There’s a lot of new goodies on the horizon from Commencal. They’ve already announced a Carbon version of the Meta, there’s also the new ‘Babylon’ street bike and there’s an official launch event due for World Cup weekend in Andorra next month to show off the rest of it all.

After a couple of emails back and forth to our mates at UK Commencal distro Madison I came home to this little beauty. Yep, another brand new bike for 2010 and another Commencal that’s aimed at having a LOT of fun with. Introducing the Commencal Absolute SX.  It’s obviously still in its early stages but here’s what we’ve got so far…

Straight from Commencal…

“The bike has been designed with Slopestyle in mind. But due the 140mm of travel and the air shock it’s more versatile than it looks, that’s why we called him Absolut SX because the bike can ride on  short downhill and not too bumpy (like you may have in UK ? We have some kind of tracks like this near Paris). It could be a perfect bike for tracks like A-Line and Dirt Merchant in Whistler and rides bike parks, dirt Jumps ….”

Maybe a great bike for bashing around the woods at spots like Chicksands or a great mini-DH race bike?

- 140mm of travel
- Tapered H/T 1.5″ / 1″1/8  (integrated headset)
- Main Pivot on the BB so that you can use singlespeed (you can Run horizontal dropouts, vertical, 12mm and Maxxle) 68° H/T angle with 510mm height fork (140mm travel fork)
- 2 sizes
- Available September 2009
- Pricing TBC

Keep an eye on Wideopen and http://www.commencal.com/

Thanks to Madison for the news. Check them out at http://www.ultimatepursuits.co.uk

Jamie News

Propain bikes are brand new to the UK and have already been getting some serious attention on the forums.

We were lucky enough to get the world exclusive first test of their flagship DH bike for WO issue 9 and after a rave review from our test pilot we’ll be keeping a pretty close eye on them from now on.

Propain’s UK front man Wayne just got on the blower with some more info now things are a little bit more concrete.

First up – he’s looking for team riders to represent Propain for the rest of this season. If you want a chance to ride for them send you CV to the address below.

Second – At the time of the test we weren’t 100% when the frames would be available, which has now been confirmed. There’s going to be 2 frames available in the next 3 weeks and then the main shipment in early June. Wayne’s taking pre-orders now.

Last but not least - prices are now sorted out.  1 Propain Rage DH frame will cost you £1950. That includes frame (duh…), MRP G2 chain-guide, 12mm Maxle and a BOS STOY shock. Wayne can also offer custom build options on framesets or full builds with 2010 Boxxers.

If you want to get your hands on a bike, get your CV over or just more info :

Wayne Tabernor
www.2twenty0.co.uk
07789723621

Don’t forget to check out our test of the bike in WO issue 9 here

All photos here were taken on our test by the super talented Andy Dunwoody. Thanks as always to him for getting cold and covered in dirt to get us some awesome snaps. Thanks also to test pilot Tim Morgan and of course to Wayne for hooking us up.

Jamie News

The guys over at RLS4X in Leamington Spa just launched a brand new website to support their 4x track, club and race series.

If you want to find out more about RLS4X you can check out our interview with club founder Billy Cheetham and repo from their first race in WO9 here.

Otherwise – get your ass over to RLS4x.com

Jamie News

Commencal always seem to be trying something a bit different and true to form they’ve gone and brought out their first ‘Urban’ bike. Nope – not a street bike or a BMX. An actual street bike. For riding to work, cruising down the pub or thrashing around the estate.

When I moved to the bike smoke I got a bit excited about my commuter bike and in a perverse way spent a lot of time turning a ratty 70’s racer into a stealth street race weapon.  Much as I hate to admit it, racing yuppies to work is f-ckin great fun and I’ve probably risked my neck more times at 9am than when I’ve been downhill racing! Anyway this Babylon thing looks like a pretty good way to beat the fixy tw-ts…

Apparently the Babylon is a bit of a ‘concept’ bike for Commencal – which usually means it was built for a bit of a jolly up. This one was apparently inspired by the Scandanavian and Japanese Commencal fans. There’s going to be 2 models, 1 black and 1 white. The white version will be a bit posher and feature Shimano Shadow kit, tarty leather grips and a carbon fork whilst the ghetto black version will be a bit lower spec with Deore, alloy fork etc. Both bikes will have Juicy 3’s, 700C wheels, fender and rack mounts, Truvativ Cranks, Alex rims and Kenda tyres. 

