May 2nd: Da Ping Ding

There is not much of a dirt jump/freeride scene in Kaohsiung (southern Taiwan's biggest city). My brother James and I have been building at a spot for almost two years now. The location is not kept secret, they hold a downhill race on a trail that we built(Jay hacks it in a blog from last year). Rider's, bike shop owner's and even northern Taiwanese know where we are ... and when we are there. But today was like any other Saturday at the jumps, just me and my brother. We have been trying to get more people out there; we have even built a beginner line, but now we have the place all to ourselves.

James has been on his Amp for a week or so now. He has been riding through the strain of old age and ankle injures for the past couple of weeks. The only time he does not look like he has a broken back is when he is on his bike.

He built a step up this past week and we got a couple of pictures of him throwing down some pretty big back flips. He was not impressed with the pop of the jump. So I am sure he will tweek it a little bit ... and then next backflips will be even better.

I climbed up in a tree to get a different angle of the flip. The picture before this one would have been sweet. But I cut off his tire. Then on the way down the tree I dropped my camera. Good thing the landing is nice and soft. Fertile soil ...


It was my third day out on my Wildcard. It feels more like a small dirt jump bike than a full suspension. I was able to do a tuck no hander off one of the bigger jumps. And my x-up was not looking too bad either.

More posts to come ... and some random shots.

Rob

Dave's Mythic Rune

It's always great to see another RUNE built up, and this one belongs to our customer Dave, who has spent a few months putting it together as funds permitted

He started with getting a lovely anodised black Rune frame from Freeborn, and having some trick Stans ZTR Flow rims built onto gold Hope Pro II hubs

Next came a fork swap - he swapped his Rockshox Lyric Solo Air with a friend, for a Rockshox Lyric Coil U-Turn, but unfortunately the steerer tube was a little short, more on that later...

Headset is Hope's 1.5" flush reducer unit, Shimano SLX crankset, derailleurs and shifters, Avid Elixir R brakes, Maxxis High Roller tires, WTB saddle, Easton handlebar and some other good quality parts

I'd estimate the weight around 33-34lb, and it could certainly dump a chunk of poundage by switching to some lighter all-mtn tires, but Dave seems just happy with the way it rides, and that of course is all that matters!

During the build-up, it became evident that the fork steerer tube was a little short, so we sourced another 1.5" flush top cap from Hope and swapped out the regular Extended lower cup for the flush cup, so the headset is now running flush cups top and bottom (the bearings are identical)

With the hydroformed downtube, there is adequate clearance for the Lyric's Mission Control adjusters, even with the floodgate knob popped up

Of course, this reduction in stack height has changed the geometry of Dave's Rune compared to Keith's original geometry setup - Dave's Rune will have a reduced bottom bracket height, shorter front centre, and slightly steeper head and seat angles, but Dave wanted to setup his Rune as a big trail bike, and so it suits him just fine! It also means a sharper steering rig for the fast singletracks common to the UK woodlands

It also means he can run his Lyric wound full-out to 160mm without having a tall handlebar height, which of course benefits on the climbs

happy trails Dave!

Rob the Giant poacher

Just got this video... pretty bad quality but its funny cause Rob our new Taiwan rider / builder was interviewed on National TV at a Giant Maestro camp and check out his helmet hehehe. I don't think he'll be invited next year.
Again excuse the bad quality as it was pulled off the TV. We were surprised to find him on there and rushed to get any kind of recording of it

Ryan Hunt

Ryan Hunt...

Ryan Hunt from Nick Peterson on Vimeo.

Part One

In early March I emailed Banshee about the cost of the Amp and the availability of it in Taiwan. Although bikes are made here in Taiwan, it can be difficult buying them here. Jay emailed me back and put me in touch with the Taiwanese distributor. I met Jay by chance (I am a bit of a stalker) at the Taipei Bike show in March. I started talking to him about how we (my brother and I) have been trying to start more of a freeride/dirt jump scene in the south of Taiwan. We talked a bit about bikes in general and the riding here in Taiwan. I told him that we have a unique opportunity here in Kaohsiung because there isn’t much building going on and because we are foreigners a lot of people hear about what we are doing. He said to give him a call after the bike show to talk about the possibilities of getting us on some Banshee bikes.

