Snoqualmie Bike Park - Adv Line (phase 2) - Done! from MattPatt on Vimeo.

The Dirt Corps, in cooperation with the City of Snoqualmie, the Dirt Corps sponsors and numerous other volunteers and supporters proudly present the 2nd phase of the Snoqualmie Mountain Bike Park at Fisher Creek.

This second line caters to intermediate to advanced riders with 200+ feet of elevated North Shore style ladder bridges, berms and cedar-coasters, as well as a intermediate dirt jump line for those seeking some air time.

Huge thanks to all who helped make this vision become a reality! We hope people enjoy riding it as much as we did building it! Semper Dirticus!

 

Dirt Corps and Transition Bicycle Company have created Team Dirt Corps Transition. The new team was created to take advantage of the talent and synergies of both organizations to field a large (15 strong) gravity race team in the burgeoning Pacific Northwest race scene.

The Dirt Corps race team enjoyed a break-through year in 2008 with Matt Patterson and Brian Guse winning the overall Fluidride Cup titles for their respective categories. The race team racked up 40+ podium finishes and fielded a wide range of riders at races in the Pacific NW region including (Fluidride Cups and Crankworx). In addition to their racing efforts, Dirt Corps recently completed Phase 2 of the Snoqualmie Bike Park – a beginner and intermediate bike park that features a hybrid pump track, and intermediate jump line and over 500 feet of elevated trail. Planning has begun for a dedicated XC trail that links the upper and lower sections of the city of Snoqualmie.

Transition Bicycle Company was created in 2002 by Kevin Menard and Kyle Young in Preston, Washington to create unique product designs that are important to everyday riders and forgotten by larger companies. Their philosophy of Rider Owned for Life ensures that Transition products have been tested in real world conditions by the same people that design them.  Kyle Young had this to say about the team:

“We see the Dirt Corps as a part of the family of Transition riders. Their commitment to building, riding and racing is an outstanding example of the caliber of regional team we like to support and we’re very excited to be the team’s title sponsor!”

Transition have further demonstrated their commitment to the burgeoning PNW downhill scene with the addition of top Pro Downhill and Dual Slalom racer Lars Sternberg to the Factory team as well as a commitment to be at all the Fluidride Cup races in 2009. Internally they are creating a company culture that encourages all employees to race in the upcoming season to gain a better understanding of the world of gravity racing.

Dirt Corps junior expert rider Brian Guse will be the Transition developmental rider who will benefit from training with fellow Transition factory rider Lars Sternberg and joining him at regional and national events. The woman’s team will be anchored by Casey Stamm who enjoyed a very successful race season this year. Kat Sweet, Jennifer Tell and Marcy Kloster will train and race alongside Casey as they give those pesky Bunnies and Beavers a run for their money.

In addition to the racing efforts planned for ‘09 Dan Saimo, The Kloster Brothers and Kyle Young will begin to investigate ways to produce a trail tools product line – beginning with The Karakoram – a tool that has already become legendary in the PNW build community.

It’s terrific to see Brian’s accomplishments for his outstanding results this year recognized in a respected publication like Decline with one of the largest distributions of any gravity oriented MTB mag. I just want to congratulate Goose and also say that I think the tone of his interview was very humble and sincere.

Massive thanks to Simon Lawton of Fluidride for helping Brian get his first magazine article.

This past weekend, September 13-14, proved to be another successful outing for the Dirt Corps Racing Team.

Matt Patterson describes his win in the Expert 30-39 class:

"This result was a real confidence booster going into the final race with the series on the line. I was stoked with my winning run of 2:34.20"

Even more impressive was the fact the Brian Guse won his group, riding injured no less.  This clinches the Fluidride Cup Jnr Expert series title. Way to go Brian!

Graham Barry in Sport Men 30-39 had a solid 5th place in a big group.  In fact a number of riders were 5th including, Chase, Tristyn and Jennifer.  Impressive results!