It might be a wee bit posh to leave locked up outside the pub on a friday night but it’s going to be hell of a good for racing those yuppies in their high-vis jackets on the way to work!

http://www.commencal.com/news/concept/babylon/commencal_babylon_en.htm

And a clip of everyone’s favourite bicycle courier:

Spaced – Tyres

Oh ok – they aint that bad. Here’s a rad fixie vid from Charge:

Jamie News

This weekend was saw the Avalanche Enduro head for Kielder Forest with Tracy Moseley, David Vazquez Lopez and Danny Hart all taking medals.

Our mate Oliver Coat’s got in touch this morning with a quick repo. Here goes…

The event was excellent.  As you’d expect from Avalanche, I suppose.  

They’re obviously keen on the trails at Kielder, as it’s the second year running that they’ve chosen the Deadwater Trail.  Tracy Moseley quoted as saying “not what I was expecting in Britain, the trails have  a foreign feel to them, the loose material makes the riders think -  not just brakes off”. 

Punctures were the main order of the day -  especially on the ‘Forrest Dive’ black section (named after Scottish  downhiller Gary Forrest who built it), where quite a few riders came  through, running on their rear rims.  Weather was kind.  Loads of sun,  and one very brief, but very heavy hail storm!

I will have a gallery on my site very soon, but so far only  have Saturday’s photos up. Check those out here http://www.olivercoats.co.uk/

Also, maybe worth noting on the website that the next Avalanche Enduro  is at Ae Forest in 2 weeks, for which there are still entries  available -

Linky – http://www.avalanchecup.com/inscription-avalanche-enduro.html

Oliver Coats
info@olivercoats.co.uk
www.olivercoats.co.uk
www.flickr.com/photos/olivercoats

BIG thanks to Oliver for sending all this over. Look out for more photos from him in WO 10  – he’s sent some bangers of Tracy and Danny over which i’m keeping for the mag!

Jamie News

 Mono just beamed me the results live and direct from Ae forest…..

 Gee: 1st 2:09
 Joe Barnes 2nd 2:12
 Tom Braithwaite 3rd 2:12
 Brendan 4th 2:14
 Joe Smith 5th 2:15

“Raining this morning but dried up a treat for race runs. Mint race, best AE forest track ever according to Brendog.”

Jamie News

Issue numero 2 of the UK’s finest BMX and 4X race mag is on sale NOW.

It’s been cooked to perfection over the last few months, infused with heaps of top quality images, spiced with a hearty sprinkling of race repos, seasoned with a… Forget the crap cooking gags, it’s just out now ok? It’s bloody good and deserves your support.

Log to www.fastlanebmxmag.com and help these guys make the UK race scene strong.

Jamie News

Check it out – Live update number 1 direct from Mono’s Blackbury, yuppy bastard that he is!

Keep your eyes peeled to the site this weekend for exclusive updates from NPS1 at Ae Forest. Me and Paul Roberts will be there all weekend filming for fofo2. Unfortunately we havn’t even left the Valleys yet and its 5 o clock! That’s organisation for you. We’ll keep you updated!

Check out the ‘Twitterfeed’ just below the latest features box for all the latest from Aaron!!

Jamie News

Jamie News

Our resident freeride correspondant Elbry just got in touch to say that Vandal Clothing have launched a new website and have got new threads ready to roll.

They’ve got big plans for 09 including new team riders, new designs and best of all – loads to give back to the sport.

Check it all out here: http://vandalclothing.blogspot.com/

Here’s the latest threads that are in stock now and ready to buy:

VANDAL : making a loss since 1995

Vandal supports events, riders and hosts events from all the money made on its products, The Vandal bsx event in the early 2000’s was rated by Dirt magazine as one of the best bsx/4x events ever in the UK, All the money from the Vandal bsx events went back to the race sites and we even sponsored our own event giving the land owners money as well as the money from the riders (we even paid for a gate for the hayle boys), Vandal also put on the Vandal jibjam, The first pure mtb only park event in the UK, all the money went back in to the event, half went to the park, the other got split for the top guys on the night and we topped that out with prizes and paying for the PA making sure we made a massive loss! lol..

Vandal has also run Vandal punk and drunk tours and has been focused on supporting trail builders over the last few years giving over £1k worth of clothing away and also helping by giving trail spots bins and tools to keep things on point, With your support we can keep going with this and also supporting riders, Such guys as Kye forte, Nick brock, matt cable, Glen Coe, jame taylor and many more have been supported by Vandal clothing over the last 14 years.

With you guys out in our threads we can keep helping the up and coming talent while you have some cool eye candy to floss in, We give 100% back to the sport, Support Vandal by getting a tee and some decals this year!  

Jamie News