
Join us for some fun times in Pisgah Forest and Pisgah Brewing Company this Sunday for the first annual Pisgah Summer Games. Bikes, Beer, Burgers and Field Games, need I say more? For the latest details visit the Brew Crew Blog.



Most recently was the trip to Wilson's Creek for the third annual NORAMM. Having raced ORAMM for the last three years on a variety of different bikes with varing degrees of hangovers, I figure I will finish, no matter how much I try not too. So, I decided to mix it up and go for a ride that has 100% more single track and 1,000% more jumps, with beer stops along the course and at the finish. A crew of seven lucky party goers under the instruction of the one they call Tomato descended upon Wilson Creek and managed to neither hurt ourselves or meet the park ranger and his dog. The night ride was one of the best in a long time and the days adventure on new trails never let me down. Wilson Creek was as cool and fun as people said it was and I can't wait to go back. Beer stops were enforced and I think I probably maintained a 5/1 beer to water ratio during my entire time at was at Wilson Creek. For all the boys that were a part of it, thanks for the good rides and the laughs. I'm already looking forward to NORAMM next year..
Yea, I was dumb. I got a little ahead of myself and thought I could do anything with a big bike. Well, I will do a lot as I realized by hitting the jump in this picture (i took this shot of scott sending it) as well as the third one in the set and sailing a cool 30 ft over a 25ft deathgap stepdown. It felt amazing! Hitting these jumps gave me more hangtime that I have ever felt on a bike and I was pulling it off. Then I got a little over confident and went for the whole set having not done a practice run up on jump #2 which was a good 23ft gap with a shorter lander. Well, the trail floats a little to the left and I thought it went straight. I had the distance but missed the lander to the right and ended up dropping to flat from a good 10 ft up. Caught some dirt or a big rock with my pedal and had all the power transfer into my ankle. What felt like bones breaking only turned out to be a really bad sprain. We'll see how quick I can rally with a sweet bike gathering dust. In the end it was probably good for me to be humbled on my first day out. Going big is fun but you gotta be ready to pay the price for 3 seconds of hang time. So on that note, I am down but not out.The Second annual Enduro from Crow’s Next Productions consumed the lives of a few dedicated riders this past June 13th and 14th. Known as the ED9 or Enduro De Nueve, this race awards the title - Most Bad Ass Mountain Biker in the World, to the rider that accumulates the most points over the course of the weekend. The weekend consisted of the following events:
Cross-Country Race
Skinnies
Wheelies
Speed Trials
Night Time Pump Track Time Trial
Dodge Ball (non-biking)
Uphill Race
Downhill
Short Track Downhill
The Enduro is really just an opportunity for a few people with mad skills to get together, show off these skills, push their skills and have an unbelievably fun time doing it. Last year it was thrown together at the last minute, on a shoe string, underground, and sketchy, and turned out amazing. And the all the same goes for how it came together this year. Points were awarded a little bit differently this year. Last year the only people scored were those that were there for pretty much the entire weekend. This year we gave anyone, even random passers by, the opportunity for points in this event. The number of people participating in any one event equaled the max points awarded and it went down from there. In addition the first, second and third place winners of each event received bonus points (3, 2, 1 respectively). The above events were 11 of the 12 events of the weekend. The 12th event was “Winning the Party”, which is determined by, the main score keeper at the commencement of the party, which of course is when the Party Winner is done. And finally, additional participation points were awarded - the number of events participated in was added to the total (1-12 points).
It all began at a local trailhead Saturday morning. Marshall Hance pops out at the end of his ride just as people begin gather. He had just completed the course in 47:30, so that was the time to beat.
dam Ray, pro road racer, hill climber extraordinaire, and Adam Engell - a totally random guy to us who had just finished riding this trail. Adam Engell was training for an up and coming race that covers the same ground and seemed pretty stoked to hop on to this little group ride, for a cool down maybe? The race began and Adam Ray kills it up the climb, dropping everyone but Adam Engell and they kill it till the end. Also on this trail were people who had never seen this technical challenging fast hard trail before. This included Eric Nicoletti, from
Results for the Cross Country Race:
1. Adam Ray - 45:45
2. A. Engell - 46:52
3.
4. Dunn - 51:03
5. Nicoletti - 51:05
From here we traveled to Industry Nine, where the afternoon events took place. Snacking on fresh pasta salad and Pisgah Brew riders spent the next few hours preparing for the Skininies, speed trials, wheelie competition, and a dirt sprint with jumps. We were sad to have to bail on the Bunny Hop and Dirt Jumping competition, but a lot had already happened and a lot still needed to happen to finish this day of events and it was a sacrifice, benefiting some in the end, hurting others.
As photographers Jeff Zimmerman and Bryan Bloebaum began to catch air on camera, Johney Massey dominated the skinny ride, Travis and Justin killed the speed trials, and Ryan Taylor showed everyone how to ride wheelies.
1. Massey
2. Travis
3. Jut
4. R. Taylor
5. Bruce
Speed Trials
1. Travis
2. Jut
3. Nicoletti
4. Winston
5. R. Taylor
Wheelie