Full results are up here http://results.dirtcorps.com/ and a wrap-up of the event is on the Fluidride website

More Photos are up here: http://picasaweb.google.com/HuckThat/FluidrideCup2008Race5MtHood#

Brian Guse captured his first victory in a Fluidride Cup, Junior Expert level race at the 3rd Fluidride Cup Dowhill race of 2008, held at Ski Bowl, on Mt Hood in Oregon state. For Brian, this was clearly an important accomplishment on his growing resume of race results.  After the race The Goose had this to say: 

"My time finally came around to stand on the podium with my GOLD medal in hand and some kid in third to my left, with my buddy Conner on the right"

With this win and his earlier two second places, Brian now has this year's overall series win in his sights, and he'll need to stay focused on that with the like of team smurf and other young up and comming rippers looking for their shot at the top box in what is traditionally a very competitive class. Check out the rest of Brian's report and also some video of Guse from Bones Over Metal.

Stevens Pass, only an hours drive east of Seattle is in the planning phases of Mountain Bike Park which could potentially open in 2010 if the plans are approved by the U.S. Forest Service.

There is presently an open public comment period until the 3rd of July and the Dirt Corps have expressed there support of the plans and are encouraging others to do so too.

You can find out more information about the project at the USFS website and also participate in a discussion forum here on Ridemonkey.

This year's annual Beacon Blowout race in Spokane WA, while smaller than past years, was still a ton of fun and a good opportunity to get some racing in on new bikes against old rivals.

Dan Saimo on his freshly built Transition Blindside, affectionately known as 'Tighty Whitey' was ripping it up in the Expert 40 class, with his second run being good enough for a bronze medal. Brian "The Gooseman" Guse was pinning it in both his race runs, so much so that he made a few mistakes in each one costing him time and places in the Open category... that's right, he was racing for money at this event and between the Semi-Pro an open racers had the 8th fastest time of the day!
Matt Patterson had his good mate, and arch rival, Khristian Hansen from Olympia WA to race for honors in the Expert 30 group. Khristian posted times within a few 10ths of second of Matt's each run but wasn't able to get the edge he needed this weekend and it was Matt who took the win. More Dirt Corps gold for 2008.

John Henry, good friend of the Dirt Corps and active east-side rider and trail builder rolled out the red carpet and invited our whole crew to eat and lodge at his home. Many thanks Henry! Your hospitality is second to none!

All in all it was an outstanding weekend and we look forward to future events in Spokane!

BENT 3, the annual Dirt Corps organized ride was a huge sucess this year with over 60 riders showing up for the fun and frivolity of a ride through Blue Bucket and S-Line.

Points were awarded for riding clealy through the north shore style skinnies and ladder bridges in Blue Bucket with dabs or falls costing 10 points in each section.  Riding skills were really put to the test on the slick wood and the new Gooseneck feature with it's tough technical turns. 

In the DH portion of the race local Pro and Semi-Pro racers pulled down the fastest time, with 1:04.43 by Boe McGee being the new course record.  Conditions were perfect for pinning it! 

A new addition to this years event was a Jump Jam comp.  Huckers need only apply as the jumps were setup to throw big tricks and most chose to watch the show.  Trevor, Damien, and Matt took 1st - 3rd respectively.

Overall results were Matt Patterson 1st, Brian Guse 2nd, Tevor Louvier 3rd.  More detailed results are here.

The Dirt Corps had an outstanding time at the first ever Fluidride Cup race held in Port Angeles WA April 5-6 2008.  Among the weekends highlights were seeing the enormous rider turnout, heralding a revival of gravity bike racing in the Pacific Northwest. 

