Our good buddy Nick Braun set over this video of some seriously old school DHing. Its unbelievable how much the technology has changed. This video is definitely good for a laugh.

The design that pioneered the way to todays DH scene

The all new TR450

While many riders are no doubt anxiously waiting for the snow to melt and the trails to dry out, down here in the Phoenix valley we're right in the middle of peak riding season: Sunny and 70 degrees nearly every day, a light layer of green covering the desert floor, it's the time of year when you can throw your freeride gear on without dying of heat stroke. Equipped with a new GoPro helmet cam that I scored for Christmas, I've been making the best of the weather by getting out to my favorite spot outside of Mesa. It's called "NRA", named for all the bullet casings left by gun-toting hillbillies before the bikers took over. A handful of guys have put in a ton of work out here and there are some great lines through the desert. The Bottlerocket is the perfect bike for this place. Here are a couple vids of a couple lines, one of which I just did for the first time. If you're ever in the neighborhood, hit up the Arizona forum on MTBR. The locals would be glad to show you around.

Check out this review on Bike Radar. A UK tester ripped around the Alps on a new Covert...

Bike Radar Covert Review

This month Kyle and I decided to visit LA and San Diego CA. The goal was to visit shops, eat plenty of authentic tacos, ride, and utimately get a mountain bikers perspective on So Cal. So we flew to LAX and rented a phat whip to get us around in style. The 2009 Kia Rio!

  I've never seen Kyle exude so much confidence since rallying this 110 HP beast around all the famous streets of LA.  All you BMW, Audi, and Mercadies owners look out.

  Our best meal all trip was the first Taco Truck we spotted right before entering Cycle World in Northridge.

  The guys at Cycle World are super cool.  They even have PBR Jump saddles in stock!

  Beach break. You can't visit CA without hitting the beach.

   The next day in Cali we spent shuttling the local DH trails with Tani at The Path.  The Path is one of the coolest shops I've ever been to.  Tani is the owner and an absolute shredder on a bike. Tani devoted a whole day to showing us around.  Thanks Tani!

   Kyle and Tani riding toward the trail head.

  Tani pointing out the features.

  A glimpse of the 4000 + vertical decent.

     Tani and Brian back at the shop.

That evening we ate dinner at a brew pub where Tani used to bar tend.  That led to meeting up with our friend Jason with Crankbrothers. Let's just say "California knows how to party..."

The next day we made our way to San Diego to visit a few more shops.  We found Bike Bling there and decided they could be a great fit for us.  The owner Kerry gave us the grand tour then sent us off in the direction for more tacos.  All in all, our So Cal trip was short and sweet. Thanks to everyone we met along the way!

BIKE magazine has just put out their annual bible of bike tests issue and the Covert and Blindside got in. The Blindside grabbed honors for most versatile freeride bike and Covert was regarded as "A solid and well-balanced jack-of-all-trades".

We call the covert the quiver killing bike around here, and here's the proof. Last weekend I piloted My ultra dialed covert to podiums in the super d, mountain cross, and downhill events at the Fontana winter series.

 I placed 2^nd in the expert super d, 2^nd beginner downhill, and 2^nd beginner mountain cross. This bike is super versatile. I built up to 28lbs so it kills the super D but its burly enough for downhill.

For the mountain cross race I pumped up the shock pressure and set the fork to four inches and it worked pretty well.

My bike is sporting all the top shelf components from Shimano, Fox, Easton, Sunline, and Twenty6. I purchased my bike from AZ Bikes, my local Transition dealer in Flagstaff AZ.

Today was a big day here at Transition Bikes, our long awaited production TR450 downhill frames have arrived and are shipping NOW on a first come, first serve basis.

Our first graphics scheme paint job turned out really nice and shows off the racing roots of the frame.  The red and yellow frames are all paint, no stickers on these beauties.  The white frame does have removable decals and comes with our standard packet of optional frame decals.

The TR450's feature our freshly designed bolt-on seatpost collar in black that we also now offer as an aftermarket part with color options of blue, red, black, silver, and gold.  These are super smooth, light, and guaranteed to add some bling to your steed!

Team Wolf Visits from Casey Groves on Vimeo.

We here at Transition Bikes like to ride bikes of all kinds, it is just plain fun! Getting out in the woods, hitting some corners, riding some steeps... But for a lot of people, catching air is one of their favorite things.

A while back Glenn sent us an e-mail from the UK saying he was interested in our bikes. We thought Glenn's story was pretty inspirational, you see... Glenn is an above the knee amputee. Which means he has to rely on an artificial leg and knee in order to even get out and ride a bike. But now, due to some new technology, he is able to start pushing his comfort zone and start working on the jumps. Pretty inspirational!

Casey is really looking to step it up this year. Looks like hes got a new trick jumps spot, and is waisting no time in breaking it in.

Training Session from Casey Groves on Vimeo.

Thanks to this video I know that when something explodes the more I ignore it the cooler I look!

We are expecting our first production run of TR450 frames to arrive in our USA warehouse very soon. However some of our international distributors took their orders directly from Taiwan. In fact, some of those customers are already out racing, and winning, on their new bikes.

