For 2010 we are pleased to announce that we have brought aboard one of the most talented all around riders in the bike industry with Aaron Chase. One of the greatest qualities that Aaron has is that he completely kills it on a bike no matter what he is doing. He has raced at the elite level in DH, Slalom and 4x and has stood at the top of many freestyle event podiums. Aaron also has produced multiple films throughout his very successful bicycling career and now launches web edits that document his progressive riding along with his life.

At X-Fusion we see Aaron as a valuable asset for development and growth of our company’s products. He has a strong technical understanding for the products he uses and what he requires from them. His feedback and influence will go straight into the development of X-Fusion’s future suspension. Aaron’s ability to produce media and promote himself as a rider is also key to the success we will have together. X-Fusion has always been a supporter of video media and adding Aaron’s web edits and GoPro videos to the content we co promote will help us reach a more diverse demographic.

X-Fusion’s Brand Director John Hauer had this to say, “We saw the opportunity to sign Aaron and we could not let it slip away. He has always been somebody that I have looked up to throughout my time in the bike industry and I’m glad that things have come together. After Aaron’s recent trip to California and the short time he was at the X-Fusion headquarters, it is apparent that forming this rider-sponsor relationship was a great decision for both parties. I look forward to working with Aaron over the next year and hopefully into the future.”

Aaron Added, “Partnering with X-fusion is a perfect match for me, these guys really listen to their riders and as soon as I put the Vengeance fork on my bike I knew it was going to be sick. I have always heard great things about them, but it wasn’t until I rode the fork that I was a believer. I am looking forward to a long partnership with a rider driven company like X-Fusion.”

In 2010 Aaron will be riding the new revamped O2 and Vector series rear shocks on all his full suspension bikes. The front of his rides will be spec’d with forks from the new Vengeance, Velvet and Velour lines. 

There's an old saying in sports that best describes luck - "luck is where preparation meets opportunity." In any sport, whether a person or team wins or looses, a degree of luck is involved in every game, race or contest. With a bit of luck on my side, I was able to take the top-step at the first ever X-Fusion sideflight championships. But lets not get it twisted, the unfavorable wind we had on Saturday responsible for canceling the finals was not the luck that enabled me to win the contest, rather it was the bad luck that forced all riders to park their bikes. Friday was proof that I was preparred and ready for the opportunity on Saturday to crack a whip that had plenty of research behind it to claim a victory. There's no doubt in my head that preparation was going to meet opportunity on Saturday's final.
 
Those who can really whip a two-wheeled bike (motorized or non-motorized) understand that there are certain physical mechanics that make a steezy whip happen. For some, whipping a bike comes naturally and those guys probably don't dig deep into the mechanics of a whip therefore rely on natural talent everytime they crack a bike sideways. In my case, I dug real deep into the mechanics of several whip styles and decided that I'd go with the style that was most difficult to me for the sake of this contest. Now I'm not going to let the cat out of the bag as to how I do what I do, but I will say that I've been learning these whips since April of 2009 and I've got the best jumps on the planet to practice them. Luck would have it that the style of whip I've been learning started to come together at Pine Valley on Thursday and really came together on Friday's practice session. Each whip was getting progressively better and I was getting more comfortable each time I cracked one on Friday. Thanks to the AT tuned HLR that was put on my 951 on Friday, my suspension was exactly where it needed to be to get real nasty. Saturday was only going to get better, and believe me, there was no one more dissapointed about Saturday's wind storm than me. But when all was said and done, we pioneered an event in the bike industry and opened thousands of eyes as to how nasty we can get on large sized jumps. Thanks again to X-Fusion for stepping in and making this vision of mine become a reality, it's only going to get bigger and better from here.  

Last weekend I went down south for a contest that was put on by X Fusion called the Side Flight Championships.  It was the first of it's kind and the object of the contest was to see how whipped out you could get your bike in the air and bring it back before landing.  Riders were judged on amplitude, style, and how sideways they got.  They have this same event in the X Games for Moto but this was the first for Bikes. 

I came pretty prepared and even built a practice jump in the woods at home to feel out my whips before I went to the contest.  I also built up a special bike for the event that I thought would be well suited for the course.  It's a prototype GT frame called the Ruckus 7 and I built it up as light as possible to help me whip it around.  I even put a semi slick rear tire on it to help me gain as much speed as I could into the jumps which were super big and definitely suited my style.  It started out with a 45 foot slightly stepped down double into a 40 foot step up and ended with a 30 foot hip jump.  There were lots of different types of riders that came to this event from top dirt jumpers to world cup downhill racers.  We had a practice session Friday evening and once we started riding it was evident that there were about 6 or 7 people that were standing out, including Thomas Vanderham, Brendan Fairclough, Kevin Aiello, Ryan Howard and Sean McLendon.  I felt good and never really stepped out of my comfort zone in practice and was feeling that I could possibly take the title the following day. 

On Saturday we woke up to howling winds but tried to make it happen anyways.  I think it's safe to say that everyone that tried to jump on Saturday had a near death experience.  The wind was coming head on and killed all of the speed that we had going into the first jump.  We were all optimistic about making it work until until we saw Cody Warren sprinting into the jump and still not gain enough speed to make it over the landing.  He came up about 3 feet short and broke both of his cranks off on impact.  Once we saw that, we decided it wasn't safe and that we should wait it out in hopes that the wind would stop.  Unfortunately it never did.  The wind just kept getting worse so the event holders decided to call it.  Results were then based on the practice session the day prior and it was rider judged. 

Later that night we went to a local sports bar where they announced the results and they went as follows:

1st:  Sean Mclendon
2nd: Tyler McCaul
3rd:  Brendan Fairclough
4th:  Ryan Howard
5th:  Thomas Vanderham

I was bummed that the contest ended the way it did, but I was super pumped with the outcome.  There's already talk of trying to hold these types of contests more throughout the year and it's something that I think could get really big in the future.  It was a fun contest that wasn't as dangerous as most but still put on a really good show.  Hope to see more in the future like it!  Here's a video clip of the practice session that was made by Shawn Spomer from VitalMTB.com

http://www.vitalmtb.com/videos/features/Sideflight-Champs-Practice-Blasting,993/sspomer,2

Thanks to all of you for the continued support!

-Tyler