Collegiate Nationals

The Collegiate Nationals were held today at Sugar Mountain Resort in Banner Elk NC. I've already heard unconfirmed reports that SEI's two collegiate riders, MotoMike Thomas and Steven Trottier pulled the first two spots on the Division II podium for App State! Congrats dudes!! More on that story as the details come in!

Matt's 2008 Specialized Demo8 II for sale- $1700.00

I'm selling my '08 Demo for $1700.00. You can email me at mattgriff78@hotmail.com or you can call me at 864-630-1504 if you are interested.

Thanks,

Matt.

North Carolina State Championships

This was a big one for me. Since I haven't been able to make several of the races this season, I really wanted to get a good result here. I've spent countless hours at 26 West bike park over the course of the past several weeks dialing in the course, I've ridden tons of cross-country and BMX, and every pedal stroke I took was one more stroke towards a good result at this event. I loaded up on Friday afternoon (thanks to the teacher next door who volunteered to take my last class period for me!) and headed to 26 West Park. When I got there, it was cold and rainy. I look over and see all my buds sitting in the tent with their street clothes on, looking particularly unexcited about the prospect of riding in it. Qualifying was supposed to be from 4:00 to 6:00 that night so I new I was going to have to go put on my gear, find my happy face and go ride, regardless of what everyone else was doing. I guess my determined positivity got everybody else motivated enough to do the same and after a couple damp practice runs, we all agreed that we were happy about our chose to ride! Anyway, Qualifying finally got started at 6:00 and only four people attempted to qualify. Ethan Quell won by 15 seconds. I got a nice second place behind him and Doug Ferguson was third, just a couple seconds off my time.

Friday night, Kenan, Dave, My sister, Nate, and a bunch of their friends had a great time in Asheville, eating hippie food, but it was actually really good!

On saturday during practice, Jeremy started out the morning with some bad luck when he somehow crammed his rear derailler into his I-9 wheels while he pedalled around the parking lot! He roached about 6-7 spokes out of his back wheel. Jeff from I-9 got him going just before his race run and he rode what he called one of the sketchiest rides of his life to pull in with a pretty respectable time, considering what he'd been through. It's so nice to have local sponsors who know our stuff and can hook us up in a jam! Dave had a good ride as well, keeping the wheels on the ground on a track that was easy to blow up on. I was feeling like I owned the place all day and knew I had a good result in store if I kept on pace. When I crossed the line after my race run, I wasn't confident that it was good enough for anything spectacular. I'd made a few mistakes that I thought would be pretty costly. Turns out, Ethan won by 10 seconds, Doug F. got second, and I was one second off his pace for third. To date, that's my best pro finish, and my first time on the podium, so I'm pretty happy about the way the weekend panned out for me!

Big thanks to Ryan Taylor for putting everything together, Thanks to Kenan and Kat "Hip-Hopkins" for letting me and Dave Crash at their house and hanging out with me after the race!

26 West practice session

Next weekend, 26 West bike part will be hosting the "NC State Championships" for DH. The SEI crew has spent a considerable amount of time at the park this summer and fall and we spent this past weekend up there brushing up our lines and taking a sneak peak at the new section that's just been cut in for the pro course. This course is going to demand riders to bring a whole skillset in order to be fast. Its got lots of jumps, several of which are pretty technical, its got tight fast wood sections, funny turns, a technical rock jump, one short fitness section (aka a parking lot) a super fast part with more jumps, and a really tight, steep section to finish on. Jeremy, Dave, and I feel pretty confident with everything and I'm looking forward to a really fun race this weekend.

Road Bike Weekend

Due to questionable weather and limited gasoline availability, I decided to spend this weekend on the road bike. It has been a long time since I've spent any significant time on a road bike.

Although I am fortunate to have some of the upstate's best cycling routes just out my front door, I have concluded that it is still not as fun as mountain biking. I am hoping to go do some laps at the BMX track this week, and hopefully I'll get some more DH riding in next weekend!

Paris Mountain DH

Hated missing this one, this was the one chance I've had to race a hometown event but due to a commitment I had, I couldn't make it. My sources tell me it was one for the history books though. This was one of the best marketed races I've seen in a long time. It was professionally advertised and expertly promoted. From what I hear, the atmosphere had the same intensity as a big race like the open or an old school National series race. Spectators turned out en masse and the roster was stacked! This stretch of trail is one that we do on a weekly basis, so I knew the SEI crowd was going to be fired up. Sure enough, Mike, Jeremy, and Dave put it up in the top 10 while Steven pulled in a respectable 14th. Wish I could have joined my boys on my mountain, but maybe next year. From the response this race got, I have a feeling this won't be the last time Paris Mountain has a race!

