for Saturday, January 9, 2010.

The race will be 4X / Mountain Cross style with 4 racers per heat on an saaweet course running down the mountain constisting of berms, drops, rollers, tabletops, double, etc. And the best part.....THE COURSE IS ENTIRELY MADE OF SNOW!!!!

There are no requirements for the type of bike you need, so bring your downhill hucker or your little sisters My Little Pony bike with the bell and basket.

When: Saturday, January 9, 2010
Where: Blue Mountain Ski Area
            Palmerton, PA
Time: Registration is from 8am until 10am
         Racing will start around 10.30am
Entry Fee: $20 per racer

Race is 4X style with 4 racers per heat. Top 2 racers per heat advance to the next round.

A helmet (and bike obviously) are required. Pads are optional but recommended.

Studded tires are permitted.

Check out the video of some of the previous years races.

Blue Mountain 4X Biker Cross from Spinteck Limited on Vimeo.

This race is sponsored by the Eastern Schuylkill Recreation Commission (ESRC), Ed’s Course Designers, and Blue Mountain Ski Area. For additional information or to register, contact Blue Mountain Ski Area at (610) 826-7700.

Neko Mulally (Reading, PA) Joins Trek World Racing Downhill Team

16 year old, young gun, racer Neko Mulally, from Reading, PA, has signed with Trek World Racing to race the full World Cup series as well as other events in 2010.

Check out the bikeradar.com write up on Neko here: Neko Mulally joins Trek World Racing Team

Neko Mulally racing for Specialized Team America at our very own Blue Mountain in 2009.

Photo of the Day

Awesome live motion shot from Dave Mossop Photography of some ridunkulous trail work from Rilor Wilderness.
Click to see the full picture.

VMB December Meeting

Well...after years of riding in the Lehigh Valley, I attended my first Valley Mountain Bikers meeting last night at Saucon Valley Bikes. It was great to meet some of the people who have been stewarding mountain biking and riding in the Lehigh Valley for a long time.

It's amazing how much time and effort goes into building and maintaining a trail system and these guys (and girls) have been working to make sure it gets done right. Of particlur interset...check out the VMB website for info on the TREX Trail System they are working on in Schnecksville on the Trexler Nature Preserve land near the Lehigh Valley Zoo. (Formerly known as the Trexler Game Preserve)

www.bikevmb.com

The VMB group organized several trail building seminars with the friendly and knowledgeable folks from IMBA and the trails at Trex are coming along nicely.

In addition, as you know, the mission of my little blog is to promote Free/Enduro/All-Mountain Riding (or whatever you want to call it) in the Lehigh Valley, and we discussed expanding the Trail system at Sals to build some new trails that would take advantage of the amazing natural features and to build some new free ride and all-mountain type stuff to huck and roll.

I should be up at Sals in the next couple of weeks doing some scouting with a few other VMB'ers and will post more soon.

Hopefully we may have some new trails to be huckin' in the spring!!!!

It could use some berms......

The Official Jaguar Pump Track....in front of an actual Jag dealer.
 Pretty funny.....

Custom Specialized S-Works Enduro Carbon - Preview - Pinkbike.com

Custom Specialized S-Works Enduro Carbon - Preview - Pinkbike.com

Pinkbike.com is building up and testing what they describe as their "Perfect All-Mountain" machine...and it happens to be a new Spesh Enduro. Check out the preview at the link above.

The new crop of All-mountain bikes coming out look pretty serious, including the new Enduro. They are lighter, slacker, and able to handle everything you can throw at them.

Photo of the Day

Great shot for Photo of the Day. This picture comes from Rilor Wilderness Mountain Biking. Check them out here: Rilor Wilderness

Riley McIntosh started Rilor Wilderness Tours to share his vision of the ultimate mountain biking lifestyle at his Nelson, British Columbia lodge.

Photo Courtesy Rilor Wilderness Mountain Biking Inc.
www.rilorwilderness.com

AGM - "All We Do" Trailer

A great trailer for the full length free-ride feature, "All We Do" from our free ride brothers at AGM productions in Finland.

Yes, Finland.  Lot's of crashing...but they sure are enthusiastic!!

Love the rider at 1.13 putting the bike in full tilt boogie mode.

Check it out...pretty sweet.

WIN FREE STUFF!!!

