Transition bikes at the Grassroots Ranchstyle 2009
This year Transition stepped up its support for Grassroots Cycles' Slope style comp. A good time was had by all and the competition went down with out a glitch. It was a great time and I can't wait to make it back for next year's Comp!
Enjoy our story, pics and video inside,words by Mike Metzger
Last year Cam and Kyle both attended a slopestyle comp in Colorado that was put on by GrassRoots Cycles, one of our dealers in Grand Junction. This year GrassRoots Cycles decided to step it up, so we did too. Transition decided to fly Cam, Kyle and myself down for the event, where we would meet up with Transition riders Casey Groves and Stephanie Nychka.
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Getting there was a breeze, we all had our Iphones, along with our favorite movies and games loaded onto them so the flight went by super quick. We were then picked up by Matt Bollin, owner of Grassroots, and he drove us to his property where the Ranch Style would be held. If you are not familiar with the ranch, here it is explained by Matt:
“The thought of having 35 acres to build whatever we wanted without the risk of it being torn down was too enticing. I purchased the property in the summer of 2004 and we began digging immediately. The first trails were "fall line" and "d-line", with the largest jump being a wood-to-wood double with a bike length gap over a dead tree (a sketchy proposition at the time). The waterfall drop was first built with a wood roll down, kind of "training wheels" for a drop. Slowly but surely we all got comfortable hitting the drop into the narrow gully and the training wheels came off...and so it has been like that for the last five years, a slow progression of riding and building. The ranch now has eight trails littered with jumps, berms, drops, and wood features and has a dual slalom and slopestyle course.”
Matt also built an awesome cabin on the property which he names the “Man Shack” and that was where Cam, Kyle, Steph, Casey, and I would be staying for the trip. When we arrived to the Cabin, I was pleased to see that right in the parking lot was a 20ft double over a fire pit- these guys weren’t messing around! And once I got a chance to walk the property that's the same feeling I got everywhere I went. The trails were interwoven throughout Matt’s entire property and everywhere there was jumps, drops, wall rides, etc. The next day when I got a chance to see the course I was blown away. The course was insane! I know of a couple pros who just canceled their flight plans once Matt put up the helmet cam video of the course and its monolithic stunts.
![photo]()
That day I just walked around with Casey and we filmed some of the stunts while he got a feel for the course and jumps. It was pretty sweet watching Casey as he worked up to the larger stunts and started to throw some tricks over all of them. I am always blown away with how easy he makes things look- actually it disgusts me! While we were making our way around that day, I was finally able to meet Dominic, our 15 year old grassroots hucker. Dom is probably one of the coolest and funniest kids I have ever met. After he walked the course once with us he just mobbed his way through the first time. It was scary and awesome all at the same time. There were a couple of overshoots to front heavy landings, but he pulled it through. Dom then comes walking back up with a big grin on his face and says “I should hit that 40ft booter now.” I just shook my head and laughed.
![photo]()
As more and more riders started to show up, the level of riding was pushed further and further. I do remember getting ready for bed one night and thought I would just check outside to see if people were still hanging out around the fire pit. Sure enough not only were they hanging out in the dark while it was snowing, but Brodie Rider Jon Erickson was riding in the dark, in the snow, and the mud, and flipping over the fire pit. It was pretty amazing.
This is how the rest of the trip seemed to go. People were just going off constantly. In one area of the ranch there was a nice step up jump for the riders to throw down on. Transition rider Micah Hintze was stomping some huge tuck flips and 720s on his Double, while Nick Simcik was stretching out some no cans, supermans, and landing his first barspins on the Bottlerocket. It was an awesome session, and definitely pumped people up for the competition.
