Wildcards galore....

The UK market seems to have really taken the Wildcard to heart...its the bike that everyone is asking us about, even if MBUK called it the "Wildcat" in their current magazine "next month preview" (don't worry we have got in touch to correct them...)

Here's a small selection of some of the Wildcard's we have built up / sold in the past couple months, although there are others out there that I don't have photos for

Most riders seems to be going with a Domain, Lyric or similar 6" fork, and we've sold more with the DHX Air shock although some riders have opted for the DHX coil

We have sold out our next shipment, and are taking orders for the following shipment already, and the MBUK magazine test hasn't even come out yet!

I've had some good news that they have put the Wildcard up against the Specialized SX Trail, the Norco 6 (x2?) and the Iron Horse 6.4 (?) which are all heavy duty all-mtn / light freeride bikes, so at least they haven't tried to mis-test it against the SC Nomad or Specialized Enduro SL...

The magazine goes to print soon, and should be on the shop shelves at the start of April; James from Freeborn and I are heading off on Wednesday to shoot the photos for the bike test (the actual bike test and the bike test photos are done seperately), and finally I get to bring my Wildcard home...its been away for 4 months which has seemed like an eternity

I'll bring you more news about the test when the mag hits the shelves

cheers!

Rob C



Phil's new WC




Latest "Dirt" magazine with Freeborn advert featuring Wildcard




Jason's WC with Lyric Coil U-Turn forks


John's WC with Marzocchi Z-1 FR forks


Nick's WC with Lyric Coil U-Turn forks


Rob B's WC with Domain Coil U-Turn forks


My WC with Lyric 2-Step forks

Legend part 2

The Legend is coming along quite nicely.
The hydroformed tubesets are here and many of the CNC parts are close to being done. We still have the lower link to get started on and I think thats next on deck.
The last peice will be the seattube mast that incorporates the mainswingarm pivot, BB shell, and the rocker pivot and we need to get this one perfect as everything is built around this part.

This frame is proving to be quite the challenge and I have been assured it will be the most expensive one the factory has ever made but this is more an exercise in seeing what we can do then about how to make the most money.

Me and Ryan [designer of many DH race bikes] have placed a friendly bet on how much it will weigh and I am guessing under 10.5 lbs with 9.5"x3 stroke shock. He said we could definitely get more weight out of it but we both agreed that we should keep it strong as I do want to have this as a more then 1 season race frame. Also even at 10.5lbs you're still going to end up with a sub 40lb race bike; that will be around what the Sundays and DHR's are building up to so its not the lightest [Intense Socom or the Patriot] but its right in there with what is considered to be the best of the best.

Anyway its Saturday right now and tomorrow is a riding day so maybe on Monday I'll have another update if I see some significant progress.
Me, Steve [Niner], Lance and Chris [Canfield], Ryan [Astrix] will be going out for a rip tomorrow. Me and Ryan had to work today but the rest of the crew brought shovels to buff out Speedtrap so hopefully the weather will be sweet and they cleaned up that burm to gap for added pop and speed.
Last night was a blast cause after dinner we went to the Jhongli go-karts and everyone was pretty even in skill. Heading into the last chicane i got bumped sideways and then Lance T-boned me so hard i got this freaking fist sized purple bruise on my back from the whiplash in the seat hahahahaha. I was wondering what that pain was when I woke up this morning... crazy but goodtimes for sure.

Well I gotta get back at it here but of course I'll keep posting up pics as I get them. As always, thanks for the comments they're always fun to read.

Riders rigs

Just poking around on our Malaysian/Singapore distributors site and found this beauty.There are more pics here on the Fakawi Tribes website

If you have have a freshie, and want the world to see your pride and joy send me a link and I'll be happy to post it. I know me and Keith are totally stoked when we see how people have built them up and each one is unique so its a real treat for us to see them.

Legend Proto

I'm sure some of you are curious about the Legend so here are a few pics of some of the CNC pieces.
In making the prototype we are forced to hog out quite a bit of material to get the programs dialled and figure out the shape and fit. You don't want to open expensive tooling until you are 100% sure that everything is perfect.

I must say that figuring out how to clamp the peices in the NC machine, tool selection and other considerations really test the critical thinking and creativity of the players involved.
Its a ton of fun watching it come together but it'll be nice when I see the torches come out and it starts being assembled.
I will have more pictures and some video i'll upload if I can find a firewire card for my laptop over here.

