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As you have seen, the ride for the BBQ was a huge success. From what I heard from the leader of the pack, there were over 50 riders in total that showed up that morning.

Once the ride was over, it was time to have the BBQ. There were tons of food and drinks and of course, stuff to win from the raffle! We were fortunate enough to have team racer and my country cuh’, Joe Solancho taking photos of the event.

Food! David Sanderson took the first shift of cooking and then I stepped in for the cooking duties.

Wesley “GQ” Castro, on his feet. But he’s got a permanent Gangsta’ Lean from his injury.

We were fortunate enough to have tons of schwag donated by some awesome companies. The one that people REALLY wanted was the Melon Slice.

Once everyone was well fed, David started the raffle.

Big winners, Doc Thunda and Mrs. Thunda.

661 donated a bunch of helmets. Thanks Mr. Neil Adams.

By the end of the raffle, many people were super happy. In fact, my daughter was thrilled that she won the Melon Slice! Wes shared a few words of gratitude towards the sponsors, team mates as well as the mountain biking community that showed their support for him.

MtnBikeRiders.com staff and racers

We’d like to give thanks to the following companies and people who donated goods for the raffle.
Fox Racing, Ergon USA, Ice Toolz Sette USA, Melon Bicycles, Freedom Riders, Stuart of big Dwags Auto Detailing, Specialized, Peace Coffee, Moe Ramirez,The Path Bike Shop, Evomo, and Dainese USA.

Here’s all the photos from the event.

Short video.

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Ergon is one of MtnBikeRiders.com Race Team’s sponsors and when I was given the opportunity to ride their new GA1, I jumped on it. My first set of Ergon GA1 grips were given to me about a year ago a the 2009 Sea Otter Classic. Since then I’ve fallen in love with the GA1 and decided to get a new set of grips for my downhill bikes.

Ergon GA1 installed on the Sette Venom.

I’ve been racing and riding with the Ergon GA1 grips for a few months and I have to tell you, I LOVE how they feel when riding through harsh technical terrain.

Ergon GA1 installed on the KHS Lucky 7.

FTC Review Disclaimer
Grips after 15 practice runs, and 2 downhill races. Within these runs, I’ve gone down a few times, but the grips still look and feel great. I’ve yet to have my hands slip off during a ride. So far so good.

Left grip

Right grip

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Ergon GA1 in Team colors

I got a chance to put the Ergon GA1 grips on my bike for the last couple of months. The GA1′s are a bit different from the normal Ergon grips that everyone knows. Rather than having a flat area for you to rest your palm on, thereby increase more palm/grip interface, the GA1 has a slight oval shape to it which tucks inside your hand and thereby increasing palm/grip interface over the normal round grip.

Since RL did a full review on these grips before, I thought I’d just add my experience with them. I’ve found the GA1′s shape to be very easy to adapt to. I know RL had a bit of a hurt palm when he first started riding with the GA1, but I’ve found it to be instantly familiar and comfortable. They were more than comfortable enough for a 4+ hour 20+ mile jaunt in the mountains two months ago.

About 10 miles in on a 20+ mile ride. The GA1′s were comfy

I recently swapped the grips over to the Niner AIR9 I’m riding to continue the testing. The change has been nearly seamless although I did have to find the sweet spot again as it wasn’t as easy as just bringing the handlebar over. This took all of 1 ride and I’ve been happy with the comfort and lack of hand fatigue from the grips ever since.

Although not a weight weenie grip I definitely don’t mind the extra grammage of the GA1. After using foam grips for the past few months then switching to the GA1, there was definitely a weight gain. However, I am more than happy to take the weight gain because the comfort level of the GA1 and the clamp that keeps the grip in place. In comparison to the original GP-1, which I’ve run for years, the GA1 is about 50 grams lighter.

Swapped to the AIR9 when the Jet went down for recall. Great on this bike too!

My final thought is to stick with the small. Even though I wear XL size gloves, I find the small to be more than enough room for me. The fit is really good with the small and I really can’t imagine how much bigger the Large sized version of the GA1 would be.