In Hong Kong, Mr. Yip Kim Fung raced his new red TR450 to first place in the Elite category at the Ho Pui DH race. He is sponsored by our distributor Gravity Reaction Cycles. Check out the pictures below, nice work!

For those of you who dont know about the fail blog, its basically a collection of the funniest pics and vids found on the internet. If you havent checked it out before, you need to! I saw this one and it was just too funny to not post. So next time your rocking out in your girlfriends car while she runs in to grab something, be careful to not turn the volume past 11 ;)

We had our sponsored trail building day last Sunday on Galbraith Mt. and we had a record of over 65 people show. This was the biggest trail building day on Galbraith and we were stoked to be a part of it. With that many people we were able to bust out the entire trail top to bottom. We will be sponsoring another day coming up to go through and buff it out and add features. Thanks to Eric Brown and the WMBC for helping to organize it.

The group getting some food (We actually ran out because we didn't expect such a huge group)

Kevin, Bobby and Lars working on their buttery section.

Our highly-anticipated first DH race bike, the TR450, is due to begin shipping to distributors and bike shops in the next two weeks (and trust me, we will make the announcement the moment these frames arrive in the shop).  If you don't already have one on order, you may be too late!  The bikes are on a boat now and on their way here, but we're already selling out of some sizes.  Why is that, you ask?  Well, I was fortunate enough to find a large prototype TR450 and a pile of spare parts to try for myself.  I ran it through the wringer this weekend on a local all-day pedal sesh and within a few short minutes of downhill, there was no comparison; pointed down the mountain, this is the best bike I've ever ridden.

I'm not a DH racer, but I've had my eye on this frame since it's inception last year.  I was able to swing a leg over Sam Burkhardt's proto TR450 for a lap of local trails last fall and instantly was intrigued by the ride characteristics.  Low slung, fast and stable cornering, endlessly progressive travel, super stiff rear end, in a moderate weight package that just looks great.  About the only thing to keep me off the bike was the minimally adjustable seatpost height since I spend alot of my rides climbing to the top.  There's no hiding the fact that this bike is built for downhill speed, so I did suffer quite a bit more than usual on the climb, especially when combined with fresh sticky tires on a rain-soaked gravel road for 2 hours uphill.  But, that's not the point.  The bike is worth the extra effort once it's pointed downhill.  In one word, this bike is smooth.

Paint by Mt. Baker Powder Coating, right next door to Transition Bikes in Ferndale.  Allen at Drop N Zone has been offering custom paint for customers through Mt. Baker Powder for awhile now with fantastic results.  I think this color would best be described as 'electric booger'.  It's pretty sick.

Lars Sternberg accompanied me on the ride and went ahead and setup my rear RC4 shock to his recommended startup settings, which was halfway into the low-speed and high-speed compression adjustments, 150psi in the bottom out chamber, and the bottom out volume all the way open (max volume).  With gear I sit about 215-220 lbs on the bike so the 550 rear spring I had was perfect.  I adjusted rebound to my taste, somewhere inbetween eating roots and preloading booters.  I set a fairly neautral setting with handlebar, fork crown, and seatpost heights, and must either be getting less picky or very lucky because the bike feels completely balanced and dialed with no need for further adjustment.  Since I'm used to freeride'ish bikes, I was reluctant to drop the geometry into the super-low racer position for fear of clipping pedals until I get used to the bike.  I went ahead and started with the frame in the high position, and for general riding in this area I don't foresee the need to ever change it for me.  Nonetheless, production frames will be adjustable to 3 geo settings.  One other thing worth mentioning is that the TR450 has the cleanest cable routing I have ever seen.

My buddy Kelend on his Bottlerocket riding some wet wood on a beautiful January day:

Myself testing the TR450 in the big air department (photo by Chris Mandell):

The TR450 feels bottomless on big jumps and rips corners like I haven't felt before.  There were a couple slow-speed tech maneuvers that seemed to require a bit more precision, but on more wide-open sections, this bike hauls A$$!  It just wants to go fast.  After riding with Sam quite a bit in the past couple months and filming with Lars, Bryn, and Jill a few weeks ago I noted their body positions on the TR450 prototypes and found myself riding in a more aggressive yet comfortably relaxed stance over the front of the bike.  After a few hard corners it felt predictable enough to really lean in hard on the bike and it stuck to the trail like velcro.  The best part about the bike?- that's obviously the rear suspension.  It just works and I didn't ever find myself thinking about it.  Enough said, I'm not trying to to sell you a bike.  Chances are if you're reading this you've already bought it.  Just letting you know that you won't be disappointed :)

I'll leave you with a parting shot of Lars Sternberg boosting a hip on his TR450 (photo by Chris Mandell).  Happy shredding in O-10!  --brad

I am starting to work to get some updates and videso up soon the site and VitalMTB.  Here is a short video from riding at James’s house and from CrankWorx Colorado.  I will have more edits throughout the year including videos from CrankWorx CO, Claymore, the Ranch Jam, and others.  I will also have some edits based on just getting out and riding with my buddies.  Expect a Rays Trip video of Mike and I soon. Click HERE for video!