Category: Words

The Sleepless in the Saddle entry form has been sent off. Jed and I are returning for another crack at the pairs race. And the Saab Salomon Mountain Mayhem is to be tackled again, the entry form was downloaded and sent off this morning. This time the original team is reforming under the rothar.com racing banner and for some of us it’ll be our third mayhem marathon. Now we’ve just got to wait to see if we’re accepted.

I took the Stumpjumper FSR test bike out on yesterday’s ride with Conrad. There has been a lot of hype about the new Specialized design and I wanted to test it out. The first thing that strikes you is that it’s a long bike for it’s size, no doubt a product of it’s race orientated hardtail namesake. The bike I rode was a medium (17″), but with an adjustment of the lengthy Thomson-a-like seat pin and a quick change to a 12cm rather than a 9cm stem and it was of similar setup to my FSR.

disappointing

Differences stop there. This is a light bike with Fox air shocks front and back and can be fully locked out. It’s also has a low centre of gravity due to the swagged top tube, but this isn’t all good. The bottom bracket height is low due to the short overall length of the Fox shocks, which means it doesn’t take much to be grounding the pedals and cranks on even relatively flat surfaces. This annoying trait makes pedalling on bumpy downhills a rather off putting experience and riding in ruts near impossible.

Mud clearance isn’t fantastic either and isn’t helped by the Roll X tyres which although excellent all rounders, seem to like to cling onto mud. The lightweight design also doesn’t aid torsional rigidity. Powering on off camber surfaces, or out of ruts and the back of the bike seems to be pointing the wrong way. Conrad reckons there was a fair amount of this ‘crabbing’ going on, so tracking is a definite issue.

The fox forks were the usual excellent performers, whilst the new Triad rear shock was excellent in pro pedal mode, but seemed to blast through the travel too quickly when set at fully open, so might benefit from revised compression damping. The rest of the bike performed flawlessly and it certainly makes a good cross country day bike. I just can’t help thinking that an Enduro is better suited to northern England riding.

My overall verdict was one of disappointment. Either I just had a shocker of a ride with this bike, or magazines like Mountain Bike Action have got this bike completely wrong in their reviews. [Note: The comments expressed in this review seem to have been a bit controversial and haven’t been liked by some at Specialized for obvious reasons. Having spoken with many others that tested this bike or have ridden other Stumpjumper FSRs I am not alone in having experienced issues with this latest design].

The ride was the longest of Mike Pearce’s from his guide book to the Peaks and Derbyshire. Starting in Monyash, it takes in a large loop of the countryside, heading north to Chelmorton, through the stunning Horseshoe Dale, around the limestone quarries and through Longnor, before dropping down to Sheen and crossing the River Dove to Hartington. From there it was through another hidden limestone valley (Biggin Dale) and up onto the Tissington Trail and past Arbor Low back to the car.

More snow overnight. I woke up this morning and thought I was in Helsinki.

There’s been some rationalisation of the bike collection recently. The M5 is next to go and is currently completely disassembled. There’s something new on it’s way and I’ve calculated how to make the parts going back onto it over two and a half pounds lighter. It’s going to be a sweet race bike.

The first UCI points of the mountain bike season were up for grabs recently with an event held in Cyprus. Most of the big names were there and American Journal, VeloNews has the coverage.

Whilst IMBA-related things seem to have a renewed level of enthusiasm here in the UK, PinkBike has news that in USA, a successful partnership is set to continue:

Subaru of America, Inc . recently renewed its support of the acclaimed Subaru/ IMBA Trail Care Crew through 2006. Launched in 1997, the Subaru/IMBATrail Care Crew program has led more than 1,000 trail projects, trained more than 35,000 people in sustainable trailbuilding techniques and logged half a million miles of coast-to-coast travel in its official Subaru vehicles.

The award-winning program includes two full-time, professional teams of trail experts who travel North America year-round, leading IMBA Trailbuilding Schools, meeting with government officials and land managers, and working with IMBA-affiliated groups to improve mountain biking opportunities.

What’s IMBA? Well this poster has the answer.

This month has gone quickly and the discussion about this years big races has been growing. Entry forms for Sleepless in the Saddle are already out. Now it just a case of deciding what to do and who with.

