Longer, Slacker, Faster, Harder

Just been reading an fascinating article on PinkBike by Mike Kazimer about Transition Bike’s movement towards what they are calling “Speed Balanced Geometry“.

Mike talks to Lars Sternberg and Sam Burkhardt from Transition to give the lowdown on Transition’s take on ever evolving bike geometry but more specifically a brilliant breakdown of just exactly what the hell it all means when you actually ride.

With Mark T on his Nicolai G13 which has made the TFITers collectively go “Oooooohhh I see…” I can only wait with baited breath for some announcement from Bellingham’s best as to what this means for their upcoming bikes.

I thoroughly recommend you check out the article on PinkBike here.

The Inside Line

Woop Woop. It’s another red letter day!

So we are now 171 days from wheels down in Les Arcs 2017 and things are coming together nicely. Mr F is performing sterling duties wrangling the unruly mob that is the TFITers into some kind of organised state and I’ve even managed to pay my deposit – it’s a miracle.

However the most exciting news of the day is that I’ve been in touch with the lovely Emily Horridge from www.theinsidelinemtb.com. I’ve been following Emily’s blog for a bit now after discovering her on WordPress.com but with our impending Les Arcs trip in mind it was this article on PinkBike that kicked me into gear to contact her.

The great news is that on the Saturday of our trip Emily has agreed to take us on one of her special trip days out to Mont Jovet.

Am I excited? Yep. Am I completely intimidated? You know it!

I love riding in the Alps. It is one of the highlights of my riding year and I am so utterly excited that we are going to be shown some secrets and just all round epic riding by someone who not only knows the Les Arcs trails like the back of her hand and the grins they bring but who also has more bike talent then we collectively have x10!

Anyway, if you wondering what Mont Jovet is all about, take a look at these videos from Glitchy Pics, Lars Thore Aarrestad and BicyclingSA on YouTube:

Roll on Les Arcs and do check out both Emily’s site and the PinkBike article. By the way… Mark… it’s a bit high…

 

From the Top: Transition Bikes

Just jumped onto pinkbike.com at lunch and came across a fantastic interview by Mike Kazimer from a sit down he recently had with Transition Bikes’ founders Kyle Young and Kevin Menard.

I’d recommend you head over the the article on pinkbike, it’s a brilliantly refreshing interview with two “refreshingly” non-corporate guys in the oh-so-corporate bike industry. I was particularly interested in Kyle’ and Kevin’s words on the ‘industry pressure’ to go fat or plus size.

There’s a lot of stuff in this industry that deserves to be made fun of. That’s kind of our thing… Kevin Menard, Transition Bikes

I might be biased… OK, I’m biased, but I feel 23.5% cooler having read this although I do have one question.

WhyUNoMakeBanditNoMoreBanditIsAwesome?

Les Gets… Morzine… Crankworx

I’ve just made the mistake of consuming a bowl of pea and mint soup from the office canteen. Don’t get me wrong, it was very tasty but it was also “thermonuclear hot” and will have, I suspect, undesirable digestive consequences.

Anyway, that’s my colleagues problem. However while I was waiting for the tongue-melting soup to cool I did have the chance to checkout PinkBike and their latest post on Crankworx.

It’s a brilliant review with some cheeky predictions for the event (I have my fingers crossed for Tahnee Seagrave) but I confess I was mesmerized by the preview of the new Crankworx downhill course.

I suspect if that route is still open in July it will have significantly less vegetation and significantly more braking bumps (!!!) although that starting ‘gap’ (does that even do it justice?) looks fun….

That would be fun in a sort of “weeeeeeeeee… crunch… ahhrrrgghhh” kind of way!

April Fails of the Month

Bit slow in adding this one onto the blog, but here are PinkBike’s April Fails of the Month. Hat’s off to all the riders for sharing these nearly hero moments.

I really like (that is so not the right word) Aliso Viejo’s reverse road gap – however, I have to confess my absolute favourite is from bikeaddict123 and his “Guildford” fail. Not too sure where that is but OMG – just ouch!

Check all the video contenders out on PinkBike.

 

Fails of the Month and a Proper Tool

No, not that kind of tool!

Although having just ‘winced’ my way through the “February Fails of the Month” on Pinkbike, perhaps very apt indeed.

Mark T’s favourite is #1 from iseagram on Pinkbike (the image above should give you some idea…just ouch…) but I like #6, “No Hander, No Lander”, from Luke north of the border. Take a look below if you’re feeling brave, Luke very much was! You can also check out his other excellent videos on his YouTube channel.

The “proper tool” Mark also sent over was Trailforks Trail Finder – excellent use of technology this with a detailed global “trails you need to ride”. The Top Trails in the World List is something to peruse for everyone’s MTB bucket list. Well worth a visit!

 

Fails of the Month – December

James, are you not working today or something?

So, James has volunteered another excellent post, this time from pinkbike.com – “Fails of the Month – December“.

I can only hope that all featured in the videos were not too badly broken and I have to say, massive kudos to mountainbikegeezer, for not only making his skinny dropoff crash video available to the masses (we’ve all done something similar but less are prepared to admit to it), but also for his excellent analysis of what went wrong!

I also think James is correct – we need a TFIT top ten crash list. So in honour of his 40th birthday week I give you the current:

TFIT Top 9 10 15 16 Crash Fails

1. Bob. Morzine. Nuff said.
2. Andy P falling down a cliff in Morzine
3. Bob, collarbone, Little London
4. Tim, collarbone (plus Mark T and Chris G shaped holes) in the first “post-Morzine I” TFIT ride
5. Malcolm W vs house, Surrey – house wins
6. James vs 8 foot gap jump, UK Bike Skills – post jump obstacle wins
7. Andy C vs tabletop, Morzine – tabletop wins
8. Dave D vs Mark T, Surrey – on the corner on the descent to the White Heart – corner wins
9. Steve F, Morzine, riding the flat plaza – gravity wins
10. Dave D, Surrey, Wheelie outside White Horse – gravity wins… again
11. Tim W, Surrey, reverse skid through fence near Tranny Hill
12. Andy C, Surrey – bomb hole up near Gibbets.
13. Mark T, Surrey – stuck in the the first Mark shaped hole
14. Dave D, Morzine – near death OTB at the top of final run into Morzine
15. Chris G, Surrey – learning not to follow Andy C on a downhill near Winkworth
16. Chris G & Steve F, Surrey – synchronised “slow motion crash off boardwalk into swamp” on Thursley Common