I went back to the Cabin to hangout where I met up with Stephanie Nychka as she was hitting the fire pit gap and working on some of her tricks for the comp. While Steph was working on her tables, she had a crash that would put her out for the comp and probably a couple months. On one of her attempts, Steph got a little rowdy in the air, and that mixed with a good sized side wind sent her a little off axis. Steph tried to bail off the back and to me it looked like she had landed smoothly, however that wasn’t the case. I hear her calmly say that her ankle is broken, I ran over to see if she was okay, and when I saw her ankle it felt like my stomach had fallen out my butt. Her ankle was hanging there and pointing in a not-so-natural direction. With some well organized team work we were able to get her loaded into the truck and down to the hospital. We came to find that Steph had a broken tibia and a severely dislocated ankle. After “A LOT” of pain meds in order to put it back in place they were finally able to pull the ankle back in place and send Steph back with us in her spiffy new cast. Steph was a champ through the whole process, and let me tell you I don’t know if it is even possible to take that much pain with such ease. I probably complained more than she did throughout the whole process. Nychka is one tough chick!
![photo]()
One of the things I was signed up to help with was a riding clinic. Along with Kyle and Casey, we put on our own clinic for about 7 people who had signed up to learn some riding tips. We started off simple, helping people learn how to properly compress into lips in order to achieve some solid height and distance.
![photo]()
It was a great feeling to see the expressions on people's faces when the motions would click and come together for them as they really start to figure it out. By the time we were done everyone was showing huge improvements with their jumping skills and comfort in the air. Nothing gets me more pumped than when something finally clicks for a rider and seeing the excitement on their faces. I know exactly how great it feels to finally figure something out, so I'm excited when I see others doing the same. At the end of the day we retired to the man shack where we played some Downhill Domination to prep for tomorrow's slopestyle comp.
The day of the comp we all woke up to our shack being turned into a Burrito and Beer Distribution center. We all got ready and headed up to the slopestyle site. Riders were already flowing the course and getting ready for the competition. The first part of the event was the amateur riders, and you wouldn’t have guessed it. Tons of people were throwing down, including 15 year old Dominic who's run consisted of launching a 40 footer, no footers over the 25 footer, while mixing it up with some huge tuck no handers throughout the course. There were other riders who were hitting the huge 40 ft gap and mixing some tricks up in their runs, including some intense wall rides and drops through out the course. Then Dominic came through again, but this time would be his last for that day. While doing a no footer, Dom threw the trick too early and when he took his feet off his rear end was bucked and Dom flew face first into the ground from about 15ft in the air. Dom was out for a couple minutes, and once he regained consciousness his parents took him to the hospital to have everything checked out. Dom’s crash ended the amateur part of the event, then the Pros took to the course.
As the pro riders started coming though the course it started as every event does - pretty mellow with riders just warming up, taking it easy on the course. But once Casey Groves started throwing some massive tail whips over the larger doubles, and off the large drop, everyone else followed. The rest of the event was insane - enormous backflips, 360’s, mixed with some style that only the pros possess made for an awesome show! This continued for about half an hour. Riders where ripping on the way down, then catching their breaths on the way up. Mike Kreger was on the microphone and urging Casey to triple bar hump, but Casey had other plans. Groves launched one of the doubles on the course and perfectly landed a triple can. This made the whole crowd go crazy! Andrew Taylor then came through and was stomping some wicked super flips and tuck flips that only added fuel to the fire. Around this point, everyone started to notice Tyler McCaul eyeing up the 40 footer. Being a McCaul, everyone knew he was preparing for craziness. After a two practice runs, Tyler Came into the 40 footer and floated a text book tail whip to pedals over the man-sized gap. This was followed by Brodie's rider Jon Erickson eyeing up the gap for a backflip. Not only was this just plain nuts, but Jon was doing it on his hardtail! After 2 attempts and just barely over rotating, Jon came around and stomped the flip to end the 2009 Grassroots Cycles Ranchstyle event.
![photo]()
![photo]()
![photo]()
The next day it was time to head home, and we caught a ride with Matt to the airport where we all pulled our Iphones back out for the plane ride home. The trip to Colorado was awesome, and I would like to thank Transition Bikes for sending all of us to the event. It was a great time seeing all my old friends, while making new ones. A huge thanks to Grassroots Cycles for putting on an amazing event as well as being such great host. I would definitely say the 2009 Ranchstyle was a huge success and that I will definitely return for next year!
