In Harms Way

O'Skool MTB Photos

2011-03-28T10:25:00.000-07:00

Hello all,

On one of my last visits back home to LaVerne and Dwayne's house, my mother gave me an old photo album I did not know she created. I've included a few small examples of the old days when we use to race back in the 80's and 90's... some were before suspension. Note all the neon and bright colors we all used which apparently is back in style... not sure I would call it style but maybe popular is a better word. Check out the foam helmets w/ lycra tops, AXO boots, Oakley Pilot sunglasses, mullets and pink trucker hats... We were cool back then, but I would say more like hilarious now looking back.

Cheers,
Ivan


Ivan "posing" after the Kamikaze DH 1989

Ivan talking to Bernard at Big Bear Lake XC race.


Ivan and Chad in Mammoth 1989. Check out the Campy bottle on the Ritchey... nice AXO DH boots.

Are you kidding me? Check out Jimmy and Joel... so eighties man.

1990 Kamikaze DH in Mammoth rock'n the Klein... nice DH padded kickers.

Ivan, Randy and Randy's buddy.

Jimmy and Ivan at Mammoth... nice huge foam/lycra helmet.

Fox bones knitted gloves and baby blue/white JT jersey... ready for the DH run. 1991

1995 Ridgecrest Desert Classic XC race... nice poka dots and purple jerseies.

Mike, Jenise, Ivan and LaVerne (shadow) in 1995 after the Desert Classic race.

Race ready Homie Fred bringing it home in 1995 Desert Classic sporting the Marzocchi kit.

Typical weekend at Diez Lake in Lone Pine, CA... 1988.

Decline / Road Magazine Magic Mountain Party

2010-05-10T18:14:00.003-07:00

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Hello all,

Well it's been a while since the last post so figured we better start documenting again.

Last Saturday the day before Mothers Day, we were invited to the Decline / Road Magazine's Magic Mountain party for industry folks. Luckily for us we are only 20 minutes from Magic Mountain so it was easy to make the event. Matt VanEnkevort (FSA USA director) and his wife Lisa were in attendance as well so we teamed up w/ the big boss for the days activities. Jenise had to do some school work in the lab for a Sysco certification on her new job so she did not meet us until 4pm that evening.

First coaster while Ike and I waited to meet up w/ Matt and Lisa was the Terminator coaster which you had to be 48" to ride... Ike is +1/16" over so he was able ride it. By the way this coaster is labeled as "extreme" which is the highest category. To say the least... it was insane by my standards so by a 6 year old it must have been nuts. Ike's comments at the end, "THAT WAS AWESOME." I think were in trouble since he apparently is already an adrenaline junky.

After hooking up w/ Matt and Lisa and doing the Terminator ride for the second time... Lisa needed something less crazy so we strolled down the hill to the Log Jammer ride to cool down and collect our nerves before Ike picked some other crazy ride. Believe it or not, we almost rolled the log over when we all leaned over to the right at the same time after the first big splash. By the end, we COMPLETELY soaked from head to toe... maybe crazy dry rides are better.

We then went directly over to Goliath which has one of the longest and fastest first drops in the world. Yes we were right back in the "Extreme Category" again w/ this ride. Your heart literally felt like it stoped on this ride... simply most insane ride ever. Ike of course loved this one as well. However, later on when it was time to take Jenise he thought it best to not put Mom through such a wild ride; technically not doing it again himself. We then went to lunch and found a nice family of wolves which took Ike in, however when I went to get him back in our pack, the mother got a little angery.

Matt and Lisa look on at the attack w/ concern. Well maybe Lisa, Matt looks a little amused being from Alaska he would call it only a minor flesh wound.

Next we took a break and left the park to pick up Jenise and go back to our house and relax before the evening party back at the park. Upon our return, we were escorted by staff to Sky Tower 1 which is the giant red tower w/ the flag on top sitting at the highest point in the park. This was the highlight of the day since this is off limits to the public and is a museum of the parks history. The view was incredible being able to see the park and surounding valley as far as the eye could see.... amazing sight to say the least. It was one of a life time since again, they do not let the public up there.

After meeting everyone on top of the tower and smoozed w/ the mayor of Santa Clarita and mucky mucks in the bike industry, we proceeded to have dinner at the Dragon Cafe... of course there were two huge cakes to make sure your belly was full before hitting the rides again.

During the dinner Jenise and Ike took off early while the rest of us talked a little bike business and they rode Superman. Jenise came back w/ cake revenge and was done for the night. The lines were getting a little better now that it was evening so we decided to check out Revolution. Super cool since there were no lines at all so we rode it three times in a row w/ out waiting. Ike and Lisa both agreed it was super fun doing the loop-de-loop and Lisa appreciated the "moderate coaster."

Here is the parting shot of all of us on our way out of the park.

So that concluded the super fun Decline / Road Magazines Magic Mountain day. Thank you Dave and Christine House and H3 Publications staff for the good times.

As you can see, Ike is just about done as he can't even stand any longer and sat down at the valet's desk while we waited for our car.

Alloy Metal Casting #2 (Lost Foam)

2009-09-15T14:59:00.014-07:00

Last night we readied our trusty home made blast furnace, filled the propane tank, busted out the leather protection gear and prepared to melt alloy for the second, yet long awaited time.

(Foam Carvings)

Over the weekend, started preparation to do our second ever alloy metal casting. We started carving a piece to cast which of course was a turtle (NOTE: Ike's favorite animal). The alloy sculpture starts out as a block of styrofoam or wax which is carved into your desired piece to cast (affectionately named: "Turty" which is Ike's name for baby turtle). Before packing the foam piece in a mixture of lightly dampened sand and clay, we glued on additional pieces of foam called the "sprue", gates and vents for proper flow of the metal. Sprue is where the liquid alloy is poured and vents is where the alloy will travel through to properly fill the entire void left from the burned foam. Proper gating and vents will eliminate air pockets left by under cuts to ensure metal flows to all parts of the void.

(Ike preparing the green sand)

(Ivan and neighbor Peter)

(Melting found alloy)

(Most dangerous part is removing and pouring the alloy from crucible)

(Don't trip!... 1220º liquid alloy)

(Pouring into the sprue)

(10 minutes later, we dump the flask and remove the sculpture to be trimmed & polished)

(One turtle sculpture in the rough)

"The turtle emerges from it's extrusive basalt & pumice earthen home of finely crystalline, glassy igneous rock resulting from centuries of volatiles activity"... or simply we dumped the hot ass clump of metal and sand into bucket.

(Final turtle, lightly brushed w/ wire wheel)

(Boy and his turtle)

In the end, you can see it was a successful casting. We will continue to learn better ways of casting and refining the technique as we experiment on sculpting, gating, sand / clay / water mixtures; venting; pouring; packing sand; polishing; etc...

Check in for more castings and family events coming soon!

Von Kruiser's Devil Bike Lives!

2009-09-03T11:03:00.005-07:00

The Devil Bike from hell is finally finished and reaping havoc on the bike paths. It crushes any slower-type beginner or bellied road biker in tights in the Santa Clarita Valley. However, they do get the standard "bring, bring" of the bell when passing.

Just to update everyone, this is the Felt V12 Cruiser which was my down fall three years ago when I broke five ribs and my left knee. Apparently Off-Road Beach Cruising it is very dangerous... especially when you make it down the steepest shoot on the trail w/ drops at full speed into a brick wall on the opposite side of the street. It seems to be most beneficial to have proper braking especially on the front since slowing down and stopping is a requirement to stay safe and have a good time. Here is the original blog link to the crash: http://mediocremountainbiker.blogspot.com/2009/01/ivans-crash.html.

The original coaster brake was replaced by welding on disc brake mounts and custom wheelset. Original steel parts were replaced w/ highend components like FSA AB Alloy 2pc crankset w/ modified external english BB adaptor from the original OPC BB, machined stem, alloy micro-adj post, sealed BMX pedals, FSA MX headset, XTR brake levers, leather Torelli seat bag and DB freeride seat QR.

