MTB for Family Fun

In the last few weeks the weather has finally warmed up! MTB'ing has been for 30 years now my favorite sport, recently I have been discovering something that when I started riding I did not think about. Riding with Kids! What a great way for the family to get out and enjoy a day together. Nesta my 10 year old son has been riding with our customers this year and Dayna at 5 years old has just started riding in the bush this spring. Escape the summer heat,come and spend a day riding with your family here on Yatsugatake Mtn, Nagano.

The Flu, seasons end

I love riding during the month of November, the fallen leaves make for a red carpet ride through the forest, the weather is chilly but sunny most of the time here in Nagano. I must apollogize to the customers who I had to cancel suddenly on because of the infamous Swine Flu, Adults are least likely to catch the flu I was told, but I managed to pick it up from my son, Nesta. I am still riding up here now, the trails are frozen but have no snow, definitly a nice time to ride a full suspension bike. Nesta has stopped ridng now and has traded his bike for speed skates, I will ride until the snow is too deep!

Panorama "motai nai"

I had 3 Austrailians up here for a week a the start on July. 3 very solid riders who were happy to spend their time riding the Gondola at Panorama and ripping up the trails. I was suprised to hear that in the land down under they were riding 2-3 minute tracks,when you think about how many Aussies are at the top of the MTB downhill game it is hard to understand why there are no fast Japanesee riders, Mio-san excepted. They also wondered why Panorama doesn't make some trails like Whistler has done, this would help with the erosion problems ,slow the riders down and make it more enjoyable. They wonder why the thinking in Japan is "small world not the big picture". My favorite quote " This place could be Aisa's MTB capital,don't they know we are out here?" I had no answers for them ,, who does? Check out this video of the 3 Aussies enjoying a bit of Japanese single track.

BC RACE stage 5

Stage 5
If you ever have the chance to get over to the sunshine coast , make sure you ride the trails around the towns of Sechelt and Gibson known as the Rat Race Trail System. The locals have built some of the most fun flowing trails that I have ever had the pleasure to ride. Not super technical but just tricky enough to keep you on your toes. Great banked trails through the rainforest help you keep your speed on these fast smooth trails. We were feeling good about our riding over the last couple days and were looking forward to this day. The cycling gods were not on my side though as today was my turn to have the mechanical problem , with about 15 kilometers left to go on this 65 kilometer ride my chain snapped. Not only did it break but a whole section of chain came off. By the time we got that fixed we had lost at least 20 minutes and once again finished the day feeling a bit unsatisfied.

Stage Winners-

Team Old School ( Canadain 2008 olympian Seamus Mcgrath, Chris Sheppard) 3:36

Brownfishjumpers 4:47

Freeride Adventures Video

This video was made by one of our customers last weekend. Everytime Paul looked at Suzuki-san he seemed to have his camera in his hand. He filmed all this one handed while chasing us down the trails riding his mountainbike. The only thing he couldn`t do one handed was eat the hamburger! You can link up to either of these links to check it out.