The gang: TJ, John, Jerry Legbacon, Christin, Thomas, Artur, Catherine, Dave, Gavin, Nat, Tripat, Ming, Mike, Karla, Jenn1, JF, Ryan, Chrissy, Annandale, Kris, Mitch, Matt J, Rodney, Goyer, Brian, Bev, Dean, Paul and Elana (missing from the picture: Coppens, Chris Gleeton and the obligatory Danika). August 24 2007 in Panorama
PANORAMA 2007 [scroll down for videos]
We do this every year. Load up a bus, drive through lovely Saskatchewan and Alberta in order to hit our most favorite gravity-assist playground on earth: Panorama for 6 days of tremendous gravity-assisted mountain-biking with a pit-stop in Calgary at C.O.P. for a warm-up along the way. We take 30 or so of our best riding buddies and let it ride... It's the highlight of the season for many of us.
This was our 4th annual visit to what some of us have arguably called our favorite place on earth. Panorama is our kind of big mountain riding. Tight, steep, technical with just enough 'features' to keep us interested. Every year we come is one more reason to come back. This years' trip was even happily devoid of our mandatory check-in nightmare (thanks to the lovely Danielle).
Just so you're in the loop: Year one (2004) we had the brilliant idea to load up JF's Ford E350, a few cars and decided that Panorama would be our destination. We showed up seriously unprepared (nothin' but spandex) Year two (2005) 21 of us loaded up JF and Jeremiah's pick-up truck as well as a few cars and created a little convoy of sorts to do Pano again. This time better prepared. Armor, full face helmets, beefier bikes... What a blast it was. Except for the driving part... So in 2006 we deleted our personal vehicles and enter Bob Marshall from Kelsey Bus Lines and save for a busted cooling system that provided a unique 24 hour experience on the way back home it was a MUCH more fun and relaxed way to get to the mountains from WPG.
Armed with a flashy new bus (we use the word "flashy" in an understated kind of way, this thing was downright garish) 33 peeps and three years experience we set out for a fourth stab at "crazy train" "bender" "Quadzilla" and the ubiquitous "insanity"... and so, without anyone but Jeff visiting the hospital, we managed a pretty-much drama-free trip that could best be described by Bill S. Preston, Esq. and Ted Theodore Logan as "most excellent". This, like all other trips were gleefully filled with challenges, laughter, personal bests and happily the complete absence of Chrissie and Tripat mud wrestling.
Pano added a few runs this year, not the least was our favorite high-speed run appropriately called "let it ride" where more than a few of us pushed pass the 60km/h wall... What a rush. Also on the top of our list was Bender (aka Binnndrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr) with it's wicked table tops, nice wide features and nice steep switch backs... we liked that one quite a bit. My personal favorites remained "locals only" a non-marked pure gravity descent that on more than one occasion allowed me to make good use of the word "h_ly sh_t" followed by "Denali's drop" where I managed to NOT wreck a pair of shorts this year and the aptly named "insanity" and "Punisher" two runs I still dream about daily... That's the beauty of that place for many of us... Lines ye- to-be-tried, sections yet-to-be-conquered and the eternal search for better "flow".
Check out some of the: vids from our 2007 Panorama DVD:
The cherry on the sundae to me is when I finally relax, sitting quietly on the bus on the way back (wonderfully uneventful, by the way) and hear the newbies such as Ryan Marien, Jeff N. and Mitch mumbling phrases that invariably contained the words "next year". Of course they'll be invited, of course we're going back... of course I can't wait. For nothing to me beats riding with my buddies, nothing is more fun to me that spending time on a motherf___ing steep mountain with the likes of Dean Rideout, Dave Degelman, Catherine Horbatiuk, Ming Li, Matt Goyer, Gavin Morrison, Paul Paul Kohlmeier and Jerry Legbacon... (yes, I intentionally left out people like Annandale, Jenn1, Thomas, Rodney, Coppens, Woody and Tripat... because I simply can't stand the sight of these people anymore)(yes, I was just kidding).
No but seriously, while I have you here mesmerized by my insanely articulate and entertaining account of our 2007 visit to gravity-assist heaven... I'd like to extend a very special thank you to Ryan Stimming from Panorama groups (what a guy, love him!), and the uber helpful Danielle for being so generous and accommodating as our hosts at Panorama, Coppens for doing more work than he should have, Catherine for dealing with me, Paul for excelling at the role of shepherd on his infamous "Team Patio", Dean "The Man" Rideout for his putting up with Jeff as a roommate (what a nutjob) and the myriad of responsibilities associated for co-leading "Team Common Sense" and lest but not least a big thank you to all who rode with me and made this trip what it was: Just about the best damned vacation a guy could ever hope to have. Now if I could just find a solution for my lack of cojones.
