First let me preface this story by saying I don't poach trails anymore, and believe that it is a VERY BAD IDEA. It doesn't do any good for the folks that work hard for trail advocacy. But back in the day, when I was young and dumb, I did a lot of things that I would tell you not to do now…………

  During my early days at the first Airborne, I used to ride a lot with a friend of mine named "Don" (name changed to protect the guilty). Our favorite trail to ride after work on weeknites was a 17 mile loop that consisted of mostly hiking trail, with a little bit of road section, at the Ceasar Creek reserve.  It was a known "Hiking ONLY" trail, but the enforcement of it was rather lax at the time and most everyone we knew rode there. And the signage was bad; it only was visible if you rode the trail clockwise because the signs only faced in one direction. All of us knew that if we were stopped and questioned, we were to just play dumb and say that we were getting off of the trail right away. The spot where we parked was a bit out of the way and there were never any signs at that entrance to the trail head.

  Don and I hit the trail at 5:30 on a late summer Wednesday nite looking to get a nice easy 2 hour ride in. Something you have to know about Don: he always carried his wallet with him where-ever he went. Even though I lectured him about the fact he didn't need it, and that a copy of his ID stuffed in his seat-pack would suffice for body identification if things turned sour, he didn't like leaving it in the vehicle. And it wasn't a small wallet either. It was like George's wallet on Seinfeld. Big, fat, and stuffed with everything to the point where the rubber band strained to kept it all together. It barely fit in his jersey pocket.

  The ride was awesome. Except for the tall, old and haggared hiker guy who yelled at us for riding on the trail. "Sorry sir". "We didn't see the sign". "We'll get right off!". I think I heard him say something about "pesky kids" but I wasn't certain.

  We arrived back at the truck at 7:30pm and the post-ride euphoria began. Visions of Bentino's Pizza and a beer began dancing thru my brain as I started packing up my gear.

  "Uh oh".

  "Uh oh what?"

  "My wallet fell out of my jersey pocket somewhere on the trail."

  Damn. After talking about it for a few moments, Don and I decided the thing to do was ride the trail in reverse, looking for the wallet. He remembered having it still when we were more than halfway in during the first lap, so the thought was we might find it going back in reverse quicker. It started getting dark fairly fast in the woods, and by 8:30 it was pitch-black. We were forced to make our way back to the truck.

  No lights. No wallet. Hungry.

  We made it to the truck by 9pm and packed up the bikes in the bed. On the off chance that someone had found the wallet and turned it in, we drove over to the Ranger Station to check. I stayed in the truck with the gear and bikes while Don went inside.

  10 minutes passed. Then 20.

  Don, along with a ranger, finally appeared at the front entrance. They both walked out toward the truck. The ranger poked around in the back of the truck and looked at the bikes, then had a heated discussion with Don before he got in the truck and we left.

  "What happened??"

  "Remember that old hiker on the trail? The one that yelled at us? Well, he found my wallet and drove back here to turn it in after his hike. He told the ranger that I was riding on the trail. I just got a $100 fine."

  Sometimes Karma can be a bitch, and sometimes it comes in the form of a hiker.

Jeremy

Validation comes in many forms. Our personal favorite is hearing it from riders who appreciate our efforts to make best-in-class bikes that are also the best value around. But kudos in the cycling press? Well, those are pretty darn good, too.

We've already shared some of TwentyNineInches.com's thoughts on the Airborne Goblin here. And it's clear Guitar Ted "gets" the Airborne brand and why we think it's important to make good-quality machines available to regular folks who aren't necessarily willing to blow the college fund on some Dream Ride (don't get us wrong-- we love those bikes too, but they're not necessarily for everyone, and we're happy to provide an alternative).

So it was especially cool when we learned this morning that not only had we made the TwentyNineInches Top 10 Products list, but had managed to snag the #3 slot. And as far as we can tell, it's also the first time a "value" bike has ever made the Top Ten list.