Who doesn't like winning free stuff? Fox Racing Shox is having weekly drawings for some free schwaag.

Enter here: FREE FOX STUFF!!!!

Photo of the Day

PHOTO(S) OF THE DAY

A few cool shots of Ryan Berrecloth of Knolly Bikes riding the "Dr. Greenthumb" trail on the North Shore, B.C.

Courtesy of: Knolly Bikes

Put some BLING on your bike

If you're like me and lean towards the more gravity oriented riding style, you probably run some nice big wide bars like I do. The perfect bar for my all-mountain bike needs to be low, wide, light, and strong.

Among the offerings that fit the bill,  and have been fitted to my bikes, from the likes of Specialized, Easton, Sunline, and FSA Gravity Light....there hasn't been much in the way of color offerings. The recent trends in component colorways left most riders who's demands are like mine with little more than a choice between black, black, or black. (Or silver and anodized, but you get my point.)

To this point in my riding "career", I have not utilized any of the handlebar offerings from our mountain biking brethren to the north at RaceFace. With the introduction of the new, multi-colored Atlas FR handlebars, I may just have to add some Canadian Bling to my all-mountain steed.

Offered in anondized colors, including "Gold Member", "Bad Ass Black", "Tooth Blue", "Nurple Purple", "Rum Red", "Orange Whip", and "Tom Green", the Atlas FR bar features a 1/2 inch rise and measures a whopping 785mm wide, or 31 inches!

 

The Atlas Freeride Bar has been manufactured out of Air Alloy material, that features an internal taper that not only increases strength, but keeps the overall weight down. Weighing in at 328grams, the Atlas FR bars are in the right ball park to compete with the offerings from Sunline, Easton, and the other usual suspects.

If you've been watching the World Cup Downhill races and seen the pro's rocking crazy factory colorways and coordinated anodized components, the Atlas FR bars are a great way to add a little bling to your bike. Featuring graphics depicting topographic maps of famous riding spots on the North Shore, these bars should have the guts to back up the bling.


I will be strapping a shiny new Atlas FR bar on my bike and will have a full review coming soon.


You can find more information on the Atlas FR Bars and RaceRace's entire suite of mountain bike components, including the new color matched stems and cranksets at their website.


http://www.raceface.com/

PS....bikebling.com (Bike Bling) is running a sale on the Atlas FR bars. (Yes...they have all the colors.)

Specifications

• sweep: 9 deg rearward /4 deg upward 
• clamp dia.: 31.8mm
• weight: 328g
• rise: .5in
• width: 795mm / 31"

 

VMB - Valley Mountain Bikers

Valley Mountain Bikers

The official home of Mountain Biking in the Lehigh Valley.

Check it out: Valley Mountain Bikers

MADE Trailer

Another very cool trailer for the full length mountain biking film, "MADE".



MADE is an inspirational mountain bike film about the best riders in the world doing what they love, riding bikes. Visit www.madethefilm.com for more info

Sals - Fresh Cuts

A few new rough cuts up at Sals. A couple new short sections running down the hill off of the red trail by the dialysis center... including a few nice drops and a rolling, natural berm leading to a North Shore style bridge jump. Not done yet...but should be fully huckable by next week.

More pics and video to come.

Foot Out Flat Out II - Trailer

If this doesn't make you want to get out and ride...you should give me your bike and let me ride it.

Welcome to the Lehigh Valley Free Riders Blog

Welcome to the home of hucking in the Lehigh Valley. As a life long rider and resident of the Lehigh Valley, I have had the opportunity to ride all the great trails we have in and around our little slice of mtb heaven. As the gravity fed trails in the Valley continue to develop, I wanted to write this blog to cover the more aggressive side of mountain biking in the LV.

For those who don't mind earning their downs and love to huck everything on the way to the bottom, this blog will hopefully be for you. I hope to cover and provide information about the riding, trails, building, and freeride lifestyle in the Lehigh Valley.

There are some great trails and riders in the Valley and in the coming months, I hope I can give my freeriding brothers and sisters something to read over the winter in anticipation of the 2010 riding season.

This is my first attempt at writing a blog, so bear with me....but I love to write and love to ride and hopefully I can write something interesting about what we all love to do.

For now....keep your Kenda's (or Maxxis, WTB, etc.) down.

(More to come soon)

Andrew