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Stories

A Fire Season for the Ages 150 150 The Free Radicals

A Fire Season for the Ages

As we hiked up Swamp Creek Trail, flanked by Overland Mountain Bike Association’s crack trail-building team, fittingly known as the “Get Shit Done Crew” our surroundings transitioned from known to unknown when we entered the Cameron Peak Fire burn. In the worst-affected areas, the once healthy forest was reduced to a rolling sea of telephone…

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Building a Community 150 150 The Free Radicals

Building a Community

Trailboss is the mountain bike legend you’ve never heard of. Despite having a full-time job, he can be found without fail and regardless of weather, toiling away on trails nearly 300 days a year. He has volunteered thousands of hours to maintain a network that is unmatched in America for its dense concentration of high…

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150 150 The Free Radicals

“SOIL SEARCHING IS A MOVEMENT TO RECOGNIZE, CELEBRATE, AND SUPPORT THE TRAIL BUILDERS WHO HELP SHAPE OUR SPORT AND OUR STOKE.” We truly believe in this statement. Working with Specialized has given us the opportunity to “give a fuck” and hopefully spread this sentiment everywhere we go.

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Pre Candy Tour – Two weeks on Vancouver Island 150 150 The Free Radicals

Pre Candy Tour – Two weeks on Vancouver Island

Last September, with one fully functional bike and seven functional wrists between the four of us, we boarded the ferry to Vancouver Island with a plan that was somewhere between vague and nonexistent. This is a brief glimpse into the aimless and carefree two weeks that followed. For 2017, we’re embarking on the Free Candy…

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Episode 1 – A Verification Situation 1024 679 The Free Radicals

Episode 1 – A Verification Situation

The van we’ve purchased runs great – except when it comes to starting, idling or climbing hills. It has also developed a fairly serious mouse problem and a permanent odor of farts and feet, though that’s hardly through any fault of its own. When we bought the van, we joked that if we couldn’t resell…

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Episode 2 – A Case of the Madness at the Trans NZ Enduro 150 150 The Free Radicals

Episode 2 – A Case of the Madness at the Trans NZ Enduro

The Trans NZ Enduro provides everything you need for a positive racing experience: Party Trains. Off trail excursions, resulting in near death experiences. New friends and legends. Life management. Day drinking.

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Episode 3 – Fading Sanity and a Three-Winged Chicken at the NZ Enduro 150 150 The Free Radicals

Episode 3 – Fading Sanity and a Three-Winged Chicken at the NZ Enduro

There comes a point toward the end of any road trip when both the passengers and the vehicle begin approaching a state of disorder, both physically and emotionally. This is the point we are at as we arrive in Havelock for the NZ Enduro. Combined with three days of torrential rain, any aspirations of “racing”…

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Episode 4 – Arm Pump and the RV Game at Trans BC 150 150 The Free Radicals

Episode 4 – Arm Pump and the RV Game at Trans BC

Two days before the start of Trans BC, the boys found themselves even more homeless than usual. While driving through the night to Trans BC’s starting point in Fernie, BC, things took a turn for the worse. Sometime in the middle of the night, deep in the mountains of interior BC, Elaine’s carburetor deteriorated from her…

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Episode 5 – On Island Time 150 150 The Free Radicals

Episode 5 – On Island Time

Mountain bikers, by and large, approach vacations differently than the general population. Our breed tends to place traditional activities like relaxing, drinking frozen cocktails by a pool and taking guided scenic tours low on our list of desirable vacation activities. Meanwhile, hitting that new jump line in the bike park or finding a sweet new loamer…

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Episode 6 – Full Dust Warfare 150 150 The Free Radicals

Episode 6 – Full Dust Warfare

“Oh shit. Will must have had a mechanical.” It was stage one of the Revy 3-Day Heli Enduro, and as Will rode by me I was sure something was wrong with his bike. After shattering my elbow in May, I had spent the summer on the side of the trail, watching my friends ride with a…

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