It's a sick ride and rolls real fast for sure as long as you can stay on top of the 44T/18T gearing. Here are a few pictures. Look for future blogs on the second off-road ride on the same trail which took me out three years ago. Should be a little safer this time... I hope.

Decline Magazine Whistler Symposium

2009-07-28T21:45:00.011-07:00

Whistler Group Ride from Ken Bennett on Vimeo.

Ok well here is yet another Whistler BC epic riding adventure at the 2009 Decline Magazine Symposium. This is where the greatest minds in the cycling world meet to guide the industry w/ our expertise and advanced knowledge base further moulding the business like clay in the hands of a sculpture... actually we were a bunch slackers having fun in one the most epic cycling scenes in the world.

The Symposium attendees were the following companies: FSA, Fuji, Pivot, Cane Creek, Cannondale, CMC, Evil Bikes, Funn, Giant, Hayes, Intense, Jamis, Kenda, Leatt, Norco, Oakley, Rocky Mountain, SDG, SRAM, Shimano, SR Suntour, WTB, X-Fusion, Decline

Attached is a video shot from the helmet of Ken Bennett at Pivot cycles who is one incredible rider. Pete Stace-Smith of Norco also is prevalent in this video and was our guide... Pete is the man! Other riders in this video were: Craig at Jamis, Kevin of Pivot Cycles, Lisa of Intense Cycles, Alex at Rocky Mountain, Steve of Oakley, Malcolm and Josh of CaneCreek, Chris at SDG, John of Norco as well. Great group and had a great time w/ this crew. Also had a great time riding w/ Gary at WTB and Rodger of XFusion on the second day as well as Alan the photographer for Decline Magazine w/ +40lbs camera backpack riding everything we did! Crazy guy for sure.

We road from the top of the mtn via gondola to the bottom many times during our three days of downhill bombing.

Look out for the guy w/ the blue jeans on and the white shirt (myself - Ivan Harms at FSA)... no issues this year; just one of my best riding adventures ever.

Mandalay Beach with cousin Jill

2009-05-17T12:11:00.008-07:00

Last Friday evening our cousin Jill asked us to visit her after the business trip she attending was over. Little did we know the hotel we stayed at was the beautiful Mandalay Beach Resort in Oxnard sitting right on the sand. Upon our arrival, Ike and I ran down the the beach at night to get our feet wet. Nothing like the beach and waves at when it's dark out.

Next morning we awoke to a classic socked in cool beach morning. After a quick breakfast, we proceeded to the waves and sand. Jill and I started right away on an epic sand castle while Ike jumped in the water and Jenise laid out the towels and beach mats.

All was good and the castle grew into a master piece of sand, shells and sea weed decorations. Of course everyone (except me) planned on crushing the castle instead of leaving it for the waves to consume... they smashed the two hour constructed Casa de Oxnard in less then thirty seconds. Not only was the castle crushed... but me as well.

It was great hanging out and playing with cousin Jill and the family. Good times for all.

San Fernando MTB Ride

2009-04-08T08:00:00.002-07:00

New yoga riding technique. David Alvarez and I found that the experience of riding while doing yoga to be both beneficial and hazardous at the same time which is what mountain biking is all about. However it is not conducive to climbing but we are working on this issue.

Excellent ride as usual and my first epic ride of the year since we rode for 3-1/2 hours w/ no breaks on the climb since you climb a mountain.

Click the link to read more about the ride and see the video. - Ivan

Ivan's Trail

2009-04-02T08:02:00.015-08:00

Hello all, our good friend David Alvarez of Speedplay Pedals was visiting the Casa de Harms compound for three weekends as he moves his family to Socal from Belgium. He is done w/ the rain and flat land apparently and we will be seeing his family more often in sunny, hilly California.

Of course while staying w/ us, we always find time to do a local ride or two of which, "Ivan's Trail" is our favorite since it is so close to home. Copy and paste the following link to David's blog for all the photos and his take on the ride:

http://mediocremountainbiker.blogspot.com/2009/03/ivans-trail.html

Enjoy.

- Ivan

Ike's First Mountain Bike Race

2009-03-15T19:43:00.007-08:00

I thought it would be fun to share that Ike Harms has officially become a mountain bike racer, at the ripe old age of 5 years old! This was totally his decision! We didn't even ask him, here's how it came about.

John and I took Ike to Kernville, CA on Saturday for an afternoon at the Keyesville Classic. Our dear friend Mic DeMin was directing the race and asked if we could do some volunteer work. We pulled up around 12:30 in the afternoon, and the announcer was saying over the loudspeaker, ..."kids race is starting in 5 minutes!". Ike looked at me at and without warning yelled, "hurry mom, I want to race with kids....we're going to MISS IT!"

In 3 minutes we were at the sign up booth, John scribbled down Ikes name on an entry form while we plastered his number plate to his handle bars and ran as fast as we could up to the starting line as the girls race was just taking off. With only moments to spare, Ike got positioned into the last place in the boys starting line up position. The race bell went off and two grueling laps later (I think the whole course was a total of 300 feet, and Dad was never more than a few steps behind). Ike completed his first race with a great top 5 finish!!! I think there were about 7 kids in the race, so NOT BAD! ..but who's really keeping track, right?

Ike won a shiny gold medal, and a prize (a bug magnifier kit).

Ike was a totally focused competitor, he showed determination and never gave up throughout the race...and displayed a great spirit of competition. He spent the next 4 hours with his fellow competitors digging into holes in search of bugs. Mom and Dad couldn't be more proud.

Post race follow-up: Ike woke up the next morning, and the FIRST thing we did was grab his medal, place it on the counter top and asked me to light up the candle sitting next to it so it would "look special!". (I'm thinking his version of the Olympic flame?)

Ike Pre-School Class Photos

2009-03-09T17:16:00.004-08:00

Well for everyone wondering what our man Ike has been up to, we have some photos of him in action with all this class mates. Even though he is not in Kindergarden yet, Ike can already read, add / subtract, reads time and much more of course. We are proud of our little dude. Also he just turned 5-years old on 3/2/09. Growing up fast!

Most dangerous MTB riding around... offroad beach cruising!

2009-02-09T23:28:00.009-08:00

More like offroad "beat-cruising". This is a link to the last time I rode a beach cruiser offroad. Mind you that the trail is very steep single track w/ shoot at the end only a few people have ridden. NOTE that it is recommended to have a front brake... well beach cruisers only have rear coaster brakes so my off-road beach cruising ended there.

Excellent plans for a waffle bike

2009-02-09T23:18:00.005-08:00

Ok I have found the ultimate bike... Euros. They are insane for waffles and bikes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-aKtmAfeRg

Camping Sycamore Canyon 07

2009-02-01T11:27:00.005-08:00

Here are photos of our camping trip in 2007 at Sycamore Canyon in the Santa Monica mountain range. Jenise, John Ivan, Ike and our new dog "El Jeffe spent three days camping on the beach. This is also the trail head of some of the best and longest mountain bike trails in the Santa Monica Mountain Range. Riders can start in Newbury Park (where Giant Bicycles is located) and ride to the beach (where we camped). Additionally you can connect this trail to the switch back trail as well as ride offroad all the way to Santa Monica beach. The trail also connects to the old set of there the M.A.S.H. 4077 was filmed, then ride to the beach... great biking for sure.

Typical Bicycle Industry Taiwan Dinner

2009-01-30T09:39:00.008-08:00

Happy, enjoy...

Notice all the negotiating and positioning it takes to have a drink in Taiwan...

No joken... Jochim !

Before...

After...

Alloy Metal Casting

2009-01-23T09:55:00.005-08:00

Well I am all fired up again on further learning about how to use the blast furnace Dwanye and I built for melting and casting alloy. Our first attempt was a simply amazing and a little nerve racking since it was our first time and we were all rookies. The fear is spilling or exploding liquid molten alloy on yourself and others. I'll update the post with the original images when we can find them. For now here are some images of Ike wearing a fine pair of cowboy boots showing us how to work it.