Once upon a time, somebody had a strange idea: Why not send cruisers, or clunkers, with nothing more than a kick back coaster brake down Downieville's 4500' harrowing downhill. Who thought that up? Cam Falconer working at Yuba Expeditions. Buy one of his beautiful frames HERE.
It lasted two years, it seemed people learned their lesson the first time. Maurice and many others of the Dirt Rag crew showed up to test their mettle and, truly, their metal as everybody in the category was piloting clunkers of yore. A great write up on Dirt Rag's lovely archive can be found HERE
Testing mettle and metal - see those bars? They're not supposed to look like that. Fred tossed the standard Wald bars after the first day of practice, threw on some Koski Gold Bars, called it good.
Fred Falk, WTB Employee #2, stormed his way to victory in just 49 minutes and change. Todd Franklin helped Fred get to the start, a mechanical almost thwarted his shred plans. At the end, Fred's hands were bloody yet he was victorious. Those at the timing and scoring booth though something must be amiss, it was mere minutes off of Weir's record times set aboard full downhill bikes. Fred ran Mutano 2.4 tires, which as Todd Franklin puts it, are "Fast, Light, and Big - three things you can find individually but never together." Some people are just fast aboard anything. There's good reason why they call him Fast Freddy Falk.
