Hart & Huntington have team up with Grenade to release a co-branded BMX glove. For those of you who dont know of Grenade there the most popular glove in the snowboard world and used by most of snowboardings best riders along with there owner Danny Kass. Its exciting to see both brands look at BMX for the first time in a joint effort. Heres a photo of the samples being tested by Corey Bohan and Heath Pinter. The gloves are awesome and should be available soon.
Heres a quick pic of the jump I built down the street from my house. Please excuse the photo quality, my squirly buddy shot it with a phone.
Tajs current bike set up.
Frame – Method Team, custom orange paint
Fork – Odyssey Director
Headset – Odyssey Integrated
Stem – Odyssey Elementary V3
Handlebars - Odyssey Lumberjack
Grips – ODI Longnecks
Lever – Odyssey Medium
Cable – Odyssey Linear w/ flexie barrel adjuster
Seat – Odyssey Aitken prototype
Post – Animal integrated wedge thing
Cranks – Odyssey 180mm Twombolt
Pedals – Prototype Jim C PC
Sprocket – Odyssey with built in guard 28t
Chain – Shadow
Wheels – Odyssey Hazard Lites with Odyssey spokes, G Sport nips, G Sport hubs, 10t cog
Tires – Oyssey Aitken 2.2 front / Path 2.1 rear
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Taj has a great interview up on the Dig site where he talks a lot about his back problems and some other random stuff. There’s also some awesome old Taj photos like the one below from the past years. Click the image below to check it out!
I’ve been included in Ride’s newest batch of downloadable wall papers. Cruise on over to the Ride site and download me so you can see my beautiful face everyday.
During my internet travels I came across this old Taj section from the second Fox video. Last clip is one of the best Taj clips ever.
Corey’s somehow made his way back into the Celebrity gossip world via The Sun…
I built this step up down the street from my house. Should be ready to ride by the time you read this. Check back for photos and a short edit soon.
As we wrote in a post below, Heath and Corey had worked a deal with Mitsubishi to promote their new Lancer Sportback. They got the car for a bit to hit up the trails and rally around a bit. Here’s a trails edit Heath made to promote the new Mitsubishi.
For the past several years Taj has been having back problems, but up until recently it has been bearable. Lately it’s gotten so bad that it’s taken Taj off his bike and he’s been having to do some heavy research to try and fix the problem. The following is from Taj’s blog on the Ride site:
Just back from the doctors and just went over my MRI results. Heavy news for me. Looks like we are going to do the fusion surgery of L5-S1. Surgery won’t take place for almost a month, but when it does Its only like a 2 day stay in the hospital, but it means that after surgery no activity for 3 months and no riding for real for 6 months! Yikes. I didn’t really expect it to take that long to heal.
That disc is not supposed to be doing that. It should be like the ones above and staying flush with the spine.
I have a pretty substantial rupture in my the disc between L5-S1. The treatments range for this kind of thing, but after a good talk my doctor and I have settled on the fusion surgery. The options though are as follows:
-Cortizone epidural shots like Tom Stober had to bring down the swelling but not actually fixing the disc. This can make you feel better because it relieves pressure, but it can last as little as a few days, or in some cases less serious then mine it can relieve the entire problem.
-There’s also a procedure to clip the part of the disc that is distended. Sounds like this is what Ben Ward was saying that Rich Hirsch had. My doctor said that usually when the disc between L5-S1 is herniated and putting pressure on the nerves it causes leg pain and shooting feelings radiating downwards. If that is the case then clipping the protuding disc usually solves the problem. I don’t have that at all, I only have pain in my lower back. My legs feel a bit week, but mainly its my back muscles that are unable to function. Doc says that clipping the disc very possibly may not relieve this problem since it may have more to do with the joints pressure on the nerves. Its interesting to see what functions of the body are “typically” impacted by disc damage at different levels. Each level has its own characteristics.
-We could possible do an artificial disc replacement. Unfortunately, this extremely expensive procedure is considered “experimental” by my insurance company and so I’m not covered for it. The up side is that at this level in the spine there’s not really that much movement, or at least, higher up would be much more crucial. A fusion at this level should not really be too much of an issue for flexibility for me. However, if in 6 months from now you see me just starting to ride again and I’m all stiff we can just blame that.
-So, we settled on the fusion surgery. Its what Ruben was describing last post. The crazy part is they go in through the front of your abdomen to do the surgery. Its a relatively small incision, but two surgeons are present. One to do the actual screw and plate and bone graft surgery, and one to monitor and control the extremely vital arteries that run right in front of the spine. Basically they screw and plate the vertebrae together so they can’t move, and then fill the area where the disc used to be with bone grafts that will fill it in so the damaged disc can no longer put pressure on the spine. I think…. I’ll get more and more precise with exactly what is going on as I learn more.
To be honest I was so rocked by the idea that I wouldn’t be able to ride for 6 MONTHS that I kind of stopped being able to think straight. Heavy news for me today.
Next step is to meet with the Vascular Surgeon to go over his procedures in the surgery and check to see if my splenectomy scars are going to be an issue for this surgery. After meeting with him I’ll be able to schedule a surgery date. The earliest possible time being between 3 and 4 weeks from now.
I’m pretty freaked out by all this, and dreading being laid up for so long, but at the same time I’m really itching to get this taken care of. Guess I’m staying in Austin for a while to deal with all of this.
Corey Bohan and Heath Pinter have linked up with Mitsubishi to promote there all new Lancer Sportback. The Lancer Sportback is a sporty hatchback version of there already proven Lancer that will be available this summer for the first time. They will be using them to get to events and in a series of web edits you will be able to view here at ridegiantbmx.com. Take a look at mitsubishicars.com and keep an eye out for more on the Lancer Sportbacks.
I just made a trip up to San Jose for Ryan Nyquist Warriors of Wood comp. While at the comp I got to talking to some of the locals about a trail spot not to far from the event. It lined up perfect to hit on the drive home. After talking to some of the guys at the event we made plans to hit this trail spot and take a few runs before making the long drive. After a decent hike to a well hidden spot we were greeted by the friendliest locals I have ever met along with Joey Garcia, Matt Mardesich and Ryan Nyquist. The trails are new and no photos or film were shot but I can say they are by far the best I have ever ridden in California and I could not have had a better day. The locals were killing it making it fun to follow them through the lines that turned all over the place with hips and plenty of long sets. Joey and Matt were ripping lines that seemed to have no end. For any one who has never seen Joey Garcia ride its a true treat, watching him ride made it hard to believe that it has almost been ten years since he won the X Games. Props to the locals, Joey and Matt for the session.