Before heading out to take a break and grab dinner, we fit one more quick race in. A “dirt sprint” through part of the jumps and pump track of Industry Nine’s back yard. Our youngest rider began his participation here in this quick ride through the yard. Ian, Otto’s son, laid down an amazing time it just like his dad.
Dirt Sprint
While dusk set in, ferries descended upon the 
Jeff Moreadith (1st) and 3rd place Marshall Hance are two people who know every curve of this track so well they could ride blindly and then there is the out-a-towner-Eric Nicoletti, 2nd place, never been here before, dropping jaws. We did find out later that Eric rides a lot at night.
Night Time Pump Track Time Trial
From the pump track those that were still in it to win it, cruised on to the ole flint street bike house to continue to work on the keg from Pisgah Brewing Company.
A killer party ensued and once ready we took off for the local park where we separated in to 4 teams of 5 and had a quick dodge ball tourney where we had our second major injury of the weekend – Travis seriously rolled an already bunk ankle in a heated match on the old fenced in basketball court. Again this year, Justin brought his team in to the final match and dominated to be the last man standing.
It was getting late.. was it 1.. 2..? Participant numbers were getting low but we still had to have a derby. The derby happens fast. Everyone gets on their bikes and as soon as your foot goes down you are out. Adam, the local favorite, dominated again.
We began to loose more and more participants to the lateness of the evening. This is when the “winning the party” competition begins. A posse of seriously ready to dance ladies and a few key dancing participants, Callum, Justin and Massey tore up the rug and bounced the bass under our roommates room (SORRY!). I battled the majority with respect to the volume. It was too hard to fight for a low volume as the Enduro is a once a year, unprecedented, history making event and this was all part of the competition. Eventually (around 4 am) I finally seized on a dancing break and killed the music. Up until this point Eric Nicoletti was still hanging out (!!!), with a 4 year old and pregnant wife sleeping above. He eventually caved as the last 4 chatted it up on the front porch. Adam, Callum, Justin and Massey and I had one last laugh and said good night and see ya in a few hours at the next trail head for the uphill/downhill battle.
Party Winning
1. (Tie) Adam, Callum, Justin, Massey
5. Nicoletti
As a climb it was steady, rideable and painful, yet short. At 12:26:00 riders started the climb. Finishing the climb at 12:49:03, Marshall came in just ahead of Will Black, who, word on the street has it, that either he let Marshall win, or he didn’t really know where he was going. Either way, these are the finishing times we got.
It was time to get the short track downhill started, but the scene was just not safe. Friends and riders helped fix that. Lines were set up, areas cleared, and the 30+ second short track downhill formed. It ran through garden dirt jumps, huge step-downs, through a small clan of folks barbecuing, road gap, mega monster log pile, to sprint finish by the lake where I recorded the stop time. With crude a walkie-talkie and stop watch timing mechanism, Laura and I attempted to properly record, very short times that came down to the hundredths. Everyone had two runs, and after the first run it looked like John Caldwell might take it with the home court advantage. However, seriously amazing bad ass Kevin Burkehead was clearing the road gap and saving seconds with mad skills. Otto, winner of the mornings downhill race, nabbed second, with Caldwell barley beating Mike Mooney on a Tall Bike or really, what we might call a Monster Bike.




Three or four judges averaged their scores on a 1-10 scale based on wow factor, style, effort and other things that I don’t know at all because I wasn’t judging. I was running the downhill course over and over again, having missed out on all the spectation of this event, it was nice to at least get some runs in. 

3rd - Mike Mooney with absolute showmanship




This is how it ended..

In between partying to the point that we were burning money on Friday night and jumping 3,000 dollar bikes into a pond on Sunday we covered ALOT of ground. We rode our bikes as though we were rock stars for two days for nothing more than a t-shirt for the winner and the title of MBAMBW. To me, the Enduro is what riding bikes is all about, hanging out with your friends, making new ones, testing your comfort zone, forgeting about all of life's worries and getting rad time after time. Here is the quick run down of events..
Saturday's events - XC race at Kitsuma > dirt jumps, skinnies, speed trials, pump track time trial, wheelie contest at I9 > night time pumptrack time trial at Kenelworth > nighttime dodge ball Monford Park> derby on Flint St> dance party till 4:30 am at the bike house.
After 3.5 hours of sleep it was once again time to rally. Sunday we met up at N. Mills for a crushing hill climb XC race up Trace Ridge > Downhill time trial Spencer > then it was on to camp Caldwell for the final events, Short Track Downhill race and then the finale, Lake jumping.
It took me a day just to recover enough to get this post up. My body still feels the effects of the weekend (as it should) and even though I gave it my all it was Atlanta's very own Eric Nicoletti that is now officially the Most Bad Ass Mountain Biker in the World. It was great to pass the MBAMBW title to someone who not only rode his bike with stamina, style, and speed all weekend but also who was still on the dance floor at 4 am AND had the courage to bring his wife who is 7 months pregnant, his son who was 5 years old and his wife's friend who had no idea what to expect and stay at the flint street house where we were bumping hip hop till 4:30 am. For all you boys who didn't show because you had some excuse, well, you should take a lesson from Eric. My boy lives it and I could not feel better about handing the title off to someone of his caliber. Just so you know I still made the podium and picked up a third place. Adam Winton, took second beating me be by only two points. Final results and some amazing photos will be on the Brew Crew Blog in the next day or two for each event.
Overall the weekend could not have been better, with all recklessness that took place only three people got hurt to the point they could not continue, and no injuries were serious enough to make a trip to the hospital. We were also very pleased that no one went to jail as bailing someone out on Sunday morning would have increased the 20.00 race donation considerably.
Big thanks to our sponsors Pisgah Brewing for the keg and to Industry Nine for the pimp wheels and letting us take over the facilities on Sunday. Jeff Moreadith and John & Nichole Caldwell were incredible hosts and I thank them for allowing us the use of their properties to make my ideas come to life. To all the people who cooked awesome food, timed the races, helped with scoring, took amazing photos, drove several hours to ride all weekend or just hung out and contributed to the good vibes of the weekend I thank you all! This event could not and would not happen without all the wonderful people who came out to play and are a part of an incredible bike scene.
Rock on..
Jut Rut

photo credit goes to Bryan Bloebaum, he rocks..