Cars, love them or hate them they’re everywhere. There are a few of those ridiculous Chevrolet built Hummer’s around Manchester, which just goes to show there are some people with bottomless wallets. Even that Clarkson (who has been in trouble recently) didn’t like them. He and I’m sure a few others will be amused by this tongue-in-cheek website…

Cars are also probably the reason behind these statistics published by the Sustrans as part of their latest copy of the National Cycle Network Map. Part of the problem of course is changing the attitude of the majority about bike use…

There’s some interesting stuff coming out for the new season. New shoes from Italian footwear specialists DMT and Lance has a new weapon to help him in his campaign for this years Tour Yellow jersey, a new purpose built Trek TT bike. There are more photos on the Trek Bikes site. Any money on those wheels actually being used in Le Tour?

In a follow up to a report I posted up a few weeks ago, Bikebiz reports that the world doesn’t seem to have gone completely mad just yet:

Shanghai back-pedals on bike ban threat

Police chiefs in the bicycle-dense Chinese city had been planning to lever bikes off the streets in order to fit in more cars but the Shanghai city government has now said it has no plans to limit cycling and is, in fact, planning to build cycle routes. But is this a ploy to ghettoise cyclists in the run-up to the World Expo, due to take place in Shanghai in 2010?

According to the Shanghai Daily News, Wu Jiang, deputy director of Shanghai Urban Planning Administrative Bureau said “The bicycle is still a premier transport tool in the city.”

Shanghai has a bicycle population of 9 million and rising, but increasing prosperity in China is leading to an ever growing appetite for privately-owned motorcars. If Western cities are designed around the automobile, then so should Chinese cities, goes some official thinking.

In December last year, Shanghai police chiefs mooted plans for banning cyclists in downtown areas and on major arterial roads. Law-breaking cyclists were to also face tougher fines. To date there has bee no ban and Shanghai’s cyclusts continue to flout traffic laws with impunity.

No riding this weekend. I wish I’d gone, but I didn’t. I did however buy the latest Mountain Bike Action. I know it has loads of adverts, but I reckon there aren’t many others who offer the same format of magazine and I really appreciate the race orientated nature of a lot of the articles.

On top of photos from the US trade shows, this month includes a privateers account of a season racing an S-Works Epic, an inside look at Filip Meirhaeghe’s race bike, a review of the Anniversary Edition Stumpjumper FSR (so a few Specialized’s then) and the new Foes 7″ Trail bike amongst others. There’s more on the website.

Oh yeah and Paola Pezzo will be mounting her comeback campaign aboard an S-Works, she’s on the Specialized Squad for 2004. See the full listings here. I bet Gary Fisher is a bit gutted.

Karrimor’s shop in Manchester closed this weekend and we had a lot of customers carrying bags full of bargain buys. The full story on what happened is shown below and is from Bikebiz:

Karrimor sold within 24 hours of going into receivership

The Lancashire outdoor pursuits equipment supplier, spawned from a bicycle shop, has had a troubled recent past and has now been sold to Lonsdale Sports, the boxing suppliers retailer. Seven of Karrimor’s retail outlets are part of the acquisition. Corporate rescue and recovery firm Begbies Traynor had been working with Karrimor two weeks before it went into receivership and was able to secure a sale quickly. Pentland, owner of the Berghaus and Brasher brands, was one of the potential buyers of Karrimor.

Karrimor is based in Clayton-le-Moors, Lancashire. The company has 250 employees; 60 based at its HQ and the remaining staff located at its retail outlets dotted around the UK.

The seven retail outlets which are part of the Lonsdale acquisition are based in Clayton-le-Moors, Manchester, Cambridge, Brighton, Nottingham, London St Pauls, and London Wardour Street.

Begbies Traynor is seeking a buyer or buyers for the remaining 20 shops.

Karrimor was founded in 1946 by Charles and Mary Parsons. They hand-sewed cotton-duck pannier bags from the upstairs of their Lancashire cycle shop.

In March 2003, Karrimor acquired some of the YHA Adventure Shops, the retail group that went into administration in March. 15 of the 16 YHA Adventure Shops had store-in-store bicycle outlets called The Bike Chain.

A trip to Leeds resulted in some of Pitman’s tunes being played in the shop today. To quote Robert King: ‘The kids on the streets have a new kind of music hero to look up to. Fed up with ya ‘bling, bling’ So-Solid Crew the time has come for MC Pitman! Coalville’s answer to Mike Skinner’s ‘The Streets’. Kids are already racing down to hardwear shops to get hard hats to emulater ‘MC Pitman’.