A trip back in time

The longer I ride, the more I sit back and reflect on how long I've been riding. I've been wanting to do a post like this for a while now and since I just got a new camera, I thought this would be a great opportunity to dig through all my old jerseys and post them all in a blog entry.

When our team started in 2001, our title sponsor was a small shop in Easley, SC called Trails End Bicycles. It's no longer in business (hopefully no thanks to us!) and when it went under, we had to look for a new sponsor and a new name. That's when we changed our name to SEI Racing (South East Independent) and hooked up with Sycamore Cycles in Brevard. Since the beginning we've seen a lot of changes both within our team and within the sport of downhill mountain biking in general.

I've joked around that our team reminds me of one of those bands like Van Halen or the Ramones. They've been around forever but some of the faces have changed. Right now, Jeremy Raney and I are the only original members of the band, and hopefully they'll let me stick around for a little while longer.

Our team has seen the sport change a lot over the years. The courses have become more challenging, the technology has become more advanced, and just when you think the limits of what can be done on a bicycle have been pushed to their limits, somebody takes it a little bit further. Through my time with SEI racing, I know I've pushed way beyond the limits of what I thought I could do when I first started.

We've also had a lot of great sponsors over the years. Some have come and gone and some have been with us since the beginning. If it weren't for all of our sponsors over the years, it would have made it extremely difficult for us to do what we've been doing all these years. Our goal is to always make it worthwhile for our sponsors to continue their support and we look forward to continuing for many years to come.

Well, enough of the flapping. Here's were it all started. This was the only jersey we ever had specifically made for our team. That was thanks to Interim Health Care in Greenville SC who gave us a generous sponsorship for 2001 and 2002. Our original team members were Myself, Jeremy Raney, Cecil Linder and Tyler Williams. In 2002, we added Butch Green David Thacker. For both years, we rode Turner Suspension Frames. Michelin tires hooked us up with an unbelievable sponsorship and continues to be a main sponsor today.

In 2003, after Trails End shut its doors, we were in a bind. With no title sponsor, we knew it was going to be difficult to get new equipment sponsors. Our longtime bud and former teamate Tyler Williams and I hatched the South East Independent title one night. Chris Herndon, then owner of Sycamore Cycles, offered us a sponsorship package through his shop. During this season our team expanded to include Ryan Bloch. We continued riding Turner bikes for '03.

I'm fully aware that this shot is sideways and that's OK. This was our 2004 Jersey. This was the year that we decided to "go moto" with the NoFear kits. We looked like candy canes that year but at least we were flashy! Tyler Williams went on to bigger and better things (Dental school in Charleston) and had to leave the team after a debilitating shoulder separation. Cecil Linder also left the team to start a family. Turner Bikes remained our frame sponsor.

In a backlash against the candycane motif of the previous year, 2005 saw us back in black with our names and an arbitrary number printed on the back. We got back with Sycamore Cycles after a brief hiatus during the 2004 season. David Thacker and Ryan Bloch both moved on after this season. Turner bikes hooked up the frames again.

The great white kits of 2006 and 2007 were again provided by NoFear. In 2006 we begain riding Specialized frames. Butch Greene left the team in 2007 and long time Florida Freeride super-star, DemoDave Perez moved up to the Greenville area and expressed an interest in getting into racing. He joined the team, along with Moto-Mike Thomas, a young shredder from North Carolina.

This year, 2008, our Royal jerseys were purchased and printed by FreerideSouth, a Florida-based mtb forum site. We picked up Steven Trottier, another young NC pinner. This season, Jeremy, Steven, and Mike decided to try out Morewood Frames, a company out of South Africa with their US headquarters located in Asheville NC. Because of our relationship with Sycamore Cyles, we are able to ride Specialized and SantaCruz and Morewood because all three frames are carried in their shop.

With this season drawing to a close, we are already looking forward to next season and the changes we'll see then! We've had a great time and we really want to express our appreciation to our sponsors. Without sounding to much like a cliched supercross interview, we especially want to thank the crew at Sycamore for being so cool with us. We also want to thank Michelin, Cane Creek Components, Thomson Components, E-13 and Crank Bros for helping us out so much over the course of several season. For some of our newer sponsors, like SRAM, and FreeRide South, we have appreciated everything you've done for us and we look forward to working with you for seasons to come!

Thanks for reading,

Matt Griffin.