Ride~A~Rama... Austin update

Jim stompin' at Hoodward
Jeremiah showing he's more than just a pretty face...
Chris flowing his backyard Hoodward set-up. Thanks for showing us around Chris.



Thomas with enough style to make the 9th st. locals watch
no caption needed for a cool photo... Thomas

Austin Local Lil' Chris destroyed it everywhere we went... 9th, Hoodward... Sunday's... so good
Oh yeah... 26" too....
Jim likes Austin too...
When Salty's not being a Gay...
He can blast the step-down at secret spot in Austin

I've wanted to check out Austin for a few years now and all I ever hear is how "cool" Austin is and "oh, you'll dig Austin!"... I think I've even been told I would, "Love" Austin.

Whatever!!! Just because you can ride at least 3 sets of dopest, flowiest trails I've ever seen within 10 min. of downtown, eat at Pita Pit then ride your bike to the swimming hole to cool off and then do it again??? Or the fact that everyone we met was totally cool... even the pimp at our Motel 6 was cool. Throw in riding places like 9th street and the T-1 ramp with Taj, Ruben, Jeremiah and the other locals. We were invited to ride some a backyard plywood playground called Hoodward with rippers Chris, Jason and Slasher... = this week has been awesome! Truly a dream come true... so, in short... I love Austin!!!

It was a refreshing change to hang out with BMXer's who didn't feel the need to start off on the wrong foot by talkin' shit or just being assholes in general until you prove yourself worthy of their attention. Taj was amazing at the T-1 ramp!!! One of those things you've seen on dvd a hundred times but nothing compares to Taj blasting a can-can in person... Thanks for showing us the lines and allowing us to ride!!! Here is just a sample of the best days of the trip even with the 5000% humidity.

Photos from "the Well"

Thomas
JIm Tharp T bogs the tombstone
airing out the Double


Jimbo...
Here's a few photos from a freeride spot in Santa Fe known as "the Well" which is another Rich Sprang original. All snaps by Caveman, Ben Tobin

Church Pics

Steven blasting for Caveman
Me realizing I'm spinning too slow... lights out!!!

Thomas

Joe spinning
Millhouse never misses a shot...
Jimbo is killiin' it!!!
Carter on the Double ... Braaap...


More pics from Santa Fe's "Church Trails"...

Nissan Qasqai Final results are in...

2008 Nissan Qasqui Results are in!!!!Darren Pokoj
Benny Korthaus

We just read the results from London and were stoked on Adam finishing 8 th at the finals and 12 th overall... good job Adam!!! from the Pitabeggo trippers.

London Results:
1. Sam Pilgrim GBR DIAMONDBACK
2. Benny Korthaus GER SPECIALIZED
3. Lance McDermott GBR SCOTT
4. Phil Sundbaum USA HARO
5. Paul Basagoitia USA KONA
6. Darren Pokoj AUS FELT
7. Trond Hansen NOR SPECIALIZED
8. Adam Hauck USA BLACKMARKET
9. Jamie Goldman USA SANTA CRUZ
10. Cam McCaul USA TREK
11. Kurtis Sorge CAN GIANT
12. Mitchell Chubey CAN NSMB.COM

Overall Results:
1. Lance McDermott GBR SCOTT
2. Benny Korthaus GER SPECIALIZED
3. Trond Hansen NOR SPECIALIZED
4. Paul Basagoitia USA KONA
5. Sam Pilgrim GBR DIAMONDBACK
6. Phil Sundbaum USA HARO
7. Jamie Goldman USA SANTA CRUZ
8. Martin Soederstrom SWE COLORBIKES
9. Brandon Semenuk CAN TREK
10. Kurtis Sorge CAN GIANT
11. Adam Hauck USA BLACKMARKET
12. Andreu Lacondeguy ESP KONA

Ahhh... Austin!!!!

Steve stretching big no foot cans over this gnarly hip in the gnarly humidity prior to the whip of death followed by hours of who, want, when, why, how... followed by hours of who, want, when, why, how... followed by hours of who, want, when, why, how... followed by hours of who, want, when, why, how... followed by hours of who, want, when, why, how...


Steven and his whip of Deth...
This was me yesterday... this shit sucks!!!

Steve trying to regain his composure after a good head slap while wearing his helmet.

Well, we ditched Angel Fire for another all night drive into Austin, Tx. We went from 25 degrees and snowing to 95 and 90% humidity but at least we're riding dirt!!!

