Matt Wragg meets the Barretts, a family with bicycles in their blood.

I promised Bono Barrett that I wouldn’t make that god-awful Sly and the Family Stone pun for the title, but by next week I’ll be far enough into mainland Europe to worry about the repercussions. So here we are. And if you’re 17 and reading this, Sly and the Family Stone were a soul band in the 70s, yes, you’re missing out… and no, it’s not that Bono I’m talking about, he of the Jesus complex and sunglasses. But, back to the pun, how else do you introduce the Barrett family? If you’ve been to a Pearce Cycles race or uplift in the last couple of years, you’ll know exactly who I mean.

I don’t actually remember the first time I met the Barrett family. Fortunately even their eldest, Matt, is only 15 (he was younger then, maybe 13), so he hasn’t got enough years of hard living behind him to ruin his short-term memory. I think I’d run into him a year or so before, but you know how these things get kinda vague. He remembered me though, and started chatting to me in the uplift trailer. It was easy to forget he was half my age; he was friendly and confident, not awkward or shy like so many kids of his age are. When we got out on the track it became apparent that he was rapid too. A bit later I noticed a couple of other kids on the uplift day, one barely tall enough to climb into the Landy but still ripping it down the tracks. It turned out they were his brothers, Andrew (13) and Harry (9). Oh, and his Dad, Bono, was the guy driving the Landy and his Mum, Sarah, was somewhere on the hill taking photos. I was lucky enough to spend a day with the family at Bringewood and I spent some time talking with Bono about how they got so involved in downhill as a family.

Wideopen: So how did you all get into downhill?

Bono: Matt started it all off, he came home from school one day and said he wanted to go downhilling. I hadn’t even heard of it, to be fair, I knew what cross country was and all that, but not downhill. We went and saw a couple of his mates and he told me he wanted a Giant Glory and it was nearly four grand. I said “You’ve got no chance of getting a bike like that mate”! So we carried on and bought him a little Giant VT2, that was pretty pimped up and it just went from there really. He then got himself a Big Hit 3, you know, one of the cheaper ones… and then the other two wanted to do it too. The biggest problem was finding bikes for kids, Andrew has just turned five-foot now and finding bikes with decent suspension on is a bloody nightmare. He’s got single crowns on his Commencal and J-Tech have pimped them up, put a shim stack in there and an air shock on the back, rather than the Rocco Coil R, which didn’t work at all. You had to be 12 stone to get it on sag! Harry’s been on Scott Sparks, this is his third in three years…

WO: Yeah, Harry’s got quite a special bike now.

B: J-Tech said they could do him a shock in the summer, then he said he could do a set of forks for him as well. Once you start changing stuff around, you’ve got to change the whole bloody lot, haven’t you? So that’s what we did.

WO: The boys seem to be very into their racing?

B: Matt and Andrew are racing and Harry has two years to go. It’s a bit of a nightmare to be honest, he wants to race and he’s got to hang round all day watching the other two. But the Forest of Dean do a mini race, so we might take him down for a couple of them this year. With the other two doing the Nationals, time is precious though and it’s money too. It costs a bloody fortune, some weeks you just think, “We could do without going biking this weekend.” But you’re only here once; you’ve got to do it, haven’t you? That’s why I drive for Pearce on the uplifts; it pays for the entries and uplifts, and one or two bits and bobs.

WO: Is Sarah involved too?

B: Yeah, she does all the cooking, cleaning, clearing up, nursing – you name it she does it. She’s also started doing photography at races which she really enjoys.

WO: I know this is probably a weird question to ask, but, well… there’s a fine line between a supportive parent and a pushy parent…

B: I’m not pushy!

WO: No, no, you don’t come across like that at all, but, well, how do you look at all those kind of issues?

B: You’ve got to enjoy it. Look at Harry today, he’s gone back to the van because he’s cold – if you don’t enjoy it, there’s no point doing it. I wasn’t a victim of pushy parents, but I was made to do things when I was younger that I just didn’t want to do and there’s a fine line between being pushy and being disciplined. I encourage them to do as much as they can, but when it’s physically not possible, I don’t expect them to do anything. You know, you’ve got to do your bit, but I’m not one of these people that say, “Why didn’t you try harder? Why aren’t you pedalling more?” I hate that, I absolutely hate that. They’re trying their best, they’re competitive lads and they want to win, obviously. They’re desperate to win, but… it isn’t win at all costs, it’s win and enjoy yourself. That’s my motto.

I am strict, disciplined, they’ve got to come home and wash their bikes, get their stuff ready for Mum to wash and everything is lubed before it’s put away because it’s expensive. It’s an expensive sport when one person’s doing it, but when three are doing it, it’s even more expensive. But if you look after the tack, it’ll look after you a bit. Obviously being sponsored helps, Pearce Cycles and J-Tech help a lot. But still, I’ve got to find money, a lot of money, so if they can look after their kit and keep it going as long as possible before it breaks, that suits me just fine.

WO: How hard is it keeping it fair between the three of them?

B: Well it is difficult when you’ve got the eldest and he’s the one who seems to be growing the most. He’s, how do you say, developing faster, so his bikes need changing and being worked on a lot more. But then, at the other end of the scale, I expect him to do more work-wise. Andrew potters along doing his own thing, he gets a lot of Matt’s old kit. Poor little Harry, the biggest problem is there is nothing made for somebody that small. So now we’ve had this chance to do the new spec on his bike, they’ve all had a new bike at some stage.

WO: What sort of work do they do?

B: They help me basically, chopping sticks. They have their own little kindling business too – they sell kindling down at the bottom of the drive for £1.50 a bag and they make a bit of money that way, last year they made about £700 doing that, so they’ve done well with it. It all goes into the pot if they want tyres, or anything above and beyond what I’d expect to buy them. If they want a pimp set of Maxxis, that’s fine, but I expect them to put their own money towards it so they know the value of it and respect it when they have it.

WO: Thanks for your time Bono, all of you. Is there anyone you need to thank?

B: Yeah, Dave and Lindsey at Pearce Cycles and James at J-Tech, I don’t know if it’d be possible for all three of the boys to be out and riding like they are if we didn’t have their support.

Big thanks to the Barret family for letting us join them for the day. Look out for them on a Pearce Cycles uplift – book now at http://www.pearcecycles.co.uk

All words and photos here were provided by Matt Wragg.

This interview originally appeared in Wideopen Magazine issue 18. You can read it in its original form here:

Wideopenmag first look – Lapierre 720 complete build after a week in Spain
Words: Editor Jamie Photos: Jacob Gibbins

For me, the Lapierre 720 was a holiday extravagance for our trip to Spain. My ‘normal’ downhill bike was a bit worse for wear and a last minute call to UK distributor Hotlines struck gold as Marketing Manager Martin came back with a “yeah, no worries mate, we’ve got a medium 720 here you can take for a bit”. Sure, a brand new downhill bike that still needs to be broken in can be a bit of work but the rare treat of a brand new, unbeaten, unjet-washed and unragged bike to take away for a week was too good to miss.

Top to bottom the 720 is a very well specked bike without being OTT – the build isn’t as top shelf as the fancier 920 model but sits sensibly within a privateer budget at £3500 and gives all of us weekend warriors a passport to riding something close to the bike that Sam Blenkinsop, Cam Cole and Nico Vouilloz stomp aboard. Boxxer RC up front, Fox DHX RC2 to the rear, SRAM X7 groupo throughout, Schwalbe Muddy Mary ‘damp conditions’ tyres, Funn bar and stem and a set of Formula Oro brakes to do the stopping. Most importantly for me though – the frame is exactly the same as the supposedly posher 920 and still offers 2 geometry positions (via an adjustable headtube) and a fancy carbon swing arm. Completing the package is a few nice touches such as an integrated seat clamp, integrated bump-stops, very neat internal cable routing and the Scott-esque mud/roost guard on the down tube that always gets a few comments on the uplift.

Out of the box I immediately had to make a few changes that you should always budget into a bike purchase – a 350 alloy spring on the back and a medium Boxxer spring had to go straight away in favour of some firmer options. Don’t forget that when ordering your flashy new bike or you’ll be like the kid with the Gameboy at Christmas who’s mum forgot the batteries. Tyres were also interesting and the Schwalbe Muddy Mary ‘all rounders’ suit damp UK conditions really well but might not be the one if your first ride was (like mine) in the bone dry.  I also didn’t quite fall in love with the Formula Oro brakes which felt a bit wooden and didn’t offer enough adjustment to wind the levers in to avoid arm pump on the longer, rougher trails. No stress in the UK but in the big stuff they could have felt better.

I’m not going to pretend that after a week of riding I can give the 720 a full run down but 7 days of riding in Spain, an uplift at Combe Sydenham and my first race in the Masters category at Tavi Woodlands have definitely made me want to ride it more and given me the spark to get on some uplifts rather than always reaching for the trail bike. One comment we receive on Facebook was that the 720 was rumoured to corner poorly which I would definitely argue with – she turns a treat and was a lot of fun through the long, fast berms at Combe Syd and the tight switchbacks at Tavi Woodlands.   Through the big, rough, rocky terrain out in Malaga I found the geometry and frame size in particular to be really confidence inspiring and relaxed into the ‘let go and don’t worry about it ‘ approach much more easily than on my usual DH ride.

What else do you want to hear…? Weight? She’s a shade under 40lbs and certainly doesn’t feel like a slug on the trails, helped by the fact that she pedals pretty nicely for a big bike. Carbon swing arm? Feels good, doesn’t feel weird compared to an alu one and hasn’t broken, snapped, caugh fire, exploded or anything else the keyboard warriors might suggest!

Look out for more on the 720 next issue after I’ve had a few more weeks in the saddle and possibly got someone a bit more aggro on board – so far so good.

The 720 retails in the UK for around £3500 and is available via your local bike shop, distributed through Hotlines.

http://www.lapierre-bikes.co.uk/

You can check out the original article in all its glory here in Wideopenmag issue 18 -

Grower or a shower?
Stand up or sit down?
Front to back or back to front?

Loose at rock, paper, scissors and valley legend Leon Rosser will make you answer one of his ‘special questions’!

Our race video was all business – our pit video is all about the banter! Enjoy some choice cuts from the Halo British Downhill Series Fort William pits featuring Steve Peat, Duncan Riffle, Sam Reynolds and more!

Thanks to Leon Rosser for the mc skills, Tim Lake for the camera skills, Paul Roberts for the edit and of course – Monster Energy – for fueling the carnage. Cheers all!

You may have noticed … but there’s some awesome progress being made up in North Wales on a heap of new downhill tracks. The tracks are up at Blaenau Ffestiniog and there’s currently 4 runs in progress ranging from gnarly downhill race runs to tamer ‘all mountain’ stuff.

More when we’ve got it – there’s a good piece on what’s going on here: http://www.snowdonia-active.com/news.asp?newsid=807

King of Dirt round 1 wasn’t quite the roaring success Sam and co had hoped…

Crappy weather and a few mishaps with the track meant that the event was cancelled last minute and they’re now focusing on a bigger, better and more successful round 2.

Despite the wash-out event we teamed up with Stanton bikes and have got a video for you nonetheless. Here it is kids – King of Dirt 2012 round 1!

Ladies and gents, boys and girls – Wideopenmag’s Fort William Halo British Downhill Series video is live!

Fort William was a wild weekend for the Halo BDS circus with a big, rough track and even bigger, rougher weather. The hype up to the event saw warnings that the wild Scottish weather might spoil play and – sure enough – Saturday seeding runs became Final runs and Sunday’s race day was pulled.

The wins went to World Champs Danny Hart and Manon Carpenter.

WATCH awesome videos WIN awesome prizes!

Hold on a minute – this aint just a video. It’s also a MASSIVE competition!

Keep your eyes peeled for a secret link in this video – it will let you enter our huge competition and maybe win a prize from our mountain of awesome goodies.

We’ve got 2 tickets to the Fort William World Cup this video – thanks to Monster Energy
We’ve got a DriftHD helmet-cam for every video we produce – thanks to Action Cameras
We’ve got a Monster goody bag for every video we produce – thanks to Monster
We’ve got a Nukeproof Scalp downhill frame to give away at the end of the season!

… And who won the DriftHD and goody bag from last video? It was … Mr Jack Hoskins! Congratulations!

Huge thanks to Paul Roberts and Tim Lake for braving the 18 hours of driving and wild weather to produce this awesome edit!

Thanks also to Monster Energy for powering Wideopenmag’s edits all season!

And in case you haven’t read it yet, check out issue 18 of Wideopenmag:

Guys – it’s a year this week since Scott Shepherd had his crash that put him out of action. It’s time to rally round and help raise some cash for the Rider Down Trust and to help them support injured riders. Get involved!

We’re running a comp to raise money for Scott Shepherds Charity, Rider Down Trust. We’ve put up a one off complete custom built Dartmoor Shine as the prize, the frame has come from Dartmoor Bikes HQ, the shock from Mojo, the rest from Slam69.

The frame for this bike is the Dartmoor Shine, 100mm travel jump frame, more info on the frame here (http://dartmoor-bikes.com/hardware/frames/shine  )The rear shock is a FOX RP23 supplied by Mojo Suspension.

The rest of the components are:
Forks – Manitou Circus Expert 100mm. Headset – Dartmoor Flash. Bars – Swing Low. Stem – Dartmoor Funky 25.4mm. Cranks – Dartmoor Flares. Sprocket – Dartmoor trance. BB – Dartmoor Euro 19mm. Chain – Core. Pedals – Dartmoor Downtowns – Seat Post – Dartmoor Fusion pivitol. Seat – Dartmoor Fatty. Rear Brake – FUNN Hydro, 160mm rotor.
Wheels – Front, Dartmoor 2012 Raider rim with X-drive 20mm hub, built with blue Dartmoor Stainless spokes and graphite ally nipples. – Rear, Dartmoor 2012 Fortress rim with X-drive singlespeed hub, built with blue Dartmoor stainless spokes and graphite ally nipples. Tyres – Halo H-Blok white/black wall.

Value – £2500

Scotts charity info:
The Rider Down Trust was founded in 2011 following Scott Shepherds serious crash at Round 2 of the Schwalbe British 4X at PORC. Scott sustained traumatic brain injuries as a result of the crash on the 8th May 2011.  Although injuries to this extent are very rare, they are becoming more and more common due to the increased interest in cycling, especially mountain bike and BMX. Scott was classed as being in a coma for nearly 5 months and nearly a year on has progressed to minimally concious, but of course this is still very limiting and he is totally dependant on others for all his care and needs.

Marcel Hunt on the Dartmoor Shine on pinkbike.com

What does The Rider Down Trust aim to achieve?
As Scott’s family, we found that support was very difficult to attain. Much of the support available is aimed at people with less severe brain injury and therefore very difficult to get the right advice at the right time. Also due to the lack of information in the public, we still find that people do not understand the situation Scott is in and, although not down to ignorance, this makes it very difficult for people who know him to deal with the situation.

We felt that we wanted to offer a service to cyclists who have been through a similar traumatic situation, initially this service is for sufferers of traumatic brain injury (TBI) but we hope to role out the service to help cyclists with any serious injury across the UK. The cycling community as a whole, may be divided by the type of bike they ride but everyone is united in supporting fallen riders and we aim to be the first stop for individuals and their families when such an incident occurs. 

The Trust can offer support to individuals through specific advice for their situation and injuries, one to one support when needed, financial grants available to help with travelling if the injured cyclist is at hospital away from home. Although we have predetermined goals we do not limit to these and if we can help in any other way other than what we lay out we will ultimately do our best to accommodate all situations.

We also are aiming to set up a group to help seriously injured riders to keep their social experiences and keep riding by providing access to specialist cycle equipment in a safe environment. This will ultimately be based in Derby however we plan to work with similar organisations across the UK to provide this to as many people as possible.

The Rider Down Trust is a very new charitable organisation, but awareness for our cause is growing rapidly enabling us to get out there and help more people.  The more people we are able to help the more money we need to raise to be able to offer the best service we possibly can.  The funds we raise will go to providing the advice and financial support which injured riders and their families need when they need it, as well as going towards purchasing the cycle equipment to provide the rehabilitation service and social integration that is so important to sufferers of life long disabilities as a result of their injuries.

To riders like Scott, who’s passion was to ride, to give them the opportunity to continue with this passion and help them retain their sense of identity is crucial to their well being and mental stability throughout their lives.  It is currently being brought to the attention of the media that although science has developed in leaps and bounds in order to increase survival rates, little is available to support these individuals once they are stable. Even the number of hospitals capable of giving full and adequate care to these people is very limited and often a long commute for their families.

As a trust we aim to support as many people as possible, and our aim for 2012 is to raise at least £15,000 in order for us to keep getting out there and offer these services. Whether the rider has sustained a brain or spinal injury or a broken bone we will offer the service that each individual needs. The grants we offer are to help with travel costs for the family if the patient is in hospital out of their home town, or to cover basic costs if the person is in hospital for two weeks or more to relieve financial hardship and grants are available up to £500 (dependant on severity of injury and length of hospital stay)

To enter the competition go to the slam69 website, go to the shop page and clik the competition box with the rider down pic. simply tick the correct answer to a very tough question, pay your pound and keep those fingeres crossed. you can enter as many times as you wish. The comp ends on Friday June 24th. With luck we can have the winner anounced for the next round of the 4X on the 25th/26th at Redhill. Comp results will be posed on the slam69 and rider down sites.

enter on www.slam69.co.uk

rider down trust info www.riderdown.org.uk