Following are some of the nice things Guitar Ted had to say about us:

• "The Goblin 29 appears at a price point that is highly competitive, (right around 1150 dollars), and does so with performance that belies its price. Not only that, but it packs some pretty impressive spec at that price as well."
  
• "the bike comes very well packed with minimal assembly required. Even if you didn't have a clue as to how to adjust the bike, it would be rideable..."
  
• "...a fun, agile trail bike with a good balance of stability at speed and technical slow speed handling which wasn't too heavy or floppy feeling at all."
  
• "It made for a great climbing and accelerating feel at the pedals, while not being a jackhammer on the bum at the saddle."
  
• "the Goblin is a great deal on a fine performing 29 inch wheeled hard tail. Definitely an impressive first outing for the new Airborne."

Kudos to Flight Crew member Wendy Davis for turning her regular weekend ride into a mini-canned food drive/fundraiser for local needy families. You can read about it on her blog, A Pabst Smear, but here's the basic idea:

1. Call up your friends. Maybe you already have a ride scheduled, or maybe you just want to get some buddies together. Be sure to ask everyone to bring dried or canned goods (or cash) to be donateld to your local Food Bank or other charitable institution...and that you'll "do all the work" (it's actually amazingly easy-- see below).
2. Once you arrive at the Meeting Point for your ride, leave your car trunk open and invite everyone to put their donated stuff  inside. (Here's where the cash option comes in handy. If your friends are anything like ours, several will have forgotten to bring food, but will still want to help out. Checks can be made out directly to the institution you selected back in Step 1.)
3. Ride! Be sure to have fun.
4. After the ride, drive by your local charity (during the holidays, many supermarkets  have Canned Food drives too so this step this can be as simple as stopping by the grocery store on your way home). Offload the goods, be sure to say "you're welcome!" ...and you're done.

That Wendy. Pretty smart, huh? Just one reason why we like her so much.

PS: Happy Holidays from all of us at Aribone.

The trails around here have been wet recently, so last week I decided to do a day- hike at Caesar Creek State Park.  An epic hike is great for clearing the mind sometimes. Cycling is my first love, but hiking breaks up the routine of cycling and allows you to see the things that you might miss while blasting down the trail.

During my hike I decided to take a detour and walk the old "50 Springs" XC mtb course that connects to the big south loop. In the 90's the 50 Springs course was home to many XC and CX races. The Kenda Ohio Off-Road Series ("KOORS") was a staple there, and it was there that many a tri-state area XC rider tried their hand at racing for the first time.

It was your typical 90's XC race-course; fast, flowy, and big-ring all the way. This was during a time when XTR only came in 46 and 48-tooth big ring configurations and 80mm of shock travel was the norm. I spent many countless hours out there practicing and racing. 50 Springs also was well known for its group night rides. The last time I rode there was probably over a decade ago on a chilly fall night ride with a good friend of mine.

Why haven't I been back there since then?  Probably for the same reasons that no one else rides there anymore.  A series of events conspired to turn a once great race venue into a barely passable hiking trail:

First:  The KOORS mtb series ceased to exist because the promoter decided the money was in organizing Triathlons and not mtb races. The Ohio CX scene also found more favorable venues to race at. This meant all of the experienced riders and racers went elsewhere.

Second:  The park became over-run with men of questionable motives that parked and hung out there looking for a "good time".  This is always a small problem and public parks but it became a huge problem there. 

Third:  A more beginner friendly mtb trail network began to grow in a nearby town, causing people to migrate there to ride instead.

So it was on this day that I experienced quite a bit of sadness as I walked the trail. Even though it had been a decade or so since I last was on it, I still knew every corner and tree like it was just yesterday. There's the spot where I lost several race positions because I forgot to check for thorns in the tire before pumping up the new tube. There's the picnic shelter where we would hang out during night rides and swap stories.

