Frid'Eh Update #48 Presented by BlackfootDirect.com

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Thanks for reading this forty-eighth edition of the Directmotocross.com Frid’eh Update. We’re getting near the end of the year here and looking forward to continuing on getting better and better right here on DMX.

First things first, this is brought to you by Blackfootdirect.com, Canada’s leading on-line retailer. We would like to thank them for their support in these tough times for our sport. Luckily, as you’ll read further down, the guys at BFD are trying to do something about it and help you lucky Canadians out.

They have a few deals, one is any order over five hundred bucks is free shipping. Anything under that is just twenty bucks anywhere in Canada. So all you PEI people, get on it! They have stainless steel DRD complete exhaust systems for just $599.99 and much, much more.

The Pug will be with you if you shop at blackfootdirect.com

The coolest thing I think they have going on is the fact that when you have your order and ready to check-out, you can punch in the offer code of “DMX” and you get another 10% off your order. No, I’m not joking. I’m dead serious. So you get a regular deal on stuff and then, just by being a reader of DMX, you get another deal. So a deal on deal and to me, that’s quite a deal! Still with me?

Chamberlain lays it flat at Walton. Photo by Lissimore

There have been 48 of these things so that means this column is dedicated to CMRC national number 48, Pierce Chamberlain. At one time Pierce was a can’t miss up and comer from Ontario that was a rising star in Canadian motocross. It hasn’t quite worked out for Pierce for a variety of reasons but he has some Ontario provincial titles and has always had a great riding style. I saw Pierce this past year at Walton and I’m not 100% sure, but I think that was his only Canadian national race all year. He still races locally and still goes pretty good by all accounts. He was top twenty at Walton on a Kawasaki although in 2010, he won’t have a national number for the first time in a long time. Pierce’s dad, Bill, is a great guy and I always have time to stop and chat with him whenever I see him at Toronto supercross or wherever.

As you all well know, this column is brought to you by Blackfootdirect.com and I thought I’d call up BFD.com grand pooh bah Dean Thompson and touch base with him. Dean, Jason Mitchell and staff have teamed up to make Blackfootdirect.com what it is today and Dean is heavily involved with the race team as well so I knew I could gleam some info about that as well.

DMX: How are things at Blackfootdirect.com Dean?

Dean Thompson: Well right now, at this time of year and with the economy the way it is, it’s a little slow but it’s given us time to ramp up our site. We’re just about ready to launch it actually, our old one was a couple of years old and we’re going to give it a fresh look coming up here soon. So that’s where our focus is and come spring time, we’ll be ready to service customers better than ever before. It’s typically slow at this time of year so we’ll make things bigger and better.

How long has it been since BFD launched?

In March it will be three years and things are increasing steadily. We’ve had double digit increases on a regular basis. Taking into consideration the US dollar when we launched and the things that we have to deal with, it’s been good. We’re very happy with the way it’s gone and there is room for improvement and things like that and we’re open for change. That’s where our customers come in, they recommend things to us or things that they would like to see us carry. We’re always on the look-out for hard to find products. We want to provide the types of things that the people have to go south to get and we like to cater to those types of people as well.

Dean Thompson is the man at Blackfoot Direct as well as the race team. Photo by James

I know down here the on-line people are doing great. Places like BTO Sports.com, Motorsport.com all do massive business and get things to people in three days, etc, etc but I think there is still somewhat of a stigma for Canadians and on-line shopping, for whatever reason. Do you find that?

Oh for sure, we get probably close to 50% of our orders over the phone. People want to talk to someone instead of punching in their information. Even though we run a very secure site and have never even had one problem with any type of on-line fraud or any problems like that. We have confidence in our program and I just think that Canadians haven’t embraced the on-line ordering for whatever reason and that’s unfortunate.

What have been great sellers for you?

Helmets and boots, that’s a staple product for us, we can never buy enough helmets and boots, that’s just the way it is. We do well with specialty products as well like RG3 clamps and Hahn Wheels also. People are finding out that there is an advantage to buying another set of race wheels for their bikes and they’re coming around on that concept. You know, hammer all week on your stock wheels and then for the races on the weekend, put a set of cool looking wheels already mounted with new tires on the bike. You get a stronger set of wheels that look good and people are starting to understand that benefit for a weekend racer.

It’s an education process Steve, we spend a lot of time on the phone with customers trying to get them what they need. If it’s a product that suits them, we’ll sell them that. There’s been numerous times where we know the customer wouldn’t be happy with something or it’s not what they’re looking for and we don’t sell it to them. We’d love to take their money and all that but why not try to find the right product for the right person? That’s what we can offer people that maybe others cannot, with going racing for ten years and knowing what we know, we can make educated decisions on what to bring in and sell to people. We can give advice on what works and what doesn’t. We’re enthusiasts above anything else.

What are the big sales happening right now?

We have a lot of things going on now. We are blowing out some old gear as some great prices and being the holiday season you may not know what to buy someone so we have gift certificates on sale. You just buy one of those, give it as a gift and the person can order whatever it is that they want. You can buy those right on-line right now. The wide angle Go-Pro camera is a hot item and next week we have the HD one coming in, those types of things along with hats, DVD’s and things like that. Lots of non-current gear right now, 80 bucks for a pair of pants, 16 bucks for a jersey and it’s hard to go wrong with that.

Jared and Parker Allison ride for Blackfoot and will do so again in 2010. James Lissimore shot

Talk about the Blackfoot Red Bull Yamaha team for next season.

We’re pretty excited right now and I know we’ve been blowing this up right now but we have an all-Canadian line-up for the first time and we’re pumped on that. It’s sad to say that it’s our first time but when you’re trying to win a championship, there are a lot of factors in picking a rider. You have to have the right person and the right attitude and with four riders under the tent and we haven’t been able to have that with Canadian riders unfortunately. Now we’re at a point where we feel we can have that. We have 100% confidence that we have the best riders under our tent right now and they happen to be Canadian which is awesome.

That MX2 class next year should be pretty exciting huh?

Yeah, straight across the board it’s going to be a barn-burner. You have Tyler going against his brother, Teddy’s coming back and will be great. Then you have Beaton, Nye and the Allison brothers and it should be just like the USA series where the one class is pretty predictable and then the MX2 is wide open and you never know what can happen. That should be a great class to watch and hopefully we can come up on top with one of our guys.

Thanks Dean for that quick little chat that we had. I hope you guys think of blackfootdirect.com when it’s time to order something up for x-mas.

Klatt shops at BFD, perhaps you should also? Photo by James Lissimore

Slow week in Canadian moto really, with American Thanksgiving happening down here it was a short week for me and I didn’t make the usual phone calls that I like to make.  I didn’t get to touch base with John Nelson at Machine Racing which is always a good time. I was in touch with John via email and he got me my phone number that I needed for the next rider that I’d like to do A Look Back with…

Did you guys check out that look back with Al Dyck? Al was an underrated rider that was a force in Canadian moto for a long time. He would have many more championships than he did if it wasn’t for Ross Pederson. In doing the story, it struck me how much these past Canadian heroes have been forgotten. I think that the American guys don’t get talked about as much as they should so you can imagine the Canadian riders! I don’t know, I just feel like we as fans should give these guys their proper due if we can. There are riders that are racing Canadian nationals that are half the rider some of these great champions were but get more coverage and there’s more information about them just because of the internet age we live in. So I’ve decided that it’s my duty to try and bring these guys a little attention and a little time back in the lime-light if at all possible. The biggest problem we at DMX face in trying to do that is the lack of photos of these guys back in the day. Canadian motocross wasn’t exactly a way to get rich for photographers back then so there isn’t a whole lot out there.

Thanks to Bill Petro for what he’s done and is going to do for us in the future. Thanks to Will De Clercq for all of his old stuff as well.  If any of you have old photos you can scan or can recommend us to someone that might be willing to get us some old Canadian moto shots for a fair price, email me at steve@directmotocross.com

So I’m going to try and get these guys to tell their stories and maybe share with us some memories of what made them great. Yeah, they weren’t on a level of a Rick Johnson or whomever but they were the fastest guys that we all saw when we were kids right?

Kuli's trying to convince Dowd to come out to sea with him. James Lissimore shot

I got a tip that Honda is looking to come back into Canadian motocross in a big way and that tied together the rumors of Kevin Windham coming up north of the border to battle for the Canadian title. So I made a few inquiries south of the border to find out what’s really going on and it appears that yes, Honda does plan to come back to Canadian racing in 2010 and it’s going to be with OTSFF’s Andre Laurin running the program. So that all kind of ties together really. Stay tuned for more as I hear it.

KTM Vunder-amateur Richard Grey has inked a deal to stay with KTM and Orange Motorsports for the next season. Richard is a highly touted amateur rider that will race intermediate class this year while getting his feet wet in the pro nationals here and there. That should be exciting to see as we haven’t had a top Canadian amateur make a mark in Canadian pro racing for a while.

Bonjour JSR, tu peux courir mais tu ne peux pas te cacher, je t'attraperais pour un podcast tres bientot. Photo by Lissimore

Chris Pomeroy was a little amused while reading the look back with Al Dyck and decided to share his own story with us:

After reading Al “Too Trick” Dyck’s descriptions of his photos this past week, it reminded me of the first time I met Too Trick. I believe the year was 1990, and just a few days before the Toronto SX I received a call from his mechanic at the time, the famous Joe Skidd. Joe mentioned that he heard I had a good track at my house and could he and Too Trick come and ride there? Of course I agreed. The next day when they arrived, I was on my way to press day for the SX, I asked Too Trick why he wasn’t going to press day?   He replied simply, “I’m not riding Toronto this year, they won’t pay me or anyone start money!”.

 I didn’t know what to say, I mean, I was 16 years old, I didn’t care about start money, I just wanted to race in the Sky Dome. Of course, a few years later, after some time in the pro class under my belt, I would get to know exactly what Too Trick was talking about, a rider needed to make money! Anyway, as I was leaving to go to press day, Joe Skidd asked me where a good place to eat in the town nearest my house was. I told him “Superburger” is the only place to eat in Shelburne, Ont. Well, I guess Joe and Too Trick didn’t feel like burgers so they went to this greasy Chinese restaurant in Shelburne. To make a long story short, Too Trick got so sick from this restaurant that he ended up with mono and it virtually ruined his season. With the first National only a few days after the Toronto SX, Too Trick was very sick and could barley ride.

I’m not sure what number he ended up with that year, but I don’t think he liked me, or Shelburne, ON much after that, as all he could picture was a chicken ball and some fried rice every time he looked at me. Too Trick, if you read this, I told you to go to Superburger!

Thanks Chris and good stuff for sure! Thanks for reading this Frid’eh Update and I have to get back to some more turkey. See you next week.

"Hey ladies, if you want the 6-1-1 on Matrix Concepts, come see me." Photo by JKL

Hoyer with the staples in his life. Subway, Gatorade and Timmy Ho-Ho's. Photo by Liss

Buddy wants to lick you.