After bugging Jay for a couple of weeks I came home from work to find four boxes waiting for me. The boxes were a lot lighter than I thought they would be. And I was like a four year old at Christmas when I got upstairs and opened them up. boxes fresh from the factory pretty happy to have some new frames

My brother and I ordered an Amp and a Wildcard each. It can be difficult to find the right parts here in Taiwan and I was an idiot and let my fork be sold on the promise of only waiting a weekend for a new one. So we have had the frames for a couple of weeks and have only built up a Wildcard and an Amp. james' amp, regular size frame, x fusion velvet r fork, dt swiss ex 5.1 on bear's hubs, maxxis larsen tt tires

I have only spent a day on my Wildcard but I am already in love with it. I have ridden a lot of bikes and this bike is one of a kind. I am not sure I have the vocabulary to describe exactly what I like about it.

better pictures to come, was taken 5 minutes ago. medium wildcard, fox talas 36 (at 160mm in picture), deity cranks, pedals, bar and stem, halo sas rims on tank hubs. testing a x fusion h3 rear shock.

We will do some reviews once we get all the bikes going and have ridden them for a bit. And we will get some riding pictures up in the next week or so.

Rob

Woburn photos

JO took these cool action shots of John and I riding one of the short course runs at Woburn Sands on Saturday - I'm riding chainless on my Mythic Rampant which was "interesting"



And John wound the Rockshox lyric fork on his Mythic Wildcard out to 160mm to help with the gnarly terrain by slackening off the angles and raising the bottom bracket a little

Nic from www.nrs-photographer.co.uk just emailed me this action shot (below) from our riding session at Woburn Sands on Saturday



This is the hip line at Woburn which is huge fun to ride, although this hip is on my switch side so always feels a little squiffy to ride, luckily its followed by another hip on my natural side which I can boost a little better

happy trails!

Rob C

Session at Woburn Sands

Jesus John and his buddy Rob and I all took one of our annual trips to Woburn Sands freeride area today, catching a train out of London Euston to Bletchley, and then a local connecting train to Woburn Sands village - a really easy journey and no problem taking our bikes



It was the first time I had taken my Mythic Rampant to Woburn, and its light weight, short top tube and short wheelbase meant it was ideal for a trick session started on the big step-up bombhole stunt









We also sessioned loads of the downhill runs and tracks, the Rampant is a bit of a handful at high speed and things started getting seriously tweaked and sideways on the big hip line, until on a later run I totally overshot the landing and soon ended my day's fun!



After removing the mangled parts, I did some chainless runs which are kinda cool as you simply cannot use the brakes much and really have to pump the trails and use the berms to maintain speed

cheers!

Rob C

Adam's Wildcard - Trick Build

Adam runs a popular forum here in S-East England called "Southern freeride" and is very much into his tech stuff, so bought a Wildcard frame from Freeborn last season, and has spent a good 6 months getting all the parts together to do a trick build

It's finally built, and is 32lb with 1x9 gearing (rather than singlespeed) which is pretty damn light...

He's got Saint HT2 cranks, E13 chain device, Fox 36 Float forks lowered to 130mm, a lovely Thomon X4 stem, SDG seat/post and some Stan's ZTR Flow / Hope Pro II wheels I built for him, running Stan's Tubeless conversion on some large but light Syncros BHT 2.5" kevlar tires

Adam got out for his first ride and said:

"I rode swinley for a few hours this evening and loved it it rips round the trails. very very very maneuverable and quick down the trails love it. partly down to the weight, partly the tasty geometry and light wheelset"

happy trails!!

Swiss Time!

Guillaume went to visit Julien (our Swiss Distributor) to ride some of his local trails at the Juride bike park. Here are the results.



Visit the Juride bike park from guillaume Bossu on Vimeo.

That place looks like so much fun! Keep shredding guys!

Also check out some more vids at the above link of G riding his local French trails on his scythe

Thanks.

Muzzler in action on his AMP

This is Muzzler who is a Scottish rider who is going to be helping to represent Mythic in 2009

We hooked him up with a great deal on Mythic's new AMP freeride hardtail frame, and here are some great shots of Muzzler throwing down some shapes at Glentress's freeride bike park

PRIDE 22