Bauer on top!

Kind of a repeat from the last post, but wanted to add a link to the overall standings for the MSC series. For those who don't know, the Mountain States Cup is considered the leading mountain bike series in the US. The MSC is beginning to be noticed by UCI and is constantly having UCI points races added to the series. Check the standings here!

Bauer Leading MSC Pro Women

Nathrop, Angel Fire, and now Crested Butte. This is Rachel's second EVER Pro Downhill Race and currently first overall in the Nation's top racing circuit, the Mountain States Cup. No big deal.

When Jay said post some results we hope this is what he meant.

Bauer finished 3 seconds ahead of the Pro Women today, beating more than half of the Expert Men. I guess you could say "today was a good day". This was MSC's 3rd stop in the series so MORE TO COME...
Check out more of the MSC Results at www.racemsc.com

Team Dead Bros -- Colorado.
Be well.

Broken Again ....

Hi Bros i have got sad news i'm injured. I'm so depressed thru last weeks i was jumping huge jumps have tons of fun but today (1 st anniversary of my accident i have crashed hard ) and i was riding small dh obstacles!! Today i had 1 operation (my hand is badly broken) and in 3 days time i will have next surgery because my left shoulder is seriously injured. After that long rehabilitation. Hard Way
thanks
ps sorry for my english but i have got lot pain killers inside of me today
SZWED

World Championship results

With the seeding [qualifying] finished it was now only down to the finals

Markolf [Brazil] after crashing in his seeding run and placing 54th came back with a clean run during the finals placing 30th over all.
Marcelo [Colombia] seeded in at 11th in the Juniors and lost a spot in the finals to end up 12th.


Big congrats from all the 22Pride to our racers representing their countries and doing us all proud.
For us this is a Banshee first and it was exciting to cheer our racers on if only infront of a webcast. We are excited to see what the Legend will be cabale of when it has been refined and improved.
Hopefully we'll have some pics soon.

Something a little different

As you could have probably guessed from past posts I'm over here at our factory in Taiwan getting our last production of the season out the door, getting stuff ready for 2009, and making sure the prototypes are exactly the way we need them.
So far I've been over here for the whole month of January, the whole month of March, and now 2 months that started in May.

I've definitely heard horror stories of other bike guys coming over here to work at the factories and pretty much working all day and then seemingly being locked in their hotel rooms at night and on the weekends. Its a shame because there is so much to do. If you're not afraid to ask you'll find that there's a ton of really cool things to do.

On of the coolest things we got to do was check out the Chinese National Museum. This may not be your thing but the stuff inside was amazing. Unfortunately no cameras were allowed but they have a really good website that features their stuff. I especially like this piece as it was carved from one block of ivory and has 21 layers of balls that move around inside it. They still don't know how the guy was able to make it since it has no seam and was not done in 2 pieces and then fit together. Keith liked the jade that looked like a piece of meat.

The other really cool thing was we found out there was going to be a dragonboat festival. This is something that I'm used to in Vancouver; where I'm from as its a really big deal there too. What I wasn't expecting was we'd not only get to see the festival but also participate in it and paddle one of the boats on a team.
Big thanks to Ceri [pronounced Carey] our team captian for letting me, Steve [Niner], and Ryan [Astrix] be part of the team.
It was cool as we qualified on the Saturday and then had to return on Sunday for the finals. We did pretty good and made it all the way to the finals against an overgrown bunch of South Africans... seriously they all looked like they were on a rugby team. In the end they barely squeeked out first spot but they had 2 substitutions where we kept our original team and we saw one of their guys puking into the water on the tow back to the dock. I'm pretty happy that we gave them a run and next year we will own those byatches.
I wish I had a picture of the trophy... I'll try to get one soon. It was a glass handblown dragon with some cool colors in it.

Is Steve giving the peace sign or flipping me the English bird??!!!

Well I better get back at it... these bikes don't make themselves.

I'll try to post up some stuff from the race in Kaoshuing this week. I'm heading home and trying to figure out which bike I want to bring back to hit up my local spots with [that would be the North Shore, Woodlot and of course Whistler]... I'm kinda eyeing up a white Scythe as last year I was busting everything on a hardtail so it might be fun to ride a full suser again. Might build up my confidence enough to follow Keith off that Whistler road gap.

