Chairlift

Platty Report: Oli and I were greeted by great weather. The trails were in good shape. I haven't seen this much shale on the mountain since 2002, loose rocks everywhere, not that many leaves no blow downs at all. The Pro GRT race returns to Platty in 10 days and the track looks sicker with bigger berms, wider lines, and some bad ass hooks that Platty is known for. It fundamentally remains the same as 2010. The bikes rip. Thanks to Specialized my riding just got faster, bike is so dope. The Rc4 eats up anything. I swear i hit a dirt lip but it was a stack of roots nor did it matter boosted it like a dirt jump. Saturday was a little off but we stuck it out for 11 runs or so. Sunday was much better as adjustments were made, parts were smashed, and confidence was gained. Elder Ulmer pointed us to a new trail off the triple side that is longer better version of skidmarks off the double side. It is all fresh Platty loam was with some tech drops mixed in. It will make a great race course eventually. I'm pumped to have great warm up trails on both peaks of the mountain for Sunday A.M. eye openers.

Drummer Invitational Race - Official Results Are In!

Today's Drummer Invitational Race was a success! Podiums for Phil, Zach and Oliver. Broke in our newest trail, Sacrifice, and good riding had by all. BIg ups to Wink and Sarah for timing, Stacy for the cookies and all our fans for drinking beer. Full race results can be seen by clicking "here". Last year's Invitational Race results can be viewed by clicking "here". Please note that start and finish line locations may vary from race to race.

Best Dirt On Earth

Today I rode some of the best dirt ever. Not in Peru, Bolivia, the west coast; right here on Drummer Hill. Heavy thundershowers all afternoon with warm humid air made for incredible evening loamy riding.

Put about 5 hours on the Demo now - I am absolutely thrilled. This bike rips in every aspect. Although I have been pad-less and not going full on, I am definitely riding sections of drummer faster than I ever have in my life. Specifically parts of double drop (the drops) and definitely the rock gardens in threader. *The bike seems to float and hold speed amazingly.* Lost control with some of this new found speed at the end of the main threader rock garden and hit a tree head on bending either my bars or stem. Re-egged my knee.

I have noticed that due to the past few months of traveling my stamina and fitness are certainly not where I would like but I am still incredibly antsy and excited fir the race season to start. Sam put it well, riding these bikes is comparable to an addictive drug. I feel 2011 will be a big year for the members of Drummer, excited to see some pretty big improvements in times and race performance.

The Racing Starts

• In case you haven't heard the annual Drummer Race will be held in 1 week on April 30.

• Sam currently holds the Voodoo, John Westland (Ford Motors) holds the gold guy and Zach is still hangin with J.C.

• Here are results from past races https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AvqUf5gLmq6sdDFOV0lTLWlQdV94Vm1kdXFtSkxhX3c&hl=en#gid=0

• Race Courses t.b.a. soon... Zach and Sam's trail is in for sure, other candidates include jump, threader, clay corners, maybe powerlines or double drop.

• May 14 is the 2nd Round of the Pro GRT at Highland Mountain Bike Park then the 3rd Round at Plattekill leading into the U.S. Open. June features the Eastern States Cup at Mt Snow and the NH State Champs @ Attitash and Pats Peak.

I made a" headlock" for my cranks because that plastic lock nut is stripped and won't tighten down the crank completely. It is sick and my crank hasn't backed off at all . Prior to this mod it was backing off after riding for about 60 secs. 8"x3/8" bolt course thread cut to about 6.5" $1.42 washer $.09 3/8 nut course thread $.12 cranks that didn't come off after 2 hours of riding don't know cause i hate math. The Demo 8 makes Drummer Hill a brand new place suddenly the trails got faster.

2011 Set Up

Testing and setting up the new bikes requires that we hike through snow in order to find the dirt...

With new berms and jumps on the powerlines, Drummer Hill continues to evolve in order to meet the community's training needs. Massive and technical XC loops? No problem. Natural DH terrain to hone ninja skills? No Problem. Initial Demo 8 impressions include - awesome, grounded, light and stable. Finally starting to get the hang of it.

Oliver's Final South American Entry. "The best 4 weeks of my life."

