The North Shore Mountain Bike Association are in the running to receive a $100,000 grant to help revitalize the trails on Vancouver’s world famous North Shore.

They’ve made it to the semi finals but they need YOU to Vote for them & help make this dream a reality.


Voting is as easy as clicking on the two steps below:


1. Register
2. Vote

• VOTE EVERYDAY!
• You get 10 votes in total, one vote per 24 hours
• Voting for the Semi-Finals runs from Dec. 2 at 9am until Dec. 15 at 9am
• You also need to hunt down your friends and family on Facebook, email, Blog & Tweet!

Spread the word – Trails for all, Trails forever!


Thanks for your support!

A few people have been asking where I’m calling ‘home’ these days, so I figured I should update this to let everyone know what’s up.

I’m currently still at my home in Maine while the Canadian Feds look over my immigration paperwork and decide whether I’m fit to move on up. For anyone who’s moved to a foreign country before, you probably know what a headache it is – endless paperwork for you and your employer, all to prove that you’ll be a worthy resident and you’re not stealing someone else’s job. Seeing as how this is a brand new position at Race Face and I’ve got a pretty unique resume, it would seem to be a slam dunk. Not so. We’ve finally completed all our paperwork, and with the help of uber-immigration consultant, Andy Osborne, we should have everything cleared shortly.

In the meantime, I’m putting in the hours here at my home office, with plans on moving out to the north shore during that first week of January. Ultimately, I think I’m more productive working from home, but while I learn the ropes at Race Face and get to understand all our systems, it will really help to be in the office on a regular basis.

I’ll need lots of help getting settled and finding good trails in BC, so PLEASE hit me up if you’re local to the area and down for taking a hack like me out on a ride.

See you all soon,

John P.

So long, Maine . . . Hello Vancouver!

The boys from North Shore Bike Shop have been hard at it producing a series of bike checks featuring the staff from the shop.
Here’s Jeremy in action on his Race Face equipped Banshee Spitfire

Banshee Spitfire with Jeremy Lemay from Spoked Media on Vimeo.

Last weekend some of us here at Race Face stepped up and got dirty during a trail day for the well used Pangor Trail on the world famous North Shore Seymour Mountain. The North Shore Mountain Bike Association works tirelessly to maintain, support and protect the priceless trail network here on the shore. Race Face is proud to not only sponsor events like this but to also get out and work side by side with fellow riders. I encourage all riders to support their local bike associations and to attend events like trail days. Trails do not maintain themselves, they need our help…

The one and only Digger getting it done!!

Sanesh Iyer of North Shore Bike Shop takes a spin on one of his favorite trails, CBC, with his Race Face equipped Banshee Wildcard.

Banshee Wildcard with Sanesh Iyer from Spoked Media on Vimeo.

Race run at the North Shore Smack Down – Photo by Dave Mackie

Whew, what a summer. If you’re a regular reader you’ve probably noticed the complete lack of updates on my website since, well, the beginning of the summer. Although the lack of updates is partly due to laziness, and an addiction to Modern Warfare 2, the largest reason is I’ve just had far more going on than usual. I figured I’d fill in my now non-existent reader base on what I’ve been up to.

The Flood:
My last update was for the Sunshine Coaster. Two weeks after the Sunshine Coaster I was supposed to be in Naniamo racing the BC Cup. The crew I was going over with had decided the night before to catch the Stupid-O-Clock ferry because we’re a complete gong show and forgot to get a reservation. Mr. Franks, now known as Angry Dad, was all freaking out about not making it over (surprising really because he just crashed his face off all week-end and beat up some kids). Anyway I woke up, got ready, and went to go pack the car at 5am (yes in the morning) only to find the courtyard in front of my townhouse was now a swimming pool (it’s not supposed to be a swimming pool). Needless to say I spent the morning fixing the flood and earned myself the nickname Noah. I wasn’t going to be able to make it over to Naniamo at any reasonable hour, so I decided to stay in town and sulk. I was eager to get out for a ride, so I conned Ryan and Glenn to go for a ride on the Monday after the race on Seymour. I couldn’t have gone for a ride with two more cranky people. I’m almost glad I wasn’t able to make it Naniamo, both Glenn and Ryan didn’t seem very happy. Thanks for ruining my only ride of the week-end you selfish, miserable bastards.
(continue reading…)

Matt just send me this great video of a day in the life of North Shore Bike Shop…



Matt’s morning commute looks like a lot more fun than mine!

I haven’t posted in a while as I’ve been busy………..riding!  The last weekend in June we went to Peachland to catch up with legendary duo Barb Haley and Johnny Smoke, Kranked alumni, North Shore old schoolers, and proprieters of www.bushpilotbiking.com .  Now Johnny and I go waaaaay back to the ’80′s as we went to high school together in Deep Cove, and our little girls are the same age so we always have a grand old time riding, catching up on Cove gossip, and drinking on his amazing balcony overlooking the lake.  He’s also part of the Rocky Mountain family now, rocking a sweet Rocky Mountain Flatline World Cup.  Barb was out there killing it on her hardtail, going bigger than most dare to do on a fully rigged beefy bike.  Uber photographer Ian Hylands and his wife Nicole, who also have a junior ripper, Kainoa came along for some fun too!  I think he was happy to actually get some riding time in, as this is shooting season.   Tippie tried to drift hard at the bottom of one run, and scraped off the top two layers of his forearm, which as much as I hate to admit it, is my fault, as I was hurrying him up to leave on our journey, and when he couldn’t find one armpad, I uttered the classic “you’ll be fine, don’t worry about it”.  Sorry Tippie!  The two days of riding incorporated thousands of vertical, beaches, lakes and even riding through a vineyard!  I’ll keep it short and sweet as Brett will be doing a more in depth dissection of our annual trip to Bush Pilot HQ!

Matt from the North Shore Bike Shop in North Vancouver, BC just sent me these photos of some awesome Banshee custom builds he’s been working on. These bikes look great & best of all, they’re fully decked out in the latest Race Face components…

Jeremy's Banshee Spitfire

Banshee Scythe

Banshee Legend

Matt's Banshee Rampant

Give Matt at North Shore Bike Shop a call for your next custom build.

So 2010 has been a busy year with organizing a race, coaching and now into the race season.


April saw the second year of me organizing the West Coast Super D, sponsored by John Henry Bikes. The weather was great and just over 100 participants came out to enjoy the loamy singletrack of Belcarra BC. I changed up the course a bit this year to remove the nasty climb from last year’s course and add more singletrack. It seemed to work with everyone coming away with smiles and a tails for the bench racing that followed. This years men’s winning time was 9:08 put down by Chris Johnston and Katherine Short was the fastest woman with a time of 11:10.


April also saw me help coach the 12th year of Power Training with fellow coaches Ray Lachance and Rod Dagneau. Our club West Coast Racing holds fitness training programs year round and Power Training is the outdoor mountain bike component of our club programs. For 10 weeks we helped participants prepare for the coming season with a series of hill climbs and interval repeats. Some participants want to prepare for the big event of the season others just come to help there fitness to enjoy the upcoming summer rides. AS usual we ended the last week with a gathering at the local restaurant for some food and bevies.


April also saw the first BC Cup downhill of the year for me. The Kamloops bike park has always had a nice track to start the season and this year there were quite a few changes in store for us. More jumps, berms and technical sections than ever before. First BC Cup saw me take a second place and a good start to the season.


My next race on the BC Cup downhill circuit was the North Shore Smackdown. Well this course was in my backyard so I was eager to give it a go again in 2010. Last year saw a bit of less than desirable result so I was looking to improve on my 2009 placing. The weather held out and the course was in great shape with just a little water in one section. Neds is always a fun trail to ride but racing it on even better, just you the clock and your buddies. Well mission accomplished the Smackdown ended with me at the top of the podium.


Two weeks later and BC Cup action was Arduum. Well this course is like nothing else in Canada and not really my favourite on the circuit but hey it’s racing and everyone rides the same course. The course is relentlessly tough from top to bottom with technical roots, rocks jumps and drops. After going over the bars countless times on Saturday practise I decided to change my tactics a bit for Sunday and tone down the urge to go for it and turn up the smooth. Sunday saw me riding sections with more flow and confidence and when the results were posted I placed first for my category.


Now with 3 events down I am tied for second place in the BC Cup. I guess this means the pressure is on for the next event, Bear Mountain. Stay tuned.