With work and home life so topsy-turvy these days, some cities and states (in the U.S.) are offering incentives to encourage folks who are working remotely to pick up stakes and move to their neck of the woods.
Northwest Arkansas will give you $10,000 to move, plus throw in a bike (MTB or “Street”) to sweeten the deal! Northwest Arkansas has 162 miles of paved trails, the 37-mile Razorback Regional Greenway and the 322 miles of world-class mountain biking trails.
Barry Nobles posted a video of him shredding the park recently and if that video is any indication of the caliber of biking parks and infrastructure in Arkansas then this offer seems extremely compelling.
It seems a little off to title this with “highlights”… given how strange a year it has been. That being said, there were a few highlights looking back at the year.
First off, the re-release of RAD. After years of waiting, it seemed like it would never happen. But it did! Granted, it wasn’t the release it deserved, as many viewings were planned that got subsequently cancelled. But true to form, Radness will find a way and when drive-in viewings took on added importance as the year wore on, RAD was shown at the drive-in screens of many lucky cities.
S&M Bikes designed one of the coolest looking retro-inspired cruisers this year, the Covid Cruiser. I kinda dug these when I saw the prototypes but now that I’ve seen them built up….I really dig them. If you managed to snag one of these bad boys you are justifiably stoked!
Biking saw a boom year unlike anything in recent memory. Young and old got hooked on biking, including this 80-year bad ass that took up racing to keep in shape for his primary sport of vintage motorcycle racing.
GT came through with a 24″ version of the Dyno Compe. As Dyno fan, I was pretty stoked on this. Of course, partly to do with the item above (the bike boom) these promptly sold out. Word on the street more are on the way for 2021.
And finally, there was a lot of rad riding this year!
(*This isn’t actually a 2020 picture but we shared it in 2020 so can we let it go on a technicality? Thanks)
The news was a shocker when it came down earlier this month.
Randy Franklin had passed away.
I met Randy at the 4130 Sin Series in Vegas back in 2011.
I’m not sure how we got to talking but it seemed like we were like old friends right from the get-go.
I would run into Randy at subsequent Vegas rides and it would be the same thing…we would pick up like old friends….ribbing each other, laughing, just having a good time.
It seems like every picture I have of those rides, Randy has his arm slung around my shoulder.
He was definitely one of the guys I would hope to run into when I was in Vegas for those rides.
The news of his passing hit me hard.
I keep telling myself that I’m not going to be sad that he’s gone…but to celebrate the times I got to ride and hang out with him.
Hot damn…the world keeps spinning and the calendar pages keep turning.
And here we are: 8 years old.
Thank you so much for hanging with me all these years.
Too many cool things have happened as a result of writing this thing, it’s hard to keep track of them all…but they’re a constant source of stoke…and for that I’m eternally thankful.
Cheers to y’all for the positive comments, words of encouragement and all the good times.
You’re all aces to me.
Thanks again…and let’s see if we can keep this thing rollin’ for a few more years.
Cheers everybody!**
*Special thanks to The Mayor of Hollywood for sporting a #8 on his Robinson Cruiser in anticipation of this important milestone.)
**Two “cheers” in one post…I think I may have started celebrating early
I’m still coming to terms with the news that Dave Mirra is gone.
When I saw the news (a friend had posted a news story) I didn’t want to click the link because I didn’t want to believe it was true.
But it was true.
And as more and more people heard the news, the internet lit up with pictures and stories detailing the impact that Dave had made on so many lives.
A number of people have said it felt like a punch to the gut to hear the news…it sure felt that way to me.
After watching his BMX career, from a kid with exceptional bike skills to X-Games superstar, it’s hard to fathom that he’s gone now far too early.
Seeing all the pictures and video on social media felt bittersweet. Remembering all the amazing things in his career, where we were when it happened and the times when we crossed paths.
For me, it took me back to the ’94 BS Finals (the Hoffman contests that predated the X-Games). I had road tripped there with friends and it was one of those BMX contests where all the big names were going off.
Dave Mirra was no exception.
As BMX Plus put it:
By watching Dave ride in practice, you could tell that there was no way he was going to let anyone beat him. Mirra lofted huge transfers, pulled a flip twist, went for a tailwhip flip, carved a tailwhip air about seven feet up and 5 feet across between two street ramps and wasted two wheels on his way to first place. (BMX Plus, March 1995)
I was snapping photos for the zine I did at the time and managed to capture Dave Mirra during the run that won him first place.
At one point in that run, something went wrong with his bike.
Not missing a beat, he grabbed Todd Lyon‘s bike (his then team-mate) and proceeded to uncork a huge flair/flip twist.
The fact that Lyons’ bike was set up like a stretched out race bike (notice the caged pedals in the pic) vs. Mirra’s freestyle setup just served to up the difficulty factor.
Seeing that moment (at about 0:12) in the video above brought that moment back in vivid clarity.
He would go on to become one of the most dominant athletes in X-Games history but as many of the stories that have been shared show, he still made time for the kids that looked up to him.
As Chris Doyle wrote yesterday in touching Facebook post:
He was larger than life and he still took the time to say a few words to an overwhelmed kid who had nothing to offer. It meant the world to me and I will never forget that day.
As I work through all the emotions of this difficult situation, I’m trying to remember the adage that we don’t honor him in mourning his death but in celebrating his life.
