So after a long journey speckled with treacherous airline food pitfalls and mind-bending traffic riddles, Swap, Lutes, and I found ourselves at the threshold of the Thistle Hotel, just minutes from the Donington Park race facility in the U.K.

Unfortunately for the TWMX crew, we were five hours too early to check in, so off to the track were we, showerless, jetlagged, hungry. No matter; the weather was perfect, our credentials were waiting for us, and Red Bull awaited us in the mega-sweet media center.

If you’re reading this, you no doubt have already perused the actual interesting material elsewhere on the main page. From track walks to interviews, we stayed busy all day. We moseyed most of the afternoon, both examining our surroundings, and spending some quality time with our own Team USA.

Finally, our legs, bellies, and coherence had all but failed us, and to the hotel we retreated. Ah, but the rocky road still lay ahead; as it turned out, Lutes and I would be sharing a single room, instead of the more inviting two-bed accommodation. “I guess we’ll have to spoon,” Lutes joked, before we learned there was, indeed, a fold out sofa.

“You mean top’n'tail?” the receptionist chimed.

Ah yes, top’n'tail.

Today marked the first time that our entire edit staff rode together this year and, I must say, it was quite emotional. Okay, so it wasn’t much different than any other day riding, but it was, indeed, nice to have everyone on the track together. Elmo finally strapped his Gaenres around his freshly healed ankle and put in some laps, and we were all quite proud of him. He has been hobbling around for most of his stint at TransWorld with a broken ankle, so he hasn’t even enjoyed the perks of working for a motocross magazine, short of the enormous amount of attention he gets from the ladies. Nice work Elmo!

Also, since Brendan has returned to the office, I haven’t even been on the track with him. I am not even in his realm of riding ability, but it’s nice to get pointers fromhim in between motos… and what is a ride day at TransWorld without eating a crapload of 450 roost from Swap?

Anywho, good times are here at TransWorld Motocross. I’m stoked.

Skinny

Remember the Tony Hawk Boom Boom HuckJam a few years ago? It was the crazy choreographed jam session with skate and BMX riders flowing a huge halfpipe while FMX stars flew over the ramps in timed fluid unison while bands like Social Distortion laid down a blaring soundtrack to the sensory overload. It was actually pretty cool.

Well, some good friends of mine invited my girlfriend and me to the final stop of this year’s HuckJam tour in Irvine last night and let me tell you… the beer was great. Unfortunately, other than seeing one of my childhood idols, Kevin Staab, on the ramp and spending time with some really fun people, the beer was one of the most standout highlights… and it was warm.

The beer line was especially long, unlike the ticket line.

What was once an arena-filling super show, is now more like a parking lot jam session. And that’s cool, but it is a far stretch from the original. The talent is still there, skaters like Staab, Ellis, Hendrix, and Diaz still join Tony on the ramp, as well as legend BMXer Dennis McCoy and BMX ruler Kevin Robinson. Drake McElroy and Matt Buyten were there with their dirt bikes, so the was nothing lacking on the FMX side either. So what was the deal?

Amazing action photo courtesy of Blackberry camera…

First, the old mega ramp with huge channels was replaced with a standard demo halfpipe, and instead of blind FMX jumps that sent the riders over the actual ramp, just a single ramp was set up behind the halfpipe.

Plus, it was in a parking lot, and there was no live music.

Overall, I had fun because I was with good people, and I always enjoy watching athletes do what they do best, but let’s just say it was a far cry from the highly-produced show that was more cirque de soleil than demo.

We’ve started a war. But this war may be able to clarify some things for you, so perhaps its a good thing. Swap and I have declared a PROP war. The guy who has more PROPS at the end of the month owes the other dinner. It is SO on! PROP my sh@% people!

I’m sure that you’ve all questioned, or even scoffed at, the Prop Value displayed on all the posts and users on the site. What is that? How does that help anything? Basically, if you like something, prop it. Lame? Is getting free stuff lame?

See, PROPS are good, because I plan on giving stuff away to those who are loading stuff and getting props for it.

But, more immediately, be sure to avoid propping anything Swap posts. Instead, prop my stuff…just mine. Haha.