Check back soon for more pics and more on another stellar trip to Panorama.
.
THE LONG TRAVEL HOLY GRAIL Getting bikes with more than 4 inches of travel to behave in that efficient, solid, yet lively way is not that easy it seems. Very few "5 inch and up" bikes that we've tested over the years managed to deliver the feel of a 4 inch bike with one or two more inches of travel. Once you get up there it seems that many bikes get wobbly knees or either get heavy in order to counter that long-travel challenge... The less-than-perfect examples simply become "squishy"
When we find that rare combination of balance, poise, comfort and efficiency it's usually very subtle. These bikes rarely jump up and shout "HEY LOOK AT ME! I DO MY JOB INTUITIVELY!" When we find a bike that blows us away we usually quietly look at each other and go "pssst! I like this bike" and ride for a bit longer until we add "hey, I think you should try this bike out, I'd like your thoughts"... all the while smiling and simply enjoying the ride.
To say that 2007 and 2008 have been very good full-suspension test seasons would be an understatement. With 3 sweet new bikes recently inducted into Gord's Long-Travel MTB Hall-of Fame. The Jamis BAM, the Scott Genius and the very bling Commencal Meta 5.5... Joining such superlative squishy icons such as the stalwart Jamis XLT, the Ellsworth Epiphany, the Rocky Mountain SXC and the much loved Jamis XAM.
Life is pretty sweet at Gord's. How fortunate are we to have some of the very best long travel bikes that don't act like big fat spongy marshmallows. Long travel bikes that make you wonder why anyone would ride less.
Listen, if you ride any trail, flat as it may be or steep as you can find... If you're over 19 years old and you want to keep on riding into your sixties and beyond... if you're still riding that hardtail WAKE UP! Give your head a shake. Do yourself, your body and your ass a favor, get with the times. INJECT SOME FUN in your moribund life, get a full suspension bike and join the ranks of those who do more than just ride, join the ranks of those who are having the time of their lives on their bikes, join the ranks of the living. LIFE IS TOO SHORT TO RIDE A HARDTAIL. (We should make a T-shirt!) Check out our full-suspension page HERE
LOWEST
PRICE POLICY
Of course you don't want to pay more
for the same stuff! Who would? We understand that when it comes to saving a dollar some of us can go a little overboard... spend more on gas than the actual difference in price... To help you out, we have this little thing called Gord's lowest price policy...
TEST IT
THEN
SELL IT
It's a simple principle by which we live and die: "Only sell what you yourself would buy". After all, life's too short to sell crap, life's too short to buy crap. To make sure we're crapless we go through much time and effort to ensure that everything we sell is up
to our lofty standards.
GORDS DOES COMMENCAL Attention all bike lovers! Gord's is very proud to announce that we'll be offering Commencal Bikes starting in the summer of 2008! Commencal is a very cool, forward thinking niche bike company from Andorra. (they also hppen to sponsor the ubiquitous Cedric Gracia)... Needless to say we're very excited about this news!
Here's how this came about: Robbie and I were in Vegas, testing our allotted complement of bikes... and since day two was simply overrun with testers, bike companies were struggling to keep up with demand for test bikes. During one lull in testing (while waiting for the Jamis Dakar XAM to become available) I glanced over to the Commencal booth only to see someone about to return a "Meta 5.5" in my size... And since Commencal bikes had always piqued my interest I decided to pounce on the poor guy who was holding said bike. When I rolled up to Catherine and Rob on the Commencal both looked at me puzzled, "but that's
not on our list..." I shrugged, made up some story involving the French and off we went onto our favorite loop or Bootleg Canyon.
JOIN US! We've said it before: It's all about the ride. The ride to Seven Eleven, the ride to your buddies house, the ride we call Ingolf, the ride at Panorama, Fernie, The Seine River, the ride through the monkey trails at Assiniboine Park, the ride with your 30 favorite buddies or the ride with your daughter.
