TORCn and TWERKn at TORCFest

Sorry for the click-bait…there will be no twerkin’ here. But TORCn and TWERKn just rolls off the tongue nicely. Wait, why are we here?

We headed out to TORCFest last weekend, an annual gathering of the mountain biking community around the Triangle of NC (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, plus Cary, Apex, Morrisville - it’s more like a hexagon).

This day of MTB glory is hosted by the Triangle Off-Road Cyclists (TORC), one of the biggest MTB communities around, boasting over 4,400 members. While this area of North Carolina may be short on wicked-sick-technical mountain biking, we make up for it with a ridiculously strong community.

When you’re a small, up-and-coming brand like Misfit Mountain, getting to set up around local legends like The Clean Machine and Back Alley Bikes is just awesome. Pair that with sharing grass space (not grass) with Trek Bikes and REI, and we were living the dream.

I was thrilled to have help from one of my lil’ misfits for the day, seen below challenging visitors to our tent to eat a habañero. Only one taker…and holy sh*t, he felt it. The Misfit Mountainerds also came out in force, bringing their families along.

While we spent our time hanging by the tent, the festivities included multiple bike parades, group rides, shock setup training sessions, bike limbo, bunny hop contest, how-to-manual-in-your-Favorite-Trails-jersey, and ample free beer drinking. An overcast day was a blessing in disguise, keeping everyone from melting. It’s hot and humid in NC in September, y’all.

The icing on the cake? We donated 10% of our day’s sales back to TORC, which turned out to be a nice sum. We’ll be turning the cash from our net proceeds into new gear to spiff out your MTB wardrobe.

Tons of pics here (but not enough stankfaces). Photo credits go to Deborah Hage and TORC.