Legend Racers and an update

Update: June 19th
Val di Sole seeding has taken place and we have the following seeds
Marcelo Guiterrez - jr 11th spot
Matej Charvet - elite 29th
Markolf Berchtold - elite 54th

Stay up to date on all the results and check out the rest of the riders at Sicklines.com


Marcelo and Markolf are in Val di Sole now for the world championships so were excited to see how they do.
News came back the Markolf placed 5th in Vigo. We're really happy for him and hope that he has continued success. Thats a great result and there were alot of riders that he had to go up against.
I'm only showing page one but there are another 2 pages of results

The 2nd batch [2 pcs] of prototypes were finished yesterday but we're still have some tolerancing issues that need to be address, so unfortunately it looks like we're still a bit away from getting these out of the prototype stage.
Basically you have to consider the build of the weld and if you put something too close to where a bushing or linkage needs to move then the only way to get it to work is to pull out the grinder. Thats ok for a few pieces but not so great when your running production as its very time consuming and costly.
Today I'll be sorting out with Keith where we have to make some adjustments.

On a brighter note the frame without shock has shed .5lbs and now comes in at 3.82kg [8.4lbs] without shock, hanger, maxle, or RD hanger.
With the shock around 2lbs [grabbed weights from Sicklines] the Legend should be just a little over 10.5 when you add the hanger, maxle, seatclamp.

old stuff new stuff

photos of banshee riders... look here.

Racing in Taiwan

I finally got some time to post up what the heck i've been up to in Taiwan over these past couple of months.
Its been a lot of work-work-work but I still get out on the weekends and luckily have been able to plug into the local mtb scene which is totally awesome.

Since i like to share... if you're an industry type that gets over here regularily and wants to partake in all the Taiwan has to offer I suggest you contact Victor Major on his new site www.cycletaiwan.com . They have a fresh forum and we're all trying to get the word out that you DONT need to be holed up in a hotel room, and that there are some great places to ride and a lot going on so contact him or hell even email me. There are some great rides both on road and off both DH and XC.

So anyway let me share my first installment.
Big thanks to Giant Bicycles over here for sponsoring a mtb series. It was kinda fluke that I found out about actually. I found out a local, Alan who runs a local bike dealership, was buying a red wildcard and was going to be racing it, which started the little hamster in my head to get on his wheel and try to figure out what was this all about. After much haranging of ppl who can read chinese we found there was a race series and I went about signing up.

It was me and Ryan from Astrix bikes that ended up racing and the weekend before Keith and all of us went to practice the course... see tearing up taiwan.
The day of the race we decided to head down early even though we weren't on deck until around 2 o clock. Leaving at 9am we arrived 2.5 hours later in Daija, which is just north of Taichung, and grabbed an early lunch at McRaunchies where Ryan realized he lost his wallet. No biggie I got cash and can spot him, but he was still a little miffed and searching through the van realized he not only forgot his wallet but all his pads too. GAWD ryan you tool!!!
So do we drive back?? yep. So in the end I didn't get to even see the actual course and arrived just in time to 5min later get my start... it was a total rush.

The course was a freaking mudfest of epic proportions, it was not only flat but super slow and my choice of a hardtail was a good one. It was the kind of course that would see Jeff Kabush put the boots to the likes of Sam Hill considering the XC guys rode the same course in their XC loop - why are we having to wear all this gear again??
Anyway it was just great to get out, and even though it pissed down rain, the course was slow, and I only got 4th place due to a well timed stick in spokes that I had to spend time yanking out, the race had tons of people come out and watch, it was super well organized [except for No Shuttling so you had to push your bike back to the top] and its just damn good to ride your bike for any reason at all.

I made this killer mud fender out of a apple juice bottle. My contemporaries from Whistler will know what this is all about... and how well it actually works.

Thanks to William for coming out and taking pics. Some how he missed my run tho so I don't have any of me [guess i was just going too fast hehehe] but he did capture the "I forgot my Sh*t" culprit as he busts around a tree.