Yes the bike is important. But more important than the bike is the smile on your face. So get off your butt, dust off your bike, throw on your helmet and come riding with us next season! For more information on how we can help get you out, click on the following link:
Panorama for 6 days of tremendous gravity-assisted mountain-biking with a pit-stop in Calgary at C.O.P. for a warm-up along the way. We take 30 or so of our best riding buddies and let it ride... It's the highlight of the season for many of us.
Just so you're in the loop: Year one (2004) we had the brilliant idea to load up JF's Ford E350, a few cars and decided that Panorama would be our destination. We showed up seriously unprepared (nothin' but spandex) Year two (2005) 21 of us loaded up JF and Jeremiah's pick-up truck as well as a few cars and created a little convoy of sorts to do Pano again. This time better prepared. Armor, full face helmets, beefier bikes... What a blast it was. Except for the driving part... So in 2006 we deleted our personal vehicles and enter Bob Marshall from Kelsey Bus Lines and save for a busted cooling system that provided a unique 24 hour experience on the way back home it was a MUCH more fun and relaxed way to get to the mountains from WPG.
Armed with a flashy new bus (we use the word "flashy" in an understated kind of way, this thing was downright garish) 33 peeps and three years experience we set out for a fourth stab at "crazy train" "bender" "Quadzilla" and the ubiquitous "insanity"... and so, without anyone but Jeff visiting the hospital, we managed a pretty-much drama-free trip that could best be described by Bill S. Preston, Esq. and Ted Theodore Logan as "most excellent". This, like all other trips were gleefully filled with challenges, laughter, personal bests and happily the complete absence of Chrissie and Tripat mud wrestling.
Pano added a few runs this year, not the least was our favorite high-speed run appropriately called "let it ride" where more than a few of us pushed pass the 60km/h wall... What a rush. Also on the top of our list was Bender (aka Binnndrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr) with it's wicked table tops, nice wide features and nice steep switch backs... we liked that one quite a bit. My personal favorites remained "locals only" a non-marked pure gravity descent that on more than one occasion allowed me to make good use of the word "h_ly sh_t" followed by "Denali's drop" where I managed to NOT wreck a pair of shorts this year and the aptly named "insanity" and "Punisher" two runs I still dream about daily... That's the beauty of that place for many of us... Lines ye- to-be-tried, sections yet-to-be-conquered and the eternal search for better "flow".
The cherry on the sundae to me is when I finally relax, sitting quietly on the bus on the way back (wonderfully uneventful, by the way) and hear the newbies such as Ryan Marien, Jeff N. and Mitch mumbling phrases that invariably contained the words "next year". Of course they'll be invited, of course we're going back... of course I can't wait. For nothing to me beats riding with my buddies, nothing is more fun to me that spending time on a motherf___ing steep mountain with the likes of Dean Rideout, Dave Degelman, Catherine Horbatiuk, Ming Li, Matt Goyer, Gavin Morrison, Paul Paul Kohlmeier and Jerry Legbacon... (yes, I intentionally left out people like Annandale, Jenn1, Thomas, Rodney, Coppens, Woody and Tripat... because I simply can't stand the sight of these people anymore)(yes, I was just kidding).
No but seriously, while I have you here mesmerized by my insanely articulate and entertaining account of our 2007 visit to gravity-assist heaven... I'd like to extend a very special thank you to Ryan Stimming from Panorama groups (what a guy, love him!), and the uber helpful Danielle for being so generous and accommodating as our hosts at Panorama, Coppens for doing more work than he should have, Catherine for dealing with me, Paul for excelling at the role of shepherd on his infamous "Team Patio", Dean "The Man" Rideout for his putting up with Jeff as a roommate (what a nutjob) and the myriad of responsibilities associated for co-leading "Team Common Sense" and lest but not least a big thank you to all who rode with me and made this trip what it was: Just about the best damned vacation a guy could ever hope to have. Now if I could just find a solution for my lack of cojones.
Listen, if you ride any trail, flat as it may be or steep as you can find... If you're over 19 years old and you want to keep on riding into your sixties and beyond... if you're still riding that hardtail WAKE UP! Give your head a shake. Do yourself, your body and your ass a favor, get with the times. INJECT SOME FUN in your moribund life, get a full suspension bike and join the ranks of those who do more than just ride, join the ranks of those who are having the time of their lives on their bikes, join the ranks of the living. LIFE IS TOO SHORT TO RIDE A HARDTAIL. (We should make a T-shirt!) Check out our full-suspension page 
Attention all bike lovers! Gord's is very proud to announce that we'll be offering 