Police forces up and down the country have welcomed this unlikely Pop artist to. A spokeman for the Police force said “Before, the kidz would carry guns when they was into So-Solid Crew and now with MC Pitman the most dangerous thing there most likely to carry is a torch!”‘ Check it out.

On a closing note the Singletrack Archive is now updated with Issue 13’s contents.

Ryder Hesjedal reckons that “Miguel Martinez and Filip Meirhaeghe will be strong, and Roland Green will be hungry after a down year. Of course, there are all sorts of young riders to watch. I’m just really happy that I can go into the race as a contender. It wasn’t so long ago that I used to look up to all those guys…I really believe I can win the Olympics.”

Canadian rider Roland Green is looking for a big comeback this season and most of the American sites have run a story about it in some shape or form and Steve Peat has just married another rider. Read more.

Carbon has been making something of a comeback recently. Seems last years trade shows were dominated by the black stuff and you can now get pretty much every component made from it. Whilst I have to admit that I have always been sceptical of the use in some applications (like this new stem from Specialized), these new wheels from Reynolds, the Stratus DV carbon road wheels look fast standing still. How much? Well if you have to ask…

Andy Cotgreave has some nice photos from his riding around New Zealand and what ever happened to bikeresource.com? Didn’t last long did it?

Last night I had my first experience of getting sideways to the accompaniment of squealing tyres and burning rubber. Thirty-eight like-minded lunatics descended on Daytona go-karting in Trafford Park and carnage ensued. I made it through the heats and the semis to the final only to be put into the wall on the fourth lap of the final from second place by one of my colleagues from work…

Great fun and I think the general consensus is to do it again soon, I’m not sure how much cross-over there is in terms of handling and reaction skills between two wheels and four, but I’m still buzzing off the petrol fumes.

Riding in Switzerland’s Valais region: ‘By the end of our trip we had descended nearly 80,000′ – with some days over 14,000′ – and slept and drank wine in high alpine chalets overlooking towns and peaks for as far as the eye could see. By day seven, it became hard to recall all of the previous rides’. Read the story and see the pictures over at NSMB.

Importers of fine steel, Sorted Cycles, have a new front page up replacing the excellent and much discussed bikespotting page. Check it out here.

I’m not convinced by Santa Cruz, but they’re extremely popular bikes. Daevh’s Bullitt though is a nice looking bike that’s been well spec’d up

And finally there is a public service announcement from the JonWIII over at his website, debating the organisational level of University Cycling Clubs and the Pope’s cock. Read more…

There has been a bit of discussion about IMBA UK recently. A lot of people have been mumbling that it hasn’t been taking a high enough profile within the mountain biking community. The response from the volunteers that are running IMBA is that a lot of the work is going on behind the scenes and goes largely unseen.

I think the guys are doing an excellent job under circumstances that are less than ideal and they seem to be struggling with some rather unreasonable and arguably disenchanted individuals and money holders. I think is great that there is an IMBA column in What Mountain Bike, but maybe other magazines should also be taking note. MBUK are you listening? We need the youth of the sport involved if IMBA is to survive for future generations. Any way enough of my ranting, this is Kieran’s latest update from this thread on Singletrackworld:

Righto chaps, Have got to this late, sorry, but I’ll try and deal with everything…

Yes, there’s no arguing that communication is the key, and that we have failed in that and some other things, I‘m not going to lay blame or make apologies on behalf of anyone else in the circle – However I take full responsibility for the delays in processing membership, caused largely by the fact that I have had other things to attend to which most of you know the history behind, which is not an excuse, but I hope you will understand a somewhat extenuating circumstance.

As for the other issues like website updates, club memberships, and Email newsletters, and other things; these are unfortunately out of *my* hands – although the point has been made across the board that we need to sort this out now, otherwise we are going to sink before we are even in a position to hold our heads above water

Without a shadow of a doubt, the whole thing is behind where we wanted it to be, we are now nearly a year post launch. Part of the reason behind this is that we were trying for funding to employ someone, at least part time, as a central co-ordinator, and some more money to run at least two “all in” trail schools for our reps to attend for training on the relevant issues. – however we haven’t been able to secure money for this, which puts us at a big disadvantage… We are once again going to push forward for this funding, which IMHO I firmly believe should come from the industry itself in some form, and we are making an effort to proceed with this, however I will not put any illusions out there, its not easy getting money, even when the industry has formed a national levy fund for the development of the sport – which the distributing body appears unwilling to spend or invest in grassroots cycling!