The trail had deteriorated to the point where it would require a monumental effort to bring it back. As usual, my weakness of trying to "fix things" came out and I began to think "If I could just get some volunteers out here with some tools and a chainsaw we could have this back in great shape………".

Luckily for me I had a moment of clarity near the end of the hike. I realized it was time to let it go. No amount of work to bring it back would be worth it: the problems would still exist.  I wouldn't ride it. Nor would anyone else for the reasons mentioned above.

So farewell old friend. We had some great times together that I will never forget.

Anyway, they found the cancer has attacked my lymph nodes (11 of 15... those are pretty crappy odds) so a pretty aggressive chemo program starts in a few weeks. We spoke to the doctor about it and he threw around a lot of medical terms and stuff but at that point I was just ready to go home and didn't care about the next step.

Spent most of Tuesday in a haze and fog over the whole experience and my insanely strong wife kept me focused and helped me realize I need to be strong to beat this so that's the way it's going to have to be....

Hit up Dick's Sporting Goods for a Livestrong Sweatshirt, so now I'm ready, right?.

The crappy thing is that having staples like this (I had gotten 14" of my colon removed and 16 staples from my belly button to my crotch), means that wearing pants really sucks...and they just don't make cool bed shirts for men... At least not ones I can wear out to drop Luke off to school in...lol

And then there was the 6 months of chemo.

For those of you who have never been through it, it's sitting there for 6 hours at a time, getting pricked with needles a lot, dangerous chemicals pumped into your body, feeling like crap for a few days (which gets longer as the program goes on), allergies to meds (of course I was one of 1% of people allergic to a certain family of nausea meds... go figure), depression, joy and confusion, all rolled into one big ball of fun.

Jealous, aren't you.

The weirdest thing was "cold neuropathy"... the chemicals they gave me made it so I couldn't touch or drink cold. If I did, instant pins and needles. Just in time for summer.

So how do you get thru it? To steal a line from Nike, you "just do it". My family and friends were always there when I needed them. Being a stay at home dad made things a bit easier too.

But damn it, if I didn't have an appointment someplace, I walked them to school, took them to the pool during the summer, and tried to keep things as "normal" as possible. Doing so was really important to my wife and me. You get up every morning, look at cancer in the mirror and say "you won't beat me today", then you go off and fight it with everything you have.

I realize that I can go on about this for a really long time. You can all get a better "real time" idea of what fighting and beating cancer is like by reading my blog. It'll give you a better idea of my feelings during it all (and a better taste of my well-documented sense of humor).

I'm lucky enough to be surrounded by great family and great friends. Believe it or not, I almost feel like I'm a lucky guy to have gotten cancer. There was a time in my life were maybe I took too much for granted and this experience helped me realize how fortunate and blessed I really am.

On a personal note, I want to thank Rick at Airborne for asking me to write this. I spent a good part of the week end trying to figure out in my head what to say. Spent the last few hours looking back at my blog and re-reading the feelings I had at the time. It had been months since I've done that.

The "fire" that cancer gave me has been flickering back to complacency the last few months and doing this project opened my eyes to that. I owe everyone many thanks.....

So now that you know the context, click here for Todd's Total Tear Down post.

PS: You can learn more about Big Todd Haskins here on the Airborne Flight Crew page.

On this Veterans Day, take a moment to reflect on the fact that this day is more than a day off work or an inconvenience because the banks and post offices are closed.  

A couple years back I went through some health issues that caused me to take stock of my life and take a hard look at some things. It may sound selfish to talk about myself on Veterans Day, but bear with me; I'm getting to a point eventually.

Generations of men in my family have served in the military and protected our country.  The Civil War. WWI. WWII. Korea. Vietnam. Some of them served because they had to. But most because they felt it was their duty.

As a young child I spent alot of time at my Grandparent's house watching black and white war films with my Grandfather. Sands of Iwo Jima.  Bridge on the River Kwai. Guns of Navarone. I remember listening to him telling me about his war experiences and friends he had lost. It was enthralling for me, but at the same time distant and disconnected to me. This was all so long ago, right? In the end what did it matter to me?

