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I've had a passion for DH racing for years. Sometimes I wish I wouldn't have given it up. It's especially difficult since seeing Shaun Palmer re-enter the sport and be competitive at the pro level. So what the heck....this is a thread dedicated to bikes....the pedal type.


Although unconventional, I thought I would start out with a photo of one of the true heroes of the sport. The paraplegic DH'er. Oh! and this is a girl. She was a top pro on two wheels. Here's a link to what transpired: http://www.tarallanesroadtorecovery.com/

Best race I ever had. Yeah, the bike dates it a bit.

Talk about taking me back Brian. I remember that bike, still a cool ride. I keep looking at my stripped down Intense Uzzi SLX mountain bike frame. It's begging to be rebuilt.

Do you remember the male four wheel downhiller that used to be sponsored by Specialized? I remember that dude bombing down the trails in Big Bear.

Yeah, he cut me off one time on a practice run. He was sideways in a high speed turn coming down Summit run. Roosted me good!! Love those guys. Was bummed to hear about Tara.

Yeah I can't believe that happen to her. I remember when she first came on the mountain bike scene.

Here is a link for her:

http://www.tarallanesroadtorecovery.com/

yikes wrote:I've had a passion for DH racing for years. Sometimes I wish I wouldn't have given it up. It's especially difficult since seeing Shaun Palmer re-enter the sport and be competitive at the pro level. So what the heck....this is a thread dedicated to bikes....the pedal type.


Although unconventional, I thought I would start out with a photo of one of the true heroes of the sport. The paraplegic DH'er. Oh! and this is a girl. She was a top pro on two wheels. Here's a link to what transpired: http://www.tarallanesroadtorecovery.com/

Damn, that bike is badasss Brian... super cool that he puts that effort in to it being a paraplegic.....

tcm glx wrote:Damn, that bike is badasss Brian... super cool that he puts that effort in to it being a paraplegic.....

I don't care what you say. That rider's got no balls.

On a serious note, I don't have the balls for that downhill stuff. It has yet to be seen if my new (to me) bike will ever even see dirt!


What's the story with llanes? She now races on four wheels or was that before?

Those four wheelers had some high end gear from coilovers with resis to carbon seats and disc brakes. Really nice gear. How the hell they make it down single tracks is beyond me but they definitely haul the mail.

SteveG wrote:What's the story with llanes? She now races on four wheels or was that before?

she crashed bad and was either a full or partial para after words. now she is on one of those 4x machines. i don't know the whole story, but people into this sport generally don't just walk away after life altering moments.

i've never seen one on a rocky rutted single track, but i do see them on the more open groomed trails. there simply isn't room to fit one of those on most black diamond dh trails.

i'll grab some pics of my bikes, i've got a few but no good ones of me riding.

that schwinn looks like an antique brian

Mountain bike is such an awesome sport but I've had so many close calls riding in Moab and Angeles Crest that I care to remember. But I think the worst was the accident I had at the California Nationals in Lake Castaic. I can't remember the year but I believe it was around 1995. It was the night before my cross country race and I was cruising around the camp grounds just warming my legs up, the sun was sitting and I was a stone throw from my tent and before you know it I was falling into a 6 foot hole that was created by rain run off. I had no idea it was there as the shadows some how covered it very well.

As I felt my head hit the wall of the hole I saw stars but didn't pass out. I stood up and felt the top of my head which was cut open and my scalp was flapping. I slide my head across the top and it opened up like a cookie jar. Scared the s--- out of me. I had my 12 year old nephew Fernando with me. I tossed the bike out of the hole and told him don't worry everything will be alright. He looked like he just seen a ghost. I jumped out and at this point blood was covering my face and jacket. I walked over to camp and asked for someone to call the 911. I kept my cool for my nephew's sake.

As I sat there I had a fellow mountain biker apply pressure to my head to slow down the bleeding. A ambulance came and took me to the hospital.

First they took me in for X-rays and while there on the table I could feel the blood going down the back of my neck. It was a very strange feeling. Lucky I didn't crack my head but only scratched the top layer of my skull leaving a nice dent for those of you who have seen me can still see the dent.

Then came the cleaning out of the under part of my scalp and that hurt like a mother f---er. Then came the staples and stitches. It turned out that the needle to deliver the local anesthesia was too painful to take as my nerve endings were exposed. I asked the doctor to not use any and just go for it. To lay there and have staples go into your head without any pain relief was something I'll never want to experience again. At one point the staple gun (which actually looks like a small construction style staple gun) was jammed and it took a little work to remove the gun from my head. They then started stapling again. 13 staples and 24 stitches later and I was all back together.

I feel very lucky other then a dented head and some loss of feeling on that part of my head I came away walking.

Chris

Quite a story there, wow!
I ruptured my spleen on a DH ride going over the bars in 1989. Luckily, spleen was only severely bruised and didn't rupture until later that night and Docs at Mammoth hospital saved my life taking my spleen out in 3 pieces after an ambulance ride from home. Guess the good Lord still had plans for me here.

Went to the Bishop hospital right after the wreck, as closest and all they did was wash the gravel out of my face and tell me I was merely bruised bad! Friend drove me and my truck home to Mammoth and later that night the spleen ruptured. Needless to say, I didn't have to pay the Bishop hospital bill as I kept telling them something was way wrong in my abdomen and they darn near let me die sending me home.

Funny part of the story is, it was deer season and a deer hunter saw my wreck, walked down off the ridge to help out, as I was last in the riding group and others hadn't heard my wreck.
After a bit they came back looking for me and the first thing they see is me lying there with the hunter standing over me. They thought he'd shot me and were all freaked out at first!
We still laugh about that moment.

