May 2nd: Da Ping Ding

There is not much of a dirt jump/freeride scene in Kaohsiung (southern Taiwan's biggest city). My brother James and I have been building at a spot for almost two years now. The location is not kept secret, they hold a downhill race on a trail that we built(Jay hacks it in a blog from last year). Rider's, bike shop owner's and even northern Taiwanese know where we are ... and when we are there. But today was like any other Saturday at the jumps, just me and my brother. We have been trying to get more people out there; we have even built a beginner line, but now we have the place all to ourselves.

James has been on his Amp for a week or so now. He has been riding through the strain of old age and ankle injures for the past couple of weeks. The only time he does not look like he has a broken back is when he is on his bike.

He built a step up this past week and we got a couple of pictures of him throwing down some pretty big back flips. He was not impressed with the pop of the jump. So I am sure he will tweek it a little bit ... and then next backflips will be even better.

I climbed up in a tree to get a different angle of the flip. The picture before this one would have been sweet. But I cut off his tire. Then on the way down the tree I dropped my camera. Good thing the landing is nice and soft. Fertile soil ...


It was my third day out on my Wildcard. It feels more like a small dirt jump bike than a full suspension. I was able to do a tuck no hander off one of the bigger jumps. And my x-up was not looking too bad either.

More posts to come ... and some random shots.

Rob