And famous dirt at that... 9th st. This is everybody on the trip's first time to Austin and so far we love it!!! Just on the drive in we saw ditches and banks everywhere. After a quick stop to eat at Pita Pit we headed over to 9th st. to ride this ridiculous spot!!! Aaron Ross and Taj stopped by, Aaron and Steve switched bikes for a bit and Aaron wasted no time in downside whipping Steve's Riot.
Thomas was killin' shit at 9th st. and pushing everybody to step up. He and Bafus started riding the big line with a huge left hip for the 2nd set and they were both tricking it with tuck no handers, lazy 1 hander 1 footers, no foot cans but then Steve says... "I'm gonna whip it..." and rides away. I get set up in a tree for a cool shot thru the trees as Steve drops in and sends another beautiful tailwhip around to pedals and cases... blowing his feet off and sending him crashing head first into a roller at the bottom of a 7' tall, steep landing. I jumped down from the tree to find Steve twisted around his bike snoring and bleeding... after a few scary moments, he comes around and is doing fine except a headache and swollen eye. Steve is the 2nd knock out so far this trip... this has to stop now thanks. He's up playing video games right now. We decided to call it a day after that. Good night from the Motel 6 on I 35 N in Austin, Tx.

Carter

Ahhh... Austin!!!!

Antics from the road...

Here's a small collection of randomness from the road....

Ride~A~Rama... a photo update

Capt. Bafus at the Helm....
When Rick Nolte had to leave the trip it was like loosing 5 guys... it just got quite for a bit... you were missed... we'll see you in SD fo' sho'!
Randy Spanger was spotted running amok thru the New Mexico desert
early morning timing at Rick's House
How do you like the chrome???
If Radittude was a real word... this would be the description... Joe P.
Metzger ripping it up on a borrowed Intense SoCom... it was awesome having him and Travis Hart on the beginning of the trip but after a hard landing on the step-up some of his internal hardware became aggravated had he needed to get checked out. CAn't wait to ride with you again Mike.

Jimbo stuck this ridiculous high-speed step-up tuck transfer... it was badass!!!
Jim samples the clean Sante Fe air at the "Church"
This is how we have spent a lot of time... when we can 'rastle the control from Steven's cold dead hands.
gotta love Bafus!!!
High-speed berm blast
Emily dropping some of Woodward's freeride trails... Emily trained the big lower sets with Lisa
Lisa Myklak hitting the 40' er after the step-down and she hit the step-up too and made it look good.
Here she leaves Perrizo in the dust thru the Glory Hole at Woodward West.
Carter goin' 60' on the Transition Double
Here's the 35' step-up at Woodward
Joe Perrizo is a juggernaut of flips and flairs
Steven floats above the "Church Trails" in Santa Fe... this does not suck!
berm train at Woodward West
Bafus has been riding really well and hogs the video game!!!

All photos in this segment by Ben "Caveman" Tobin

We've been insanely busy between driving from Orange County to Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1 day... blowing out a trailer tire and realizing we have no spare or tools to change it with, 12 miles west of Flagstaff, AZ. only to find out nobody will bring out a tire and wheel in AZ. Improvise, Adapt, Overcome... on the road again.

Drove through the night in order to meet up with Don Hampton again in Santa Fe. Hampton had Bender and Spangler in tow because they've been filming for Don's new movie, Latitudes. Once we met up with Hampton, he took us out to the middle of no where...30 min. on a bumpy ass dirt road pulling our trailer full of bikes. When we arrive we're shown around a handbuilt Free~Ride area that has drops, wallrides ( the same wall ride you saw Bender hit on the cover of decline), hips, huge fast doubles... it was sick. Rich Sprang has built his own Free~ride oasis right next to the Rio Grande and I'd like to thank him for doing the lord's work and no Bender... there's no bible thumping happening in the PitaBeggo.

I was really hoping to get to watch Randy and Josh ride but they just cheered us on having filmed the day before. The only thing that kept things from getting really rowdy was the 30-40 mph gusting winds coming thru the canyons in every which direction but some good shit definitely went down... Jim stomped a steezy downside footplant "au natural." A few of us shredded Bender's wall ride and a cool hip. I pulled a hip flip on my Transition short travel bike and almost landed a lookback but the wind was getting the best of me. Joe did a couple of huge hip flips, Thomas and Bafus t whipped it... Jim 270'ed it perfect with the camera off but had some issues when the camera came out. He did throw a huge toboggan off the 10' semi-natural 1/4 that was dope.

That night we drove to my friend Nancy's house who I haven't seen since I was 12 years old and it was an amazing reunion of sorts. Nancy and her daughter Georgia had prepared a full on fiesta for us. We had a great time, made new friend's and left with clean clothes!!! The next morning we headed out to meet Rich at one of his other masterpieces... I'm going to call them the "Church Trails". Another awesome riding spot that was flowy and fun. I managed to knock myself out by 830 am after bailing out of a flip but I'm all good. Every body loved this place and rode it well. From there we trekked to Angel Fire, NM. to meet up with Jeremiah Work and try our hand at racing but the weather is not cooperating. The weather told me 60-70's and sunny but it's snowing, windy and F'n cold Damn It!!! Not too sure we're gonna stick around for this when we could be in south Texas sleeping outside and riding shirtless.