Ranchstyle 2009:
www.transitionbikes.com
Enjoy our story, pics and video inside,words by Mike Metzger
Last year Cam and Kyle both attended a slopestyle comp in Colorado that was put on by GrassRoots Cycles, one of our dealers in Grand Junction. This year GrassRoots Cycles decided to step it up, so we did too. Transition decided to fly Cam, Kyle and myself down for the event, where we would meet up with Transition riders Casey Groves and Stephanie Nychka.
Cam, Kyle, and Mike getting ready for the flight to Grand Junction
Getting there was a breeze, we all had our Iphones, along with our favorite movies and games loaded onto them so the flight went by super quick. We were then picked up by Matt Bollin, owner of Grassroots, and he drove us to his property where the Ranch Style would be held. If you are not familiar with the ranch, here it is explained by Matt:
“The thought of having 35 acres to build whatever we wanted without the risk of it being torn down was too enticing. I purchased the property in the summer of 2004 and we began digging immediately. The first trails were "fall line" and "d-line", with the largest jump being a wood-to-wood double with a bike length gap over a dead tree (a sketchy proposition at the time). The waterfall drop was first built with a wood roll down, kind of "training wheels" for a drop. Slowly but surely we all got comfortable hitting the drop into the narrow gully and the training wheels came off...and so it has been like that for the last five years, a slow progression of riding and building. The ranch now has eight trails littered with jumps, berms, drops, and wood features and has a dual slalom and slopestyle course.”
Matt also built an awesome cabin on the property which he names the “Man Shack” and that was where Cam, Kyle, Steph, Casey, and I would be staying for the trip. When we arrived to the Cabin, I was pleased to see that right in the parking lot was a 20ft double over a fire pit- these guys weren’t messing around! And once I got a chance to walk the property that's the same feeling I got everywhere I went. The trails were interwoven throughout Matt’s entire property and everywhere there was jumps, drops, wall rides, etc. The next day when I got a chance to see the course I was blown away. The course was insane! I know of a couple pros who just canceled their flight plans once Matt put up the helmet cam video of the course and its monolithic stunts.
Casey with a suicide no hander over the Fire Pit Jump
That day I just walked around with Casey and we filmed some of the stunts while he got a feel for the course and jumps. It was pretty sweet watching Casey as he worked up to the larger stunts and started to throw some tricks over all of them. I am always blown away with how easy he makes things look- actually it disgusts me! While we were making our way around that day, I was finally able to meet Dominic, our 15 year old grassroots hucker. Dom is probably one of the coolest and funniest kids I have ever met. After he walked the course once with us he just mobbed his way through the first time. It was scary and awesome all at the same time. There were a couple of overshoots to front heavy landings, but he pulled it through. Dom then comes walking back up with a big grin on his face and says “I should hit that 40ft booter now.” I just shook my head and laughed.
15yr old Dominic Mengalli doing a tuck no hander on his Blindside
As more and more riders started to show up, the level of riding was pushed further and further. I do remember getting ready for bed one night and thought I would just check outside to see if people were still hanging out around the fire pit. Sure enough not only were they hanging out in the dark while it was snowing, but Brodie Rider Jon Erickson was riding in the dark, in the snow, and the mud, and flipping over the fire pit. It was pretty amazing.
This is how the rest of the trip seemed to go. People were just going off constantly. In one area of the ranch there was a nice step up jump for the riders to throw down on. Transition rider Micah Hintze was stomping some huge tuck flips and 720s on his Double, while Nick Simcik was stretching out some no cans, supermans, and landing his first barspins on the Bottlerocket. It was an awesome session, and definitely pumped people up for the competition.
