Two Ride | Big Mountain Riding

Date	Event
16/05	Lisbon Downtown, Lisbon, Portugal
31/05	World Cup DH, Vallnord, Andorra
07/06	World Cup DH, Fort William, Scotland
10/06	Wheels of Speed, Willingen, Germany
28/06	Passportes du Soleil, PDS, France
26/06	World Cup DH, Mt. St. Anne, Canada
13/07	Megavalanche, Alpe d’Huez, France
02/08	World Cup DH, Bromont, Canada
09/08	Crankworx, Whistler, Canada
30/08	World Cup DH, Canberra, Austrailia
13/09	World Cup DH, Schladming Austria

World Cup live on Freecaster

11 May 2008

Thanks to the magic of broadband we watched Sam Hill dominate the World Cup downhill in Maribor, Slovenia. Video on the web is improving and the quality of this flash based programme from Freecaster, even at full screen 1440x900 wasn’t as bad as expected. Buffering has always been a problem and we suffered worse on the dh, about every 3 minutes compared to every 6 minutes on the 4x. You don’t lose anything these days just a pause for a few seconds.

Of course not everything was perfect. We missed the first 15 mins of the downhill while the server did something and couldn’t get on Freecaster at all during the 4x, instead using the player on Commencal’s site. The commentary on both was borderline moronic thanks to Rob Warner and some American who didn’t seem to care about most of the field and was only saved by guests like Lopes, Kathy Sessler and Gracia. Listening to Warner slurp beer on the mic and insult riders and spectators a like made me want to reach for the mute button. Nevertheless, with no satellite or terrestrial coverage of the races these days, we will been tuning in next time, any luck Ed Leigh will have taken their place.

freecaster.tv | Posted in Events , Technology

Virtuous review

08 May 2008

Virtuous is a freeride movie out of Switzerland, home of the big alpine singletrack. A host of Swiss freeriders that you will have probably never heard of rip pristine alpine trails in glorious autumn colours across Switzerland, France and Italy. There’s no plot, just a series of sections for each rider. Simple - and the movie is a winner for that reason alone. No superstars - unless you are Swiss, then multi-Megavalanche winner Rene Wildhaber has a section, no endless back flips or race re-runs, just riding.

It’s beautifully shot and available in HD on Blueray and the music is not even slightly euro pop. I’m not sure I can fault it, in fact it’s never off my screen. The final section and segway into the end credits is the finest I have seen. Unlike a lot of freeride movies, where the trails are built for the pro’s to ride, these are mostly natural trails and I want to ride all them all - in fact I have ridden some of them. I don’t know if it will have the distribution to complete with the Canadian movies but you should hunt a copy down. Look’s like movie of the year.

www.ionatefilms.com | Posted in Movies

Twenty-five

28 April 2008

It's been 6 months or more since I rode trail Twenty-five. Heck it had been 5 months of cold and rain since I rode any trail. After a 5 long months putting together the SX Trail I wanted a short, mostly down singletrack to session. Twenty-five is one of those trails that starts in the middle of nowhere and doesn’t go anyway, other than away from where you are going. It’s not a secret trail, at least not anymore and it’s not a great trail but it is short, fast singletrack with tight turns, short drops, and the odd root. It’s about 2 minutes at speed and you can ride back up in the granny ring. During the week it’s unused and it’s only you, the trees, the trail and the birds. I sessioned Twenty-five for a couple of hours, tweaking suspension and learning to ride again. It was dry and fast and I remembered what mountain biking was like. I won’t ride Twenty-five again but I will remember those couple of hours when Spring finally arrived.

Posted in Trails

Trek Session 88

22 April 2008

Trek launched the replacement for the beautiful Session 10 at this years Sea Otter. The 10 was a great looking bike but was never going to be a big seller, like Specialized’s Demo 9 it had to loose some travel and weight to find a larger market for downhill racing or freeriding. It’s a shame the largely ignored Session 7 came out before the 10, as a 7 inch rig that looked like the 10 would have been high on my wish list. The 7 got the axe and the new Remedy took it’s place, hence the 88 is basically an upscaled Remedy. The 88 has the same active suspension under braking and tapered steerer, as well as the EVO rocker link, which is a bit ugly like on a Kona but the 88 wears it well and will no doubt be a performer. Not sure it’s better looking than the 10 though. Photo: Dan Barham

Posted in Bikes

Project SX: Specialized SX Trail

18 April 2008

The new project bike is a Specialized SX Trail. Sourced as a complete SX Trail 1 we have been ‘improving’ it with a little help from WTB and Fox Racing Shox. Basically a complete refit and re-spray. In the first part you can read all about the build, the issues and our first impressions of the ride.

Project SX goes WTB

29 March 2008

The new project bike is going to be a Specialized SX Trail, which will be graced with a fine selection of products thanks in part to WTB. The SX trail will be running the Laserdisc Trail wheelset with a selection of tyres. We have Stout 2.3’s as our all mountain fronts to be matched with Prowler XT 2.3 rears which have a lowered centre tread for better rolling resistance. If the going gets tougher then we have the Prowler MX 2.5’s which are more suited to downhill or bike park trails. I have had WTB saddles since starting mountain biking and will be running the Pure V SLT in colours to match the bike. Julia will be running the Deva race saddle. I am also happy to be back on the technical trail grips which are a long, thin grip you can trim down and run with tie downs if required. Look out for the SX Trail feature in April. Photos on Flickr.