Finally Blogger is working!!! More soon...

Carter

Joe Perrizo!!!! OMG!!!!

Our new Doubles from Transition Bike Co. Transitionbikes.com


Joe... ok... I need to backtrack but we'll get back to Joe. Days 1 and 2 are in the can and already producing some sick footage. I missed day 1 in order to wait for the mailman to deliver our 2 new Transition Doubles.

That's right... Transition Bike Co. will be hooking up the BlkMrkt riders when a squishy situation presents its self. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Kevin, Kyle, Cam and the rest of the crew for hooking us up with the frames and so far they are awesome! I'm not too familiar with getting to ride mountain bike stuff but I'm getting a crash course and loving every minute of it. So far I've done a 20'x18' drop into a 60' double ( subliminal... JOE) multiple times and and huge downhill rhythm that starts with a loose high speed right hander into a step down road gap(8'x15') with a nice steep landing into a no-brakes 35' double then after coasting and mach 9 into either a poppy 6' lip and 25' gap or a 5' lip that steps up 8' over a 30' gap. Lisa Myklak charged this whole line along with Metzger, Travis Hart (who is a maniac and smashed his face into a lip so hard he knocked a the entire corner off the jump and walked away), Joe, Steven and myself.

So, back to Joe... the story goes like this. Joe and the crew have been working their way down Woodward West's newly manicured slopestyle course, sessioning each new obstacle until they made it to the 60' double which has a long Mellowww 5' tall lip to a 50' gap and 10' tagpad then a long mellow landing and moondust runout. I'm saying this from actually hitting that jump with zero braking after the 20'x18' drop and maching down the landing at at least 35mph (but most likely faster)... you're fucking hauling ass!!! And JOE after 2 runs decides to flip a 50' gap & 10 tagpad from basically a wedge to wedge and stuck it perfect. Then today he trained with me over that gap and flipped it some more... at least 5 more times!!!! He was actually over shooting the landing by 10'-15' almost every time... that looks like this: 50'+10'+15'+ 35mph+ wedge lip= WTF Joe??? Maybe... it was the feeling of total cranial protection he derived from his tupper wear skid lid. Or... maybe the Stockton jersey... whatever it is, keep it... it works.

There were 3 wrecks today that could have had bad endings but luckily everyone ended up only slightly bruised. I made the highlight reel with my table off the 20' drop only to come in on an slight angle, blowing my front tire completely off the rim and ripping the valve stem off. As my front tire explodes in the clip, I get thrown violently to my left shoulder and head... where I proceeded to almost bounce to my feet running down the rest of the landing and announcing to everyone, "my tire blew off"... uh, no shit! Thankfully it was only skin. Joe had a good one too... he supermaned the 35' step-up and when he tried to use his brake levers to pull his bike back... the moved and he went straight to his face but survived it with only a sore wrist. I told you about the 3rd wreck earlier. Gotta go for now... I'll up load more photos tomorrow.

carter

PitaBeggo Ride~A~Rama T-minus 24 hours

Poster child Steven Bafus on the back of the PitaBeggo.

Steven wrenchs... Jim not wrenching
Don Hampton and Millhouse joined the crew last night.



The time is drawing near for us to take off on our first leg of summer filming trips... driving from Woodward West to Austin, Tx. and back in the Pita Pit PitaBeggo. Our stops will include Riverside, Ca., Phoenix, Az. and Angel Fire, N.M. where I've coerced everybody to race 4X.

Don Hampton is filming this segment and will be producing what will eventually be a full length riding video that follows an array of riders with very different styles and skills riding a veritable cornucopia of terrain and transitions...

Speaking of Transition, I'd like to thank Kevin and Kyle and the rest of the guys at Transition Bikes for supplying Black Market with short travel bikes for us to ride this year... pretty excited for the UPS truck to pull up tomorrow... Pics to come.

Our cast of characters has become very interesting and I can't wait to see what chaos ensues.

Full timers:
Carter Holland
Steven Bafus
Thomas Hancock
Jim Tharp
Rick Nolte
Joe Perrizo
"MillHouse"
Caveman

Swing shift
Adam Hauck
Jeremiah Work

Part timers:
Lisa Myklak
Emily Johnston
Nadia Steinbrecker

and just added to the mix... The God Father of FMX, Mike Metzger & fellow MX'er Travis Hart are both coming along to try their skills on a 26".

I'll be posting as often as time, internet access and my attention span will allow... over on ThrashBike.com, full-timer Rick Nolte will be slaying the keys and spinning yarns to keep you up to date and picking up my slack. I will try to keep those of you who chose to read my babble entertained but I promise nothing... but will do my best.