Anyway thats it for now.
I'll have some more coming up in the next few days of dragon boat racing, another DH race that MORE then made up for ease of this course, and there is a jump jam happening next week which I'll be going to before i leave for Canadaland the following day.

Keith and Rob get airbourne

Keith turned up today at Esher, back from Taiwan and a nasty bout of Asian Flu :(

its been pretty cold and damp the last week here in England, but the sun came out yesterday, and today the Slopestyle park started drying out, and was ready for an after-hours session....



I am loving my Wildcard with the new Domain fork, and am also running a much thinner and lighter tire combo which is making my bike feel super smooth on the dirt jumps for that all important "boost" off the lips



the new Slopestyle park is coming along well, and we finally got the construction of the final trick jump nailed and completed last night after shifting a couple more tonnes of dirt



Keith put in a solid ride on his AMP, considering the scary jumps in the new Slopestyle park on the expert line, and Esher local "hot carl" worked on his jumping technique on his tank-like Demo 7

we've got 2 weeks until the MBUK Shore Showdown Jam, where the Slopestyle park gets its opening, and its looking good, we've got some clearing up to do, and if we get the time, we'll add some additional stunts

Phase 1 of the SS park build is almost done, but Phase 2 will add lots more stunts and sneaky transfers

cheers!

Rob c

My bike just got better

June 12, 2008

Published by nato

My bike just got better.

Well it is still a wetter than normal spring here in the "sunny" okanagan valley but it is a good time to get the trails buffed before they dry out.
I spent a few hours last nite tuning the in-run and lip on my new stunt up Addiction. It is a step-up to bowled table to step down that you need to time just right to make the gaps. It also threads through trees.
I had over 60 lbs on my backpack, chainsaw, pickaxe, shovel, spikes, hammer,etc. pushing my Banshee Wildcard up the trail to work. Fun ride out thou!

Today i got the gillard bug and decided to try my bikes 5" travel setting for the first time. Wow! I thought i had a wicked bike before but this is just plane awesome! We hit up "Yo-Mama" with a few buds and i was instantly loving the increased pop and speed through the corners. Yo-Mama has some tight corners with doubles mid corner, and some nice senders. I was a little wet once we got into the trees but still super fun.
Next up was FistsFirst which has some dialed new berms which were a blast rifling through. There is a big step down hip that you can send 30+ feet down that was minty, but the slimy logride to gap after it was moldy. After Fistfirst we pushed up to RubHerDown, love the lighter weight Wildcard on the hike-a-bike bits. I found an axe left by some partiers that will work perfect for building so I stuck that in my pack and drop into my buddies trail, RubHerDown.

RubHerDown was good as always, feels like you are off the ground half the time. Next up we were off to Boss Hog to finish the lap. There is a huge amount of new blow down even from a few weeks back that has been nicely taken care of. Props to the builders and maintenance guys up there. Watched the look of fear in a buddies eyes as he nose cased the big step up on the HOG and just about got tossed. Good times fer sure. Finished off Boss and I watched the bikes while they got the trucks. I buffed up a little step down to puddle jump at the lower parking lot that i had built last year while waiting. The weather looked to be clearing over Postil so i decided that would be good for an afternoon rip.
I crept my little Fireflee down the access road swearing that i would not be taking it up there again. The road is brutally rough, in a little car with bagged out shocks and struts. Drive across town and get to Postil just in time time to jump in with a group of three heading up Addiction. As i gear up i realize i left my pack with all my tools and first aid gear up Gillard. Grrrrrrr.... grits teeth. So did a quick rip with the groms i got a ride up with and then booked it back up Gillard. The road was a little better the second time up and atleast my bag still there. Back over to Postil and met up with my bud Randy who hits just about all the big stuff and is a 50+ grampa. Did another 3 laps and sessioned the big line up top till we were all pooped.
Had so much fun i could not believe i was riding a 5" bike. Drops that were making me nervous last year on my old 8" DH are a new place to try throwing tricks now. Fun fun.

Thanks to the boys at Banshee bikes, Straitline components, Stpectrum techwear, and Outbound Cycle, for all your support.