Another Chile update

So since my last update, we left Valpo, drove 6 hours down to Chillan (pronounced cheeyon) and rode at a bike park for a couple days and did a big epic ride. It was amazing, it is a brand new bike park at the Nevados de Chillan resort, only open 2 months, and it had one of the funnest trails I've ever ridden! It's a super quick lift ride, and then you have multiple trail options, one of which I will be loading a helmet cam of hopefully tomorrow. The trails have everything from fun jumps, drops, amazing berms, and they even water the entire jump trail. On top of all this, we stayed in a 5 star resort and spa right at the base of the mountain! There were hot springs right outside our door to relax in after riding. While we were here we also did this huge epic dh ride where our bikes were shuttled up by horseback, and we rode downhill for about 2 hours down some crazy chutes. At the bottom of the hill we had to cross a nice mountain stream, and since it's summer down here, we ended up going swimming while we were there! There was even a natural rock waterslide we slid down in the middle of the river! Thanks Nico for taking us around and showing us Chillan!
So now we are in La Parva riding their bike park, and it's another world from Chillan. It's dry, dusty, rocky, and gnarly, all above treeline. There's a race here this weekend, I think it's the Chilean National Championships, but I won't be racing. I only have my slopestyle bike which is not even close to enough travel for this track. Anyway it's late and I have to go to sleep, I'll keep the updates coming about my adventures in Chile!

Porter

Featured Bike: Sonix Expert

You live for epic all-day rides that involve grueling uphill climbs, smoking fast descents, and flowing singletrack. You want a bike that does it all…and does it all without any compromises. The bike has to have enough travel to soak up the hits…but not enough to hold you back on the climbs. Above all, it has to be as comfortable as your favorite pair of jeans. Meet the Sonix Expert. It’s the do-it-all solution to today’s cookie-cutter trail bike problem.

Our patented Virtual Link System suspension used on the Sonix Expert has been engineered to yield some very unique performance characteristics not found on any other suspension platform. Since there isn't a pivot point between the bottom bracket and the rear axle, chain growth is not a factor. Why is that important? Chain growth is was causes the dreaded pedal bob we all try to avoid like a bad case of the flu. This system is also designed to work in two parts. In the initial 30% of its travel (like on climbs and flats), the suspension ramps up to provide a firm pedaling platform. When the travel kicks into the remaining 70% of its travel (like on descents and hard hits), the suspension opens up freely providing buttery-smooth, plush travel.

Here are a few spec highlights on the Sonix Expert:

• Patented Virtual Link System alloy frame with 120mm of rear travel


• RockShox SID Race 100mm travel fork


• RockShox Monarch 3.3 rear shock


• Shimano XTR rear derailleur with carbon cage


• New Shimano SLX drivetrain


• New Shimano SLX hydraulic disc brakes


• Kenda Small Block Eight 2.1 tires
  

MSRP on the Sonix Expert is about $2,935.

Sonix Expert Mountain Bike Video...click here

First Haro Flightline in Kenya!

Some of you may remember the rider from Kenya we sponsored with a new Flightline Expert to race on a few months ago. Well, we're happy to report that Nickson Mwaura has received his new bike. We're pretty confident that it's the first Flightline on Kenya soil! Nickson has started his training program and is looking forward to the race season in Kenya that will be starting soon.

Nickson in his Haro jersey showing off his new Flightline Expert

We'll keep you posted with his upcoming race reports!

Africa With Phil

As I type this, Phil is somewhere between Dakar and Washington DC on his way home from an extremely successful trip through South Africa and Botswana with the Adidas crew. We can't post up the banger photos yet, but I can assure you that there are MANY of them. Stay tuned for videos from both Botswana and Capetown, SA...in the meantime, here are a couple safari pics to whet your appetite:

This little guy made his way into Phil's tent one night! Phil is deathly afraid of spiders, thankfully his tentmate AT was not!

Right after this pic was taken, we crossed into Botswana via cable car (over a sketchy river infested with crocodiles!):

We should have the video stuff online by the end of the week, stay tuned for that...and much more from this trip! Next week we're headed to New Zealand for a few dirt jump contests, some big mountain and dirt jump shredding, and my birthday party (which is going to include some bungee and jet boat action!).

more valpo photos

Valpo Urban DH race

The Valparaiso Cerro Abajo urban DH race is over now, and it was crazy. I would say it's the craziest dh course I've ever ridden for sure, I will have helmet cam of my entire run up in the next couple days, you will see what I'm talking about then. The thing that made the race crazier for me was that I raced on my new 120mm travel slopestyle bike that is coming out this summer, while everyone else raced on full dh bikes. Specifically there was one section that was super scary, you come ripping down this hill and the road turns right, but we go straight off this ski jump basically into a dirt strip in between houses, and it drops away about 12-15 feet and sends you out 20-30 feet, depending on how fast you go into it, and the landing is pretty flat too. It looks fairly smooth in the helmet cam but trust me it's not, every run was a gamble on that jump, Joe Smith from Kona actually bent his bars and cranks when he landed it one time.... of course he went way down the hill too, who knows how much he dropped. So after the race was over we got mobbed by fans, it was insane, they wanted everything we had!! I ended up only giving away my gloves and number plate, and they went to local riders that shred. One of them, Brian, rides a Haro as well! Apparently he flips, 360s, barspins, and basically shreds, hopefully he will be sending me video to put up on the site. Anyway it was a really cool experience, and I ended up with a decent time all things considered, not sure what place I got though, they don't post up times right after races here! Enjoy the photos!

