Jul 01 2009

Shiney things…!

Tag: Hardtail Nationratchet @ 8:00 pm

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 As it’s summer i thought it’d be nice to show you some shiney things. After all who doesn’t like like shiney things?

  This a Spank Tweet Tweet frame which I spotted at www.kustombikes.co.uk, when I went for visit on Tuesday. Don’s got a small shop now so you can see some of the nice things he sells. Anyway this frame is aimed at Dirt jumpers and street riders. I can’t find any real info at the mo, but I’ll keep trying. This one is available in a few colours. Silver, red, blue, purple, and good old black. They all have a chrome finish to them, which makes them a bit of a standout item. Of course they also do rims and bars, stems, chains and goodness knows what.shiney-012

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see the rims are rather nice too. In fact should you wish you can make up a very PIMP ride indeed. The frame that Don has retails for £289.95, and the rims are £49.95. If you’re intersted get in touch with Don via his website which is www.kustombikes.co.uk and i’m sure he’ll sort you out.

 

 

 

Whilst I was there I also spotted this rather nice little Cove frame too.shiney-010

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the Sanchez which is a steel frame aimed at drit jumping and street. Although it will take up to a 130mm travel fork. So there’s nowt stopping you from building it up how you like. The new ones of these are about £380, however Don’s willing to let this one go for £260, which is pretty good I thought. So once again for more info give www.kustombikes.co.uk a look see. He also does uplifts and a race series.


Jun 28 2009

456 Re-built

Tag: Hardtail NationJon. @ 10:17 pm

A while back I wrote a little review/story about my 456, well I just got her built back up and been riding it all the time lately enjoying these summer evenings, Just thought i’d grab a pic for ya!


Jun 27 2009

Old School Retro racing

Tag: Hardtail Nationace @ 10:12 pm

Iosidan put up a thread in idle chit chat  “a vid for the old skoolers” that gave some of us a chuckle, because we have been there done that.

Anyway, i went down the local bike shop to wind up Ratchet, www.pompyscycles.co.uk and we where laughing about the video, then Ratchet pulls this out of the shed, been bought in for a service then to be sold ( get in touch with pompys if interested) i have never seen AMP forks for real before, only ever in the mags, so i went down today with the camera, pumped up the tyres and went for a spin.   nice very nice.002_11003_1009_1 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interested myself, curious to see how much the seller wants for it,  just flogged the blender and some parts ment to be getting shot of stuff before i move,  but i could be tempted as everything is in amazing condition even the forks work, they werent that reliable back in the day,  it wouldnt stand up to my riding these days, but it is a “Sunday Best” bike one for posing on at trail centres, i wouldnt dream of putting it through what this lot are up to.  Damn i feel old now, but you lot have got it so good these days.  http://www.ghvideo.at/0080v1.htm


Jun 26 2009

The Unofficial HT National Ranking 2009

Tag: Hardtail Nationace @ 6:27 pm

Heres the who’s who of the champs, just for good measure Deakin squeezed in 2 runs on a damaged susser, interesting reading.

Susser  run 1, 1.34.75  run 2, 1.16.75

1st Ben Deakin   Marines/Muc off         R1    1.22.65        R2   1.20.72. 

2nd Ben Baker Astrix/Axo                               1.22.25                 1.30.26.

3rd Andy Payne Torico/ukbp                         1.22.29                 1.23.33.

4th Andrew Wright  Astrix                               1.50.00                1.25.57.

5th Steve Larkin  wideopenmag.co.uk        1.27.52                 1.25.60.

6th Robbie Rickman  Cotic.co.uk                 1.32.40                 1.26.56.

7th Alex Marshall  Hills have eyes              1.34.51                  1.27.97.

8th Ash Brown  ukbp                                         1.54.84                  1.29.01.

9th Ryan Lewis  Extreme Culture                1.31.22                  1.34.00.

10th Andrew Gardiner                                     1.31.47                 1.48.19.

11th Ian Bressat                                                  1.34.16                 1.32.30.

12th James Horton                                           1.33.33                 1.38.08.

13th Ben Irons  Southerndownhill.co.uk 1.34.00               1.38.74.

