MikeAitken.com featured these two videos yesterday - one new one (To me, at least), and one older one. The first is his section from the Fox 'Pedal to the metal' video, and the second is his runs from the SLC Dew Tour stop where he took gold. Well worth watching. Second run through the jumps, think it's the third double - what...
Dakota Roche has a signature colourway on the '09 Nightwolf shoe from Lotek - the new style Nightwolf upper with the Nightwolf Slim sole? Tasty...
In unrelated shoes, I'm not buying anything other than white and black shoes in the future...
Apparently it's sample season at the Hirsch residence - they've also got the new new new Fremont shoes up, which I know for a fact Dan is going to be into...
Shadow's new vid looks like it should be pretty rad:
And lastly, a cool video from the Red Bull Trick Or Treat Jam. Bruno Hoffman getting 3rd without doing some kind of ridiculous "whip*x^2" kinda trick shenanigans, Garrett Reynolds being really really good, and Kevin Porter doing a massive banger to earn best trick. Check it oot!
Defgrip have put up an interview with Catfish on their site. Pretty interesting, although I spent the first minute thinking "Eyeliner?" Definitely worth a watch.
Lastly, here's a vid from Sergio Layos. Not quite what Banners was after, but there is a back-rail abubaca in there, which is only really 180deg off being a fuf?
As a friendly reminder, the Levis DVD is out with the next issue of Dig, here's Nathan William's scrap section to make you realise how good it's gonna be:
Laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaastly: Mike Aitken is continuing with his surprisingly fast recovery, go here to read about the latest news on how he's doing.
4Down posted this video earlier today - always good to see the UK end of a company doing well (With a little help, obviously...), and this is the perfect example of that. Amazing riding, all good.
In other Fit related news, Rob-o posted up the specs for the new Dakota Roche frame. Similar geometry to the other frames, but with a beefed up head-tube area and American made. Like an S3.5, but not. I'm feeling it, either way.
Lastly - Mike Aitken is getting better, but is still in a pretty bad way. There seemed to be differing opinions and speculation on how well he is online, but his family posted up a new post about how he's doing. He's Level IV on this scale, so there's still a way to go. If anyone can do it, he can. If you want to help donate to cover the costs of getting him better, go here.
Primo have a new drive-side hub guard out, but this is way better news:
Mike is starting to take the first few steps down the long road to recovery. He has begun to respond to his wife Trista's voice today, shifting and moving his arms and legs (especially responding to laughter).
Mike is still in a coma, but the fog is starting to lift. Trista was able to explain to Mike what happened and Mike moved each arm and leg to make sure for himself that he's ok. He also made an attempt to give Trista a hug and tried to open his eyes when asked.
He was moved from the ICU to the Intermediate Critical Care Unit. Once in his new room, his pain killers had worn off some and he tried to remove his tracheostomy tube. When the nurse tried to stop him, he faught her off. While this is great news, his condition is still critical and we've been reminded that this is just the beginning of a journey that could take years.
Oh, and Louis from Aversion (New site = sweet!) has a vid up in collaboration with his sponsor, Deluxe. Having only seen him ride street or park before, it's cool seeing how much he dominates trails too:
In other news, Mike Aitken is slowly but surely recovering. Today, according to Mike Aitken.com, he was able to raise two fingers when asked. Good to see he's on the road to recovery, no matter how long it may be. Head over to the 50:50 site if you want to donate any money to help out.
Lastly, Safety First from Kink has a new trailer, and it looks even more awesome.
Spotted this over on SPRFLS, after they spotted it on the PijinForum (Irony: Noted).
Anyway, these are UKBikeCo's new cranks.
This is an idea that's been used by a few companies before in the road bike world. Now, this obviously isn't anything new (Integrated headsets, etc.), but when they were designed with a totally different idea in mind - in so much as road bike cranksets are designed to be stiff and give you the maximum efficiency with your pedalling, not to be used effectively as a standing platform as you sail down a 10-set to flat - it seems a little suspect to me. I've seen a fair few twisted spindles before on similar looking cranks (obviously without the Hirth joint), and that was on a one piece spindle. If you add that joint into the middle, especially if it's that shallow, I'm gonna drop a "Hell no!"
Hmm, we'll see.
In related news, Kane is off, Mark Webb is on, and is also designing a signature frame that's apparently going to be made public soon. Lot of 'designing' going on there, no doubt...
Apparently it's all the rage now to claim to be the first to post something up on a blog online, as though being able to lurk websites is actually better than being the person who created the content? Seems weird to me, but what the hell, I'm just some nobody.
Anyway, haven't seen this up yet, and specifically went to Vimby to see if it was up yet, and lo and behold there it was on the home-page - episode 1 of the Lotek SF Mixtape.
It's pretty weak to have to post news about a rider getting seriously hurt, and when it's someone as iconic and inspirational as Mike Aitken, it makes it that much worse.
Mike took a fall on an over-rotated twist at some trails in Pennsylvania, resulting in some pretty serious head-related damage. There's the full write-up of his injuries and recovery on Mike Aitken.com. However, there's also a page set up on 50:50's sitehere to help out with some of his medical bills. Before anyone starts getting mardy about "Another donations thing", he has repeatedly tried to get medical insurance, but he was deemed uninsurable. Equally, no-one's forcing you to donate to things like this, so if you're not into it that's fine, but there's no need to be a tool about it...
Anyway, it's up to you to decide if you want to help or if you don't/can't. The option's there if you want it.
Hopefully Mike will make a full recovery ASAP, we need more vids like this:
Now, I may be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that end bit's suggesting that the new Lotek video is gonna be available online in 3 parts? If so, that's pretty frickin' awesome, but I still sorta hope it comes out on DVD purely 'cos, much like watching the Original Lotek Mixtape, banging a DVD in, chilling out and watching a super high quality vid with a really nice soundtrack is all good.
In similar video news, S&M's new video got a trailer up on Defgrip, which is now also on Vimeo:
I don't think I posted this up here either, but Jim Newrick (Of NSF3 fame and the like) has a new video out, called Charlie Don't Surf, trailer up here, y'all:
Interbike Update some time soon? Who knows. Vital have all the videos up, and apart from being ridiculously cynical about how inherently dangerous that KHE bar/stem combo looks (3 piece bars? No!), how generic hubs are, and things like that, you probably won't get much out of me. Only real big news was the JC/PC pedals, the Sunday trails frame, and... well... that was it, really? Eurobike had everything else pretty much covered. Guess you had to be there.
Lastly - Wolvo jam this weekend, scroll back up and go to Streetphire to get all the details. All I'm saying is: Tom Mann Mute Brighton Ain't Ready premiere Liquor Good street Awesome riders Good times
