New bling to brighten your MTB head tube

The experience of riding a Cove Mountain BIke is un equalled however with the great quality this small private frame building operation in Canada can make the best handling frames, they put little if any value on the graphics and they will often vanish at the first sign of an aggressive jet wash.Not that it bothers me too much but I always felt bikes should still come with proper metal head tube badges and not stickers or lacquered transfers. This is what Cove think a bikes head tube should be dressed like.

The head badge on my Stiffee 69'er

And after a few blasts of water my G Spot lost its identity and a quick rummage through a MBUK sticker sheet found a replacement to hide the bare patch.

Yes I found a Fox sticker that sort of fitted in the reduced gap

But still disgruntled at really wanting something in metal rather than blow another set of stickers off, I looked around and then a post on Singletrack Forum one day drew my attention to a thread on Bespoke headtube badge makers. The better known suppliers were American however  I got talking to one of the British based posters, Geoff Moorhouse, who made badges in Pewter. He had never done a Cove before and we struggled to get the art work, but after all the wait the results were well worth the effort and I am glad my Cove is now better dressed to face the oceans of mud and filth I throw it through

A new work of art adorns my bikes head tube

Another view

For further details and prices contact Geoff Moorhouse at <<gemo at f2s dot com>>

It might be the middle of winter but in Australia it is Summer

For the Boxing Day weekend the Coed Llandegla Visitor Center was open meaning all the staff had to suspend family activities and slabs of Turkey to ensure the regions mountain bikers and walkers got all the great facilities at Llandegla. The centre was packed out with visitors many of them young riders checking out Santa Clauses good taste in Mountain Bikes. The OPA Café crew, not to waste a good christmas threw in an outdoor Barbeque which with the almost icey state of the higher trails still attracted many blue skinned riders to take advantage of the blue sky and sun of a cold december …

You can now hire an Orange at Coed Llandegla

With One Planet Adventure being appointed dealers for the UK Mountain Bike manufacturers Orangethey have replaced the existing hire fleet of the sturdy Kona Hoss with a higher spec and very nice Orange G3 Mountain Bike. They are also holding a test fleet of the more popular Orange Models that if you are thinking of buying British this year pop on down and have a look at one of the most popular ranges of specialist mountain bikes available in the UK….

The next and final NPS Cross Country at Penmachno 13/14 September is cancelled… for more details join the squabble over at www.xcracer.com.  Our respect goes to the organisers who had a hard unprofitable job putting on this years series and I dont blame them at all.. The fact the locals tried to stiff them for £4000 for the start field shows the often greedy reaction that inflicts a sport because of the hype caused about the notional prices of these bikes and the seemingly bottomless pockets of riders… all total tosh and as with most other countries in Europe some of the costs for holding an event of this calibre would have attracted financial support from Regional / Local government in this  case Welsh Assembly / Conwy County Borough Council

Here is the BC press release in full ..

News Posted: 3 Sept 2009

 

The final rounds of the British Cycling Cross-Country Series and the Whyte Bikes Enduro Series scheduled for Penmachno on the 13th and 14th of September have been cancelled, the organisers Thetford Racing have announced.

The series standings will now be based on all 4 rounds that have taken place so far and series awards will be sent to the riders by post. All riders that have pre-entered Round 5 of the Cross-Country and Enduro series will be refunded as soon as is possible.

Freecaster.tv announced today at Eurobike, the world’s largest bike trade show, a 3 year exclusive partnership with UCI to cover LIVE the Mountain Bike and BMX World Cups. Stay tuned for more Freecaster.tv breaking news in the weeks to come.

For recent coverage of the World Cup check out these clips….

Men’s Downhill Final in Canberra, Australia (39 minutes)

 

Gee Atherton roaring into the 3rd podium spot

Another great end to the season at the classic course at Schladming, Austria is due on 13 September. In the Women’s Downhill event we are seeing the domination by North Wales resident Rachel Atherton who has been flying so high and fast this season most of her opponents are only seeing the vapour trail.
After the two North American rounds of the “Nissan UCI Downhill World Cup powered by blah blah blah” at the famous Monte St Anne venue in Canada we saw Rachel Atherton (Animal Commençal) drop into the #1 slot to Sabrina Jonnier’s #2 (Team Maxxis) with Tracey Moseley (Kona) coming in #3. This was of course the week after her almost crippling accident at the British National Champs at Rhyd y Felin not far from Bala where she was air ambulanced out of the venue. The finish order was repeated a week later at Bromont, still in Canada, where the weather was at least as extreme as the course. Last weekend Round 5 moved to Canberra in Australia (World Championships 2009) where Tracy managed to leapfrog over them all to take the top podium place with Rachel #2 and french rider Jonnier left standing on podium #3.

With Rachel 50 points on top of Jonnier, she still has to fight hard to get the overall win for the series title, however she cannot be caught by third place Moseley, who if getting the maximum 250 points, will not improve on 3rd overall, however if Jonnier sets the fastest time in the seeding runs and wins the race, Rachel needs 203 points to win and must get 2nd place in both runs to get the series win. Since Rachel is unlikely to have an idea of how Jonnier does until she finishes it is going to be the hottest race of the year for undoubtedly the worlds best woman downhiller……

World Cup DH Womens Overall 1/9/2008
Rank Prev. Name / First Name Country Age Points
1 1 ATHERTON Rachel GBR 21 2173
2 2 JONNIER Sabrina FRA 27 2126
3 3 MOSELEY Tracy GBR 29 1767
4 4 RAGOT Emmeline FRA 22 1450

Over to the fella’s
Right who do we want? …. Geeee When do we want? … now… yup new lord of the turf is Gee Atherton (Animal Commençal) ok Peaty is the Don but is from ‘Yarksheer’ but yes in the end a Peaty season win would be the bomb. However this is how its been. After the world cup in Fort Bill with 1 spot grabbed Sam (yeah he deserved the win) Hill (Monster Iron Horse)… followed by Gee then Greg Minaar (Santa Cruz Syndicate) and Steve Peat (Santa Cruz Syndicate) the race moved across the pond. With two Canadian rounds after the rather odd World Championship in Italy where Sam Hill’s pact with the devil seems to have come unstuck at last on the final corner… so anyway Bish Bash Bosh - Mont St Anne #1 Minaar #2 Atherton #3 Hill #4 Peat and on to Bromont where the devils assistance came back #1 Hill #2 Minaar #3 Atherton #4 Peat.. each rider putting clear 2 second leads into each other was amazing …. so onto Australia … Canberra #1 Minaar but at #2 Nathan Rennie (Santa Cruz Syndicate) makes a come back from obscurity for his home race #3 is Gee with #4 everyones favourite frenchman Fabien Barel (Mondraker) Peaty finds his way down in #7. However the surprise is Minaar has a 5 second lead over second place… has he taken over Hill’s deal with the devil… mmmmm looks like it Hill limps home 9 seconds down in #11

So finals.. Schladming what’s the likely story?….. Hill is leading the world rankings at 1893 points if he was to bomb the 250 points available to the absolute winner means only Minaar and Gee are able to challenge Sam. Peaty at 1386 cannot get the overall win even if he takes the win. If Sam Hill hits the double win then with 2143 points no riders have enough points to beat him. If Gee wins the 2047 points, he has means Hill needs just 155 points to take the series win. If Gee was to DNF his seeding run, Hill would need to finish at least #2 in the main run to take the win… it’s all hot stuff for live coverage from the Final Round of the 2008 World Cup check out Freecaster.tv

World Cup DH Mens Overall 1/9/2008
Rank Prev. Name / First Name Country Age Points
1 1 HILL Samuel AUS 23 1893
2 2 ATHERTON Gee GBR 23 1797
3 3 MINNAAR Greg RSA 27 1764
4 4 PEAT Steve GBR 34 1386

And finally what a year.. right now GB leads the national ranking in downhill with #1 place in the womens thanks not only to Rachel but also Tracey, Ffion Griffiths, Helen Gaskell and in the mens too with significant work this season at world cups and other UCI events by not just by the Athertons and Peaty but also Brendan Fairclough, Matt Simmonds, Mark Beaumont, Josh Bryceland, Sam Dale, Danny Hart, Tom Braithwaite, and teams CRC Intense and Reverse Components and yeah .. those i ommitted…. it’s late…

National Team Rankings Womens DH 1/9/2008
Rank Prev. Country Code Points
1 2 GREAT BRITAIN GBR 4981
2 1 FRANCE FRA 4868
3 3 AUSTRIA AUT 1939

National Team Rankings Mens DH 1/9/2008
Rank Prev. Country Code Points
1 1 GREAT BRITAIN GBR 3894
2 2 AUSTRALIA AUS 3502
3 3 FRANCE FRA 2934

British National Downhill Championships at Rhyd y Felin.

The No.1 event in the UK domestic calendar this year is taking place on the legendary Bala course in North Wales on 19-20 July.

 Pearce Cycles Race Team of Ludlow in Shropshire are organising the British Cycling sanctioned event, with support from main sponsor Red Rock Clothing. With a limited number of places still available, riders wishing to enter to earn lots of ranking points as well as race on one of the best downhill tracks in the country have only one week until entries close. A dry run for this event took place at the weekend, with 300 riders competing in round 4 of the Pearce Cycles Race Series, the super fast dusty conditions saw James Hughes take the Elite win with a blistering time of 2:49.

The National Champs in July promises to be bigger and better with the race arena packed with trade stands, team pits and a spectacular six metre high road bridge made from scaffolding to launch riders into the finish arena. Race categories for this year’s event are in line with the UK’s National Points Series: Juvenile, Youth, Junior, Veteran, Master, Senior, Expert and Elite but with the following changes:

Expert and Elite riders must all ride in the Elite category however Expert riders will receive ranking points based on their finishing position within their own Expert category. The Senior category is a non-championship event, so no official British Cycling medals or jerseys will be awarded.  If a senior rider wishes to compete for the National Championship title they may ride in Elite but are no longer eligible for Senior rankings points. The National Championships is a category C ranking event, and is therefore the most important on the domestic racing calendar. Please note that there is no Open category. All riders must have a British Cycling race licence and a minimum of five national ranking points. For further information and to enter the race visit www.pearcecycles.co.uk or Tel: 01584 879288