DaveSmith profile

Perry loved that Murmur. I never heard him whinge about the kinematics on any ride and he shred her majesty's fuck out of it for the review. In fact, I think there was an exponential degree of separation anxiety after he finally returned it to its rightful owner. Nice bike.

That Murmur is a real beaut and I bet it howls with that Push.

Sidenote: I'm so happy that we live in an age where the merest mention of a single pivot doesn't have to be immediately followed by the words brake jack.

I'm interested to hear how the Switchgrade trials go. It might be cool if two local companies doing unique things teamed up to solve the sore butt equation.

Thank you for the bearing swap, Andrew. 

Yes, it was spendy but expected it after 2 years of apartment living and having to spray that bike after every ride. But ultimately worth it.

Good stuff. The trick is to never stop. 

I cranked over 50 this year and over the last while I've been focussing on fitness,  smoothing out my riding and making better decisions like carrying less weight in the camera bag so my LB doesn't scream at me. I figure I'll ride and ski for as long as my body will let me.  

Parellel sidebar:

Lately, I've been hanging out with a few friends that I knew from skateboarding back in my teens. They are a mix of 50+ year old vert enthusiasts and former pros who have a private mega ramp and  get together three times a week. While I relegated my deck to leaning against the wall years ago, they never stopped even as they collected more responsibilities and time constraints - Too stubborn to quit and too much in love with the sport that has been their lives. It's pretty amazing to watch people who are casually good at something after a lifetime of dedication. Sure, the hits to their knees hurt more and they don't go quite as big as they used to but they are better at smaller tricks and grabs than they ever were -  the beer tastes better afterwards too.  They also think riding bikes where we do at our age is nuts but what do they know. 

10s of dollars

Bikes are amazing and so are skis. They're not transportation, they're transportive as both a therapist and as a creative inspiration. I think that's why over the lifespan of my career that I've put the outdoor industry high up on a pedestal. Over the years, I've just learned the hard way that I can't put my heart up there beside it because it inevitably gets shouldered off and lands on the floor with a bloody splat.  

What I took away from Mike's piece was an admiration for the resilience and sacrifice of people, like his friends, who do the work at a heavy discount to their financial and mental well being for the love of bikes. But the business of bikes is an alternate definition of tough love that's closer to self-immolation.

I had this same conversation while shooting this weekend.

I've been a creative professional adjacent to the snow and dirt world for over 25 years. My very first gig in the ad world was design work for an agency that worked for a major surf brand. When I naively  mentioned how lucky I felt to work on this kind of brand when others were designing websites for Glad garbage bags my wizened creative director warned me to "be careful who I give my heart to".  Year after year and project after project, as a graphic designer, writer and photographer those words of warning have been proven true. Yet, I keep getting sucked in...love sucks.

Timely...I've been shopping around this fall. I have a 6ft bed but I'm in the same boat when I run the RTT low over the back. In the past I've had a Yakima's and Thule's but they all rust to pieces in pretty short order with our dank weather. Interested to see how it stands up to the winter and if any wobble shows up over time.

and I'm a little disappointed to see that its not the misanthropic one bike version. It's almost sets an optimistic tone for the future.

It would have been humorous to redact more of the whole article. Or publish in dingbats.

I left a pair of Smith Outliers in the parking lot at Old Buck at  about that time.

I haven't as I'm not of the teaching frame of mind. I did Dan's class a few years back and it was worth it for sure but I don't have his patience.

Good feedback, thanks. I don't think of those Fiver or even the coast mountain photo shots as anything more than profile photo worthy applications. It's more for people who want something where you try to get the best image possible as a keepsake. Like I said, the end product being something you hang on your wall rather than post to FB or IG.

So. I've asked Cam's permission to post this before I get my arms torn off.

Lately, I've been asked to shoot a few adventure based weddings and I get inundated with requests for photos if I'm seen trailside at a fiver.

It got me thinking about starting a new end to my business thats focussed on bespoke photoshoots for mountain bikers. I'm just wondering if it's something you'd all be interested in...

We've all got photos of ourselves taken by our buddies or even purchased ones from the trailside photo guy in whistler but what about buying a few hours of time so you could get something that you want to hang on your wall? The benefit of the bespoke shoot is you get to pick the trail and have a few goes at it to get the best frame.

My question is do you guys/gals see this as something you'd pay for? Right now, I've priced it out at $300 for an individual or $600 for a group of 3. For that price you get 3-4 hours of shooting and a guarantee of 5 fully processed hi-res photos to do with as you please.

Remember when Gooch said that thing and everyone was all ROFL. Yeah that was good.

I'm a tweener too at almost 6'2 with a 6'3 reach. I owned the old Bronson in XL and rode the new one in Large for a week. For my own personal preference I would probably get an XL with a short stem. I find the xl more comfortable climbing and descending at speed feels more like I am part of the bike rather than hanging on or diving over the handle bars.

For the record and for measurements sake, I'm on an evil insurgent now and went with the recco'd Large frame and still feel like I could have sized up to an XL

Have you guys been running your Wreckonings in Low or XLow?[/QUOTE

Taylor and I have both been running ours in Low. Today I switched mine into X Low. Felt good. Did two of the hardest trails on Seymour. Not going to name but you can guess. It was really good on that stuff. Probably were it shines the most I think. Then we climbed up to severed and AA. Was good down there too. Those trails are a little loose right now though. Lots of loose rocks all over the place. So hard to judge pure speed there. Then up the climbing trail to Boogieman. The top of Boogieman is mint. Someone is doing awesome work on that right now, so ya, the bike stormed that. In fact it storms that whole trail. Then boogie nights. Great in there too. I haven't decided if I will keep it in X Low or not, but if I had to guess, I'll probably stick with that. I don't mind loosing a bit of grace on the climbs. Time will tell though. My main complaint with the bike is I can't get the seat low enough for the DH. It's a personal thing though. Lots of people like to ride the DH with their seat up a bit, but that's not me. Anyhow, give it a go. I had to take the shock out to flip the chips. No biggie. Whole job takes about 10-15mins

I have the same issue with my Insurgent[HTML_REMOVED] a 170 reverb is most likely the solution.

Should rename this "the EVIL water bottle cage thread"

It was an issue for me at first - it really bothered me when I saw that a bottle cage could easily have been placed in the front triangle. BUT the bike fucking rips and can honestly say its the most fun bike I've owned in years. To allay my hydration issue I've invested in a bib with a carry system for days I'm not schlepping a camera sack.

The Following VS The Wreckoning

Tough to see how these are marketed as two different bikes when Strobel shreds them both so well…

Fullface v. XC lid.