I went back to the Cabin to hangout where I met up with Stephanie Nychka as she was hitting the fire pit gap and working on some of her tricks for the comp. While Steph was working on her tables, she had a crash that would put her out for the comp and probably a couple months. On one of her attempts, Steph got a little rowdy in the air, and that mixed with a good sized side wind sent her a little off axis. Steph tried to bail off the back and to me it looked like she had landed smoothly, however that wasn’t the case. I hear her calmly say that her ankle is broken, I ran over to see if she was okay, and when I saw her ankle it felt like my stomach had fallen out my butt. Her ankle was hanging there and pointing in a not-so-natural direction. With some well organized team work we were able to get her loaded into the truck and down to the hospital. We came to find that Steph had a broken tibia and a severely dislocated ankle. After “A LOT” of pain meds in order to put it back in place they were finally able to pull the ankle back in place and send Steph back with us in her spiffy new cast. Steph was a champ through the whole process, and let me tell you I don’t know if it is even possible to take that much pain with such ease. I probably complained more than she did throughout the whole process. Nychka is one tough chick!
Stephanie and Mike and their sweet new whips
One of the things I was signed up to help with was a riding clinic. Along with Kyle and Casey, we put on our own clinic for about 7 people who had signed up to learn some riding tips. We started off simple, helping people learn how to properly compress into lips in order to achieve some solid height and distance.
Patrick catching some air time
It was a great feeling to see the expressions on people's faces when the motions would click and come together for them as they really start to figure it out. By the time we were done everyone was showing huge improvements with their jumping skills and comfort in the air. Nothing gets me more pumped than when something finally clicks for a rider and seeing the excitement on their faces. I know exactly how great it feels to finally figure something out, so I'm excited when I see others doing the same. At the end of the day we retired to the man shack where we played some Downhill Domination to prep for tomorrow's slopestyle comp.
The day of the comp we all woke up to our shack being turned into a Burrito and Beer Distribution center. We all got ready and headed up to the slopestyle site. Riders were already flowing the course and getting ready for the competition. The first part of the event was the amateur riders, and you wouldn’t have guessed it. Tons of people were throwing down, including 15 year old Dominic who's run consisted of launching a 40 footer, no footers over the 25 footer, while mixing it up with some huge tuck no handers throughout the course. There were other riders who were hitting the huge 40 ft gap and mixing some tricks up in their runs, including some intense wall rides and drops through out the course. Then Dominic came through again, but this time would be his last for that day. While doing a no footer, Dom threw the trick too early and when he took his feet off his rear end was bucked and Dom flew face first into the ground from about 15ft in the air. Dom was out for a couple minutes, and once he regained consciousness his parents took him to the hospital to have everything checked out. Dom’s crash ended the amateur part of the event, then the Pros took to the course.
As the pro riders started coming though the course it started as every event does - pretty mellow with riders just warming up, taking it easy on the course. But once Casey Groves started throwing some massive tail whips over the larger doubles, and off the large drop, everyone else followed. The rest of the event was insane - enormous backflips, 360’s, mixed with some style that only the pros possess made for an awesome show! This continued for about half an hour. Riders where ripping on the way down, then catching their breaths on the way up. Mike Kreger was on the microphone and urging Casey to triple bar hump, but Casey had other plans. Groves launched one of the doubles on the course and perfectly landed a triple can. This made the whole crowd go crazy! Andrew Taylor then came through and was stomping some wicked super flips and tuck flips that only added fuel to the fire. Around this point, everyone started to notice Tyler McCaul eyeing up the 40 footer. Being a McCaul, everyone knew he was preparing for craziness. After a two practice runs, Tyler Came into the 40 footer and floated a text book tail whip to pedals over the man-sized gap. This was followed by Brodie's rider Jon Erickson eyeing up the gap for a backflip. Not only was this just plain nuts, but Jon was doing it on his hardtail! After 2 attempts and just barely over rotating, Jon came around and stomped the flip to end the 2009 Grassroots Cycles Ranchstyle event.
Casey hitting the wallride on the course
Casey doing a tuck over the last jump in the course
Sweet shot of Casey with a perfect no can off the larger drop on the course
The next day it was time to head home, and we caught a ride with Matt to the airport where we all pulled our Iphones back out for the plane ride home. The trip to Colorado was awesome, and I would like to thank Transition Bikes for sending all of us to the event. It was a great time seeing all my old friends, while making new ones. A huge thanks to Grassroots Cycles for putting on an amazing event as well as being such great host. I would definitely say the 2009 Ranchstyle was a huge success and that I will definitely return for next year!
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...Nice vid !