14th Stuart Bond                                                1.35.92                1.34.19.

15th Rob Lewis Southerndownhill.co.uk 1.35.65                1.49.54.

16th Danny Euripidou                                     1.40.11                1.39.47.

17th Ace  hardtailnation.co.uk                   1.39.52                1.43.74.

18th Simon Nash                                               2.25.24               1.42.24.

19th Lewis Warrington                                  1.43.54                 1.43.46.

20th James Evans                                           1.50.20               1.56.02.

21st Tim Grant   The defective                   1.51.92                1.51.56.

22nd Antonio Fiore                                       2.04.67              1.56.10.

23rd Clair Lloyd                                              2.02.94              2.00.58.

24th Joe Gibbs                                                2.13.97               2.03.21.

25th Connor Saxon                                      Dnf                          2.03.70.

26th Kenny Dyer                                           Dnf                         3.05.07.


Jun 24 2009

Really strange, another twist to the champs

Tag: Hardtail Nationace @ 8:18 pm

What a legend, had an odd message from Deakin about being shagged after 4 runs ?

What ? we only did 2,  well most of us did, Ben also did 2 runs in senior and came 5th there, so 4 runs it was then, damn uplift gossip, i heard he wrote the susser off.

Anyway he did a 1.22.65 then 1.20.72 on the HT then he did a 1.34.75 and 1.16.75 on a susser, mad or what !


Jun 24 2009

Singular Hummingbird prototype

Tag: Hardtail NationDirtyDave @ 5:50 pm

New Singular proto in the works :) looks real nice too!


Jun 23 2009

The 2009 Unofficial Hard Tail Champs (at the UK BIKE PARK)

Tag: Hardtail Nationace @ 9:28 pm

Well it’s all over and done for another year, but what a turn out this year 100% growth on last year.  This all started months ago when i was trying to find a venue that would let me in,  the race has been in Wales twice so a move to England was on the cards,  and what a venue ! the www.ukbikepark.com let us in.

It really kicked off on friday night when the welsh mob phoned me up as the farmer wouldnt let them in to camp, i was 80 miles away and could do nothing, they manged to sweet talk the farmer into letting them in for the night.   I knew i had at least 4 racers, it was hard to work out who would enter and who would just talk about it, so when i rocked up on saturday morning and saw the entry list i got a shock.  Only 22 booked online and there where another 5 of us there on top of that and a few expected to turn up on Sunday,  so i only expected about 15 and we had over 30,  which is a very high turnout and worried some of the other riders, more on that in a bit.

Now you all know the name of who won, there is a story behind his entry.  We all took the piss all day Sat to get Ben to race, as i knew he would be able to give Volksfirkin a good fight, we also got Robbie Rickman from Cotic, Steve Larking from wideopen mag, and Andrew Wright from Astrix, i tracked down Alex Marshall who came second in 07 and Ryan Lewis who came 3rd  in 08, Husky was without a HT so couldnt join in, he was gutted when he saw how many turned up and who turned up on the Sunday but Ben Baker also from Astrix/Axo,  now this Ben was something i didnt expect to happen, as last year he raced world cup 4x, and then broke his neck over the winter,  after several months with a head cage on he came out for a play, i think his first race since the ok from the doctors ( and sporting a Leatt brace), getting sidetracked here,  have a photo, spot the mistake, Andy Wright in the front Deakin in the back ground.

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Yep Ben is on a susser, not any old susser, a few months old, then he came off in the corner of Doom, cartwheeled the bike into a tree, and you can guess the rest, someone did comment that he only won because he took out his aggression on the hardtail for breaking his susser, whatever, it worked he won ! handy he bought the commencal 4x with him.

So back to Sat practice, and a walk through the track with the welsh mob, it was wet (crap),  water and chalky flinty soil of the bike park arent good, a couple of corners where unwalkable (corner of doom and trees to stop you) but the welsh where surprised at how steep some of the track was as there are no big hills down in dorset, ok we had one of the faster tracks so fast run times, but the welsh seemed happy and impressed.  First few runs where a bit lairy but the track dryed up and by late afternoon was dusty and dry.

