This is it!!!

The moment you've all been waiting for!!!

We are sitting here waiting for the baseball playoffs to finish up before airing the first episode of the brand new season of Drop In.
This has probably never been done before but, after long deliberation, we've decided that to show our gratitude to the loyal pinkbike / Dropin fans - you will wait no longer.

After a brief break for a trip to Whistler, I have some new additions for the Cadence Cafe Freeride Wall of Fame: Wade Schmidt, and Jason Jacobs....

A recent family emergency on the other side of Canada saw me winging out east only to drive 2 aging parents and their RV back across this wonderful, vast country of ours. As we inched our way west, it struck me how diverse our landscape is. Each region boasting a unique pallette begging for our fat-tired attention. From the cities of Southern Ontario, to the rocks of Northern Ontario and Manitoba, further still to the vast prairies and into the foothills of Alberta. All similar, but at the same time, nothing like the trails waiting for me back home in BC.

The second annual Red Bull Bike Battle
took place today at Boston City Hall Plaza in Government Center, the
nucleus of downtown Boston. Architecturally stunning and perfect for urban
freeride competition, an amphitheatre style setting with an abundance of
brick, stairs and rails was custom tailored to the riding fantasies of
freeride mountain bikers by adding a diverse range of obstacles including
ramps, dirt jumps, concrete barriers, and even a car.

Buy a Drop In 'T' Shirt....Get a FREE Bike!

As you can see we have just released a limited edition Drop In T shirt for you, our loyal fans, to help support the cost of post production and delivery of season 2 episodes.

Each T shirt purchase made before Wednesday Oct. 1, 2003 12:00PM MST will count as one entry in the draw for the season 1 grand prize Norco 125 bike. The draw will be made on Wednesday evening and the winner posted on the Drop In web site.

The final clean up of Jean Guy on Moose Mountain is this Sunday, September 28th at 12:00 noon. There will be a BBQ and draw prizes from Pinkbike, COP and Calgary Cycle. Bring gloves and something to haul out wood, like an old backpack, bungies and/or straps.

Earlier this summer Norco put on a customer appreciation event called VPSFest at no place other than the best - Whistler BC.

Pinkbike was there to take in the action and when my trusty SC iron malfunctioned due to brake line difficulty I was saddled on a swanky new Norco Team North Shore and went up for a tour with the man calling the shots, Pete Stace-Smith.
As you would expect from a company that brings you tried and true pedal machines for any occasion, the top brass at Norco know their bikes, but better yet, sure know how to ride them.

All aboard for a top to bottom run on Schleyer, DH course, and others. Pete in front , Radek in the back with head cam from Viosport and to the soothing tunes of our favorite biking band Removal.

Right click and save as
Video of Norco's Pete Stace-Smith at Whistler

Tired of those Hawaii 5-O re-runs? Want to be the envy of all your friends? Look no further; here is the ultimate addition to your Backstreet Boys Video collection!! Don’t wait any longer, jump in and get CLAPPIN’ YO DOME now! Brought to you by the same creators of “On every Friday” and “Old World Reorder”; This Div-ED guarantees hours of retinal satisfaction!

After many meetings with City officials, environmentalists and other concerned groups we have made some headway with the development of the Kamloops Bike Park.

WE NEED YOUR ATTENDANCE!!!!!!!

The season's winding down, but there's still plenty of fun to be had. This weekend, Panorama Mountain Resort in Invermere, BC is hosting the Panorama Cup and BrewFest. Bikes and beer, how can you go wrong? Download the full Panorama events calendar here, and find the registration forms here.

A year in the editing room, Freeride Entertainment, makers of the New World Disorder series, finally bring out the Red Bull Rampage 2002 DVD.
You have heard about the event, seen photos, seen patchy video clips, but this is a whole other perspective. Shot with 6 cameras, 1 helicopter, this film shows the full extent of the riding, the flow of the lines, the size of the drops, the crashes....unbelievable.

Also, unedited, uncut, full runs of the top 5 riders.


Check out the full description and VIDEO TEASER
Now available and in stock in the Pinkbike store.

Red Bull Rampage 2002 - DVD (+bonus crash footage and entire film "Red Bull Rampage 2001")

Sorry folks,
We've been looking for solutions but the best thing would be to postpone the season opener of Drop In sea. 2 until the baseball playoffs wind down a bit. We're going to let you know when that
will be as soon as we work it out with Sportsnet.
I'm posting a poll on the "Drop In sea.2" forum.
If you would like to see the first episode on the internet rather
than wait for it to come on TV let me know. If there's sufficient
numbers we might give pinkbike'ers a sneak peak.

Enter Poll

We're searching for creative ways to bring people living in parts of the world other than Canada Drop In.
Next month is the largest television market in the world which our distributor will be attending and pitching the show to international networks. This is our chance to get the show on the tube in the U.S., Australia, all over Europe etc.
We need YOUR help.

The final clean up of Jean Guy on Moose Mountain is scheduled for Sunday, September 28th at 12:00 noon. There will be a BBQ and draw prizes from Pinkbike, COP and Calgary Cycle. Bring gloves and something to haul out wood, like an old backpack, bungies and/or straps. Watch the website for updates as details get finalized. There is even a or of free beverages for those over the legal age....

Meet at the parking lot at the bottom of the Moose Mountain access road.

Relive the 2003 U.S. National Downhill and Mountain Cross race seasons as Distinction Productions takes you through the National Championship Series.

"Mountain bikers all share a common bond that transcends religious backgrounds, income levels, education, and even riding style or ability. This movie is about the simple love of riding a bike that so many different people around the World enjoy."

Those are the words of Warwick Patterson kicking off his new film title "RISE".

Yes this is the one featuring that crazy Calgary local that we all luv so much - Doug Fink
Check out the full description and Rise VIDEO TEASER
Now available and in stock in the Pinkbike store.

Rise - DVD (+bonus footage and entire film "The Circus")

Rise - VHS

It’s when the leaves turn brown, the temperature drops and the rain starts to fall that the new video season begins. Titles such as New World Disorder and North Shore Extreme begin to line the retail shelves.

Not all Freeriders are lucky enough to live by, or even near mountains. There are plenty of loyal new school mountain bikers who, like myself live in Saskatoon, or Winnipeg, or smaller prairie towns who create random acts of radness on concrete and smaller, natural, prairie parkland drops.

Team Planet-X is dedicated to the growth of the sport of cycling. We are looking for team members that have a passion for cycling. Of equal importance is a passion for life; people who like to have fun, and who like to share that fun with others. Team Planet-X will be accepting resumes for their 2004 season squad from September 5th 2003 through November 1st 2003, and we hope to complete selection by first week January 2004. You will be notified by mail.

As a result of rainfall that fell in parts of the province during the weekend, government has lifted its backcountry travel restriction in some areas.

Meteorological evaluations and reduced fire danger ratings have allowed ministry officials to re-open backcountry areas on Southern Vancouver Island and the Kootenays.

The following forest districts are again open to backcountry travel: Squamish, South Island (Vancouver Island), Rocky Mountain, Columbia, Arrow Boundary and Kootenay Lake, except where other closures are in effect.

Those of you who read the fine print found on the outside edges of the photos in Bike and Powder (to name a couple) have certainly seen the name Matthew Scholl before now. I first met Matt while enjoying a coffee on the patio of Oso Negro in downtown Nelson, B.C. From there Matt was off to Europe for a month to shoot with Steve Peat, Cedric Gracia and others for Freeride Entertainment's latest project, NWD IV, Ride the Lightning.

Hosted by Diablo Freeride Park and presented by TerraLogic Park Industries, this unique event proved to be the beginning of a new legacy in the sport of Mountain Biking. Pro athletes from around the globe vied for over $15,000 in cash and prizes.

We at LAUNCHmtb Magazine have just finished celebrating our first year of syndication. With the great one-year anniversary party at Seymour’s Pub, we set a new record of people booted from the premises. The fine list of evictions consisted of Schley, Peat, Cedric, Pazzolo and many other guilty riders. We are proud of you boys and hope to see the same terror at our two-year anniversary party. To celebrate these good times we are excited to announce our first big ass give away to our subscribers.

Greg Minnaar silenced any critics today taking the biggest win of his career in the DH World Championships. Rounding out the podium were top qualifier Mickael Pascal in second, followed by Fabien Barel and the World's perennial Cinderella Steve Peat. On the women's side it was all Anne-Caroline Chausson, who crossed the line more than 12 seconds ahead of second place finisher, and fellow country(wo)man, Sabrina Jonnier. Nolvenn Le Caer and Tracey Moseley filled the 3rd and 4th place positions. Top Juniors were Sam Hill (no surprise) and Emmeline Ragot.

BMX convert, Michal Prokop took top spot on the men's side of the 4X World Championships in Lugano, Switzerland, beating the American onslaught of Eric Carter, a still recovering Brian Lopes and Brian Schmith. In the women's field, (do I really need to say it?) it was all Anne-Caroline, followed by Sabrina Jonnier, Jill Kintner and Melissa Buhl. According to www.velonews.com, race organizers planned a late start under the lights to amp up the crowd's excitement. Grandstands were erected (and filled to capacity) and the onlookers were further frothed by the giant screen TV showing live race action and slow-motion replays.

My apologies for taking so long to post this update. I just wanted to wait a little bit and hopefully have some good news for you. At the time of my last update, I had begun to ride around the Sea Wall in Vancouver on my cruiser bike, and exploring neighbourhoods in North Van.

Well, it’s been just over a year now since I had my terrible accident, August 26th. I have some good news…here it is:

Here's another video file for all of you armchair athletes and adrenaline junkies alike. Squeemish (Squamish) was a blast even though it rained almost every day.
We're still planning a September 20 air date for episode 1 season 2 across Canada but you'll have to stay tuned to the pinkbike and dropin sites as the date nears to get local air times for your area.
RIP - Jared Jespersen

Quicktime required (Right click and Save As)
Download Dropin episode 4 teaser

Do you have what it takes to photograph the world's best freeride mountain bike riders? Why not? Get "In Focus" and see your photos published in Launch Magazine.

For 2004, Eric Fox has brought back some tried, tested and true hardware in addition to some new products to the lineup, in his own words, “I am going to mix it up every year.” The separation between the MTB and BMX is more evident this year than any, with the buyer having full freedom to build a pure freeride/DH hardtail or a dirtjump/street specific rig.

Shimano's patent infringement suit against SRAM in Germany went very public last week at Eurobike, where the Japanese company served injunctions that had SRAM Europe employees pulling Powerglide cassettes and its new X-7 trigger shifters off of display shelves and putting stickers over catalog illustrations in order to comply while SRAM's appeals are pending.

Stop by Farkin.net to read the final part of their Glen Jacob interview...good stuff I tell ya!!

Bring me to Glen's interview part 3

Enjoy!

There have been some rumours circulating around the web recently about Maxxis dropping their team for 2004 (rumours on the web, who'd have thought?). That would leave some pretty stellar riders, namely, April Lawyer, John Kircaldie, Colin Bailey and Kashi Leuchs looking for rides... not true! Some of the rumours had the team moving to Giant with Maxxis replacing Michelin as tire sponsor, this is a little closer to the truth...

Mountain bikers can lower their phone bills and help IMBA by taking advantage of a new partnership between IMBA and Telphonic Communications. Telphonic, a growing company based in San Ramon, California, provides low-cost long distance and internet service to individuals and businesses.

If you consider yourself a serious rider, it is likely that you are one of the ever-increasing majority who have either heard of the Whistler Mountain Bike Park and/or experienced its “adrenaline-fuelled, gravity-fed” descents. If you fall into the minority who don’t know about the ultimate shuttle-like experience (i.e.: you live in a trailer with no power and your bike is a ’73 Monshee Sport Cruiser) you are missing out on a smorgasbord of drops, tables, tech sections, and high speed DH runs on butter-smooth berm'd-up trails catered by the undisputed industry leader in lift-accessed mountain biking – Whistler Blackcomb.

Vernon, NJ, August 29, 2003 - After countless hours of planning and course
building the Diablo Freeride Park is primed to host the US Open of Mountain
Biking, considered to be the next generation of Mountain Bike Events.

Here's the deal folks, I met with Bell Expressvu yesterday and everything
is a go. They will be bringing an 8 million dollar set up to shoot the DH
Provincial Championships at Heights of Horseshoe in high definition TV. It
will be promoted on ExpressVu's Channel 700 and will be marketed as a $3.99
PPV offering. Standard Definition debut will be made on SportsNet and the
airing dates for both networks will be confirmed precisely in the next week
or so.

The World Masters Championships went off at Bromont this long weekend. Taking Gold in the "young old men's" class (30-34) was Lars Tribus of Chumba Racing. Lars said of the win "It was REALLY rewarding because I have been
training extremely hard for it and I have been so busy with work that
training itself was an ultimate mission of time management." That pretty much sums up the Masters, guys and gals who ride fast, but have day jobs that keep them from racing pro! On a disappointing side note, the UCI refused to recognize World Champions in classes with a field of less than 3 competitors. It's unfortunate some riders who travelled great distances to compete won't be recognized as World Champions by the UCI.