Equally, things are progressing, we have been getting a steady stream of interest, and we have been dealing with lots of landowner and similar enquiries, there are a dedicated group up here in the North working as part of the network on PROW and trailbuilding issues, people like Dave, NBT, Mark Ellison and Mark Graylish have been dealing with public bodies and PROW issues with good development, certainly “oop north” things are heading in the right direction, however we do need to get this news out to all of you out there…

I have had discussions tonight about possible ways forward from here, and we have made the decision follow the suggestion of one member and dust off the Topica List – it is far more responsive to input and fast answers than the website, and covers far more people quicker and easier. Send an Email to: imbauk-subscribe@topica.com and it should put you straight on the list – we intend that this should be used for any IMBA questions and general trail and PROW advice.

The whole IMBA ethos was always to work is as a pretty loose umbrella for any trail efforts, be they from clubs or individuals to work under, and to refer to for advice and support, in effect in an Al-Queida manner, multiple loosely controlled efforts towards the same goal under a unified umbrella organisation. – there’s no doubt that the sport needs a cohesive standpoint to work together from, and we want to develop that over time, Political lobbying and similar national committees are certainly on our agenda, however these take time, and these longer term plans mustn’t detract from the grassroots work that needs to be done by every rider on behalf of themselves and the rest of the community.

I strongly believe that he way forward for people to push this effort is by adopting the colours of an organisation to develop the community effect, (if you see what I mean)

We knew there would be problems, however we haven’t disappeared – hopefully by using the Topica list again we can communicate better with each other and keep everyone informed of whats going on in each area and lessons learned from our individual and combined efforts.

Dan, and anyone else interested, we are going to get a meeting together to try and take this forwards, there will be an open invite to anyone to come along and take part, details will be put out on the Topica list.

Kie
IMBA-UK membership secretary and Northern England Co-ordinator

There’s an interview with Josh Bender the big drop merchant in the Salt Lake Tribune. He’s still obsessed with going big, but refuses to acknowledge the competition. “There’s people (like Tyler Klassen) coming up doing pretty big cliffs, but the super-big cliffs, there’s nobody else doing it.” Read the full article here.

North Staffordshire is just a bit further south than Macclesfield, which makes riding in the county a realistic option. This rather nice new website from Martin and Chris, Staffs Singletrack, has details of trails to ride, places to stay and other useful stuff.

Been away for the weekend. It didn’t go according to plan, somethings just don’t work out and you have to take the rough with the smooth every now and then. So with all the goings on, I didn’t make this years Thetford Enduro, which from a financial point of view might be a good thing after last seasons destruction-of-kit-fest. Jed rode in style:

From: Jed
Subject: Totally Wasted

Did the enduro race at Thetford today. 4 hard 8 mile laps in 2:22 and came in approx 21st. Managed to catch then pass a friend (Phil – who I meet on the way to work) when he fell. He promptly passed me when my calf cramped up as I ran over a log and fell over. I certainly gave it everything I had and am now paying the price but at least I know that I didn’t give it 100% so feel good in myself.

Italy has lost a cycling hero at a young age. Corty eloquently somes up his view of the pirate below, but there’s more over at cyclingnews.

From: Corty
Subject: RIP

Marco Pantani.

Yes he was a junkie. Sure, he may have had big ears (don’t mention elephants
though, he wouldn’t have liked that). But that little Pirate could climb like a
ferret and will be missed in both the tour and rehab clinics in equal measure.
Arrivederci.

The BUSA Mountain Bike XC races are coming up. Now I’m not a team member of the Uni team so if I understand things correctly, it’s not open to me. Maybe I should organise myself as it’ll be my last chance to ride for MURT. Laura has the info:

From: Laura
Subject: Student Champs

Are you going? Bringewood, Ludlow, Shropshire. March 27-29th.

Campsite – Limited space – toilets – and tanked water. Also floodlights for the evening’s entertainment – Sheff’s Ramp and whatever else appears!

Enter NOW – closing date for entries is 20th March after that it will cost u a few beers!

There’s more on the official BUSA website.

