North Shore Retro Ride

[walleater]

I'm sure the purists will groan with regards to putting a Judy (coil sprung) fork and Tomac bar on my Vertex, but the bike is now a right laugh to ride, and that's what matters

 

[walleater]

More photos.

 

[walleater]

Finally....

I'd be lying if I said I rode Flying Circus (built around 1997 so it can sneak into this part of the site ) but I was surprised at how well 60mm of travel and canti brakes survived the ride!

 

[ovlov440]

...lovely woods you have to ride in there. What's with all the timber elevations - looks like they are decaying platforms of some description?

 

[walleater]

Yes. If you've heard the term 'North Shore' then it originally referred to the mountains above North Vancouver. I fancied an old school ride, and I'd never checked out Flying Circus, a trail built by 'Dangerous' Dan Cowan. There's no way in hell I'd ride any of it, even on a modern bike with the trail in good condition (the forest is reclaiming it) but it's such a seminal trail in the more extreme end of mountain bike history that I had to check it out.

I can't find any footage of the trail in it's prime (more than 10 years ago...) unless one watches the old North Shore Extreme videos by Digger, but here's some more recent footage for anyone interested:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SyehKsZG0I

 

[wookiee]

Yes. If you've heard the term 'North Shore' then it originally referred to the mountains above North Vancouver. I fancied an old school ride, and I'd never checked out Flying Circus, a trail built by 'Dangerous' Dan Cowan. There's no way in hell I'd ride any of it, even on a modern bike with the trail in good condition (the forest is reclaiming it) but it's such a seminal trail in the more extreme end of mountain bike history that I had to check it out.

I can't find any footage of the trail in it's prime (more than 10 years ago...) unless one watches the old North Shore Extreme videos by Digger, but here's some more recent footage for anyone interested:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SyehKsZG0I

Thanks for posting an interesting watch!

Doug

 

[Lid]

The sooner that wood returns to the forest the better I will feel.
Makes me shudder just looking at it.

 

[walleater]

The sooner that wood returns to the forest the better I will feel.
Makes me shudder just looking at it.

Ha yeah. It'll be sad to see it go but Hell will freeze over before I try and ride something like the stunts in the photos. There's still plenty of woodwork on the Shore, but thankfully most of it is much nearer the ground!

 

[suburbanreuben]

Gives me the colliwobbles...
Is Dangerous Dan still around?

 

[walleater]

Gives me the colliwobbles...
Is Dangerous Dan still around?

He's not far away. He lives on Bowen Island, a short ferry ride away from the North Shore. He still rides stuff like this WTF:

http://vimeo.com/19552788

People seem to think that 'north shore' and the more extreme end of mountain biking is a recent trend, but these guys were riding stuff like this since the early 90's. If anyone wants see square taper bottom brackets getting destroyed, and big wheelie-drops on rigid Stumpjumpers, then the early North Shore Extreme videos by Todd 'Digger' Fiander are worth tracking down.