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Gawton Open Day Video

Jamie — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 20:44:26 +0000

Woodland Riders Open Day – Gawton from Aaron Bartlett on Vimeo.

Competition: WIN ‘Retrospective’ DVD

Jamie — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 20:05:44 +0000

So we’ve got a new website and a new issue out – seems like we should get back to giving some free crap away to you guys.

We’ve got a pretty good ‘un to start with. That’s right win ‘RETROSPECTIVE‘, a 5 disc documentary looking at the entire history of the Red Bull Rampage way back to the early day’s of Josh Bender and everyone being “super stoked braaa!”. Ok, not the entire history… 2008 aint in. But it’s pretty good none the less. It also comes in a trick metal tin which is rather nice.

All you’ve gotta do is email jamie@wideopenmag.co.uk with the answer to the following question:

Where is the Red Bull Rampage held?

1) Utah
2) UK Bike Park
3) Chicksands

Any entries that arrive with pics of the sender “throwing down some sick stuntz” may well go into the draw twice.

Entries close 31st April, we’ll pick a winner after that…

Big thanks to the guys at Duke Entertainment for hooking us up with the DVD. Give ‘em a look if you’re after some vids to add to your collections. Click the logo to check out their MTB video section.

Latest additions to the wideopen stable

Jim — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 06:45:02 +0000

Here’s the two newest additions to the wideopen contingent, the Alpine 160 and the Five.. read on..

The Alpine comes equipped with a 12mm Maxle rear end, perhaps not quite as stiff as a true bolted rear end but for someone who puts their bikes in the back of the car, ideal for me! It takes a lot of hints in the design from the 224, think of it it as the bastard child of a 224 and a Five.. that pedalling ability with the potential to shrug off some serious terrain!

The Five is a mountain bike classic, for me it goes into the Hall of Fame with the old BOS/Sunn race bikes.. shock technology got to a critical point and Orange spotted it and made the Five.. hugely successful but ours will be used as a half way house between cross country and downhill, and be ridden by a girl!! It took a bit of convincing that the fairer sex were able to ride bikes and that yes, the NPS does in fact have a womens category but in the end we got there.. Is a full on DH rig just too much bike for the UK?

So there you have it.. I’ll keep you up to date when I get all the bits bolted on!

Also for you photogeeks out there, if you were interested here’s a quick setup shot:

The Spanish Adventure… Part 1

Jamie — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 10:58:49 +0000

Right so Thursday night me (Milki) and Mono went to Brizol airport, flight was at 7am so sat in the airport trying to sleep and not getting a wink!

But that’s as bad as it gets. Got on the plane (delayed thanks to some mechanical issue ), got to spain, got off the plane, got picked up by Rob and Tom Deacon from DHspain.com, taken right to where we where staying, got all at home, built the bikes up and then spent the whole afternoon (2 till 7pm) riding and got 10 runs in on a great track that was loose, a foot deep in dust and fast as you like. Such a great start to what I think is going to be a good week. Harry Heath is here as well so I have lots of pinners to keep my camera happy.

Anyway off down the town for a few drinks now, lazy morning tomoz then off for loads more riding at the Sram test track I think….

First Look: Halo Freedom wheelset

Jamie — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 18:18:09 +0000

We’re pretty excited about this Halo wheel-set that just landed for long term test. It’s a thoroughbred 4X race setup and has been built specially for Wideopen team rider Chris to thrash this season on his race bike.

He’ll be putting them through their paces and reporting back on how they hold up throughout the race season. You can check out his updates in the products section of the mag or see them in action at loads of races this season including the NPS4X and RLS4x.

The setup:
Front – Freedom Disc 32H rim on Spin Dr hub.
Rear – Freedom Disc 36H Rim on Supa Drive Hub.

Thanks to Matt and the team at Ison for sending them over.

Icebike 2009

Jamie — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 22:31:11 +0000

I got a rare treat of a day out of the office yesterday to visit Madison HQ for their ICEBIKE trade show. Madi are pretty much the UK’s biggest supplier of stuff to bike shops and help Wideopen out a lot with news and test goodies. They’re also supporting the Atherton’s and are in charge of the UK’s supply of Shimano, Commencal, Park Tools, Thor, Giro etc and shout about all their new goodies at the show. It’s always a nice day out with some free food and a chance to see what is dope and what is wack for the new season.

