// ARFREERIDERS.COM | HOME OF THE ARKANSAS FREERIDE SOCIETY 2008

Today we met up at the AFA to ride with a few guys who have been frequenting our website: Rory- from Little Rock, FalconAR (sorry I’m bad with names man) who came all the way from Dallas- for a wedding but to also get in some local flavor of riding. And Shaun from Russellville all showed up to begin the hot a$$ day with some Dirt Jumping. Roroy broke 3 spokes in his rear wheel so I’m sure after he gets those fixed he’ll be back out to ride with us again. Falcon was pulling some pretty wicked X-ups, and Shaun was trying his hand at the jump zone also. Chris and myself kept working on no-footers, while everyone was wondering where the %@#$ Kit was:), and as always he was fashionably late- AND in true Kit fashion he proceeded to break his bike (that damn dust seal popped out of his lowers again)………later in the day he would also break his chain- oh yeah and that was on a different bike. From the sun beaten jump area we continued up the hill for some riding on the skinnies and under the tree coverage. Next stop was the recently constructed ladder drop into the ravine- everyone enjoyed that section I believe, and after clearing off the nails and randomly nailed in wooden slats which I have NO idea why the hell anyone would be up there trying to build on an already finished project we embarked on. If you are the person who was building please check with us under our “work days” thread in our Forum and we can organize some time to share with you our vision and how the features need to be constructed to ensure safety for everyone- this is NOT a renegade trail so any building which is not cleared with the AFS is definitely not cleared with the city (therefore it’s probably punishable by law) since we are the ones devoting our time and resources to get this project going we would appreciate you contacting us first if you are interested in helping with trail work or maintenance. Not following these rules could certainly ruin a good thing which we have going. Not to mention the written plan of approval we have to submit BEFORE any construction can take place period!

Five members of our AFS crew made the trip to Eureka Springs for the first DH event of the Arkansas racing season. Three of us raced, and two rode for fun. Only Eric had raced downhill before. Kit and I were newbies. Kit and I arrived in time to get plenty of practice runs in on Friday.

Too bad that I had 4 flat tires that slowed down my practice runs. To my credit, only one of them was a pinch. All the rest were punctures from the infamous Boone chert (used by natives for arrowheads, knives, etc.) Anyway, that stuff will fillet your face! It was hot as the blazes of hell on Friday, so it was a bitch to have protective gear on all day.

Kit and I eyeballed the step-down gap for a bit. I watched him hit it once. Someone later asked if Woody and Don had brought the machine up the trail to reshape the landing. The truth is, Kit raked all that gravel smooth with his back. I couldn’t muster the balls to try it. We saw some other dudes make it look easy.

We all rode the big line at the rocky ledge drop.

We sessioned both lines for a bit on Friday and Saturday afternoon. The PTD dudes did a great job crafting a smooth tranny at the bottom of the big line on the left. It actually made it easier and smoother than any of the other lines on the ledges.

Apparently the rock garden is always a crowd favorite. Just kidding…it was a tube eating piece of shit. Maybe I just can’t ride it fast without pinching 2 out of 3 times. Anyway, there was some confusion about a sneak line this year. No worries for us, but a tape change mid-race forced us all through the rock garden of death. It ate my tire, of course, on my second run. Too bad ’cause I felt faster than the early morning run to that point. So…2nd run I flatted at the shithole rock garden and Kit and Eric both took a spill somewhere on the course. Actually, I think Eric just plain fell off his bike, because he was gazing at the beautiful berm right before the finish line. It was love at first sight.

The PTD crew built a sweet finish line double jump.

People were sessioning it all weekend. We saw at least one no-hander during the race. We were stoked just to jump it. The Flat-Tire Downhill was a great race with a great course. We will be looking forward to the Devils Den race coming in September.

Here are the first AFS decals I was able to get cut. They are available in any color and any size and in any quantity. 2 and 3 color decals can be made for an additional charge. They are 100% UV and color fade resistant (can be clear coated). I also have a couple additional designs getting cut this weekend.

The prices are as follows:

Argenta Skull ($5 Large 8.5×6) ($3.50 Small pictured on helmet) - Any color

AFS Skull $3.50 (pictued size)

Lone Skull $3.00 (pictured size)

Website $1.50 (12”)

Send me an e-mail with the details of your order and I will arrange payment and delivery for you asap.
Mark Armstrong
Armstrongfinearts@yahoo.com

Alright everybody, 3 of us met up this morning to finish off the last of the building on stunt #1 (we’ll call it for now). The ladder bridge portion is now complete with 2 optional lines off of the ladder decking and one jump just to the left of the smaller drop. Hopefully in the upcoming weeks we can get out there in full force to begin breaking ground on the rest of the trail. Mark and Chris (spanish) not C2 please get some stickers designed and we’ll all chip in to get the cost covered. Thanks again to John Taylor for supplying more wood for our project- we’re out of all the 2 x 8’s now but we still have some post material so when you get a chance brother we need some more!!!! And John Crow if you read this we could certainly use some city funds for the cost of materials for upcoming segments (as everything has been done out of our pockets so far) so we can get the trail completed by the time the trail symposium rolls around in fall, this should be a real “stunner” when everyone lays their eyes on it! Enjoy- and please ride within your limits.

E2

Eh!! Im a freerider from Ontario but im moving to Arkansas in August, I would love to do anything to promote the freeride scene. I race 4x, dh and compete in slopestyle events. I will be in Arkadalphia going to school and ive already scoped the spots to start building haha, email me at dropinonanorco@hotmail.com

welcome to the dirty south homie. see you soon.

This bike just got built up and is about to be punished on the streets. Full review coming in a few weeks.

Alright everyone- first off BIG thanks to JohnTaylor for getting us some lumber this week. We broke ground this morning on the ravine section of the Argenta Freeride trail. The trail is far from being complete, but after no action had been taken for months on getting the section up and rolling, today we finally got re-motivated and began construction of the ladder section, which, when done, will have 3 separate options to choose. The first section to be completed with ladder decking was the big drop- probably 6ft to a nice transition making it more like an 8ftr or more by the time you land. The second section which should be completed next weekend will be just over handlebar height- maybe 4ft to transition. Last but not least, there will also be a descent size roller/wedge type jump, that could be ridden over by people of all skill levels but it will add a “chicken line” to anyone not quite ready for either of the drops. This is going to be AWESOME when it’s all said and done. Now without further adue, we present to you, the photos of 4 guys one ladder drop.

We also started breaking ground on getting the trail bench cut for the run-up of the jump next to the ladders. Kit came prepared for riding and broke out the Bottle Rocket for a test run on the big drop- it ended well. As always, Kit was fashionably late, so he got razed for a bit…..but he did bring donuts:). It was a good day of working- C2 and myself got there at around 8 o’clock and after being told by race officials that the XC race was going to start in about 15 minutes we got in high gear and started toting wood to the spot for construction.
We did get to see some good stuff from the XC guys- Noah and Drew( racing for Competitive Cyclist) were both racing well, and we even got to see a pretty wicked crash by Rick Sederberg (a customer of ours). I think he was so dazed that when we were asking him if he was alright(granted we were yelling from about 35 yards away through the woods)he thought that he was just hearing voices after getting his bell rung because he never answered:). As always Ryan was a building machine- that boy hammers nails straighter than a robot could- seriously. Good work today fellas and hopefully next week we can get Chris and Joel out to sweat with us and make the rest of this section of trail come together.

MIKE VALLELY - “Drive: White Hall, AR”

Pay Attention.

Short and sweet boys! Today I went out to the trail to break ground on our first ladder drop- hopefully it will be completed within a week. E2