For the Dirt Corps race team a solid showing saw (from left to right) Jennifer Tell, Tristyn Duerr, Andre Ciabattari, Brian Guse, Chase Schmidt, Jim McCracken, Graham Barry, and Matt Patterson.  We picked up 4 podiums total; 2 first and 2 second places.  Matt picked up a win in Expert 30, Chase got the other gold in Sport 15-18, and Jim McCracken came 2nd in his very first DH race at the beginner 40 level (Look out Saimo!)
Brian Guse had a solid start to the season having just moved up to the expert level in the highly competitive Jnr category.  He came within a 8/10ths of a second of winning and his time was competitive with the Semi-Pro (Elite) men.  Way to go Goose!

It was also terrific to watch, and participate in, the Dual Slalom event on Saturday, as well as hang out for a bit of Chinese Downhill with the Olympic Dirt Society guys after the DH race wrapped up on Sunday.

For the the full results see the Fluidride website
For more event coverage check out Mike Este's writeup for PinkBike.com

 

The team got together, prior to the opening downhill event for 2008, the Fluidride Cup in Port Angeles WA, to put on some fresh new parts.

Tyler from Twenty6 Products provided us with some sweet custom engraved bar ends and brake levers as well as the amazingly light 6foe platform pedal.

Deity has completely redefined their line of products for 2008 to include some lighter, more DH oriented components. We're super stoked to have them as a sponsor! Check out the pics of the DirtyThirty bars. These things weigh next to nothing and are wiiide at 30", great for the high-speed lines on Dry Hill at PA. They also use 7075 T6 aluminum so are strong as always. Looking forward to running the newly designed Vendetta cranks shortly too. Cheers Eric!

Then last, but not least, Dan Saimo worked with McKenzie Spoor of the Ideation Design Group to come up with some brand new frame "deckles" in an eye-popping red which are simply awesome looking on the Transition bikes. Way to go guys!

A huge thanks goes out to all the Dirt Corps sponsors for 2008. We're stoked to be kicking off the season in so much style and we really appreciate all your support!

The FOCF held a fun Super D in mid-March to dust off the cobwebs and jump start the race season. The Dirt Corps did really well for our first race of the season: Matt got 3rd in Expert Men, Jim got 3rd in Beginner Men 36+, Chase got 1st in Youth, Jennifer got first in sport women 19-35 (see above photo of Jen and Courtney sharing the podium for first). Pretty cool!  Our friends the High Life Crew did really well also: Kevmo got 3rd in Sport 36+, Courtney got 1st in Sport Women 19-35 (tying Jennifer with the exact same time) and Eric Brown came third in sport men 19-35 (but we think he actually came in second due to a mix up with Grambo at the finish line). After the awards, they handed out a bunch of swag and pretty much everyone got something. Super cool event and we hope to return in September for their season closer. Photo by Dan Saimo. See more of the event photos here.

 
Imagine having 15 acres of sloped woods on Puget Sound and then digging some of the biggest gaps, tables, stepdowns and wood features imaginable. Well, that’s Gregg Wall’s house - basically a bigger (in size and total area) version of SST.
At first, it was all a bit much to take in and serious stimulation overload. Khristian and Gregg were throwing serious style over these crazy sized gaps. Matt and Chase were also hitting everything with style right out of the gate as they had been down there a month or so ago. Graham and I were trying to knock some of the jumps off of our list and we both got a few, but left a bunch for another time. Courtney decided to take pics vs. trying to hit some of the stuff there. Thankfully, no tumbles other than one scary moment when Graham cased a HUGE gap on his Bottle Rocket (which broke his non SDG seat), but he was able to just barely ride it out. At the end of the day, we sessioned a big mulch jump and Matt tried a couple of Supermans (breaking his non SDG seat as well.  Are we detecting a theme here?) and Chase was throwing crazy moto-whips and dropping all the big lines. From there, we had beers in the yard and hung out for a bit. We got a reasonably early night as we were racing the next day at the Capital Forest Super D.
Words by Eric Brown. Photo by Courtney Nash. See more of her photos here. Good times!

Saturday, January 12th, 2008