bum VS mountain: June 2010

Monday, June 21, 2010

2planker110 VS the genius platform

you just can't make this $#!t up (found on nsmb):

....my buddy, Jason, and I were from Boise and new to this whole "freeriding" thing, and pumped to head to Whistler for 9 days and ride with Richie Schley for two days. I was a young pup of 37 and he was 30. I had a VP-Free and he had this crazy bike from Scott called a "Genius".....his buddy from Ketchum got him a deal on like a $7K version of this thing (paid $2K for it brand new), and at that time they couldn't be sold in the States because of the Horst link on them. His was outfitted with full XTR including the dual control crapola, Mavic Crossmax wheels, the whole shebang. I remember seeing this pull shock and thinking "what the hell?"......Scott had this thing they called "Sagboy" that was written on the side of the manual and was used to set the sag on the shock. We were both complete hacks.....

Anyway, long story short, he beat the hell out of that thing. Whenever he and I get talking about that trip we go in to fits of uncontrollable laughter that can't be stopped. Thinking of him mounted to his 5 inch travel trail bike with XC components, in full body armor, hammering Garbanzo and casing every single jump in the lower area is almost too much to handle. Then, picturing the look on Schley's face as he asked "are you going to ride that bike?" is almost too much to take. I distinctly remember Schley's buddy, whose name escapes me but who was a super nice dude riding a Banshee Scream, telling Jason he was going to bring him a new stem after the first day. I remember we thought the dude was just super nice, but I think the reality is he was trying to take mercy on Jason's poor soul and keep him from dying at their camp......the stem Jason had was probably the longest stem ever made.....I have no idea of the length, but it put him in a riding position that would make Lance jealous when riding in a peloton. God I would kill to know what Schley said in the evenings after those rides with the crazy man in clipless pedals and full body armor, on a Scott Genius.

I digress. We survived that two day camp, and Jason continued to beat the livin' shit out of that poor Genius for the remainder of the trip. I remember after about day 4, that fabulous pull shock was making crazy noises and would no longer take air......I believe I remember Jason talking about metal shavings in his pump. By the second to last day, Jason took that biatch off the largest GLC drop and that was the end of the ol' Genius.....rear triangle around his pivots had given up the ghost.

Not sure of the point of this post, just made me laugh again. I just thank God Jason decided not to do the A-Line drop with that bike as I can remember like yesterday him sitting at the top of that thing waiting to muster up the courage to hit it. Had he done it, I am certain that bike would have snapped in half, and Jason might not be physically able to come up to Nelson, BC and ride with me this weekend......

Uh, and the new Genius in this pic, I still don't get the pull shock......