I leave for Argentina – a new country to check off my list. It has rained a ton recently in Peru – in fact it has rained so much that on the morning of my departure an eighth mile section of road about one mile out of town (the only road into my town) has completely fallen 50 feet down into the river below; it no longer exists. Glad I was not on it at the time. Got a nice routine going - make it to Cusco, hit up the market for some new flip flops, hit up my favorite Indian Buffet, then off to the Indigo Lounge for pisco happy hour drinks before my 9:30 bus to La Paz, Bolivia..... and more.

2011 Season Update March 18th

In addition to 661/Sunline/One Industries, and Wilson Orthodontics the big "S" Specialized Bicycles, hooked up Drummer Racing via old roots at Andy's Cycle. We are excited to have such a diverse group of supporters and look forward to representing them in 2011. Thanks Everyone!! TJ, Sam, Doug, Oliver, Zach and myself will all be ripping on the Demo 8 for 2011. Also dirt has begun to show up with the new Demo 8's so that is cool. Drummer Racing Plans to attend the following events: 2011 U.S. Open -http://diablofreeridepark.com/usopensub.html Select Pro GRT Races http://www.usacycling.org/news/user/story.php?id=5940 Eastern States Cup www.easternstatescup.com Gravity East Series http://www.gravityeastseries.com/

Truely the most epic 2 weeks of my life to round out my 24 years. La Paz, Bolivia - 4 day bike/treck to Machu Pichu. I'm off to Argentina

Que Tal my good friends and family, seems like a while since I have made any updates. This is because I have been on the road for a while. What I have written is pretty long, but if you choose you read a long I think you will find it relatively interesting. I am pretty proud of the last 11 days as they have been the most epic and insane of my life – a great way to round out ones 24 years of being. In these days I have pushed my limits in riding, adventuring, travel, unpreparedness, most definitely experiences, a decent amount of pain and suffering and just plain living.

6 Weeks left of this junk

Hopefully there will only be about 6 more weeks of winter. Drummer Hill should be open by then. We will be floating over rocks and roots instead of scraping down ice littered with gapers. Hill Climbs suck.

Snowboarding the Windham World Cup Course

Stumbled across this old picture of me snowboarding at Windham. This is the "bowling alley" where all those dudes were straight hookin to flat.

Superbowl Sundays are different in Peru, move into a closet, guide a great tour, I’m off on another adventure!

Whats goin on my US peoples – had a pretty interesting week down here and have another adventure rapidly approaching. Hope everyone enjoyed superbowl Sunday, I certainly did – but in a far different way than the past 3 or 4 years.

Winna Winna Chicken Dinna!!

Zach was able to correctly I.D. himself in Finally 2 Part 3. Zach gets to wash my bike.

Answer to Jack's Question

I saw the following people, one of them must be the answer: Neko(obviously), Logan, Mike(from florida), Brazil, Possibly Zach(for a split second when needles is walking back to pits)

Where'z Waldo??

See if you can find any subtle hints of anybody we know in the Finally 2 part 3. First person to claim the time in video gets to wash my bike this season. http://dirt.mpora.com/news/dirttv-finally-2-part-3.html

You cannot match this pre-race ritual.

Also, I kind of want to try something like this in the gate sometime.

Oliver's Trip to Arequipa - Summit a 20,000 mountain. Hardest 24 hours of my life, I will never complain about a course being too flat again.

Hi everyone, its been a while – let me give you some updates. Since my last post I stayed sick with this damn cold that I can’t seem to kick; only really going yesterday/today. Yea so that went on a good week and a half – at least. Most of the days blended together as I was not riding, trying not to get others sick etc. Also bike is temporarily out of commission. Kept my act clean and didn’t go out drinking or anything for a long time.... but....

Joining in the fun.

SO.MUCH.SNOW. Never been skiing in snow like the stuff I was shredding today. It was awesome. Almost as good as berm smashing...almost.

Powda Day!!!!!!!!!

the whole world stopped to ride pow today. bumpin tunes ripping turns tons of freshy fresh

LET IT SNOW!!!

Snowboarding 5 days this week, going to one class. LET IT SNOW!!!!!