After high school, I went on about my life. Going to college. Racing bicycles. Racing cars. Enjoying everything that this country had to offer because men like my Grandfather fought to preserve it. There was no draft during this time and I had no intention in serving our country. Why should I? Then came Desert Shield, which eventually became Desert Storm. Some good friends of mine entered into the Reserves and National Guard after High School, and sure enough they ended up over there right in the middle of the conflict. Some of them didn't come back. One of my best friends came back, but came back a different man........he never was the same again. I couldn't begin to understand the things he went through.

A couple of years ago, I found myself seriously ill and away from work for some time. Many of those days were spent laying on the couch or in bed wondering if things would improve and looking back at my life. I watched a lot of black and white war movies. At first I thought I was watching them simply because I liked them, but I came to realize I watched them out of comfort........like being a kid sitting on the couch next to my Grandfather. I remembered the conversations we had about what he went through. But now it all seemed much closer to me. WWII ended not that long ago. 66 years ago to be exact.  Because men and women like my Grandfather served, and often gave their lives, we as a world are better for it.

And that's when it hit me: I regret not serving our country. I never signed up for the Reserves, the National Guard, never enlisted. I was close. During my freshman college year I took the ASVAB test and scored quite high for a few specialties. I'll admit I only looked at it as an option as a way pay for school. Despite the recruiter's best, and rather annoying, efforts I never joined. Now I wish I had served. To think that in my family, mine is the first generation that DIDN'T serve its country saddened me.  Its too late for me to join now, being in my 40's…………..but that realization I had then made me appreciate those who served.

Regardless of your political affiliation or thoughts on war in general, on this day and maybe several other days through the year, take a moment and think about those who made the freedoms that we enjoy possible.  

While prices all across the industry are going up, we're proud to offer lower prices than ever for 2012, with no reduction in spec. This is not a sale, not close-outs, not "special" discounts, just our regular 2012 pricing, starting right now.

At $1299.95, for instance, our best-selling 2011 Goblin 29er is already rated "equal to or better than bikes costing hundreds of dollars more" by Dirt Rag magazine. The 2012 Goblin keeps the same spec but drops an additional $150, to just $1149.95

Or consider our Taka DH bike, which Mountain Bike Action calls the "best deal on a downhill bike we've ever tested" at its original price of $1499.95. For 2012, Airborne takes that "best deal ever" pricing down even further, to just $1299.95.

So how can we do this at a time when our competitors are either raising prices or dropping spec-or sometimes both?

Simple. It's not about making bikes cheaper. It's about distributing bikes smarter. The bottom line is, it costs Airborne the same to make a good bike as anyone else. But we can deliver that bike to you at a much lower price because our direct-to-consumer distribution is so much more efficient. I'll cover this in more detail next week, but that's the basic idea.

And since Airborne doesn't use model years, the new pricing is effective right now and is anticipated to continue throughout 2012 as inventory is refreshed and new models are introduced.

Complete pricing is listed on the main site, but here's the overview:

Got a Special Delivery package from the folks at Mountain Bike Action earlier today. (Actually it was an email, but you get the idea.)

Inside was their brand-spankin' new 3-page (!) review of our Wingman Jump/Park/Urban bike. Based on the content, Jimmy Mac and the crew seem to like it...but read on, and you can judge for yourself.

As usual, the full (2 Mb) PDF article is available here (special thanks to the MBA staff for letting us post this), and the highlights are below.

