Editor Jamie teamed up with Rob from SouthernDownhill yesterday and hit the road for Silverstone for the Core Bike Show.

One of the treats of the show was a chance to chat to RaceFace’s Marcel Jakob about their new hardcore carbon crankset and about the current state of play at RF. The good news is that the new crank is giving the SRAM X0 benchmark crankset a run for its money and that things at RF are looking good. Check out the video and enjoy.

Core is a very pleasant little trade only show that offers dealers and press the chance to meet a few brands and have a chat without the crowds of the bigger events. We’ll have a few more choice cuts online later today and tomorrow.

And here it is – the first of Wideopenmag’s 2012 team bikes built up and ready for action.

This beauty is elite 4x rider Alistair Keen’s Nukeproof Snap which he just built up ready for this weekend’s Chicksands road trip. Dave and him have both hooked up for the weekend to kick of 2012 with a mini team trip and a chance to give the new bikes a first ride.

Look out for a time lapse of the build later in the week and some Drift footage of the riding.

Cheers as always to Nukeproof for the support! Check out their facebook here.

Unior will make sure that the team have got the tools they need to keep their bikes running at top conditions wherever they are in the world.

They will make sure there’s no scraping around for the right sized allen key or having to borrow tyre levers on race day and that the riders can concentrate on what they do best.

Team mechanic Chaz Curry will be equipped with a full-works 50 piece Unior tool box and workstand and each of the riders will get a personal 15 piece tool kit to keep their Nukeproof bikes fresh between events.

We’ve tested Unior’s kit in the magazine and been super impressed with their durability and no-fuss design. After months of rattling around in webguy Jim’s tool box they (and as a result his bike) are still going strong.

When we met the Unior crew at Raleigh’s tradeshow last year they turned up to be super positive, super friendly guys that loved pushing their brand almost as much as they did pushing their favourite Slovenian tipple ‘žganje’. We only want to work with brands that we trust and have fun with and the Unior guys fitted that perfectly.

• Our 2 man downhill team will race at the UCI World Cup, Halo British Downhill Series, IXS Cup and select UK regional events.
• Our 2 man 4X team will race select 4X Pro Series events and the British 4X Series.
• Our elite DH’er will also ride select enduro events – including the UK Gravity Enduro Series.

Check out Unior’s bike tools homepage here
And Unior’s facebook here.

Here’s Mechanic Chaz’s armoury of Unior goodies. We’ve got no idea why a man needs 3 hammers – but apparently he does!

Here’s an edit that we filmed with Unior Factory team rider Harry Heath way back in early 2011:

Ladies and gents, boys and girls! We’re very happy to announce that the Wideopenmag Race Team will be racing Nukeproof bikes and build kit in 2012!

We’ve worked closely with our friends at UK Distributor Hotlines since day one and continue to be super impressed with the Nukeproof range. The bikes look gorgeous, they perform amazingly well and they have a super impressive pedigree at the very top of the sport.

Our 2 man downhill team will race Nukeproof Scalp Pro bikes (as photo’d above) at the UCI World Cup, Halo British Downhill Series, IXS Cup and select UK regional events.

Our 2 man 4X team will race Nukeproof Snap frames and build kit at select 4X Pro Series events and at the British 4X Series.

Our elite World Cup rider will also rock a Nukeproof Snap Pro complete bike for dirt jump and BMX track action and a Nukeproof Mega complete bike for select UK Enduro events and all manner of dirt thrashing!

All photos here are of the brand new 2012 complete Nukeproof range – which was just announced this week. Pretty sexy I think you’ll agree..?

The Nukeproof Scalp was raced throughout 2011 and 2011 by the Chain Reaction Cycles team – here’s their footage from their pre-season training in Spain:

And here’s Team Chain Reaction’s team manager Nigel Page introducing the Nukeproof Mega:

Stay tuned for more on the Wideopenmag team over the next few days.

Thanks in particular to Pete, Martin and Will at Hotlines for all of their support.

Hotlines homepage here.
Nukeproof homepage here.

Part 1 in Mojo’s Monday Maintenance series teaches you how to ungrit your nobs. Valuable advice for those of us that tend to get a bit grotty!

Top caps makes me think of Top Cat

Super tog Ian Hylands just posted up this snap of Gee Atherton’s brand new GT Fury with Shimano Pro Atherton signature components and One Industries graphics (their new clothing sponsor following the departure from Animal).

The Atherton’s are currently out in Cali getting set up with GT and Shimano and getting some pre-season training in. Looks like this is the first of the Atherton’s 2012 bikes to be built up – we’re looking forward to seeing the finished item.

Show Ian some love on Twitter @ianhylands

Cycle Shows are an unusual beast – They’re a bit like that friend (you know the one) that’s such hard work that the very thought of spending time in their company fills you with crushing fatigue – but you occasionally muster up the strength to go for a pint and they just about succeed in reminding you why you’re still actually buddies (if only for a once a year pint). Similarly, shows seem to be a ‘must attend’ date for our diaries but rarely contain anything new or unusual and tend to give you little more than a energy drink hangover, a whopping train ticket and a sore throat from feigning enthusiasm for seen-before bike components.

This week’s must attend was the London Bike Show at Excel – bordered by The Outdoor Show and The Boat Show. True to the template – there was a small smattering of gold nuggets amongst a vast museum of seen befores. Here’s a few of those nuggets that myself and Riders Retreat’s Paul snapped before my patience ran out with my old friend The Bike Show and I lost my switch card and had to make a hasty retreat for the West Country.

Hope Technology always do a good job at the shows of mustering up goods that are worth a look. Their new pedals are on our wish list right alongside their proto cranks. Hope

Cube’s Two15 DH bike was on display and looking fine with custom colour matching components. Better still Dan, Dan and Chris turned out to be thoroughly nice chaps that provided good hearty banter all day.You can expect the bike to be available any minute now with a healthy test fleet available. “Four-bar linkage bike with Triple Linkage Kinematics, low center of gravity, compact geometry, perfectly tuned 215mm travel to the Fox suspension elements – a perfect downhill competition weapon for use up to World Cup races”Cube

Madison were on show with a stand that dwarfed all others (until you wandered into the boat show ). Alongside an all new Genesis range was the 2012 Saracen lineup and Manon’s World Champ race bike with genuine race winning muck. Madison

Bike candy from Carbon Ti – like. Carbon Ti

Intrepid Apparel are a brand new and rider run company that make well designed and stylish riding gear. We saw them first on our pals from Stanton Bikes and were pleased to meet the faces behind the brand. A genuine small, Uk brand born out of love for riding and frustration with what’s on the market. More from them in Wideopenmag I hope! Intrepid

Big news – Scott Beaumont is on Yeti and had his new bikes on proud display. He’s co-organising the new 4X Pro Tour and is brimming with passion for the sport. His enthusiasm for 4X is infectious and made us feel like there’s never been a better time to get involved. Look out for a video interview with him any minute. Silverfish

Evoc did super well in 2011 and were one of our favourite hydro pack brands. There’s loads of new models for 2012… Silverfish

Pivot were on proud display with a range of very nice looking push bicycles – the new Mach 5.7 carbon being one of them. 145mm travel and looks to be a real Swiss Army Knife all rounder. We’ll be keeping a keen eye on this one. Thanks to Chris Seager for sharking this photo whilst Milky was trying to do an interview for PB! Pivot

Here’s my new favourite arse cream ready and waiting for next weekend’s Brechfa Enduro – kindly donated by the guys at Velo Brands. Give this a look next time your gooch is at risk! Velobrands

Chris Roberts and the DMR Pump Track Challenge took their special brand of racing to the big smoke with a new wooden pumpy. The Outdoor Show Monkey rode the track, Dan Jarvis (world cup MC) was on this mic and Bernard Kerr won day 1′s racing. This one also by Chris Seager. Naked Racing

Thanks to Paul for the photos, Milky for the transport, Eyvind for the sofa, Chris Seager for the soon to be seen video and the Excel guys for a surprisingly passable show.

Our usual megamixer Jacob Gibbons is off in London at the cycleshow today so this one is being scratched out by WO editor Jamie… let’s go!

(sorry – a couple of these ‘autoplay’ and I can’t turn it off!)

Words like ‘insane’ are thrown around pretty loosely over here … but this actually looks INSANE. Amazing work once again from Redbull.

Once again – here’s the Paul Roberts 2011 reel – it’s a cracker and sums up the end of an unforgettable year of adventures on the road. Nice work Paul.

A guy in my work’s nephew made this and has since been featured on the BBC and offered work by MTV. The photographer (Caleb Yule) started the project when he was 13 and shot over 10 months, taking something like 45,000 shots. Great work – I like the idea that it’s the kids that are sat at home in their bedrooms learning to shoot and edit that are the media pros these days.

This one is a bit longer so might be better enjoyed at home – it’s the story of Vice magazine’s mission to the furthest reaches of Russia on the off chance that they’ll meet some North Koreans. The idea is that you just can’t get in to North Korea so understanding what goes on over there is impossible… Check it out – it’s a scary, funny, drunken, sketchy adventure in one of the most fucked up places on the planet.

This is an old one – but one of my all time favourite FreedieW videos. Again – FreddieW and crew are home-grown bedroom superstars that have turned geeky self-taught editing into a career. If you’re a video geek you’ll love this. If you’re a computer games geek you’ll love this.

And let’s have another riding vid. This one is of one of our favourite riders in one of our favourite places!

Michael Merriman Wilcox’s wintery dirt jump edit featuring Blake Samson, Szymon Godziek and Czek rider Jacub Venci. Shot right here in old Blighty.

Ryan Nangle welcome to Dartmoor UK on pinkbike.com

Our friends at DartmoorUK have just signed up dirt jump super star Ryan Nangle and are celebrating with this super good edit. Best vid we’ve watched today by a long shot.