Trail Head People
Lars Thomsen, the head, heart and hands of Trail Head

Video clip from Carlmont(DMC)- click here

Age: 33 in May '05

Ridin' since... 1st MTB in '82. Bianchi Cervino, 15spd

What I like most about riding... Finding that flow where your actions are without thought and time seems to slow down when in reality you are most likely riding your fastest.

Where I most like to ride is... Soquel Demonstration Forest & El Corte de Madera

Bikes in my quiver...'84 Schwinn Sierra 1 spd.(but I saved all the original gears),'90 Ritchey Ultra 21spd, '92 Bontrager 1 spd, '95 Bontrager 24 spd, '00 Rocky Mountain prototype Reaper 8 spd(Wade's old bike), '01 Specialized Big Hit 9spd, '02 Ventana El Conquistador de Montañas tandem, `03 Kelly Knobby Cross 18spd, '04 Specialized 30th Anniversary Stumpjumper FSR 27spd, `04 Specialized Demo 9spd, `05 Specialized S-Works Enduro Trail 9spd.

The one I ride most is my... Specialized Enduro SW Trail. It lets me get away with a lot! I can manual through rock gardens, pull big wheelie drops, boot huge air & still do 5 hour epics in Henry Coe or Wilder Ranch. This M5 frame is sick. Super low center of gravity accented by Progressive's 5th Element Coil shock. They did Specialized a favor and hooked us up with a remote reservoir making adjustments to the Internal Floating Piston and Volume super easy. Not being a big fan of super stable platform valves, I'm running the least amount of pressure in the IFP, and the volume is backed all the way out. The FSR design keeps pedaling forces separate from shock stroke, so the pedaling is still plenty stable and I don't loose the small bump sensitivity. I came up short at Carlmont a few times and can tell you that shock handles big bumps amazing! It truly is cheating.

I have my trusty old M952 110bcd cranks pulling a 36 tooth ring, happily guarded by MRP's slalom guide. I like the XTR 12-34 cassette and I'm testing SRAM's new 990 chain. It looks like my favorite chain, the XTR M7701, with billowed plates and chamfered inside. Way smoother than previous "Sachs" chains and the "power link" is simple to install. Time will tell. My Marzocchi Z150 SL fork has been very good to me for months, but now that I've ridden the new Fox 36, it isn't as good as I thought. Damn, I guess I'll have to buy that 36 as soon as possible. I trust Hayes to slow me down and they pin it with the Mag Plus Carbon brakes. The carbon lever is hella Gucci and comfortable and eight inch rotors keep things cool. The rear wheel I built in 1998 or so. Been so long, I can't really remember, but it is strong, I'll tell you that! The rear hub is none other than Chris King's DisGoTech, with the nutted heavy duty axel and fun nuts. SOLID 32 DT Swiss Alpine III spokes (13,15,14 guage) hold the Mavic D321 rim straight and confident with matching red alloy nips. Many a tire has been on this wheel, right now I'm running Nokian's NBX 2.5 with dual compounds. Sick traction, demand them. Up front, the newer 20mm through axel King hub has 32 DT Champion 14,15 guage spokes holding the venerable Mavic D521 Hard Ano rim with rasta nipples to match the King Dredset. Sloan had me test some Prototype Enduro 2.4 dual compound tires back in March `04 and one is still on this wheel. Crazy sick grabber in medium to loose, darn right scary in hard pack of any nature. The 2.5 Nokian has been talk'n hella smack lately though, so I am replacing that 2.4 with Nokian's new tire for Marzocchi. I call it the Marzokian 2.6, and it is sick! I just can't run it until I get my new fork, doh. Specialized 2.3-3.0 thin presta tubes keep both tires around 28 to 36 psi.

Wide bars rule, and Easton kills it with their Monkey DH'er. 28 inches of thickass carbon exceed all alloy bars in strength and fatigue. I trust them with my life. Easton's 50mm MG60 stem does a fine job holding it to my fork, and their EA70 seatpost is solid and clean and has outlived a few saddles. We'll see how long this WTB Shadow V hangs around. Hopefully for a while, it's pretty darn sweet. I rase and lower it constantly, so Salsa is the natural choice of seat auick release dealios. I can easily pedal hard, coast, open the Salsa FlipOff, raise or lower my saddle, close the Salsa and go. No fussing. No stopping.

Trust no other to hold your grips solid than ODI, with so many rubber choices, it is easy to find some to match your hands fetish. I like many of them, OURY's, Ruffians, Rogues and Intense, but I would say the Oury's are the best thick grip and the Ruffians are the best thin handles. I'm running Oury's on the Enduro with the skinny part on the outside so the fat of my palm nestles right between the end cap and thick blocks of rubber. Stand and Deliver. Bottle cages are a must for night riding, and the Andrew's King Cage is indestructable stainless.

In February of 2004 I tried Sram's trigger shifters on my Stumpy, and now they controle all of my derailleurs. I've been running Shimano's low normal (formerly known as rapid rise) rear derailleurs since `97 and love 'em, so I use Sram's Shimano compatable Rocket shifter to pull on the old M952 GS rear mech. Super smooth and reliable, this is like the third or fourth frame that thing has been on! I'm a clipless guy, even while jumping, so Time is the pedal of choice. Others are good, none rival the ease of in/out without pre-mature releases. Crank bro mabey, but it took them too long to come out with a Time looking pedal. So all of my cranks sport Time pedals.

My next bike will be a... Specialized Supercross. I love my Reaper, but slalom and 4x bikes have come a long way! This frame makes railing berms and clearing doubles less troublesome and packs a mean grin. Besides, Rudy keeps teasing me with his. So does Lee. And Brandon too! I'm ruined, add another bike to the quiver...

What I like most about working at Trail Head... I am very fortunate to be making a living at helping others ride bicycles. Bicycles are healthy for us and the environment.

The neatest thing about having riders as customers... Being able to share a passion for cycling with them.

I'm best known by my customers for... Having the answer to almost anything MTB related.

School/Family/Personal background... I ride my tandem with my awesome wife Karen, and we have the coolest son, Spencer. I am a L.G.H.S. alumni, class of '90. My first big digger was on Saint Josephs Hill. Earned a BA degree from UCSB in Geography. Actually, I really learned how to ride technical trail while in college.

One last thing... Santa Barbara has some of the steepest, rocky, narrow, & exposed trail to school any aspiring rider to an expert level. My favorite trail resides there. It is on Little Pine Mtn. where I used to rarely miss a full moon ride with my taunting riding bud John Morrison. I rode my Ritchey back then, John a Fat Chance Monster Fat. We raced our first race at Snow Summit in 1993, blackburn rack, softride stem, skinny as 2.1 tires, flat bar, honk'n shimano 737's with fat 26-36-48 chainrings and an 11-28 cassette. It was rad.