Local downhill rider Mike Hopkins and the other three pro riders in Gravity’s team recently went for a team building road trip in the Kootenays. Pink Bike added a videographer to document the trip. It was the first trip the international team did together as a team and Hopkins gladly showed his hometown to the other riders.
Since all the riders have a different focus and various styles of riding the trip focused on trail riding. Trying out new bike components from Gravity and showcasing the variety and skill in their international pro team. Bruno Long, photographer from Revelstoke, joined the team to collect editorial material from the trip. He is describing Red as “really sweet” and laughs about calling Hopkins “the Major” for going around and talking to everyone in Rossland.
During the trip they visited Rossland and Red, team rider Garett Buehler’s home in Nelson and Long’s home in Revelstoke. All the towns adding new elements to the trip with different kinds of playgrounds, which was perfect since everyone on the team comes from different mountain bike backgrounds. Gravity wanted to show they all could perform on the same product.
Long shares that in Rossland they spent most of their time on Red and hit a few parts of the Seven Summit trail and some places in town. He liked the “newer style flow turns” on Red and added,“it is great for trail bikers.”
Buehler has made his own jump line in his backyard in Nelson and the team was pumped to hit the massive jumps on their trail bikes.
In Revelstoke they went mostly downhill and hit another jump line, a little bit more suitable for trail bikes. Hopkins was stoked to get to ride Revelstoke since it is a place he had never ridden before even though it is so close to home and describes it as “really rad”.
He says that the trip was definitely focused on biking but he had some time to show the other riders some local sweet spots like the rope swing in Nancy Green and Black Jack. “It was fun to show a bunch of international people a decent mountain town”. Having a really fun time in Rossland, Long says the town is “super sweet” and that the Red Mountain Resort staff were “super nice”.