Finally, this is the latest on the Revolution series, up at the Velodrome here in Manchester. The Sprinters Race looks likely to be the most popular event of the series. This is from British Cycling:

3 OLYMPIC CHAMPIONS TO RACE AT REVOLUTION 3

The foreign challengers are now confirmed for Revolution 3 (on Saturday Feb 28th Manchester Velodrome at 7pm) with a trio of French stars taking the trip across the water to take on our British boys. Reigning Olympic Team Sprint Champions Arnaud Tournant and Florian Rousseau will be joining forces with French prodigy Gregory Bauge making for a clash of the titans in the team sprint competition.

Tournant’s track record speaks for itself with multiple World titles in the Kilo and Sprint and the world record in the Kilo (an amazing sub one-minute ride at altitude). Rousseau’s credentials are equally as impressive with the Olympic Keirin Champion title to his name on top of the Team Sprint title. The final member of the French squad, Gregory Bauge is more of an unknown quantity but certainly won’t be their Achilles Heel. At 19 Bauge already has two Junior World Track titles to his name and is strongly tipped by the French Cycling Federation to be the next Tournant.

So the scene is set for a showdown between the French and British Sprint squads with the British eager to test the water ahead of the Olympics, “We need to try and take a look at as many different options throughout this season as possible in racing opportunities so I think we’ll be using ‘Revolution 3’ as an opportunity to test the team sprint against the French” commented British Sprint Coach Iain Dyer.

And now off to work…

Last night I made my first pilgrimage to the mecca known as Sideways out on the Cheshire Plain. Lots of exotica and a chance to look at some pimpiness and porn. Most impressed and worth the circuitous journey there and back. Tim has a very nice shop, but I hate driving in the rush hour.

One Speed Bikes. Beer. Music. All of that and more in the Singlespeed Outlaw eZine which has just posted issue five. Lots of one geared stuff and a lot on titanium bike bits manufacturer Jeff Jones…

Dave Barter from phased has asked me to post up the following:

Thanks to Anne Brown and Matt Hart the RUSS Appeal has two fantastic items to auction in order to raise money for the Air Ambulance.

The first is a brand new Specialized Fuse I BMX bike kindly donated by BM regular Anne Brown. The bike is suitable for adults or larger children and would make an ideal steed for anyone deciding to take a foray into the world of 20in frolics. The item is ready and waiting for bids now so hop on over to eBay at the link below:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3660296690

The second item is a fitness consultation and detailed personalised six month training plan development carried out by Mart Hart of TORQ Fitness. As winter starts to recede you’ll all be needing some extra help to shift the flab in preparation for spring and summer. So, hurry over to eBay and stick a bid on the item via the link below:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3660297530

Remember that EVERY SINGLE penny from these auctions goes to the Air Ambulance – please be generous, and please tell your friends

Finally this bike website is the home of a biweekly mini eZine, called pushbikes. You’ll need to have flash for it to work.

I’m feeling more recovered now from Sunday’s hammering by the elements in the Peak District. That was one big ride. I’m going to do it again in the summer, hopefully things will be a bit drier by then.

Ag2R and Cofidis as well as the US based Navigators teams have been riding Stella Azzurra kit for some time. In fact the Italian family-run firm has been in business over 25 years and started off making bar tape and over time have supplied a huge range of companies from De Rosa to Merckx. Here’s the website link.

MTB Wales have been updating their site a fair bit with lots of digital routes appearing for the various different mapping packages. They’re also getting some exclusive cycle clothing, find out more over at their site. Talking of clothing, Corty sent in this via e-mail:

From: Corty
Subject: Ref pulled red lacy knickers from his pocket

A Brazilian football referee is facing divorce proceedings after he pulled a pair of knickers out of his pocket instead of a red card during a match.

Carlos Jose Figueira Ferro was trying to send footballer Paulo Coise off during an amateur match in the city of Anama, reports Terra.

The referee was so embarrassed that he ended the match with 20 minutes still to go. He said he had no idea how the red lacy knickers ended up in his pocket.

Mr Ferro’s wife, who was watching the match, reportedly started divorce proceedings after the match.

This is a rather nice Dutch Singlespeed website which includes details of Giant’s new XTC SS specific frameset. That’ll build into one seriously light bike. Probably a bit like this one…

How unique is your name? Find out here…

Finally, this trebuchet game might help waste some time at work and certainly makes a change from Penguin baseball.