• The Big Idea
  
  • "The growing popularity of jump bikes...has been paralleled by another growth trend-their cost. ... Now it is not uncommon for a jump bike to be priced well in excess of $1000. [But] Airborne, a company that sells its bikes directly to riders,wants to reverse this price trend with a $1000-plus jump bike that sells for $800."
  • "The Airborne Wingman is intended for dirt jumping and urban session riding. It is also an ideal pump-track bike and could be pressed into service for dual-slalom and 4-Cross events. By spec'ing front and rear hydraulic disc brakes, Airborne gives the Wingman rider the option of using the bike for commutes to school or the store. And heck, you could probably trail ride the Wingman too."
• Spec
  
  • "Most jump bikes are delivered without a front brake, so the Wingman's front stopper stands out. The Marzocchi Bomber DJ-3 fork is what you would expect to find on a $1000 dirt jumper, so it is a pleasant surprise to find it on the Wingman. Airborne uses Funn cockpit components,including a stem, handlebar, lock-on-style grips, seatpost and saddle."
  • Sweet Wellgo Alloy Flat [pedals], stopping power and a wild adjustable dropout.
• Performance
  • "The Wingman is flickable with an ultra-low standover clearance. Knees and shins don't make unwanted
    contact with the frame during stunts."
  • "The short chainstays and rigid frame make getting up to speed a flex-free experience. The gearing is on the tall side, but the frame, cranks and wheels do a fine job of providing a laterally rigid experience so your leg effort goes toward forward momentum."
  • "Manualing: No problem here. The rear wheel is tucked in nicely, and lifting the front wheel is almost a subconscious decision."
  • "The Wingman has a steep front end that allows you to carve up a berm and make line changes at will."
  • "The smooth-rolling Kenda tires provide plenty of confidence in the corners, and they work just as well on pavement."

• Bottom Line
  • Airborne delivers a lot of bike for the buck..."
  • "Airborne again packs in the value."
  • "There is nothing cheap-feeling about the Wingman. A great frame, solid components and a proven fork make this bike an under-budget rager. Just don't tell your buddies how much you paid for it.

Hmm...sounds like they like it. Of course Jimmy Mac's been using the Wingman as his personal backyard pump track bike for months, and the fact that he doesn't seem inclined to give it back anytime soon that may have been something of a tip-off.

Another group that likes the Wingman is the Airborne Flight Crew. Here's a couple of videos of the guys having fun with it in an indoor urban session and on a DS course, respectively:

Last week we were blessed by some AWESOME fall weather here in the Midwest. A group of 4 of us decided to take advantage of the great weather on Friday by heading down to Ft. Duffield's DH trails in Kentucky for a full day of riding, fun, and photos. We've been there before doing some Taka testing and we had some wheel/tire combos we wanted to try out this time. The Airborne Team Truck (ie, my truck) was loaded up with 4 Takas, gear, food, etc. and headed south at 5:30am.

3 of the group have ridden downhill bikes before several times, but one of us was a rookie. Not a rookie to mountain biking as he is an accomplished XC rider. But as we all know DH is an entirely different animal.

The first several runs down the course, I could tell he was timid and scared of some of the drop-offs and obstacles. Rightly so; any of them would have killed an XC hardtail! I found myself saying the same thing over and over again: "trust the bike, it can handle it!" An 8 inch travel DH bike can handle a lot. More than your usual XC rider is used to. It really becomes a mental obstacle to overcome more so than a physical one.

There was a 3 foot log drop-off that was giving him fits, and after my repeated "trust the bike" mantra, I had him follow me down the run at a good clip. When we got to the log drop we were going too fast to back out. After I cleared it, I looked back to see him drop off of it like a champ. After we finished the run he was beaming ear to ear . The rest of the day that log was no issue for him.

What just happened reminded me a lot of a scene from my favorite movie, "Raiders of the Lost Ark". The part in the bazaar where Indy was fighting the bad guys with swords. After fighting off several of them in close-quarters hand to hand combat, a huge villain dressed in black and wielding two huge swords showed up to fight him. Everyone froze thinking this was going to be the end of it for our hero. That's when Indy pulls out his pistol and shoots the guy dead.

