Beacon Blowout 2008 photo blowout

Do you still even have a bike?

Nice pics of the race, one of these days I'll have to get over to Spokane and check Beacon out.

Any pictures of bib #421?

hey I looked through all the pics a few times and I didnt see me.
I was # 212 on the Haro, I was the one that crashed super hard off the rock spine towards the bottom of the course. I didnt see any pics of me in there but a few of my buddy. I was Just wondering if I somehow missed me somewere in there.

hey thanks a lot for the pictures, they look awesome

if anyone else has more, i think i was 211? but yeah yellow bike pink fork, bacon tape on the shirt, was the kind who crashed on rock spine hard in the first run. if anyone has any pictures or video, especially of the crash it would be awesome

looks sick!!

Kyle,

was the course changed from last year?

edit: looks like no waterfall to seattle line?

did they make the course easier?

dont get me started...

to answer your question yes they changed the course, straight after the step up instead of turning left. imo it was ridiculous to take out the two coolest features on the course, and as far as i can tell most people were in agreement with me on this one

Wigga said:

dont get me started...

to answer your question yes they changed the course, straight after the step up instead of turning left. imo it was ridiculous to take out the two coolest features on the course, and as far as i can tell most people were in agreement with me on this one

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so there was nowhere to seperate the men from the boys?

Ha, I like this picture. Remember when everyone was all up in arms about the tire touching the seat tube on the new M6. I haven't heard a peep about the Rotec doing the same (even though it clearly does...)

spocomptonrider said:

Ha, I like this picture. Remember when everyone was all up in arms about the tire touching the seat tube on the new M6. I haven't heard a peep about the Rotec doing the same (even though it clearly does...)

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I have a Rotec and have never had the tire touch, I think it is only in the last 1/8th inch of shock travel or something.

thom9719 said:

*snip*
looks sick!!

Kyle,

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I thought your pic was one of the best in the entire bunch.
congrats on killing the course. Its to bad you went down in your 2ed run tho. like you told me though thats just racing.

Eren said:

so there was nowhere to seperate the men from the boys?

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Being my first actual race, I cant say what that waterfall section was like to race one, but from just riding it I can say that that section would have thinned out the field alot more than the other section did.
Not to say that the spine didnt claim a few people as it got me good. but that waterfall section would have proved the men from the boys.

I would say yes, in some instances when the rear is set-up soft, the older frames (such as this one) may make contact with the seattube.

It was never a major concern with most our customers, not to say it wasn't an issue with me though.

Most part they knew that it could happen. They lived with it.

Ah but no more!

Because of the feedback given, we improved the rear design. That was a given.

The new 2008 RL-9 now has a 1 deg steeper SA, improved SS length and improved HA
@ 65 deg to correct this concern and to top it off the cockpit feel and suspension performance improved......ah nothing like a good tweeking to get the rear in order!

Later,
Sully

The waterfall isn't so much the separator (well, unless we're talking launching the whole thing like Chris A. does) as the Seattle Line is. As always, there is more than one voice in the layout of the course and I was outvoted. The course has never been exactly the same from year to year . . . and it shouldn't be. Some will like some things; others will like other things - - that's just the way it is.

I hope everyone can see beyond that and realize, hey, it was a race, it was on Beacon and it was fun regardless. That's what I hope.

MinorThreat said:

The waterfall isn't so much the separator (well, unless we're talking launching the whole thing like Chris A. does) as the Seattle Line is. As always, there is more than one voice in the layout of the course and I was outvoted. The course has never been exactly the same from year to year . . . and it shouldn't be. Some will like some things; others will like other things - - that's just the way it is.

I hope everyone can see beyond that and realize, hey, it was a race, it was on Beacon and it was fun regardless. That's what I hope.

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To start off I want to say thanks you for everyone that helped put on this race and giving me a positive first race.
MinorThreat I don't think any of these people really should have anything to complain about. It was my first race but I dont want to race that exact same course next year, small changes make it so that if you ride beacon as a regular (like me) then you have to have lots of different lines dialed. If the course was the exact same every year then you would only have to know the lines for one course.

And I dont know what is the waterfall and what is the Seattle line, I just know
where the rock area is that they are in. I will say that the waterfall/seattle line would be much more Tech then the line that was run this year. But I think that I liked this years course better then if it ran over the there anyways.

I liked the little rock section/drop right after the step-up right into the right hand berm. I don't think that the "rock garden" after that was needed tho, as everyone just cut inside it. But I really liked the rock spine..... when I hit it smooth. My first run i lost a chain and it got wrapped in my cassette and my tire locked up coming into it and I left the spine sideways going really fast and crashed super hard. But during my second run I cleaned it. And last had the course been run the other way, we would have missed the triple-double jumps !!! those are one of the most fun things on the entire course. I would hate to miss those.

All in all I loved this course (enough that I hiked up one last time at the end of the day alone and rode it alone all the way down.) and the volenteers for putting it all together.
and If anyone from Wheel Sport East is on here I want to thank you for giving me a new chain so I could get the bike back in racing shape for my 2ed run.

wow sorry for the long post but its on topic so I guess you guys can live with it.

Glad you had a good experience! Yes, the whole lower rock section is definitely much more technical and I have a special spot in my heart now for the once-terrifying Seattle line (I only learned how to finally do it last year). And I have to agree about the triple-double; it's a gas (and something I finally cleaned this weekend).

Photos up on Bones Over Metal.com. More to come.