Are we that dense? I thought we all had evolved, at least a little. Apparently, I was mistaken. It seems there is still a sect of people smart enough to register a profile on a website, but still ignorant enough to post vulgar b.s. that holds no value or substance. I am all for clever quips and cynical criticism, but pointless, misspelled, ignorant sh@% just shows how ill-evolved some of you really are. Grow up, if not for your own self-respect, for all of the rest of us who want to take pride in our little subculture instead of being embarrassed by it.

Granted, taking things too seriously is lame, but there is something to be said about knowing where the line is and skating along it. At the very least, be aware that there is, indeed, a line, even if you decide to cross it. I hoped that having a comment feature on our website would be a positive thing, and for most of you, it seems to be working out. But there is a number of idiots out there that spend too much time thinking of offensive crap to post, instead of actually going out and riding a dirt bike

Anyway, I’ll leave it at that.

So the plan was to have an updated blog every day on my trip to Belgium. But, as with many of my “plans,” everything sort of fell apart…

First, my hotel did not have internet access, and it happened to be in the middle of nowhere so there wasn’t exactly a Starbucks around the corner to score some WiFi. Second, and most devastating, my computer power source cable keeled over and is now pushing daisies. So, after my internal battery died on my trusty laptop, I was completely disconnected.

Now that I am back and reconnected, I won’t bore you with every detail of my trip, but I would like to share a few choice highlights, if I may.

My fondest experience(s) of the whole trip were the meals with the Italians from Pirelli. I was at the track at Lommel for three straight days and every day I ate at the Pirelli support semi. Marino, one of the Italian tire specialists, did all of the cooking, and he is no slouch around the kitchen (or kitchenette in this case). On Friday I was welcomed by a huge portion of penne rigate, caprese, and prosciutto. The second day we ate pesto along with sausage and cheeses (I might also mention that each meal always came in courses and was topped off with some sort of dessert). On my final day with the hospitable tire guys, I was served multiple steaks, including rib eye and flank steaks, or at least I think those were the cuts-I am no butcher. Moral of the story: the ritual of eating is lost on Americans and I have a newfound love of meal prep. No longer will treat meals like an afterthought…unless I am at Supercross and need to run up to the stadium concession for a quick corndog, of course.

As for the actual motocross event, I have to say that I witnessed some amazing racing. Perhaps I am ultra sensitive to it this year, but I was blown away by all of the lead changes in the MX1 class. As you well know, the U.S. does not see a lot of lead changes as of late. Also, unlike the U.S., KTM rules the roost on the European side of MX; the orange bikes are always in the battle for the top spots. It was just nice to see a change of pace. The motocross isn’t necessarily better or worse; it’s just different.

Oh, and Hogaarden is delicious.

Saturday, August 2

I wasn?t long into my car ride from the Brussels airport to the track at Lommel with Giovanni and Fabio that I knew I was in for more than just a unique European experience.
Almost immediately I relaxed and extinguished my feeling of being a foreigner. Giovanni and Fabio were as lost as I was. The GPS in the rental car did not agree with their Mapquest directions and soon I found myself part of an impromptu village tour around Northeast Belgium as we navigated toward the track.
Green, manicured lawns surrounded every single brick house and everything appeared on pause. I looked on at what should have been bustling towns, but were just frozen landscapes. Everything looked freshly, well, lived in; but no one was in sight. Not even a withered old man yelling obscenities (not that I expected that in a European town?).

As it turns out, August is holiday for greater Europe and most neighborhoods had retreated to destinations and visitations. What?s more, one of those destinations happened to be the surrounding area of our hotel. Our accommodations stood smack-dab in the middle of a large community of rental cabins, bike trails, and recreation areas, but I?ll get back to that…
So, here I am, in Belgium, amongst fellow travelers, completely out of my element. Thank heaven I am here for motocross. Motocross is basically the same everywhere you go. Sure, the gear is different, the languages change, even the tracks are vary greatly from the U.S. But the spirit remains the same. Tons of die-hard moto fans pile inside the track grounds to watch their favorite riders practice, girls in small outfits gaze off into the horizon looking unimpressed at the goings-on around them, the brraaappps of four-strokes reverberates inside your eardrums, and the familiar Yamaha, KTM, Honda, Suzuki, and Kawasaki pits line the outfield of the track. Ahhh, motocross.
I got in yesterday and we spent the entire day at the track (I arrived in Brussels 10 am local time). I was exhausted I had been traveling for an entire day and my inner clock had already sprung out of any logical schedule. I cruised around the pits taking in very little observation; merely gazing absently at the bikes resting on their stands inside each pit awning. I don?t remember much more, until our triumphant arrival at our hotel inside SunParks ?vacation destination.? When we finally did find the hotel hidden within the intertwined roadways (that I am sure looked like a plate of half-eaten spaghetti from the sky), I collapsed onto my little bed and fell into a half-awake stupor that I settled for in lieu of an actual nap. We had decided to meet back up for dinner at 8:30pm, so I gave up on the nap idea and meandered back into the lobby, or mall, or atrium, or whatever it was and met up with my three new friends.
Apparently, people in Belgium do not eat, or drink for that matter, after 9pm, because the only restaurant that was still open at that hour had already closed the kitchen and we were left with 30 minutes to drink a quick beer. Cazzo!
Today, I feel a bit better, though I think the jetlag is still haunting me. Lucky for me, I am excited to shoot some motocross on the sandiest track on the World Motocross GP circuit.

It’s no secret that I am, well, the slowest rider at the office. Unlike Swap, I did not come up through the illustrious ranks of ATC racing as a child then graduate to dirt bikes. Oh, I had a 3-wheeler when I was a kid too, but my “racing” background is more putting the awkward thing around our land with a chemical sprayer and dowsing overgrown “morning glory” with Round-Up than it was railing around some track. No, my racing career started late in life and, thus, it is a discouraging feat to run with Swap.

So, since I cannot expect to run Swap down and roost him anytime soon at the track, I figured I might be have a chance to gain some satisfaction from outdoing my boss at something else; namely golf.

I don’t claim to be much more than a hack, but unlike my racing career, I did start playing golf at a relatively young age. Sure, he’s played with Bubba and given him a run for his money, but I can take him, I thought driving out to Hidden Valley Golf Club in Corona, CA. Besides, he rides dirt bikes at every waking moment of his life. He can’t possibly have that much green time under his belt.

And such was my attitude until the putting green on the first hole when he sunk a 30-footer while texting on his Blackberry. Damn. Well, so much for one-upping my boss. I hope the beer cart girl cruises by soon.

Truth be told, neither one of us are serious about golf. We didn’t even open up the score card. But something did happen; both of us want to play a whole lot more now, and I know that once we start playing a lot, stakes may make their presence known. And I will go on record to say that if and when we do open up that card, I won’t be the one getting roosted. Just because Swap’s driver has a bigger face than Stewie Griffin doesn’t mean he can keep it on the fairway.

Yeah, I said it.

C

Willie Solig of Bismarck, North Dakota recently sent us some photos of a fellow racer that really inspired him. His name is Kirk Grissom and I thought I would pass on the photos to you guys. Check ‘em out.

Hey Web World!

It’s finally here: the all-new TransWorldMX.com! After a long, arduous road, we present you our latest and greatest. I can’t begin to explain how excited I am present this to you. We have been working on this for quite some time, and I know now that it was all worth it.

For a great majority of my time at TransWorld we have been working toward this new website, all while continuing to produce the best magazine in the game. We really tried to create a site that offered all of the features necessary to be cutting edge and advanced, but remain simple and easy. We didn’t want to squeeze everything under the sun onto a site and have it become a mushy blob of bells and whistles that were impossible to navigate. I think we found a great balance of creative, advanced features and easy-to-use functionality.

I’m sure by now that you know we have blogs from Nate Adams, Sean Hamblin, Tarah Gieger, and Jake Weimer! How rad is that?! Now you can be up-to-date with what’s going on in the world of 450 racing, Lites racing, FMX, and WMA racing, firsthand.

If that wasn’t enough, now all of you can be a part of this great site. You think you should be on TransWorldMX.com? Then post your photos and video and present them to the rest of the moto world out there. I can’t tell you how many emails and submissions I get every day that offer advice on what I should and should not post on the website, so I put it in your hands now.

So keep it locked on TransWorldMX.com

Skinny