Race Practice

Part of my trip to Chile is to race the Valparaiso Cerro Abajo urban dh race. I haven't raced dh in about 5 years, and I'm the only guy on a 120mm travel slopestyle bike (everyone else is on full dh) but it will still be super fun. I don't know the stats exactly, but the course is about 2-3 minutes long, I think it is probably about 1000-1500 feet vertical drop, and goes down hundreds of steps along with jumps, drops, and wooden berms and stuff that are all kinda sketchy!!! Add to that the thousands of spectators all over the place stray dogs on course, and you have a recipe for a heck of a good time. Today we rode practice and sessioned all of the course in sections, and it was fun and very entertaining at the same time. Along with the invited pros that were testing everything including myself, Cedric Gracia, Steve Smith, etc. there were a bunch of sport class riders poaching practice and fully sketching it up, it was great!! Anyway the race is tomorrow, so I'll keep you guys updated on how it goes! Sorry for the lack of course photos, I forgot to bring my camera to practice! Plus I hate riding with stuff in my pockets. Well wish me luck, my main goal is not to wreck, and after that I just wanna have fun!! We'll see how I do! Oh yeah we also went to some bar last night and this bad ass local metal band was playing, I attached their photo below, they were super good!

Chile update #1

Here's my first update of the trip to Chile. I say that cause I'm gonna be down here for a while so I figured instead of one huge update a month from now I would do several smaller ones along the way. So I left tuesday morning after shoveling a bunch of snow off my driveway and truck, flew all day and all night, and now it's 75 degrees and sunny and it's mid summer so it doesn't get dark till about 9:30 at night, it's awesome. As soon as I got in I met up with norcal dh racer Mikey Haderer at the airport and then we were picked up in a lifted cargo van with a hardwood floor, couches in the back, and home stereo speakers. It's about an hour from the airport in Santiago to Valparaiso where the urban DH race is that I'm racing in this weekend. Along the way it starts out looking like socal, then changes to vineyards and farms, then you pop over the mountains and drop down to the ocean, it's beautiful. So since I got in we just built up our bikes and checked out the city and the racecourse. There's stray dogs everywhere, grafitti everywhere, and the racecourse goes straight down the crazy steep and curvy streets and steps, should be pretty nuts. Well we're gonna head to the beach now and then go to an old prison that has been abandoned and now has dirt jumps built in the prison yard, should be sweet!

Brent Thomson RIP

Haro Bicycles wishes to express our deepest condolences to the family of Bootleg Canyon's famed trail master, Brent Thomson. Thomson suffered a heart attack in January and underwent bypass surgery shortly afterwards. Apparantly he suffered some complications and passed away yesterday.


Thanks for all you did for Bootleg Canyon and for the sport of mountain biking, Brent. You will be missed my many people! Enjoy the sweet singletrack in the sky...

San Antonio TX to Pensacola FL via Haro...for a job!

Would you ride your bike from San Antonio, Texas to Pensacola, Florida for a job? We know a guy who made the 700-mile journey to do just that aboard his Haro Del Sol comfort bike.

Michael, a bike department manager at the Sun and Ski Sports store in San Antonio, told me about a homeless man who saved and saved so he could buy a Haro Del Sol comfort bike to ride from Texas to Florida to take a job.

A local church sent 51-year old John "Waldo" Pyle on his way with a pre-paid debit card and cell phone with a camera so he could document his journey across the South. He blogged about his trip on the church's website on several occasions, mentioning the kindess of people he met along the way who helped him with food, money, shelter, and companionship. One day he rode 73 miles aboard his Haro! That's a long time to be in the saddle of any bike, so that's a true testament to just how comfortable our comfort bikes are!

Waldo achieved his goal...he rode into Pensacola, FL on January 18th where he is working as a cook and studying to become a case manager.

(Note: If anyone is searching for the Del Sol bikes like Waldo rode on our website, they have been replaced with our Heartland series. Basically the same bike as the Del Sol comfort bikes, but made with significant improvements!)

Ray's Odd Couple

Here's the videos from the Ray's MTB contest. Let me know what you think!

Me and Steve Woodward



Phil Sundbaum and Dennis Enarson

Seven Springs

Back in August of last year I went on a super fun trip to Seven Springs, PA to shoot a magazine article which will be out next month in Decline, along with video with Don Hampton and some promo videos for the resort. It was a super fun trip, we saw Ted Nugent play live, we played paintball in utv's, we rode alpine slides, shot shotguns, oh yeah and we rode bikes a bunch too! Anyway here's some photos from that trip along with a video that just got put up from the trip. If you're wondering why I don't have any tricks in the video it's cause I dislocated my middle finger (picture of swelling below) on the first day and basically couldn't jump much after that. I still shredded trail all weekend though, and you can pick me out in most of the shots with the white bike and bright colored jerseys (orange, blue, green, etc.). Enjoy!!

Ray's Odd Couple contest

Just got back from Ray's MTB park in Cleveland Ohio, this place is awesome! Me, Phil, Dennis Enarson, and Steve Woodward flew out here for the Odd Couple contest. The idea of the contest is that a mtb guy will team up with a BMX pro and a filmer and each team would film a 3 minute video all inside at Rays. We each had two days to do this and then a day to edit the videos, and then they were played on the big screen at the park and the judging would be by crowd applause. My teammate was the newest addition to the Haro BMX team Steve Woodward, and he kills it. We both had a bunch of unique stuff in our videos that no one else did, so that was cool. We had a really good time filming and riding together, and I hope we can do some more joint trips soon. Phil and Dennis also rode really well, those guys are both amazing riders. While neither of our teams made top three, we still came away from the contest with great videos that will be up on the site in the next couple days. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that we flew into Cleveland in the middle of a blizzard, there was a couple of feet of snow on the ground already, and t was cold and nasty the whole time... luckily we were riding indoors. The other photos are to give you an idea of how sweet Ray's park is, and then a photo afterwards with the money that our teams got for the contest, Ray always pays out in 1 dollar bills!!!