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Got about 12 runs on sat so knew the track. Which was handy as i only did 1 run on Sunday morning, a tech problem with the radios delayed the start of practice, when it did open it was mayhem, with crash queues happening rather a lot as some people really got out of shape very fast.  Also heard of some lairy antics from my lot, Alex overtook a susser midflight on the road gap at the bottom, and i think it was James who had a hucker flat land the gap so he jumped over him, and NO-ONE got a photo, that would have been shit-hot.  Most people binned it here in the corner of doom, cue 3 pics, 2 there of Clair our first lady of HT racing, i watched her get highsided off the track and in the photos clair had hit the trees,  she got back on and carried on, way to go ! loads came off here, and Ben Deakin trashed his susser on this corner as well, so an outstanding show of balls from Clair (sorry clair but it had to be said, more balls than some of the blokes).034_1035_1036_1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So practice over and 2 men down already, Tim Black pulled his arm out and another went to hospital as well, i think maybe 6ish went to hospital,  so on to Race run 1.  This was eventfull, with Andy Wright droping his chain and Kenny Dyer trying to destroy his bike, his fork had been leaking oil all weekend,  all over the front brake, which somehow still worked even though the caliper/pads/rotor where all soaked in oil, he also ripped of his hanger and stuffed the mech into the wheel, he was caught on the finish line by Stuart (Mr Onslaught) and as they tripped the beam together, well somehow Kenny didnt get cleared and was posted as a DNF, for run 2 wideopen Steve bodged up the gears for single speed. The real surprise was Ben Baker who posted the fastest time, problem was Ben Baker has raced at world cup level and there fore could not win the title,  i really never expected a world cup racer to turn up and have a go, would anyone by able to beat him ? it was very very tight.  Run 1 top 3, Ben Baker 1.22.25, Andy Payne (volksfirkin)1.22.29 and Ben Deakin 1.22.65 could anyone top that ?

Run 2 was chaotic as we ended up being seeded overall and not in cats, so it was random when a HT went down and we got split up, add in the late start the usual stoppages for accidents and things where running a bit late, but run they did, the Bike park staff got on with the task in hand with the minimum of fuss, no one bitched and run 2 was done, cue a few reruns and the final list was posted and what a shock (and relief) to find out the top 3, somehow Ben Deakin had found another 2 seconds to trim off his time and take the win.

 

 

 

 

 

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Winning times, 1st Ben Deakin 1.20.72,  2nd Ben Baker 1.22.25,  3rd Andy Payne 1.22.29.


Jun 23 2009

Fastlane mag No 3

Tag: Hardtail Nationace @ 7:59 pm

Things are moving fast, totally missed issue 2.  Go to www.fastlanemag.com for info, and if you cant find fast dave at a race you can get one online.

Rob from southerndownhill raced the HT champs, and he had a big box of fastlane mags, while he wasnt looking several of them along with a wedge of SDH stickers fell into the back of my open car, so i lobbed a few out to the crowd at the awards and dished a few out as prizes as well.  Centred on the BMX race scene, with a bit of 4x and Dh in there as well.  Check it out, well worth a read.002_1


Jun 21 2009

A New Champ is born

Tag: Hardtail Nationace @ 10:40 pm

Have to wait for photos, if any of them come out, full report later.

1st Ben Deakin.

2nd Ben Baker.

3rd Andy Payne.

more later when i have time to find my own times and placing, bit manic, bit of carnage, and 30 raced in HT, tea then bed, got an early start tomorrow


Jun 19 2009

Game On

Tag: Hardtail Nationace @ 8:13 pm

Just a quick one, all packed for the Unofficial Champs, off early in morning, got to figure out how to put up the cheapo gazebo, then the tent, then check out the track !

So far UKBP reckon 20+ maybe a few on the day, so small numbers which is nice, but up again on last year.  Also got a posse crossing the boarder from Wales, Steve is coming down from Scotland so a nice mix from around the country.  Even the weather looks good.

The report will appear later in the week, as i will be back late on sunday night and have an early start Monday morning for my job in the real world, so it will take a few days to unpack and find the camera, and sort a race report out.  To those that are racing, see you there !


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