First, here are the members that will be staying on for another year:

Dan Lucas, now a 3rd year Flight Crew Member. Dan is a good all-round rider in VA that rides AM/DH/FR/DJ/XC and even an occasional CX ride. Dan may crash a lot, but its his crashes that help us make bikes that hold up to anything that can be thrown at them.

Jerry Hazard, now a 2nd year Flight Crew Member. Jerry resides in CO and pretty much rides anything with two wheels. Jerry's photography and blog posts always inspire us to get out there and ride!

Neal Bryant, now in his 2nd year on the Flight Crew. What Neal lacks in riding experience (he's been riding for only about 2 years avidly) he makes up for in heart and the ability to try anything and succeed at it. Neal works in the film industry and has made all of us step up our game when it comes to video production.

Todd Haskins will be staying on and an official Airborne Test Pilot. Todd will continue to be active and integral in product development and feedback. Todd brings a "level-headed-ness" and years of industry experience to the crew.

In addition to the folks above that are staying on for another year, we are adding the following new members:

Dane Sink and Kim Sink, a great husband and wife duo based in Bend, Oregon. Bend is a mecca for all sorts of riding and we are excited to have such a great team based in that area. Dane and Kim are not only great riders but awesome at blogging and photography.

Robert Robertson, an XC/AM rider currently serving in the US Army and stationed in Germany. Rob will be racing the Leadville 100 this year with the Flying Frogs US Navy SEAL Team later this year.

Michael Mequi, a teacher living in Denver, CO that races and rides XC. Michael has been riding for many years and has been responsible for getting many folks into the sport. Michaels job as a teacher gives him lots of riding time during the summer.

In addition to the Flight Crew Members, we are also bringing some racers on board:

Niki Dallaire, a Pro that races XC and Cyclocross and just won this past weekend at the US East Cup Race in Conyers, GA on her nearly stock Goblin 29er. Niki is a consumate professional in terms of racing, training, and public relations.

Emily Walling, a Cat 1 racer in both XC and DH. Emily is a local near us here at Airborne World HQ and frankly we don't like riding with her because she embarrasses all of us men with her speed and fitness.

Look for both Niki and Emily to tear it up on both the regional and national levels this season.

So that's it! We have an awesome group of folks representing Airborne this year online, at races, and on the trails. With their help Airborne is set to have another great year in 2012.

Please help us welcome all of the new and returning people!

Airborne to sponsor World Cup Downhill team for 2013, full-time position up for grabs.

Centerville, Ohio USA - April 1st, 2012

Airborne announced today that it will be sponsoring a 6 man professional team to compete in the World Cup Downhill Series for 2013.

"We know that the best way to continue to move our brand forward is to compete, and with the success of the Airborne Taka downhill bike the past two years, we feel that it is time to enter the World Cup" says Airborne PR Director Ty Webb. "We have been in final negotiations with a former World Cup Downhill champion to be Team Director for 2013. While it is too early to reveal her name, we can say that she rode downhill as fast as a missile, and will bring a lot of experience to the team."

Airborne recently hired industry veteran Carl Spackler to come on board to develop the new Taka DH rig for 2013. "Look for the new Taka to put the team on the podium at every event in 2013. We will be the 'Cinderella Story' of 2013" says Spackler.

In addition to the team, Airbone will be holding a contest for a coveted full-time race reporter position.

"We are looking for someone to travel with the team and cover the entire race season on our blog, complete with photos and video. This will be a one-year full-time position with all expenses paid, and a salary of $100K" says Webb. "Details regarding the contest to be posted on Facebook in the next few weeks. We recommend that anyone interested in the position to be certain to "like" Airborne Bicycles to ensure they don't miss the announcement and details."

Contact: Ty Webb at ty.webb@airbornebicycles.com

####

  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

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."

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.

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.

Note: the following is a sort of prologue to the post Flight Crew member Todd Haskins wrote in his Scope That Colon blog last week… about having to rebuild his entire season's training, "starting from scratch and doing all the little things I didn't do last season."

A lot of us go through that kind of experience, reaching the end of the season and realizing we didn't really accomplish the goals we'd set for ourselves and that we'll have to start all over again for next year.

Doesn't sound like such a big deal either, until you realize that for Todd "starting over" means something a little different than it might for the rest of us. And because Todd doesn't talk much about how being a cancer survivor impacts his day-to-day life- and because everything he says comes drizzled in his unique of deadpan humor- it's easy to conclude that "all that stuff" happened a long time ago.

So I asked him to write this prologue: to give a little more context to what "starting over" means when you have to really Start Over. Just a little something for the rest of us to think about when it's tough to get up in the morning and get on the bike or off to work or whatever.

Here's Todd:

I remember the day last summer like it was yesterday....

My sons, Noah (7 at the time) and Luke (5) and I were sitting one morning eating breakfast. Noah- sensing that I was feeling awful that particular morning- turned to me to ask if he or Lukie will get cancer.

I was taken aback and scared to answer, but we always try to be open and honest with the kids (within reason, of course). I told him the truth and said that because it's "in the family" there's a chance that one of them may end up getting sick too.

But I wanted them to know two things.

First, they are way too young to worry about it. If it does happen, it won't be until they are much, much older and there is no need for them to worry about it right now.

Second, if they do get it, by that time there will be a cure and better treatments than what they are watching me go thru, so it won't be as bad.

Noah looked at me and accepted the answers... after pondering a few seconds on what I said his reply was, "Well if we do get it, I hope I get it so Lukie doesn't have to go through it."

This happened about half way thru my 6 months of chemo for stage 3 colon cancer. To me, it sums up what cancer means to me... an undying selflessness that leads to fight, help and hope.

For those of you who don't know me, my name is Todd Haskins and I'm happy to say "I'm a cancer survivor!" Just think of me as "Lance Lite".

It was February 4th, 2010 when I got the news. Ironically, the timing was doubly terrible. It was just a few days before that my wife left for Pennsylvania to be with her family following her dad's passing. Here we were, over 400 miles apart and in desperate need for each other. A horrible feeling.

Cancer? Why? How? When? What the hell? (OK it wasn't that clean, but you get the idea). Two weeks later I was going into the hospital for surgery.

Here's an entry from my blog on my second day back home...

Well as most of you already know, I came home a couple days ago (Might of been Tuesday, I can't remember).

The whole experience really sucked. I don't mean that in anyway derogatory toward the staff at St Francis who were wonderful, but just the whole package in general.

They ended up taking out a chunk of colon and 15 lymph nodes.

First few days laying in bed next to people I don't know and only able to eat ice chips made me reach for the pain med dispenser button quite a bit..lol.

After a few days they took me off the pain stuff, but I still wasn't passing anything "down there" so I was forced to stay there eating chicken broth and jello (god, I hope to never eat that crap again).

The worst was night time when you're "sober" . You don't realize how much noise the normal day to day shuffle drowns out the "unpleasantries".

When you're not all doped up you hear every machine, every bed alarm, every moan from pain and every crying family member who comes in the middle of the night with his/her sick relative.

Spent the last two nights there just trying to cry myself to sleep or just aimlessly walking around the hospital at 1:30 in the morning.

Finally we were able to get me some help with the sleeping, but by then the damage was done. I was a beaten man at that point.

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.

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.  

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:

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: