etnies

etnies Two Wheel Tour X3!

Kenny Bell and Todd Potter are loving every minute of riding through Zion national park.

Potter did not even think twice when
Mike Jones laid down in front of the
Vegas sign...he jumped him on
his hog!

The third annual etnies Two Wheel Tour is officially underway and on a mission to ride Harleys from LA to Vegas. This year the motley crew of riders consists of Todd Potter, Ox Kargola, Kenny Bell, Beau Manley, “Mad” Mike Jones and the speed demon himself, Trigger Gumm.

We kicked the tour off at Bartel's Harley Davidson in LA where we loaded up on all the necessary gear that it would take for the group of dirt bike riders to make it 1400 miles to Sturgis in Black Hills South Dakota. We stopped off at Baker to take some shots in front of the worlds largest thermometer which just happened to read 96 degrees at midnight...needless to say it has been smoking hot to say the least.

We rolled into Vegas and stayed at Hooters Hotel and Casino the first night, took a few shots with the infamous Vegas sign in the morning and pinned it to Salt Lake City where I sit writing this piece in the etnies RV.

Look for more to come in the days to come. Braap!

The crew sweated it out through 100
degree temps to pose for a photo in front
of the worlds largest thermometer.

The crew tearing up V-town!

The first night as we rolled up to the
Hotel for a little quality time and
some "hot wings."

Lookin' tough

Potter kickin' back

We'll see you in the next update bitches!

etnies Two Wheel Tour Presented by Rockstar & Boost Mobile - Part 1

This trip was all about having a good time with friends on our way up North to do a FMX demo at the Chukchansi Gold Casino in Coarsegold, CA at the end of the trip. Marc Burnett from FreestyleMX.com brought his ramps out to the Casino to help us put on the demo/fund raiser for the families of Chris Ackerman, Jeremy Carter and Stephen Murray. We had a destination and purpose...now getting there would be the fun part!

Twitch chillin' at Jackpot

The Second Annual etnies Two Wheel Tour is now over and all had a great time! Here's how it all went down:

We started out going to Carson on Wednesday the 24th to pick up some Harley's from their media department. Everyone was supposed to be there at 10am so we could leave by 11. I lied and told everyone we were leaving at 10am so they would show up early, but that didn’t even work out so good! Potter decided showed up around 12:45, so we got a later start than we were planning on.

With 12 guys on Harley's, we left Carson, CA and headed up to Santa Maria and Jackpot Ranch. Jackpot Ranch is several hundred acres of big-ass dirt jumps that are built into the hills...it's bad ass! Deegan, Potter, Twitch, Nate Adams, Faisst, Kenny Bell, Kyle Loza, Derek Garland, Dan Pastor, Trigger Gumm, OX, Fitzpatrick and a couple other guys all came out to Jackpot for the first two days of the trip. Damion from Boost Mobile, Jordan from Rockstar and Twitch all brought out motor homes to Jackpot for a couple days. Twitch's motor home was in the shop so our buddy Marc Howser at Richardson's RV let him use one of his RV's for a couple days. A bunch of the guys started riding when we got there and were all jumping this big gap by the entrance of the ranch. Twitch and Nate Adams flipped the jump and Twitch had his film crew there for his upcoming video. We hung out there for a while after dark and then rode this bitchen windy road 20 miles. Good times.

That first night we went into Santa Maria to get a hotel because we had way too many people to stay in the motor homes. After pulling into the hotel around 9pm we all went to the bowling alley on the corner and ordered up some pizza and drinks before trying to bowl. We got done bowling around 11:30 and I snuck out of there to get some much needed sleep.

After barely getting my head to the pillow, I get a phone call from the front desk at 3:50am. The lady asked if I was with the crew that rode the Harley's into town and immediately my mind started racing. What did they do this time? My job as the team manager is often compared to a babysitter. When things break team managers often pay for it. If someone gets arrested we bail them out. Even after planning this trip for about 2 months you can still never be prepared for all the things that happen on the road. So, the guys at the desk said that a bunch of the Harley's are lying on their side out front of his office. At first I thought someone hit them with a car or something. When I got to the front, sure enough there were 6 bikes knocked over and resting on the bike next to them. Some asshole had pushed the bikes over! There was a palm mark on the first bikes gas tank that slid up the tank where he had pushed the first bike over. That took down the first 3 bikes with the 3rd bike coming to rest on Trigger's bike. I don’t think the asshole was happy with that so he went back and pushed over the bike next to Trigger's and that took down about another 3 bikes and they come to rest on my bike. All the bikes except one that was parked there on the very end took some damage. The hotel had a security camera and we could see the guy run away but you couldn’t make out a face. Bummed.

Harley helped us out with some new 08 bikes and the one that took the most damage was the Screaming Eagle with a custom paint job. I had the hotel call the police and Alexi from Fuse and I waited for about 30 minutes before we decided to go back to our rooms and wait for the cops. It only took the sheriff 4 and a half hours to get there to take a report. And he did not seem very concerned about it at all. We were all up around by that time anyway and started to get ready to head up to Monterey for the night. I have someone pull me aside and tell me that someone in the group punched the motor home driver in the eye the night before, so that started me out in a bad mood for the day.

We all ate some food at the hotel and took off for the 1. When we got out of Pismo Beach there was a bunch of fog and it got fairly cold for a while and none of the guys had gloves or anything very warm on them...it was all left in the truck. Loza had a problem with his clutch at this time, also, so we met up with the truck to fix his bike and get the guys some warm clothes and gloves. After a quick meal at Carl's Jr. we were back on our way up the coast. We got through the fog after about 30 miles and had a great ride up the coast to Monterey. The sunset was amazing and if you haven’t gone up North on the 1 before, a good portion of it is on a huge cliff overlooking the ocean.

When we got into Monterey it was dark and we were all super hungry so we got 4 cabs and headed downtown. We found a good restaurant called Lollapalooza in downtown Monterey and we were ready to eat. We got some drinks at the bar and had to get two tables because we had so many people. Damion had about 5 guys at his table and I had about 14 at our table. Before we even ordered Damion's table was paying the bill so OX and Potter started throwing lemons and ice at each other across the two tables. We were so hungry we had too try to keep them calm before we got kicked out with no dinner. The people there were so slow it took an hour and a half just to get our orders in. After a $1,400 dinner we went to a bar down the street for a couple drinks and we ended up back at the hotel around 12.

Check back soon for Part 2 of the etnies Two Wheel Tour coverage!

Ferry, Grant and Lawrence on the Podium!

A HUGE congratulations to etnies riders Tim Ferry, Josh Grant and Jason Lawrence for kicking ass this weekend in Anaheim! Three out of six guys on the podium rock etnies! Nice!

Ferry got his first Supercross podium in, well, he doesn't even know how long! It's been a while. Officially it's his second podium this season since Wey was DQ'd for fuel at Anaheim 2 and Ferry's fourth place finish was bumped up to third...but this weekend it was legit. Solid starts all night and riding super consistent did the trick for ol' Red Dog, and you can count on some more for sure!

Check out Timmy's post-race interview at Racer X.

The Lites class was going nuts! A red flag on lap one of the 250F main, caused by Sobe/Samsung's Jake Weimer crashing, lead to the restart. With a busted chin and blood all over the place, Jake toughed it out, made it to the restart and ended up finishing sixth in the main...way to salvage those points! Jake is still third overall in the 250F West points!

Josh Grant got a solid start (on both of them) and quickly moved into second place behind Villopoto. That's basically how it went for the rest of the race for Grant...he put his head down for 15 laps and brought her home for his third podium in a row!

Jason Lawrence also made his third podium appearance of the year--each one for the home crowd in Anaheim... A1, A2 & A3! But it didn't come easy for him. While the restart was great for Jake Weimer, it wasn't so great for Lawrence. Lawrence was in second place on the first lap, right on the tail of Hansen with Villopoto buried mid-pack, until it was red flagged. It could well have been J-Law's first dub'ya, but it wasn't in the cards.

On the restart Jason was the one with the mid-pack start and had to battle his way through the pack, past guys like Hansen, Gosselaar and Davalos, for third place--his third Anaheim podium and what I like to call, the "Anaheim hat trick!" It has nothing to do this stupid ducks either.

Snapple Fact: Only Stewart, Reed, Villopoto and Jason Lawrence pulled off the "Anaheim hat trick" this year...

250F Main Event
1. Ryan Villopoto
2. Josh Grant etnies
3. Jason Lawrence etnies
4. Josh Hill
5. Josh Hansen
6. Jake Weimer etnies
7. Chris Gosselaar
8. Kyle Partridge
9. Kyle Cunningham etnies
10. Matt Lemoine

450F Main Event
1. James Stewart
2. Chad Reed
3. Tim Ferry etnies
4. Nick Wey
5. Michael Byrne
6. Nathan Ramsey
7. Kevin Windham
8. Heath Voss
9. Paul Carpenter
10. Ivan Tedesco
11. Travis Preston etnies

Garland 2nd at IFMA!

Derek Garland sent in an update about what he's been up to...

Last weekend I rode an IFMA event in Rio Rancho NM. Friday night I placed 2nd and Saturday I won the team contest. The venue sold out both nights and it was a lot of fun. I caught a flight home early Sunday morning and did a demo at Irvine Subaru with Fluffer and Ox. It was really windy but we still pulled off a few tricks. It was a fun and busy weekend and everything went well.
-Derek

Derek was getting it flat the other day at the Rock Quarry down the street from the etnies office, so I stopped by and snapped some pics...

Twitch's Video Shoot

On Tuesday I headed out to the mountains above Magic Mountain to check out the filming of Twitch's new video. Potter and Garland were out there, too, along with Faisst, Ox, Fluffer, Buyten, Morrison, Manley, Trittler, Fitzpatrick and some others.

Potter's been working on the Windham-style whips and it looks to me like he's got 'em down pretty damn good!

