NEW FUNN BRAKES and accessories from TWENTY26 distribution

Thanks to Twenty26 I have some new, very pimp Funn brakes! Here's some pic's;

-Here are some Funn "drop out" brakes, socks, stickers, t-shirts and banners.

-Here are my new Funn "drop in" downhill brake levers

-Here are my new Funn "drop in" downhill brake calipers and rotors;

Thanks Twenty26!

N.P.S round 2 - Innerleithen

Round 2 has come and gone already and what a round it was!


-Our set up and Mojo pic’s

We rolled up to the venue around midday Friday and set up the REZURGENCE easy-up. Weather was good! It was a very long and steep walk to the top of the mountain. The course was seriously steep in many sections and very rocky. All the rocks were loose and would constantly be changing. It was also very technical with most corners being between tight trees. It was very fast but when speed was scrubbed off it was done very dramatically, there were a few sections that reached around 35mph but you needed to slow down to about 5mph in just a few seconds. There were some harsh braking bumps as a consequence. The very bottom of the course was the only part not wooded. This consisted of a ski jump, 2 berms, a hip jump, 2 flat corners and a few compressions to the finish. It was such a complicated and technical track I walked it again to attempt to learn it.


-The course


Saturday morning was an early start as the uplift started at 8:30. No 2 mile ride to the uplift this year either; Just a ride across the field to the road. It was dry still and the course was riding dusty. The uplift was pretty slow and I only got about 5 runs in before my seeding run.


-Chilling at Simons van listening to some tunes!

I had hit all the lines in practise that I wanted to and was anxious to know how I compared on a course that I can’t practise on anything like it at home. My seeding run went well I thought. I took it easy and just hit all my lines. I came down to get 4th place with a 3min 17 sec’s. I was happy with this and knew I could cut the time down in my race run.


-The ski jump

I walked the course after watching the last riders do there seeding runs. I found many more lines that seemed to have changed and appeared during practise. I was confident if all went well I would be able to shave off about 10 seconds on a pretty good run.

I got a lift to Summerfields with Ross Hamond, Sam Shucksmith and Mark Blackler to get something to munch on. It turned out that Ross went back in to the toilet, little did he know he was about to be locked in the loo’s in the shopping centre. Haha! We all grabbed a pizza on the way back and went to bed.

Sunday was another early start of 8:30 practise. I set out to do 2 runs; one run to ride my new lines and one to do a practise race run. They both went according to plan and I had plenty of time to spare so I went up to watch. I was very surprised to see that a corner had been changed and an inside line was opened. I thought that this was really off; you can’t just change a course 2 hours before racing commences! It looked as though it would be faster just cruising through it rather than pinning the outside so I planned to hit it first time in my race run.


-Some pic’s of me

Going up for my race run was totally different this time, I wasn’t nervous at all! I just knew that this was it and I was going to get down fast but without pushing what I hadn’t already practised at a certain speed. And after all I couldn’t do much worse than my first result at Ae Forest. I did what I wanted to do in my run but I missed a crucial line near the start as I hit the wrong line before it. But I had a good run and came down ending up in 6th place with a 3 min 11sec’s. Just off the podium! Dam it!


-A video of Mojo rider; Ben Cathro doing the step down

Thanks to DMR, Rezurgence, Lifestyle Ford, Mojo, Mace, Nike 6, Twenty26, Geax and Motor Tabs.

Midlands Round 3 – Bringewood

We turned up to see cloudy skies and a wet track. I walked the course Saturday morning. It was surprisingly long and very slippery in places. Saturdays practise started off very wet and greasy. My first practise run with teammate Lee was unbelievably slippery. As soon as we got to the bottom it was straight to the van to put spikes on.

I got around 7 runs in and the track dried up nicely towards the end of the day. For my last run I put a dry tire on the front. It was awful! I fell off once and had an infinite number of sketchy moments.

Later on Saturday night it rained for well over an hour so I put my spike tire back on. I walked the course again with Lee and there was standing water everywhere. It was looking worse than it was before practise again.

Dad cooked us some food and I had to do some Maths Homework.

We woke up Sunday morning to an unexpected beautifully clear sky. The thought of how much the track was going to dry out was constantly on my mind. I had time for 2 runs down with spikes on. It was very slippery and there was quite a lot more spray at the beginning of the day. The sun was drying up the course quite nicely.

I kept the spikes on for my first race run though. To get used to racing Nationals I have been treating my first runs at normal races as my only run. So on my first run I took it safe but not conservative. I had a few sketchy moments that lost a little bit of time but all in all it was a good run. I was put into 2nd place with a 2 mins 42.2 seconds.

-Wall of funny faces; Alva Coppard doing a great job on the commentating by the way!

Before my last run I put my dry tires back on. It was going to be faster than before but I really tried hard in my first run and was feeling tired. The change of tires was a good choice and I could feel it rolling faster. I made a few big mistakes that lost me a quite a lot of time. Despite this I went a second faster; 2 mins 41.0 seconds. Course conditions had changed largely. I was pushed down to 4th position; disappointed.

-Lee obviously won the hard tail category by a large amount of 14 seconds with a 2 mins 46.9 seconds. Amazing stuff!

Nationals at Inners, Scotland this weekend! Hopefully I will be on it this round!

Thanks to DMR, Rezurgence, Lifestyle Ford, Mojo, Mace, Nike 6, Twenty26, Geax and Motor Tabs.

Dragon round 2 Gethin;

-New shoes from Nike 6.0!

Friday night driving up, myself and dad followed a thunderstorm most of the way to the venue. It never rained on us but it was obvious that it had rained at the venue.

Saturday’s mornings walk showed me that the course was the same but the tape was a bit wider in some places giving more line-choice. The weather was good now and it was meant to be good for the rest of the weekend. It was going to dry up a lot.

Practise wasn’t very long because seeding runs took part at 2 and the uplift wasn’t great. I got 5 runs in at a push before my seeding. It wasn’t enough to really grasp the course fully so I didn’t go all out in seeding runs. I came 3rd in junior and 6th overall. I had a good run but I could count many seconds to gain on.

I walked the course again with teammate Lee later that night. After finding some valuable lines we rode up the mountain in search for another track... after about an hour we found an awesome off camber, rooty, wooded section. We went down to have dinner after a while.

Sunday morning I set out to do 2 runs to do my lines and rest up for race runs. My practise runs went really well and I got down early to rest up. I had to put some new brake pads in for my first run. I was feeling good for first runs. I came down in 4th place. I got back to the van and realised that the new pads i put in meant that the wheel didn’t spin properly at all. I sorted it out before second runs with 4 seconds to gain.

Second runs went relatively well... I had a good run but my chain was skipping towards the end and it eventually snapped at the last part of the course. I was 2nd place. 0.2 seconds off first. I think those last couple pedal strokes would have got me it. I was 5th overall.

Here’s a link to the overall results; www.dragondownhill.co.uk/2004site/results2008/rd2/rd2resultsallcats.htm

This weekend is the midlands at Bringewood... Myself and Lee will be there!

Thanks to DMR, Rezurgence, Lifestyle Ford, Mojo, Mace, Nike 6, Funn, Geax and Motor tabs.

Caersws Cup round 2;

We got to Caersws around 1am Saturday morning and went to sleep for little part of the morning left.
Waking up early I walked the course with my dad and good mate; Mark Blackler. Walking up the course I was surprised to see that the bottom section of the course was the same as the first round. The middle and top section however were totally different and I had not ridden the middle section before. It was steep and technical with some very high speed sections throughout the course.
The weather was cloudy and it had rained the night before practise day. The course was not really all that wet but enough spray was created to make everyone pretty muddy. I left about ¾ hour into practise as I knew it was going to change quickly and dry up. I did 3 runs cruising down to get my lines and stopped for lunch. I had everything planned out in my head; after last week’s tragedy I have learnt that organisation is very important. After a relaxed lunch I did another 3 runs to speed up the lines. The course was getting dusty patches by now so I took another break to gather my thoughts. I had the course pretty sorted now so I went up for my last 2 runs of practise and treated them as race runs. All in all, practise went pretty well.

Dad cooked up another one of his pasta “with everything in it” stir fry’s after we walked the course again. After a fiddle here and there on the bike I got to bed.

In the middle of the night I woke up to here rain; every racer knows that gutted feeling to here rain in the night when it’s been dry all practise day. Also in the early hours of the morning there was a massive thunder storm. It seemed to last forever and after each bang I was expecting to throw it down but it never rained at all.

We woke up to a very overcast morning but everything seemed dry still. I had it planned out that I was going to do 2 practise runs. The course was drier than ever and totally dusty. 2 runs was enough to get that bit faster and I did the bottom field section once more to get the right line. I now had a long time to rest up for race runs. I mostly listened to music and ate lots and got into the mood. It was still overcast and looked like the rain could ruin another good weekend. It started to brighten at the horizon though and I went up for my run. I said to myself that I was going to treat my first run like my only run to get used to it for the NPS. I gave it a fast and composed run down and had a pretty good run. I came in at the bottom in 2nd place. I got a 2min 29secs. I had 2 second year juniors either side of me, 4 seconds ahead and 4 seconds behind.

I went back to the van to sort my gears out because they were skipping. I soon noticed that I only had half my mech still. I had to borrow Marks mech for 2nd runs. Thanks!
After another chill out I went up on a mission. I really wanted to beat elite rider, Liam Mason. He was just under a second ahead.-Liam Mason

I took it flat out making small mistakes at the very beginning but had the rest of the course flat out. I didn’t bother braking in the field at all and hit it real fast. I started drifting on the second to last corner and that was it... I don’t know how many 360’s I did on the grass. I got up quickly and cruised round the corner to the finish line. I was only 3 seconds slower than my first run time. Gutted! I was still 2nd place though and 6 seconds off the fastest Elite time of the day.

It was just before the expert and elite riders were to come down for their 2nd runs and it chucked it down. It was comedy watching them come through the field section. I don’t think anyone made it through without falling. I watched Liam Mason fall of on the same corner as I did which was funny. If you read this... good luck for the world cup this week!

-Elite Podium-Expert Podium-Junior Podium

Thanks to DMR, Rezurgence, Lifestyle Ford, Mojo, Mace, Nike 6, Funn, Geax and Motor tabs.