What you can see is the left side of the downtube "canoe" which will end up being the pocket for the shock. The reason we chose to do it this way rather then using a tube and just welding a shock mount on top of it, say like the SC V10, meant we lowered the COG [center of gravity] that much further. When you are dealing with a 9lb frame and a shock that is almost 2lbs this can be a noticable difference.
The 3D model above left is what we orginally started with but as you can see the final shape will be that much different [above right 3d model]. Even after all this work there will probably be a few changes to make it easier to manufacture.
The plan is to have everthing ready for the Taiwan show that starts next Thursday so we will be definitely working the weekend and late into the night to put this thing together.

I've already promised Jason at Sicklines the exclusive first look so you'll need to check out his site to see the first finished proto. I'll post it up here a few days later with my comments and lots more pictures of all the small details.

Scythe Reviews after a 6 week beating

Words and pics from Dave Hetherington (AUS):

After 6 weeks of riding and racing, the Scythe has taken a brutal beating. I have done it all: freeride, gaps, drops, dirt jumps and lots of downhill runs to put the bike to the ultimate test. As the Scythe is vastly different to my old downhill bike (Scythe 4.5kg lighter, completely different spec etc.), it has taken a little longer to really fine tune and feel comfortable on the bike. However, my initial thoughts on the Scythe have not changed.

What has been reinforced when riding the bike is its versatility. Whether it is dirt jumps, drops, gaps or any line where the wheels leave the ground, the bike does so with ease and stability. My confidence with this type of riding has increased significantly to the point where I will hit lines that I wouldn’t usually do everyday without a second thought.

Another major positive of the Scythe is its ability to gain speed quickly on the ground during a downhill run. A combination of the stiff, lightweight frame and power going straight to the back wheel make this possible. So getting the power down out of a turn, pumping through the turns and just pumping in general is a breeze.

I am particularly fussy when it comes to turning. If you don’t feel comfortable in the turns then you wont produce fast times. This is not the case with the Scythe, it turns sharply and precisely in any sort of corner. The biggest stand out point with the Scythes turning ability is how comfortably it power slides when the speed is high, without feeling the need to unclip your foot. This is a major benefit for any downhill racer.

So far the bike has needed no maintenance what so ever and is holding up strong. So far so good.'

Update: Some history on Dave.... He was on the Australia National Team last year and placed 10th in Ft. William at the worlds. The dude is fast and knows his stuff... and I hate to say it being a Canadian but those Aussie are fast, and generally a dude who just can't make the national team on team Oz can still blow the fastest Canuck away.
Can't wait to see what he thinks of racing a Legend.


Words pics and video from Matej Charvat (CZ) who after seeing Daves review decided to send in one of his own:
Banshee Scythe
I’ve got a bit different Scythe built up than Dave. My one is more Freeride – more versatile. You can see parts which I use on the picture. Rock Shox Totem(180mm) and so on..

I’m riding Scythe also about 6 weeks. Just training..no races(it’s out of season right now in here), but I have been riding it a lot and a lot of hardcore. Begining with small DH tracks nearby to really hardcore DH tracks in France – like San Remo, Sospel, Peille and that stuff where all the top worldcup riders training thru winter.
One of the things which I took note of is that the Scythe had another geometry than my old DH bike(Kona Stab Supreme). It set my possition more forward – over the bars. With this feature the bike is more moveable, more agressive in corners, better controllable in drifts and also in the air. Next thing which I love on Scythe is that’s ability to accelerate. Thanks to the single pivot suspension the chainstay is really stiff. You feel all the energy changing straight to the speed up.

When I was beginning with Scythe – I had harder suspension and FR geometry setup. Great for Jumping and more flat courses with sharp turns. Than when I put the softer spring and also changed to DH geometry – It was great feeling how the bike changed – really easy change(just change the hole where the shock is mounted) and you feel like you‘re on another bike. The DH geometry is really cool. It suits me more than the freeride one, because I’m DH rider. I like to have the BB lower and use all the bike’s travel. With this setup I tested the bike on French courses as mentioned above. All the courses‘ surface is loose rock and rocks. Hardcore cross-check for all bikes. I was coming there with freeride bike in my mind, but I was really surprised how the Scythe was absorbing all that mess like DH bike. I was just a bit limited by the fork, because I had so soft spring in it – but nothing what bothered me, I just fell it a few times in some R’n’R sections. Next thing which is noteworthy is turning. When you’re turning, it’s so exciting feeling..but it‘ so simple with Scythe – really controllable, but playful and aggressive enough.
The bike is still in the top condition after all that hardcore using. I didn’t have to make any maintenance. Top bike for people expecting real versatility.'

