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A guy on a cbr hits some cones set up at the end of pit wall to keep people from entering the track too far to the left while riders are hauling the mail down the front straight. The cone lodged into his front tire, locking it briefly, causing him to do an insane stoppie before being pitched over the bars.

Toe caught the last few shots of the crash sequence as he was sliding, but witnessed most of the crash. He radio’d over saying he’d never seen a stoppie before like this guy did.

The rider was mostly okay…bumps, bruises, and a skinned up right hand.

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Here’s the latest video we’ve made.. Blaine had his own GoPro HD camera, and he gave us his footage. We compiled it with a little bit of footage Kev shot trackside and some from another camera we’d rented out, and we came up with this…

Next time you’re at the track and if you like what we did here, come see us about taking your HD footage, or renting one of our GoPro HD camera, and we can do this for you too!

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Well, me and Infineon Raceway go back a few years. I’ve been shooting there since 2006. I’ve watched at least eleventy trillion bikes pass by me in every corner of that track. Fast guys, slow guys…whatever. I’ve seen and documented probably around 100 crashes at Infineon alone. Most in turns 2 and 9, for sure, but with turn 3 having a ton of crashes as well.

Three years ago, it wasn’t even in a turn that had me spooked. Three years ago, Allen Rice crashed into the k-wall as he was exiting the track and tragically, he passed away as a result of that crash. This had all happened just in front of me, as I was making my way back to the pits to get geared up to ride Infineon for the first time. Needless to say, I didn’t ride that day. In fact, I’d decided that day, after what I’d just seen, that I had no desire to EVER ride Infineon. “It’s too damned dangerous,” I’d tell myself.

And I didn’t.

For three years, I never even had the inclination to ride. I’ve seen some people make mistakes and have incidents sometimes out of their control at Infineon causing life-changing crashes. From Shawnery having come together with Brian in turn 8 some years ago, to Eric Arnold at the start of a race before turn 1. Infineon scared me. I was genuinely fearful of riding the track.

Yesterday was a Zoom Zoom day at Infineon. The conditions were absolutely perfect. The weather simply could not have been any better for a day of riding. I’d made up my mind: I was going to ride.

joe at infineon backing it in to turn 7

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So! It’s the beginning of the track season. Kevin went bonkers and ran around all over the place on February 8th at the Zoom Zoom opener and shot a bunch of amazing footage while Toe and I hustled the track getting photos.

This is part of the new video service we’re offering up to everyone at the track. Fully edited on-board footage set to your favorite track/artist/genre. :D

While Kev was doing his thing, when I finally had a few minutes of downtime, I also mounted the new GoPro HD to fast grrrrrlll Elena Myers and another fast gggggrrrrrl Melissa Paris! Talk about AWESOME riding along with them. Elena blows by other riders like they’re not even moving! It’s epic watching Melissa trail brake deeeeeep into every corner. Thanks you gals!

Be sure to watch it in full 1080p!

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So, I had the pleasure of going down to Las Vegas for the 2nd Round of WERA with the Pirelli guys from CTRacing. I got a phone call around Tuesday evening saying “we’ve got room! We’ll take care of ya!” and they sure did. Not only does CTRacing offer the SICKEST tires ever, but they’re some pretty rad dudes as well. I can’t thank Chris Maguire or Corey Neuer enough for taking me down there under their wing. We stayed at the Stratosphere hotel and casino for 3 nights and had a blast, that by the way there’s an excellent site about gambling online check it out https://www.dacreate.co.uk/. Thanks again, guys!

In return, I offered up to get some publicity shots and video on boomtownbingo.com/history-bet365-stadium/ for their go-to 600cc guy Jimmy Wood! On Friday, during a trackday/practice for the WERA races, we got some pretty damned good stuff! Be sure to click “720p” to watch it in all it’s HD glory!

Camera is a GoPro HERO HD. It’s freggin RAD! I’m totally in love with this little piece of video bliss.

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As the 2010 track season is right around the corner, I can’t help but to think and reflect on 2009 and what I have learned in such a short amount of time.  At the track, everyone is there for the same reason… to ride, and have fun.  Everyone is more than willing to help one another, and help in any way they can.  I really learned a lot about what a track day is through the lens of my camera.. as a silent observer if you will.  If you are hungry, a complete stranger will make sure you are fed.  if you have a headache, someone will make sure you get some aspirin.  If you are hurt or you go down on the track, a flood of complete strangers will come by just to check on you and make sure you are ok.  I have also seen countless acts of kindness when it comes to bike maintenance, with complete strangers helping other riders get their bike dialed in, even if it means missing a session or two.  It is this type of environment that I have grown to love in such a short amount of time.  This is where my excitement comes from filming events like this.  Being able to capture these types of behaviors, along with some fantastic riding, is why I do this. 

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So, we’re taking 4theriders to another level. We’ve decided to offer up VIDEO as well as photos for 2010. Though, it’s not going to be the typical bike-chasing-bike kinda of video that we’ve all seen done in the past. We are offering up GoPro Hero HD cameras for rental to customers.

Not only are we going to be renting them out, but we’re also going to be providing a video editing service, where customers can unload all of the footage taken from the cameras to us, and we will edit them up into a 3-5 minute long video of the best parts of their riding from the day, edited up to their choice of song/genre or whatever they want. Even an option to surprise them with whatever we feel suits the video best. Customers will be able to keep all the raw footage as well.

I received the first of several cameras a few days ago and have done a little bit of testing with it. I want to make sure to learn all the do’s and don’ts of using this camera before renting em out and getting less than perfect results with it. On Thursday, I took the camera up to Mosquito Ridge Road (my favorite road in all the land) and did some various mounting while shooting on the cameras LOWEST setting (720p, 30FPS) and here are the results!

That was just a quick throw-together from some of the footage I shot on a chill ride. I learned that mounting the camera to your helmet does NOT yeild the best audio results with the waterproof backing. I’ll have to try it with the opened backed one, which is supposedly better with noise at less than 100 mph.

Still more testing to be done before February 8th, but progress is being made!

4theriders has been fortunate enough to receive help from Pashnit.com, a motorcycle website created by a local rider over many years of riding and documenting the best riding roads all over California. Tim Meyhew, the owner, also offers motorcycle tours (which I’ve been fortunate enough to ride on several of them, and they are a BLAST! Even having sportbikes mixed with touring bikes and even cruisers, the comradery is top notch, and the experiences last a lifetime). The Pashnit forum is also a great place to meet like-minded riders from your area and beyond where you can share your experiences or live vicariously through the experiences of others as they travel through California, the US, and the globe!

Help support local moto business owners! If you plan on getting a GoPro Hero HD camera, buy it here: Pashnit’s GoPro Hero HD site.

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4theriders had a snow day. 11 of us came, only 3 returned. we left the dead for the bears. we have all kindsa video footage, including riding 2 up down a goat trail covered in mud and snow, carnage, towing sleds, ramming mountains…everything we could think of. hehe.

we’ll start with a “moto” so it’s relevant…hehe.

kevin, beating on my scooter.

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