Video: Session Launch at Highland Mountain Bike Park

On May 25-28, 2008, Trek launched the all-new Session 88 at Highland Mountain Bike Park.

A group of 10 journalists accompanied Andrew Shandro, Cam McCaul and the entire Trek development team for 3 days of park riding bliss.

Experience it now.

Photo Gallery: Session Launch @ Highland

Memorial Day Weekend. Highland Mountain Bike Park. New Hampshire.

Pics by Sterling Lorence. Bikes by Trek. Fun had by all.

How low can you go?

It's not often we can show off bikes in this blog. So much of what we're working on are protos of "next year's bikes" or something secret we're not yet ready to let out of the bag.

Once in a while, there's something we can show off.

Vance McCaw (whoe works in the Product group) and Brady Schroedl (the engineer responsible for making the Session a reality) built this Session 88 up from "some parts laying around." Ok, maybe not laying around, but certainly stock parts we could easily get our hands on. Really, the only exotic part here is the RCS ti coil spring on the Fox DHX.

Here's the good part:

That, folks, is the full truth, no trickery, complete bike weight, with pedals, ready to fly. 32.56 lb. 14.77kg. Keep in mind, outside of shaving down the BB, this is a stock frame. There were no silly light bolts, nothing drilled out to within an inch of its life. Just good parts choices and the best full on DH frame going (ok, I had to throw that last part in - I do actually work here!)

Specs:

Session 88 frame, polished, size L (BB shaved down to 73 to use the XT cranks), Fox DHX 5.0 shock with 450 lb ti coil spring

Rock Shox Boxxer WC, Sunline direct mount stem

Bontrager Duster (Rhythm) 28mm wide rims, 32 hole, King Earl Hubs, Big Earl 2.5 Kevlar tires, Stans rear, tube front

XT cranks with MRP carbon chainguide, Crank Brothers Acid 2 pedals (steel)

King Earl alum bars (full width), King Earl alum seat post, silly light racer saddle

Avid Juicy 7's (203 F, 185 R), XO drive train, 11-26 9 speed cassette

I'm actually at a loss for what more we could say about this bike. Even I'm a little stunned we got it so light.

Throwin down for Tara

By now you've probably heard about Tara Llanes' accident. The ripper from out west experienced a crash like no other, which has given her a temporary disability. Unfortunately, the road to recovery is a long and expensive one, and it just began only 5 months ago.

Thankfully, the mountain biking and BMX community is coming together  to support her

Going Gobi

The famed New World Disorder crew recruited Trek's own Cam McCaul to go on a scouting mission to China. I thought they were crazy, but you have to have faith when coming up with the next movie or Red Bull event site. Check out the latest teaser highlighting their adventures. Jealous!

Cam Goes to China

Unlike professional cross country riders, whose days are filled with gram-counting and exhausting
training rides, the professional freerider has a very different agenda. In the case of Cam McCaul, that agenda usually goes something like this:

1. Grab a photo or video guy.
2. Make sure his camera's turned on.
3. Find some place cool.
4. Do a sick trick.
5. Do it all over again.

But what happens when you run out of cool places to do cool tricks? Cam's answer was simple:
Find a place that hasn't been ridden -- like the remote landscape of Urumqi, China -- and film for the next New World Disorder, and scout for a possible location for the next Red Bull Rampage (or something very similar). 

My first question to Cam was, where's Urumqi?

Thanks to the wonders of the somewhat reliable, but always mostly correct Wikipedia, I found this map:
In the northwest corner of China, Urumqi gains recognition as the most remote city from any sea in the world.

• GDP per capita was about $2,400 in 2004 (roughly one-thrid the winnings of Cam's first place at the 2007 ClawWorx slopestyle competition).
• The city is also a major target of China's "Develop the West" initiative that's been going on for a few years now, so let's hope that GDP creeps up a bit more.

Maybe a new Rampage will help develop it as the world's premier freeriding area. Watch out Whistler!
Anyway, Cam has made his way over to China, and I asked him to send me some correspondence.
Here's the first thing I've heard from him since he left last week:

Well, we spent yesterday cruising around Beijing checking out all the sights.  Pretty cool.  I felt lke
I was strolling through the most giant Chinese restaurant in the world.  They do a good job back in the states mimicing real China in the restaurants, so needless to say I was hungry all day long looking at miles and miles of this restaurant-esque landscape. When it came time to eat, we found a pretty nice  pot. Everything tasted good except for the toilet waterand chicken bone soup.  I guess thats an aquired taste....  Lots of aquired tastes out here.    Deepfried scorpion was one of them that was being pressured on me in the street, but I told them that I was trying to cut back, and these days I really prefer deep fried basketball.  Getting on a fllight from here to the desert in a couple hours and thats when all the reall fun starts!  Who knows what we're gonna find out there.  Nobody has ever sunk their tires into this soil, and  'm honored to be the first one to be doing it.  Its like skiing fresh tracks on an untouched mountain!  im ecstatic to scope the scene, and once I do, I'll have another photo update for ya... 'Till then kids, remember.... Just say no to deep fried scorpion! - Cam