Matej has also made some videos of him riding the Scythe ranging from DH to freeride style riding:
http://www.pinkbike.com/video/11292/

It was a beauty weekend

So Lance [Canfield], Steve [Niner] and I were jonesing to find a decent place to ride while we were over here in Taiwan and after a lot of hard searching we finally found a killer trail that was pretty buff with good flow and lots of airs. Its called the speedtrap and is in the mountains of Beitou.

It was a beautiful day and lots of locals were out taking pics of the cherry blossoms on our shuttle route so sometimes it was a slow go. It also took us about 4 hours of driving and lots of walking random trails and looking for signs of mountain bike tracks to figure out if we were even in the right area. We knew however that all the work we put in now would pay off later when we had the urge to rip again.

I brought along my trusty Scirocco with the Nixon up front and figured the trail wasn't treacherous enough that I needed anything bigger. Without suspension your legs get a better workout on those bumpy sections and a mild trail can become a little more difficult which makes it a lot more fun.
Lance has his Formula which he likes to run over here and it did look like a fun bike; Steve took the Scream because we had planned on shuttling and it would have been definitely a plusher ride then his XC rig he has here.

You can see its pretty lush in the trees and it was both similar and different to the riding I do back home. The trees had a nice canopy but definitely look different then the cedars and pines of the North Shore that I am accustomed to. The trail had some sweet flow to it and even though the red dirt was fun to ride on, I did have to let some air out of the tires because the side lugs wouldn't hook up for any kind of railing; which I learned lying on my side after the front washed out.

We started riding at about 3pm and managed to get in 6 shuttles before it got too dark at 5:30pm.

All in all it was an awesome day, with some good riding in a place I've never ridden before and even though the trail was not near as knarly as some of the stuff back home it was a ton of fun and with good company -Lance and Steve - who are both good and fast, it was that much more enjoyable.

We'll probably see if we can get permission to go up there and repair/clean a few sections that need it. I however don't want to do that unless the local builders give us the green light. It could use some TLC however and we don't mind chipping in while we're here.

In the 2 pics of Lance in the orange shirt can you guess what is strange about him in the picture?

Dirt Cartel Interview

Vince at DirtCartel gave me the opportunity to do a little interview and being the kind of guy that loves to get a chance to connect with the riders out there, how could I pass.
Check out the site, its got a cool little spin and if you figure you got something important to say then even you could contribute.
http://www.dirtcartel.com/

Customer Video (Dean in the Woodlot)

Here is a video sent in by Dean, a customer from BC, Canada, who is a trailbuilder at the woodlot!

Here is is riding his new Rune down one of his creations 'snakes and ladders'.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7933441014538164658

Amazing trail building and great riding Dean!

Back to the factory... Legends ready soon

I'm off to the factory in a few days and in a week or so after I arrive I'll have the first bits to show you of the Legend Mk1. We'll be showing it at the industry bike show in Taipei for the first time and I'm just scrambling right now to find parts to build it up.

Here are some pics I took of my trip up the 101 which is the tallest building in the world althought the UAM's Burg Dubai will end up eclipsing this tower soon.

The yellow globe thing is the counterweight that keeps the building stable so you don't get motion sickness and its suspended by cables and underneath are dampers so it doesn't swing erratically.

It was cool to see what looking out a window that highup actually looks like. Basically the pics I took were all in the clouds so nothing came out very clear. It was funny to hear that they built the building but didn't consider the flight paths of the airplanes so once it started to go up they realized that now they'd have to change how the planes landed. You can also go upstairs outside but its super windy up there and 2 guards are posted as they don't want another repeat of spiderman scaling the building again.

At the base of the Taipei 101 building is a cool little piece from Canada. Its a marble sculpture with a ball that rotates in the water and it was neat to see that even so far from home there was something that came from home.

Traffic definitely takes some understanding of the driving culture. Basically anything goes but don't speed or drink and drive because that is totally serious. However sitting in the passenger seat driving into oncoming traffic with Steve from Niner at the helm I had raced against him at the performance go karts so I figured if we got in trouble he'd get us out quick.... he's pretty fast and I was only a 10th of a second behind but this trip I'm gonna get the better of him.

Greg at Straitline and I were talking today and I had mentioned that upon leaving, getting my ticket and going through Customs I wandered towards my assigned gate -the Hello Kitty gate. He didn't believe me so I showed him this pic. When I first saw it I walked right past it looking for the "right" gate because it looked like the kids area, to my shock it wasn't the kids area at all. FYI ... Hello Kitty is not cool as an airport gate... but maybe a Banshe pumptrack gate would be something I could be seen in.