Riot review on Sicklines.com

If you get a chance check out SickLines.com... they recently did an in depth review of a complete Riot build using the X-Fusion Velvet R... so check it out... here's the link.
http://www.sicklines.com/reviews/black_market_riot_1
http://www.sicklines.com/gallery/showgallery.php/cat/739

26" Contraband rigid fork released.

Blk Mrkt is now producing rigid 26-inch forks. Specs
Name: Contraband 26-inch Rigid Fork
Weight: 2.49 lbs
Axle to Crown: 435mm
Rake: 33mm
Steer Tube Length: 162mm
Fork Legs: 31.75mm

The Contraband fork uses an aluminum extrusion insert for strength, is set up to be run without brakes, has double-butted, “4Q Baked” (S&M Pitchfork technology) steel legs and has 3/8” (10mm) dropouts.

The Contraband 26” fork is made in the U.S.A. here at S&M Bikes.

MSRP is $129.99 USD and it is available in black for now; we are considering offering a chrome version if there is demand. Keep an eye out for the front brake compatible version coming soon.

Check out the front of Thomas' bike in the clips below.


carter

couple of cool video clips

While we were riding Nasty's yesterday, Mike Lakin and Thomas decided to attempt some doubles runs. It only took them a few runs to nail it but the timing is rad. The other is Joe Fuckin' Perrizo... he's an animal. He took it at least 5 times on the scorching hot skatelite, steel to asphalt skin burner... psst... joe likes pain...

look closely at the fork on Thomas' bike... see anything???

Road 34 Jam

Lisa carving her way into 2nd in pro women... photo Eddie at Photo-Cycle.com ... check him out
Jeremiah workin' the 4X qualifying
DO WORK SON!!!
Artsy Turndown.... By Tammy Donahugh
Thomas twisted
Can can to the gods....by Tammy Donahue
Luke Probst T-Bog X
1st place guy Joey Cordova
Nasty Nate spins on home turf...
Part of the line to get on the Road 34 trailer/ roll-in

Lisa was tricking both sets and if you ask a bunch of the guys who rode here... that was a feat they only wished to accomplish. Then she went on to finish 2nd in pro women's dual slalom in Nathrop after a 4 hour drive.

2nd place with the sickest superman whips & bike flips... Jeremiah Jones A.K.A. Huck
Thomas gettin' shit done and goin' higher than everyone on the first set... a lot higher.

ohhh... pretty... back to bikes
Thomas had some fans in Colorado, where he comes from... This is Kenny and Nick Stanley. Don't let the red neck fool ya... Kenny here threw the fastest, scariest, lowest flip on the smallest concrete lip to flat I've ever seen!!! I was so caught off guard I didn't get a photo... and his son rides a sick red LTF... they're both S&M for Life.

Smart Car????




This dude is a cyclist!!!!
Thomas and I stopped at a couple of the places along the road I've always wanted to check out including the closed down waterpark on the way to Vegas and this weird hilly spot with 2" of cracked soil everywhere where Thomas lip slid and a mound of dirt at my request.
US and a big ditch...


Thomas and I went on a mission last weekend and drove to Fort Collins, Co. for the Road 34 BikeBar Jam... that's right... bike shop and bar, in one place!!! Throw in some parking lot dirt jumps complete with roll-in, a DJ, lots of screaming college students and booze... now it's a good time!!! It was good to hang out in Colorado for a bit, we met up with Tammy and Jimmy Donahugh, Nate Adams and his chick and their baby bump, Lisa Myklak and a host of other characters. Thanks to Jimmy and Tammy for letting us crash and turning us onto some damn good pizza! And Tammy is repsonsible for all of the riding pics at the contest.

The jump set-up was a little wack but everybody threw down with 3 double whips to front flips and everything in between. There was quite a bit of carnage during qualifying but the finals were pretty good. Here's the final 6:
BMX: Luke Probst, Jeremiah "Huck" Jones and Joey Cordova
MTB: Thomas Hancock, Andy Holloway and myself

The top 3 ended like this: 1st Joey Cordova 2nd Jeremiah Jones 3rd Thomas Hancock... Thomas was absolutely killin' it and with a freshly healed broken leg.

From there Thomas and I drove 4 hours SW to a little town called Nathrop to attempt to race dual slalom. Unfortunately we were completely unprepared and late for registration and Thomas did not have a membership and they were not accepting applications on-site. They did allow me to register after a bit of hassle only to find out my qualifying run would have to serve as my practice and first time ever on the course... yay! After watching the other pros ripping thru the sweet course I decided it was time for my virgin run and qualified 19th out of 22 but then I pussed out and went home because the racing was anticipated to last another 5-7 hours on top of the six hours we had already been going and a 13 hour drive home... I chose the drive.

Jeremiah Work and Lisa Myklak did a little better in the racing department... Lisa racked up a 2nd in pro women and Jeremiah won his first round but got taken out in the next.

Here are some photos of our journey... enjoy.