Lucky it was deer season actually, as got a 10 mile ride out of there in a jeep because I couldn't ride, as hurt like hell with the spleen, wrist, and a face full of gravel!

Still gotta love mtn biking tho.

Looking like we have a GoFast Mtn Bike thread here. Haha

Broncodawg wrote:Looking like we have a GoFast Mtn Bike thread here. Haha

Woohooo!! That was a good story. Both of them. Mammoth hospital gets a lot of biz from us "extreme" sports types.

I always thought Chris' head was AFU. Now I know why. Haha!


I was fortunate enough to never break a bone in all my years off DH'ing. When I stopped, it was for that reason, among others. I figured the day was coming, because the trails and my riding were getting more and more dangerous. I got off the bike as fast as 55mph with nothing more than a few cuts and bruises and it never affected me. It was the ultra steep technical stuff in the rocks and 10ft drops that always bothered me more. I would do it, but never got comfortable. Right now I would give anything to go back to the 90's when the sport was young and growing. Best times of my life.

magic carpet XLT wrote:that schwinn looks like an antique brian

Haha!! Does now, for sure. Have you ever ridden one Andy? It was the best bike I had in the braking bumps. Came up a little short on the big hits, but that was just a tuning issue. In 2004(??) I saw a list of the top 10 DH bikes of all time and it was on there, near the top.

Here was my other Straight 8:

yikes wrote:Does now, for sure. Have you ever ridden one Andy?

haven't ridden a schwinn, but i rode a yeti dh9 with a similar swingarm and linkage setup but a little more travel (and a lot more weight) and it was phenomenal. not nimble enough to be fast now adays, but very good at charging big techy lines and mowing down rocks, bumps etc. a buddy of mine was a mechanic for the rock shox world cup dh team back in the day of those straight 8s and has a trailer full of goodies you would probably kill for. the guy gave me a boxxer world cup for freee. hes trying to find all the parts to put together a period specific build so hopefully he will let me throw a leg over it...

heres my pair. i've ridden a lot of the new school virtual pivot bikes (iron horse sunday, V10s, VP free, specialized big hit/demo) and i honestly i have to say i like single pivots with linkage the best. something about a bike that has pedal feedback and brake jack just seems to make me faster (cause i let off the brakes).

i can't even remember how many times i have crashed but its all about knowing how to fall and having a good full face (not one that your nose pokes out of).

Great bike shot guys. I need to go home and take a few myself.

Here is my list of previous owned and currently owned mountain bikes in no particular order.

DiamondBack Ascent
Specialized Rock Hopper
Specialized M2
Specialized M4
Land Shark (Road Bike)
Bianchi (Road Bike)
DiamondBack Axis (Chromoly frame)
DiamondBack Axis TT (Titanium) Still one of the best hard tail cross country bikes I have ever owned
GT Zaskar
Pro Flex 954
Pro Fex 856

Current bikes:
Intense Uzzi SLX free ride bike
DiamondBack XR8 cross country full suspension bike

Dream Bike:
Seven Cycles Ti with the same geometry as my DiamondBack Axis TT but with large down tubes for less flex

I had an Axis TT Chris!! It was my first MTB. Had a Manitou 3 on it. I remember crashing it off of a big drop (relative) and eating it hard. The front tire hit the crown on compression and stopped it instantly. I did a full front flip in the air, on the bike and another after hitting the ground. My brother thought I was dead. Ha!!


Andy - That Commencal looks light. 38? How do you like it? I cannot stand brake jack. I feel faster with it though, because my eyeballs are rattling so bad. Ha! Once I got to a virtual pivot bike, I never looked back. I would like to try a swing arm bike again with a floating brake. Never had a chance to do that. The last bike I rode was a Demo 8 and I loved it. So much more agile than my Demo 9 and the Fox 40 rocked!

I didn't own many bikes, but kept them all for quite a few years:

Peugout (Road bike)
Focus (Road bike)
Diamondback Axis TT
Giant ATX1.75 with a Judy DH!!
Cheetah DH (Broke in half after 2 years of racing)
Cheetah Prowler DH (Shitty bike, lots of flex in the swingarm, couldn't rail a turn)
Schwinn Straight 8 (2)
Specialized Demo 9 w/Monster & 888
Specialized P2 with DJ2


Here's the demo ready to huck:




...ready to race:




The P2 with 3.0 slicks

Here's what my old Peugeot looked like:

Was that not one of the better cross country hard tail bikes you had ridden? My DiamondBack Axis TT cost me $1,300.00 just for the frame but it was worth every penny. Sold it to my buddy and he is still cruising that thing. Now I want it back.

i love my commencal and wouldn't trade it for the world. the geometry is perfectly dialed in my opinion, and even tho my frame is older (05?) the new geo is still pretty close. the build quality is off the wall tho, they definitely put some time into it. much nicer than any specialized, giant, trek etc i've worked with. lots of stainless thread inserts, stainless insert for the pivot axle, adjustable head tube angle, and the new ones even have adjustable chainstays. as it sits its actually ~40-41. i could save a lot of weight tho with some new wheels, tubeless setup, ti or carbon this and that etc. i've only got about 1500 into the bike, its amazing what you can find used. when i retire this frame i will go with a newer commencal for sure.

demos are really nice bikes, the newest 8s are finally a true DH race bike (now that sam hill is giving them input). the demo 9s were chuckers for sure. i like FSR best out of all the virtual pivot bikes, but i just think single pivots have a more predictable wheel path and a little more pop. i've never ridden a bike that didn't have some amount of brake jack, i think its actually a good thing to have a little to plant the rear tire and keep it from loosing traction. the linkage does a lot to minimize braking forces, commencal is big on FEA, apparently they roll with an F1 sized chase trailer to most races to analyze how their bikes are performing.