I was there for day 1 of the 2 days and it was pretty damn windy. But the wind didn't stop Twitch, Potter and Colin from hitting the huge-ass step up...4th pinned! More photos in the photo gallery!

Two Wheel Tour Wallpapers!

Check it out! We just added a couple new wallpapers from the Two Wheel Tour for ya. There are more to come later this week!

Derek Garland

Seth Enslow

Two Wheel Tour - Cameron, AZ & Vegas Wrap Up

For the first time on the TWT (Two Wheel Tour) everyone actually woke up early, got their shit together and got on the road relatively early. It was a-forking-maze-ing! All the stuff that we had been hearing about how sick Cameron was definitely motivated everyone a little, plus we felt bad we flaked on McNeil. Turns out he got over it and left the night before... sorry buddy.

This was the first time I had seen the Grand Canyon in person and, well, it's pretty damn Grand, that's for sure!

Anyways, it didn't take too long to ride to Cameron. And once we got there it didn't take too long for half of the local Navajo tribe to stop by and say "what's up?". They were all really cool and Potter felt right at home as he is part Native American himself. But this one dude was so drunk, or on peyote or something, that he fell over about 20 times and if he said "man, what are you dudes doing over here. Can I come?" (in a barely understandable slur) once, he said it a million times. Sorry bud, there was no room on my bike!

No one really knew what to expect because Ryan and Hank from Freek got there early and rode a little session, but they said they didn't find any good jumps. I'm not really sure where they were riding because the second we got out there we started finding hits all over the place! It's crazy all the possibilities out there!

Potter and Garland were going off on some BIG doubles and hips everywhere. I'm not sure what to say about the place... it's kinda like Ocotillo Wells before hundreds of thousands of people would come out every weekend and blow out everything. Just check the photos and you'll see. It was hard for me to get off my bike and shoot some photos because everything was so fun! But I managed to snap a good amount, so check them out in the Photo Gallery!

After a few solid sessions in the hills we packed up, jumped on our Harley's and pinned it to Las Vegas...

Drinking, gambling, drinking, slots, chicks, blackjack, craps, drinking, poker, machine guns, drinking.... that pretty much sums up our time in Vegas...and it went off! The next morning we stopped by the "Gun Shop" before heading home. The Gun Shop is just that...a gun shop. But the cool part about this gun shop is that you can shoot automatic MACHINE GUNS!!! Hell yeah! There is nothing more fun than holding down the trigger of an Oozy or M16 and blowing the shit out of a Bin Laden poster! Much respect to the guys that do it for real over seas, because it's not that easy!

Well, from Vegas we all rode home and that was all she wrote for the first etnies Two Wheel Tour. Keep checking back for more photos, wallpapers and tons of video in the coming weeks! For now check out the Photo Galleries!

A Niiiceee

Brendan Lutes from Transworld was on hand for all the debauchery on the tour, so you can count on some photos popping up on transworldmotocross.com pretty soon, plus some coverage in an upcoming issue.

The crew from FUEL TV's M80 also came out to shoot for their show, so we'll keep ya posted on air dates and times when they come up.

Of course there would be no tour without riders...Seth, Trigger, Potter, Garland, Deegan, Twitch and McNeil. Thanks! Oh yeah, and let's not forget Chapman the babysitter!

Thanks to Rockstar Energy Drink and Boost Mobile for helping to make this happen.

It's on for next year!

Tour Update - Laughlin to the Grand Canyon

yummmm, $7 buffet

As you can imagine, waking up Wednesday morning after a night of partyin' in Laughlin was not easy to say the least. After a little breakfast buffet action we finally rallied the troops and got on the road bright and early at 2PM!!! Holy shit! We were supposed to be in Cameron, AZ by Wednesday afternoon to meet up with Jim McNeil. It's about 230 miles from Laughlin to Cameron (4 hours 41 minutes according to Google Maps), so it should be no problem to get there, right? That's what we thought!

Chappy wasn't too happy with the steak house bill... thanks buddy!

So, somewhere around Williams, AZ we stopped for gas. It was getting close to sunset and someone (cough cough Seth) had the bright idea to take a little detour and ride through the Grand Canyon so we could get some photos on the way to Cameron. No problem, except by the time we got to the Grand Canyon it was dark, 30 degrees out and there were Elk in the middle of the road! It's safe to say that those are not prime Harley riding or photo conditions. So everyone voted to stay at a hotel in this little town and ride to Cameron in the morning. After a hearty steak dinner, the best bowling session of all time went down at the local lanes...I forgot my camera, but Lutes got some sick shots that should be on TWMX real soon like.

Then it was off to bed so we could get to Cameron first thing in the A.M. Hopefully McNeil would still be there?!?

Check out the Photo Gallery!

Trigger Gumm

Grand Canyon at night via long exposure.

Officer T. Potter?

For a second I thought we were getting pulled over by Ponch from CHiPs!

Two Wheel Tour Photo Gallery

Take a peek at the etnies Two Wheel Tour Photo Gallery from days 1 and 2!