2007 Review

2007 has been another bostin' year with plenty of knobbly action bringing many a smile...and bruise ;)

Here's wishing you all the very best for the year ahead and may your knobblies bring you great gooey lumps of happiness B)

Santa calls Early

Hello Dudes

I managed to bag a very good deal on one of the 250 sets of Formula 'The One Greg Minnaar limited edition brakes' (probably coz he’s left to join Santa Cruz who use Avid).

Here’s the Formula speal:
The one GM Ltd edition features high polish finish on the MC and calliper bodies, fancy laser etched logos, CNC alloy FCS adjuster (stroke adjust), external reach adjust and a flip-flop MC. The forged one – piece calliper features a patented cap, which gives a much more compact aspect too!

There was even a Christmas Card in the box!

Sorry no test ride yet.

My Rockshox Pike was way overdue a service; so I sent it to TF Tuned for some TLC.

They
· Stripped, cleaned & reassembled
· Full Service
· Fitted PUSH Forx factory tuning upgrade kit
· Replaced oil in Motion Control system

New parts fitted
· PUSH factory upgrade
· Samurai wiper seals
· Oil Seal
· Foam below Samurai seals
· Air piston O-rings

They did find some corrosion of the lowers; this was caused by water contamination. TF Tuned reckon they’re ok.

They did include couple tips on the Service sheet

· When adjusting the negative pressure, tip the bike upside-down to prevent the assembly lube from entering your pump and giving false reading.

· After cleaning, apply a few drops of Teflon-based lube on the upper tubes above the seals, push up & down a few times and wipe off the excess (make sure you don’t get it near your rotors)

Also I’ve gone tubeless; I fitted DT Swiss tubeless kit to the 5.1 rims. I’m running a Larsen TT ust on the rear and Nobby Nic on the front, so far they’ve held up fine!!

Sorry about the photos, I'm blaming the light levels ;-)

Have a good Christmas\New Year and hopefully I'll see you on the trails next year

Toons

LED Light Test

At this time of year I'm sure we're all being guided with some form of candle power and I found this LED article over on Bikemag.com quite interesting.

It might not be the most scientific of comparisons but it allows you to quickly visualise the difference between each manufacturers offering.

Craving the latest bulb 'n' battery technology on these dark evenings have lit up many a internet forum and I thought some of ya's might find this useful...

Free Rider 2

Has anyone else spotted this rather natty, addictive little online 'game' - Free Rider 2? It can be found over at http://www.onemorelevel.com and seems to have quite an on-line following amongst the biking fraternity. It's very simple - accelerate, brake, lean back, lean forward and turn around is all you need to navigate your BMX or MTB cycle around a home-made jump track. You can design your own tracks or load up one of the umpteen hundred contributed over the internet - you just cut and paste some weird and wonderful text code into the editor's "load" option, and presto! For a head-start, check out www.freerider-tracks.com


Before you know it, hours will have passed ;-)

Canyon Nerve ESX Special Edition

Since Dozer's full squidger was 'alf'inched earlier this year our buddy has been long faced and thoroughly grumpy crankin' back on his old hard tail.

After a long running battle with his insurance, the police, campsite and his invisible friend he finally got his sensible head on and test rode a few rigs. The x3 Specialized rigs he eventually demo'd convinced him that their offerings weren't for him besides which his wallet was err'g towards the Bavarian savings several of us have recently accrued (1, 2 and the 3rd to mrsDozer).

During his quest he sensibly identified the short comings of his ol'Endozer and sat down with many a bikes geometry in an effort to find the holy grail. He now wanted a shorter, lower, tighter and more nimble single-track hacker that would also be capable with the occassional trip to "all mountain" ville.

Spurred on with the arrival of both his better half's and one of his riding buddy new rig's he crowbar'd his wallet down the internet and contributed to the Canyon Xmas party. The 5" Nerve ESX Special Edition ticked all his boxes with it's durable coil fork, rock solid accompanying kit and favourable geometry.


After a few weeks waiting (impatiently I might add) his new fully finally arrived yesterday and I'm pleased to report that it's a beaut. The quality finish we've come to expect from Bavaria oozes from end to end with some schweet finishing touches and kit. Some of the highlights are;

• RP23 with large air can and 45 degree air port
• '08 XT Hollowtech II crankset with drilled ring(s)
• Uber bright, freeride lite wheelset
• Quality stoppers with massive rotor(s) - 200mm fr/re
  
• Thomson, Syntace and Selle Italia finishing kit

On the scales she comes in at a healthy 30.25lbs approx (no pedals).

After reading numerous reports of how soft the standard Pike spring (medium) is we needn't have worried 'cos whilst bedding in the brakes the front didn't dive excessively. Admittedly once drops are attempted he may need the next spring up (firm) but I very much doubt he'll need an xtra-firm that most webster's suggest.

We only managed to get her put together and running smoothly last night but Dozer was chompin' at the bit to get out and give her what for, so expect a ride report soon...

Skills Training anyone?

There has been some talk about skills training in the past. Although we all seem to manage OK, my feeling is that I would enjoy the trails more if I could up my skills just a little. One choice is to ride more and 'session' particular trails sections, but I think this unlikely to happen, so having some 'pro' tuition might be a fast-track route.

I saw AQR recommended and as they do their training sessions at Sherwood Pines it seemed a practical proposition. Cost is not that bad too @ £35 a session. This year they are doing 2-day courses with the basics being covered on day 1 and more advanced stuff on day 2.

The February 23rd date might be possible for me, is anyone else interested? If there were enough I think we could organise a specific session.
What do you think?

Test Your Bike Repair IQ

I thought you'd appreciate this lickle chuckle I clocked over at BikeRadar...

Humour: Test Your Bike Repair IQ!

Pump Track

Hello Dudes

I stumbled across these photos in Flickr. It looks a very interesting project, just need to convince the wife she needs a pump track in the back garden!

Found some info on how to build a pump track

Hope everyone is set for chrimbo? I haven’t been on the bike recently due to Xmas Chores and that.

Toons

More Travel Please

Earlier this week I popped apart the Reba on my Canyon and whipped out the 15mm spacer that now boosts the front travel to match the rear (115mm). The instructions suggest oil as an internal lube (compression side) but the factory seem to have used grease - so I'm hoping the re-assembled unit will perform even better than before.

I just swapped out my original 5Spot rockers for the new 5.5" units that adorn the latest California rigs. This has propped up the bottom bracket by half an inch to 13.75" and it'll be interesting to see how it rides now with the 140mm Pike up front (130mm is the recommended front bouncer). Climbing should improve and I'm keen to see how they cope with twisty and DH, Toons seems to like 'em after switchin' from his longer travel Push rockers. I'm also hopin' that the longer rockers will release a little extra travel from the Push'd RP3 that's been a little taught since applying the Colorado mod.

So I guess I've been on a quest to increase those all important inches :p

I've not test ridden since tweakin' but I'll report back as soon as, oh and post some pic's ;-)

Push your Rockshox

TF Tuned Shox have just taken delivery of a new PUSH Factory tuning system for your Rockshox forks...

Check out the blurb here

A review on PinkBike. here

Exit 27 Trail - Snoqualmie Cascade Mountains

Hello Dudes

Thought I'd try out the new youtube share feature.

This trail looks amazing some of the drops\gaps are huge, if I could only ride like this. That would be the dream.

The riders are Eric Svedge and Scott Petett (chap with the helmet cam) on a trail called Exit 27 near Snoqualmie

Toons