Carlin Dunne

Stomp-O-Rama

Wednesday January 30, 2008

Bell Helmets Test

Friday August 10, 2007

Last week the boy’s from Bell Sports dropped me a line. They said they had a new streetbike helmet that they wanted to test and asked me if I was interested. ” Well I’m kinda busy doing this one thing” I said. They then told me that they had rented out Willow Spring International Raceway for me. “Ok… DEAL”!

We showed up at the track early. I got out of the car and was greeted by the nice crisp morning air. I looked to the left and then to the right and didn’t see a soul. I have to admit It was kinda weird, I have been racing there since I was twelve years old and not once had it been so quiet and un-inhabited . We unloaded the bike and some equipment and began prepping for the FUN..I mean WORK ahead.

All the tech guys and designers were there as well as the photographers that were hired to get some shots for the new catalog. We had a meeting to outline the testing procedure and what our objective was. Basically we had about twenty five different variations of the same helmet, from different vents, to small wickers on the top of the helmet, to different windshield sealers. We would have about seven laps with each helmet then we would come in and answer a series of questions with the designers. As soon as we were done with the meeting we were ready to rock and roll. The photogs went out and I followed shortly after rocking Bell’s newest creation! It took alittle time to get used to being out there all by yourself, its a big track when your not banging bars at 150 mph plus. I rode and rode till the tires were smoked. We tried almost all the variations and pulled in some very good data. It seemed like the techs were just as stoked as I was when they were watching the fruits of there labor flying around the track at a buck seventy.

Bell is a company that cares about the products they put out, they put in more time and effort than any other manufacturer to ensure they have the safest product possible. Not to mention quiet, ventilated, light weight, and sick looking! I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect day, great weather, and a dope 2.5 mile race track all to myself. I have to thank my boy Sean Estes for always hooking it up, he’s the man. Sometimes I have to stop and take it all in, take a deep breath and exhale… Damn,  I love my job…  

Baja 1000

Wednesday January 24, 2007

If I could compare the Baja 1000 to anything it would be a
woman. This Girl is so hot and you want her so bad but your
relationship sucks. She is so fun sometimes but she can be extremely difficult, almost impossible to deal with at others. Your relationship is up and down and you never really know what will happen next. When its all said and done you are beat down, your spirit is broken and your wallet is empty. You say I’m over it and you date other girls but none of them excite you and challenge you like she did, you end up thinking about it all the time, how you almost had her, you almost beat the odds. With the time away from her you think about the mistakes you made and how you could have done better in some areas.
You devise a plan, you prepare, you psyche yourself up and convince yourself that this time you will succeed, you dream about how you will finally have her. Your ready to go back, you load up and head south to try to win back that beautiful Mexican bell.

This year was my third attempt at the Baja 1000 and once again she slipped through our fingers, but not before my team and myself were so close to the podium we could taste it. Unfortunately in baja that doesn’t mean jack until you cross the finish line.

Like always Team Mammoth provided us with a beautiful machine to race. Our Honda XR 650 was fast and looked even faster. Prepared by XR’s Only with suspension by Precision concepts it finally looked like we had a motorcycle that we could ride at the front. I called upon all my awesome sponsors for support and before I knew it we all looked like posers the day after Christmas. Fox had the whole team decked out in new gear with plenty of spares. Bell made sure we had the nice new moto 8 helmets and to top it off Smith sent a huge box of goggles and lenses. So we look cool and we have a bad as bike, all we have to do now is race through the most grueling non-stop off road race in the world.

Giving the play by play on such an epic race would take days.As I sit here looking at a bike that was brand new a few days ago and is totaled now I realize the condition of the bike tells the story. Broken triple clamps, busted head set bearing, horribly bent bars, smashed stub can, flat tire, wheel in the shape of a stop sign with no tire, broken plastics, silt caked air cleaner, blown shock,an eight thousand dollar bill for an emergency air medivac, and a beautiful shiny fourth place trophy next to it.

Another year in the books, a piece of wood with a four on it, and a life time worth of memories to go with. Cactus spines embedded in our limbs, bruised and battered we talk about how we will perfect our formula for next time. We start the preparation the day after the race because it will take three hundred and sixty four days to be ready again.

Where is the money, where is the glory, were are the girls? What are you risking life for? To the average person this might not make sense but to the ones who have experienced it, it is crystal clear. It is about beating Goliath, about reaching deep down and finding the strength to continue, it is about man and machine walking that fine line between order and chaos. And when you cross that finish line you know you are a man who is stronger and better than before, you know that nothing can stand in your way. You know that with your own hands you have made the impossible possible.

Brazil

Tuesday August 22, 2006

Hey everyone, a lot has gone down since the last time I checked in. Lets see, the clump team and I went and caused trouble in Brazil for a while. That place was awesome, we went to Carnival which is one of the biggest parties in the world! The whole country gets a week off of work to party! We showed up right in time for the parade they throw in Sao Paulo, there are a bunch of different teams consisting of hundreds of people that compete in this event. Each team has one hour to put on the most elaborate parade, concert, show that they can. I mean dancing girls, gigantic floats with huge robotic eagles on top that screeched and flapped there wings, fire breathing monsters, more dancing girls, the team band rocking on the back of a flat bed truck, and even more dancing girls!It is sheer madness that goes for twelve hours from ten at night till ten in the morning when the twelve and final team finishes. Brazil is drunk for a whole week after that which makes for a pretty roudy time. We rode in heat and humidity like I had never seen before, it was crazy but fun.The team and I filmed for New World Disorder for two weeks down there. We left with a broken bike, a blown up rental car, and a lot of bug bites but it was worth it. It was a trip that I will never forget?Ķ

Utah Trip 2006

Sunday May 21, 2006

Hey everyone,

Just got back from utah were we were filming for New World Disorder 7. We had Robbie Bourdon, Paul Basagoitia, Cam McCaul, and myself on hand to shape the utah desert into MTB masterpiece. I had driven out a couple weeks prior to build some sick lines for myself, when I showed back up with the crew it was just a matter of playing the waiting game. The wind was howling from sun rise to sun set so waiting for that moment of opportunity when the wind died down and the light was right was what we had to deal with. The wind let up enough for us to hit some lines on a few occasions. All in all, despite the fact that we were fighting the elements the whole time, we got a few pretty epic things in the can so it made it worth it… Well, I have to hop on a plane to europe for the 2007 Kona launch, Marzocchi session’s, and the Salbach slopestyle. I will get some pics up soon, keep shredding—Carlin