As with every MTB trip the day started out with chaos as our lift dropped out, my car broke down and the hire company pissed us about for 3 hours. We had a fry up at the local greasy spoon while we waited though so not all a waste of time. Here’s Nouveu getting busy with beans on toast:

We finally got to the show and bumped straight into our mate Nico from Commencal. He’s from Commencal HQ in Andorra and works with a couple of other guys to design all the bikes you see out in the hills. First thing he had to show off was the new 2010 Carbon Meta 5.5:

Here’s Gee’s 2009 race bike complete with Shimano Pro kit, Nissan sponsorship and rainbow stripes.

Gee’s tyres – still no sponsor in the bag for rubber….

And the World Champs replica that you can get your hands on. If you aint winning on this thing then you aint winning on anything!

On to the soft goods and we’ve got a huge new range of gloves from Giro. If you like lightweight gloves like the Troy Lee XC then you should take a look at these. They’re nice and light with just enough padding and simple graphics. These ones are the Xens – there’s another DH and XC glove in the full finger range. Nice kit.

New Bell Drop helmets with jazzy graphics:

We spend a lot of time talking to the guys at Madison in the UK – the show is a chance to meet the faces behind the actual companies we’re talking about and see who actually designs, builds and tests the kit. This is Eric from Bell/Giro in the States.

Here’s Rob – he’s Wideopen staffer Pete’s brother and works for Continental. He’ll be racing DH this season for Nicolai – keep an eye out for him. Cheers for the hats fella!

Gamut had their new design bash rings on show which will be rolled out across all models. They’re re-designed to be tougher, less likely to break if you over tighten the bolts and to fit all cranks without the need for any bodging. Below you’ve also got the new dual ring Gamut model and new chain ring. The new rings will be available in single tooth increases (36, 37, 38 etc) and will have nice tall teeth to stop your chain wobbling around.

Next stop Genesis bikes to chat to their designer James. He’s based in the UK and is always a nice fella to chat to about where the bikes came from, what he had in mind for them and where they’re going. We’ve got an Apltitude on long term test at the moment so it was great to get some feedback and get the bike’s history. Here’s a potential new paint job for the Genesis line up and James’ personal proto 953 hardtail. The idea behind 953 is to get a ride that’s light and strong like Ti but is a wee bit stiffer for a more responsive ride. Ian over at Hardtail nation has got a funny little piece on the bike.

Er… Ogio rambo vest thing…

Apparently Animal clothing have dropped their bike range this year. Madison have replaced them with their own range of technical kit which actually looks really good. Here’s one of their jackets:

Classy Thor Static kit:

Randoms:

Thanks to all at Madison for having us (and plying us with donuts)!

Wentwood Trophy

Jamie — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 01:25:08 +0000

Sunday was a big day for Welsh DH with the first ever ‘Wentwood Trophy’ race and of course the very first event in the Welsh DHMTB Association line up.

Organisor Si Ward and the Wentwood locals did a sterling job of getting the track up to speed and keeping everything running smoothly. The push was a bit of a bugger but after a couple of shoves up everyone seemed to get into the swing of it and the banter got flowing!

The track was awesome, everyone was in a great mood, Janet’s Jackets were punting out some great munch, Paton was flogging tyres, Paton’s dog was running amock, Dave Morgan ran the timing without a hitch, Wideopen even stumped up a few prizes which felt great. Perfect day out in the valleys.

Surprise surprise Rowan Sorrel took the win on his Orange Strange proto DH bike, Manon Carpenter was on fire all day and spent practice scoping out shady lines and getting the track dialled with dad Jason. She took the top spot for the ladies – keep an eye out for her destroying the field this season!
I’ll do a full repo for the magazine – until then check out…. The results, Simply downhill’s website and the Welsh DHMTB website.

Massive thanks to Si W (pictured above looking a lot LESS stressed out than I saw him all day) and the crew for a great day out – can’t wait for the next one. Also to James Tennant for not getting mad when I steal a couple of his photo’s for this repo!