The Taka is a lot like Indy's gun. It allows you to handle a situation where other bikes ("knives") just wouldn't do. The same can be said for just about any other good DH bike; but remember we are talking pistols here, not AK47's. Sure you can spend more on a bigger gun, but why? The Taka just gets it done, and makes you look like a hero while doing it.

I'll keep our results from our product testing to ourselves but let's just say we figured out a few things on Friday that will help us with the spec on the new Taka that will be debuting mid-year 2012.

Oh, one thing I can share with you. The new Yakima Grab-On hitch rack on the back of our Team Truck was just awesome. It held the bikes like a champ. The only time it let us down was at the end of the ride when we broke out the cold beer for a celebratory drink. The built-in bottle opener on the rack didn't work! Hey Yakima, next time make it the opener out of aluminum and not soft plastic!

Jeremy

In July, a bunch of us went to Snowshoe for 3 days of some great DH riding. It was one of those epic trips that will be talked about for months to come. Bikes, beer, and great people always combine to make something memorable . See a little about it HERE in Dan Lucas's latest blog post about overcoming fear and jumping.

On the last day we gained access to the Western Territory side of the park. For those of you who have never been to Snowshoe the Western Territory has some loooooooooong runs with some great flow and jumps. I didn't quite master my fear of jumping there like Dan did that day, but had a blast nonetheless. Watching some of those guys huck themselves over jumps they had never ridden or even seen before was impressive. Equally impressive was the way that some of the guys had a beer or two BEFORE their last run and still killed it. I haven't tried that in years, and below is the story why…..

Back in the mid-90's I was a poor bike bum, just out of school and trying to race every XC mountain bike race I could….on a shoestring budget. This often meant not stopping for food with buddies after a race ($$$) and just going home to eat left-overs or cook something cheap.

One Sunday nite in July, after just getting back from a HOT race out at Caesar Creek State Park, I was starving…but before I could eat I wanted to get the bike wiped down, checked over, and ready for next weekend. The beers went down cold and fast, and before I knew it the bike was clean and I was buzzed. I think I only had 2, but on an empty stomach and low blood sugar……you know how that goes. Another beer popped open as I rummaged thru the fridge. Nope. No left-overs there. Cupboards? Well, there's some spaghetti. Damn. No sauce. Can't have spaghetti without sauce! Lucky for me the grocery store was only 3 blocks away from my apartment. And sauce is cheap. So I hopped on my bike wearing my shorts, t-shirt, and flip-flop sandals for a casual quick ride up to the store for sauce. No helmet of course, why would I need it?

This was also back in the day when there weren't handicap ramps at the end of each sidewalk where it met the street; it was just a 6 inch tall concrete curb. One block away from the grocery store I crossed the street at a fast clip and went to hop up over the curb onto the sidewalk. Here's where things went bad. Did you know that being buzzed kills your perception of speed and distance? I totally misjudged the curb, landing early and planting my front wheel into the face of it. I woke up laying on the sidewalk. I don't know how long I was out. Minutes? Seconds? Face bloody from hitting the concrete. Shirt torn. Road rash on my toes. Handlebar bent totally sideways. Screw it. I was almost there. I walked/pushed the bike to the store and went in.

Of course the cute blonde girl at the grocery that I had been hitting on for weeks HAD TO be working that day. I knew I looked bad. I should have turned around and walked out before she saw me. The sauce beckoned. Maybe I'll get another cashier and she won't even see me. I grabbed my 99cent can of Chef Boyardee and headed toward the checkout aisles. And of course, the only one open was hers. I remember her looking at me with such a shocked expression while saying "Dear God, were you in a car accident?! Are you OK?". Maybe it was the concussion, maybe I was stupid, maybe it was the (spaghetti) sauce, but I said "No, I just crashed on my bicycle on the way here." Any chance of a date in the future vanished right then and there, almost as quickly as the scarlet "L" appeared on my forehead in her eyes.

But at least I got the sauce.

-Jeremy