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Last night the MtnBikeRiders.com Crew set out to go see the biggest mountain bike movie ever produced.

Moe, Khoa, Romanian Thunda’ (Gabe), RL, Priscilla and Randall. Jeremy was there last night, but met us at the movie theater.

I say the biggest because I’ve yet to see a movie/film/video go through a “National Showing” of this magnitude. Race Across the Sky was geared to showcase the two main “characters” in the movie, Lance Armstrong and Dave Wiens during the Leadville 100 of 2009.

So lets get down to the nitty gritty. Fantastic cinematography! HD quality, lots of overhead-aerial shots, great music score and I loved the side stories they showed. As impressive the race was between the pros, I was more pulled in by all the stories of regular folks trying to finish this race. At times the movie was very emotional and I even felt like I could relate to some of the people they showed.

Two particular situations in the movie, don’t worry I won’t give all of it away, but there was a couple. She got into an accident, and the husband rushes over to her, only to find her laid out in the middle of the road. He basically thought she was dead. Anyhow, that whole story of this couple really tugged at my heart because I wouldn’t know what to do if I Priscilla got hit by a car like that person did.

The second heart tugger of the movie was this guy from Denver who had been racing in the Leadville 100 for the last 15 years. He had a great heart about him, and check this out. While all the other racers were decked out in lycra, carbon bikes and all that. He shows up in a Dickies work shirt, 90′s style helmet and a 90′s style AMP Mountain Bike (Tony still has one!). This guy finished the race and he was smiling the whole time.

Ok I think I’ve said way too much about the story line, but if you were to ask me, “was the movie good?” I would have to say, yes! Again, the footage was awesome, stories were great, but I would have liked it more if they had more of those.

I’m really hoping this movie will come out on DVD, that way more people can see it. Last night’s event was a “one night only” kinda thing. Even though it showed in theaters all over the US, not everyone had access to it in their local area.

So if you missed it, keep checking their website to see if they’ll do another showing, if so, GO! If not, wait for the DVD to come out. You don’t even have to be a racer a racer to appreciate to appreciate this film.

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As most of you know the Team MtnBikeRiders has been representin’ strong in our first few races. The team has been training hard these past few months and we’ve been having a great time out there! RL has done a great job with setting us up with some of the best companies out there for sponsorships and we are so proud to have their names on our jerseys!

This past weekend Jeffrey over at Ergon set me up with the girlie Ergon backpacks since the boy pack packs were a little big for Kim and I. I am a huge fan of Ergon grips and I wouldn’t ride without them….so I was excited to try out their backpacks.

I instantly fell in love when I opened the box! As much as I love the trademark green for Ergon, I have to say that the all black backpack is super sleek looking! Perfect fit for my curvy frame and I just love all the bells and whistles on this pack.

Here is the description for the boys BD1 pack:

A cycling backpack featuring a revolutionary carrying system. The central Flink® Link ball joint allows for huge freedom of movement for the upper body. Pressure is evenly distributed on both shoulders, protecting the back. This makes for a completely new and comfortable carrying sensation. Gender specific carrying systems each in two sizes. The BD1 is the perfect lightweight compact daypack. The BD1 features a large top opening design and includes one small external gear pocket, hydration bladder sleeve, helmet holder and integrated rain cover.

As a woman, I love small details – it really shows how much a company values their product when they put the extra time and money into small details. My favorite details in this pack – great padding on the straps, the built in whistle on the front buckle, the built in rain cover on the underside of the pack, the fact that it sits up right when placed on the floor, the design of the bag keeps it off your back…(no more sweaty back) and I love the flexible link system. If you ever get the opportunity you must try on this pack. I was amazed when I picked up the pack filled with items – it feels heavy in my hands, BUT the instant you put it on your back..AMAZING…it feels weightless! NO KIDDING.

I often hesitate when filling my backpack because of how heavy it feels on my back but that really isn’t an issue anymore with this pack. I can’t wait to put it to full use on an epic ride, filling it with all kinds of goodies!

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