Team Chain Reaction have had a bit of a remodel – Pagey’s lookin slick!

The comp was invite only for 16 of the very best BMX’ers and was won by the UK’s Ben Wallace. There’s a good repo here on TransWorldBMX from some dudes that actually know what they’re talking about.

Thanks to Tom Gaffney for the images. Check him out here:

“Sam and Chopper – Two calm and peaceful characters. Yeah right! Who’s ever going to believe this photo?! I think this is the only one calm moment from the whole trip. It was a real intense time from start to finish and was full of crazy stuff and jokes – the Icelandic kids loved it! Sam is seen here wearing his new Icelandic woollen sweater that he bought on the last day of the trip from a second hand shop!” – Szymon Nieborak

“Iceland is a brilliant place. The people are very friendly, the terrain is like the moon and all the towns have a strange American feel to them with huge cars and fast food joints everywhere. We visited to help our video camera sponsor Veho to push their new line of cameras and although I thought the place was too cold at first, I quickly fell in love with it. The whole trip is going to remain with me for a very long time.

Why Iceland? We chose Iceland simply because we thought “Who goes to Iceland to ride?” The answer is ‘no one’, so we went for it!” – Sam Pilgrim

“Here I am riding the edge of one of the oldest volcanoes in Iceland. We had a race from the top and with me on a dirt jump bike with only one brake I obviously took the win – although Sam thinks he won! It was super slippy and the wind was in the minus degrees but it was still so much fun bombing around.” – Chopper

“The 60metre high Seljalandsfoss waterfall is down in the south of the island and is of one of Iceland’s most spectacular views. We found a gap jump underneath the waterfall that made for an amazing photo but I’ll be honest – we simply went there for how cool it looked!” – Chopper

“This was probably my most favourite spot of the trip, there was a walk way behind the waterfall and obviously these banks you can see in the photo. Here I am doing a bunny hop whip into the grass bank!” – Sam Pilgrim

“This photo just turned out awesome, the metal thing is an artist’s impression of a Viking ship and the background just looks amazing! The jumper I’m wearing was the same style as the bmx’er who rode with us for a few days, it’s made of wool and is a classic Icelandic piece of outerwear that I bought in a second hand shop. I love it!” – Sam Pilgrim

“This one is of me and Sam having a session in our room at the hostel before we hit the bar. Barspin from Sam with me giving him some support! Hahaha!” – Chopper

Getting there: You can fly direct from London Gatwick to Reykjavik KEF for less than £100 each way. icelandexpress.com is a good place to start when looking for flights.

http://www.visiticeland.com is a good place for travel info, including ideas for accommodation and links to local companies that will show you the trails and hire you bikes if you need them.

Sam and co stayed in the Kex Hostel (kexhoste.is) in downtown Reykjavik which costs £20 and £60 a night and offers dorms or private rooms.

Their guide for the trip was Emil Thor Gudmundsson who Szymon describes as “an epic dude”. Emil was one of the greatest personalities I have ever met and the trip wouldn’t have been even half as good without him. He’s a mountain biker, a bike-shop owner, a bike tour-guide and a model in one person. He’s pretty deep into the cultural life of Reykjavik and he works hard to promote Icelandic cycling.” Emil’s bike shop is in central Reykjavik and can be found online at http://kriacycles.com.

This piece originally appeared in Wideopen Magazine issue 18. Check it out in all its glory here:

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:

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 -

Our buddies and team sponsors at Unior Tools are pleased to announce the launch of their new web-series – filmed by Blaž Tomažin (Tomažin/Media). “Unior Tools Team Webisodes 2012 can be expected after the most of the upcoming World Cups.”

@uniortools on Twitter for more!

Less than a month after the release of our Rook slopestyle bike we’re excited to bring you news of our prototype dirt jump frame which will be unveiled at this week’s iXS Dirt Masters Festival in Winterberg, Germany.

An ongoing development project with newly signed Nukeproof rider Jack Fogelquist, the frame uses custom triple-butted steel tubing with a 44mm headtube, gold anodised alloy chain tension adjusters, an integrated gold alloy seat clamp and removable cable guides.

The frame, available in regular and long, is designed around a 100mm travel fork and uses geometry based on Jack’s personal setup. Priced at around the £350 mark we’ll be unveiling the full production model at this year’s Eurobike show.

You can get a sneak peak of the prototype version of the frame at this week’s iXS Dirt Masters Festival in Winterberg, Germany. For more information head to the Dirt Masters website. http://www.dirtmasters-festival.de/?lang=eng

www.nukeproof.com

www.hotlines-uk.com

photoprops to Jack Zinger

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

Fort William is a track that I know lots of us riders always look forward to each year. The big thing this year though was the buzz on Facebook/Twitter questioning the weather for for the weekend. It was not looking good for racing on sunday and could cancel the race due to the gondolas not being able to run due to high winds.

I traveled up on Friday with team-mate Rich T to discover that most riders were already up on the hill for practice – word had already got round that Sunday’s racing could be cancelled and moved to Saturday afternoon and a lot of riders were out making sure they got the practice that they needed.

Saturday practice went well for both me and Rich and we both enjoyed smashing out some runs on the big, rough track. The weather was spot on in the morning but things changed in the early afternoon with the bad weather moving in, the wind picking up and the rain kicking in. The big problem by Saturday afternoon though was the high winds which were really causing riders some problems up on the hill.

Both race runs from me and Rich went well, my run was just another smooth and safe one and looking back I did not really get into my run as much as I maybe did at round 1. I was happy with another 6th place though and went away 4th overall in the series.

Rich seemed to have a similar story and came out with a 20th place overall which he was a bit dissapointed with. His excuse was that he played his pre-race warm up tunes to loud and put himself off. #struggler!  Despite that he got a decent result in a packed category and put himself 10th overall in the series.

Few thank you’s now, to all the team sponsors, Chaz Curry (Team mechanic) keeping us rolling this weekend, Jamie Edwards (Team manager) and Paul roberts and Tim Lake for putting together this top video of all the action on the hill this weekend! Thanks also to the guys at Monster for putting us up for the weekend and giving us somewhere to stay!

Thanks also to Paul Cram for the great images – you can check out his Facebook here:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Paul-Cram-Photography/286824834679271

Until next time, check out the Wideopenmag.co.uk video: