Trail building and riding in Russia

Hello Jay )

We've got some new photos from these trails, as well as mine and a photo of a guy who started all this trailbuilding last summer.

It is located approx. 40 km NW of Moscow, Russia. It's a tendency now that moutainbikers are pushed out of city parks, trailbuilding is illegal, and it's better to start developing nearest forests, cause it's even harder to find us there and there is no restrictions on chainsaw usage etc. This trail called SouthPark (i dunno why) was built during 2007 season by a local team of two or three guys. Now we are going to build two or three technical lines and after we've got a sweet place for our next trail, with more big stuff i hope.
The guy who started all this (see pic1, George Romanov. aka GR) is a creator of several russian MTB films, he rides Yeti but i know he will be happy riding Rune ))))That's me (photo2, Mike Kamensky, aka Werewolf )))), and me riding this trail on my Chap (definitely a great bike for such riding (pic 3 and 4), and also a guy who is also involved in trailbuilding (Vadim Kazancev aka Foxfx) (pic 5 and 6).

So that's what we've got here )
It would be great to visit Northshore to have a look on local trails and to ride there.... )))))))))

Regards,
Mike

PinkBike Wildcard Review

Thanks to the boys at Pinkbike for taking the time to give the Wildcard such a thorough review.
Have a read here if your interested to see what they thought.

Mythic Rune

a quick post...

...this is a Mythic Rune we just built up today, from the remnants of a Chaparral and Morphine that belonged to one of the original Esher Shore trail crew, Scott

Scott is getting more into his mountain riding, and less into the freeride side of things, so I suggested a Rune as the perfect bike that will take some abuse whilst allowing him to up much easier

this is the first Rune i have built up at Esher (other Rune's have been ordered just as frames) so it was interesting to put it together and then have a quick ride to check out the ride


happy customer - Scott with his new Rune (3rd mythic he's owned

I'm very impressed with the pedalling, geometry, ride balance, its got a really nice feel which definitely says "mountain bike" in comparison to my Wildcard which feels more like an oversized BMX


weight wise, probably 35lb as he's running the Saint cranks and MTX wheels off his Chaparral

Scott's definitely got plans to swap some parts out for lighter / all mountain stuff over the next few months, and throw a Stan's No-Tubes setup in there too

cheers!

Rob C

Down Under Up Date...

'Hello banshee world!

We had a new photographer out taking some happy snappies of our trail sesh. Cheers Simon Williamson for coming out. we got some cool footage at the moment and alan is in the process of making another short film. Before Alan releases that i thought i would drop a few photos to show what the lads down under have been up to.

As per usual Hackham has been under construction by leading shovel man Alan hepburn putting in countless hours giving the jumps a face lift while the rest of the crew have been testing the structual support of the shovel.

A few riders the right weather and some business tricks made for a good day last sunday. basically we had flips and flip combos, tailwhips, supermans and crazy leg extension tricks. Arms and feet flapping about in all directions. Alan Hepburn testing the waters of flipwhips and Chris Soininen testing the prototype Banshee Amp hardtail. The small size and light weight of the bike allowed for easy spin tricks with double tailwhips coming out of the bag.

A lot of fun and not to much damage was done except a few bruses and a couple small cracks in ribs. didnt stop Alan thou, can of tough n up and he was up for some more trail action.

Thats it for now guys, catch ya later,

Aussie Crew'

Woburn Sands

My good buddy John "Jesus" Holmes and I took our Wildcards on the train to Woburn Sands in Milton Keynes today, here in England (Woburn is about 45 miles North of London)

Woburn is a very cool forest site managed by a trust, that is bike friendly and has a freeride area set aside - above an equally cool dirt jump area

Woburn is predominantly sand based terrain with slabs of ore, and the riders have carved out numerous fast, bermed downhill trails, gap jumps and drops all over...


"Hey, its hot here in England for once!"



Sessioning the rebuilt bombhole step-up jump


John's Wildcard with new Lyric Coil U-Turn forks = dialled



Here is a picture sent to me from a guy called Andy Wetherell who was down at Woburn Sands shooting some photos - huge thanks for the photo Andy

This is the Woburn road gap, which then leads down into a big bombhole with a 25 foot drop into a 15 foot step-up jump that John and I spent most of the afternoon sessioning and trying out some tricks on


Who says you can't teach old dogs new tricks, eh?

X-ups, tuck no-handers, whips, no footers and lookback one handers were all flowing off the step-up today...a hella lot of fun, and a chance to give the Wildcards some proper airtime

cheers!

Rob C

Mini Rune review from Italy

http://www.free-bike.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=84

Scrole down for English Translation. Thanks for the e-mail Andrea!

Banshee's new bearings

This is my friend Jay. He told me not to post up this picture, so of course like a good buddy....

Anyway check out the size o those bearings WOW. I don't know what they're for but Jay is a materials engineer and works for a company that does testing on all sorts of stuff - we've used him a few times - so its probably something that he has to start working on.

He's also is the guy that I used to ride Whistler with until he had his new son, but hopefully I can get him up a few times for a rip. He currently rides a Wraith, bought my custom painted Chaparral off me and his 08 Pyre should arrive pretty soon.

Hey Jay if your reading this... "look at me!, I'm standing in a giant bearing!!" hahahaha!!!!

Freeride comp

This weekend! In Grand Junction Colorado. More info on pinkbike.com

Alan Hepburn has been digging up something different...

http://www.vimeo.com/931739

In Alans words:

'So we recently finished building this pump track and had our first day riding it in. I was curious to see how my wildcard being dual suspension would handle the need to pump and gain speed. Pretty much it shocked me a little, dam this thing can get moving in very little time.

It pretty much felt like a hardtail on the corners and held its line like it was on rails. The low geo design made it great for pumping each roller hard on the backside and getting into the corners fast.

I can't wait to find out how fast and nimble the amp and rampant must be!!!'

Wildcard on Bikeradar.com

Here is the Mythic Wildcard test which recently appeared in MBUK magazine, but edited for their website bikeradar.com

check out the link:

http://www.bikeradar.com/mtb/gear/category/bikes/mountain/product/wildcard-08-31369?_brc=1