Jonny's Granite Chief

Seeing as I'm not at any races or in France this weekend I decided to do some work on my Granite Chief and The Bruce jump bike.

As soon as Fin gave me my Granite Chief for the season I knew exactly what i wanted to do to make it suit my style of riding. Kicking off with a Sunline bar to replace the narrow carbon Syncross and slamming the stem on the steerer tube, the Granite felt faster already. Once aimed down the steep trails at Triscombe I could tell this was going to be a great bike and perfect for the UK downhills.

Next on the hit list was the x0 carbon cranks. Coming with a 3x10 set up as standard this seemed a little overkill for what i had in mind. Fin came through with a 38t MRP chain device which was bolted straight on and given a severe first ride down Fort Bill's red run. The true test came when I was riding my home trails in Bath and had to deal with some serious climbs but we both made it around fine, including the 25% climb.

So thats it for the moment, I'm heading down to Triscombe this weekend to test out the Granite on the slippy roots and mud, I'll let you know how it goes!!

I was also lucky enough to get my hands on a Bruce jump bike to play on. I had only ridden the demo bike last year a couple of times and was stoked to get the chance to build one up to my specs. I'm still working on it so I'll post a photo or two when its done.

Rose Flow Team bikes

We just took delivery of the new Rose Bikes UK Flow Team bikes. Isaac and Joel Anderson and Euan Hird have all picked the purple and white Beefcake DH and then got the chance to pimp them out with a choice of components from the comprehensive Rose Bikes website.

You'll be able to see how the Anderson's do this weekend at Llangollen as well as our World Cup rracer Katy Curd who will hopefully be back after fracturing her shoulder at Fort William a couple of weeks ago.

Check out shots of Isaac and Joel's bikes below and come say hi in Wales at the weekend!

Euan Hird - SDA Series Round 3, Dunkeld

Round three of the Scottish Downhill Association 2011 series took place at Dunkeld in Perthshire on a much changed track.

Arriving on Friday evening I made my way up the track that was the scene of my least enjoyable race of 2010. To my surprise I found a very different track. The SDA had obviously put a lot of work in to the track with large new sections cut through the woods including a couple of good double step downs (picture). The tapes had also been set pretty wide giving a great selection of lines to choose from. I came off the hill really excited about the weekend ahead and praying that it would remain dry. Rain would very quickly spoil this great track as the new sections were on soft ground.

Saturday morning I got up to find it damp and it only got worse as the rain got heavier all day. I started well with a couple of fast and fun runs but the track was getting very slippy and more cut up all the time. By the time I came down on my third run, large sections were becoming a lottery and a pretty scary one at that. The rock gardens that litter the hill all took casualties but I still managed what I thought was a pretty good run and kept up with or was faster than riders I know to be quick. I did another couple of full runs in the afternoon before falling at one of the very grease shoots when I got off line. I remember is sitting up and wandering where the people standing round me had come from and seeing my bike leaning against a tree. I don’t think I was out for long but I definitely lost a few seconds somewhere and broke my helmet peak in to the bargain. Time to call it a day.

On Sunday morning I did one practice run which wasn’t error free but I got down pretty well and was up for a really good result as race time approached. I spend the interim on the hill with dad looking at lines and learning from watching the others. On returning to my bike I found I had a rear flat that must have happened right at the finish of my practice run. With no time to spare a new tube was fitted before catching the uplift. I arrived at the start gate as my number was called and went straight in to run one. It didn’t last long before I washed out on a corner at speed. The bike sailed off in the weeds as I went tumbling down the track. By the time I got up, dusted myself off and got my bike back I knew the run was lost so waited for the next rider down to pass before making my own way down. 3rd last after run one left no room for mistakes on run two but that’s exactly what I did. Again I struggled for front end grip all the way down and eventually fell hard in the fast rock garden run down to the lower fire road. I retired on the spot and had to make my way back down the fire road so never saw the finish a second time.

Having gone in to the weekend on a high, had a great day on Saturday, I’m totally gutted with Sunday result. I can’t put in to words how low I felt as I packed up to go home. As you can see from the picture I’m still riding the loaned 2010 bike and getting desperate to prove to the other riders that Rose have made a 2011 bike. I’ve a three week break now until my next outing which is back in Fort William for Kill the Bill 2 on the 2nd/3rd of July followed the week after by the SDA champs then the BDS Champs two week later.

Photo by Paul Cram http://www.rootsandrain.com/photos/paul-cram/

BikeRadar check out our new bikes.

Rose custom builds

The guys from Rose Bikes UK are at Fort Bill to support four-cross and downhill racer Katy Curd and they had two interesting-looking custom builds on their stand. First up is a Verdita Green – the women's equivalent of the Granite Chief – which has been transformed from a 140mm-travel trail muncher into a 100mm playbike thanks to some fettling of the Fox Float R rear shock by TF Tuned.

It's the personal bike of Rose/TFT's Greg Marshall, who told BikeRadar: "The stroke of the shock has been reduced internally, which has sunk the whole bike down, and it also has a firmer platform. It started out like a jump bike but it's turned into a sort of four-cross/play bike. It's really nice." Why the women's frame? It's the equivalent of an extra-small men's bike, making it easy to chuck about.

Despite the bombproof build – including a Fox TALAS fork, single chainring and Gamut chain device, Shimano DX flat pedals, Spank jump bar and stem, and Formula The One brakes – it's surprisingly light. Rose didn't have any scales on hand but a non-scientific pick-up test suggests it's certainly sub-30lb.

Also on the stand was Rose UK main man Finlay Paton's custom Beef Cake SL. He reckons this 180mm-travel rig weighs just 37lb, including pedals. And that's without cutting any performance corners – the Fox 36 fork and Van R shock are both coil rather than air units (ignore the TALAS stickers on the fork – it has custom coil internals courtesy of TFT), and component swaps could easily shave off another couple of pounds

Taken from bikeradar

Euan Hird - SDA Rnd 2 - Fort William

Round two of the Scottish Downhill Association 2011 series took place at the world famous world cup course at Nevis Range near Fort William. Probably the most eagerly awaited race of the year, this year more so as extensive work had been done to large parts of the course. The SDA didn’t use the new road gap that will appear at this year’s world cup round but followed the rest of the course which has been made even quicker.

After weeks of almost unbroken sunshine we arrived at Nevis Range on Friday evening just in time to catch the last gondola to the top and walk the course back down in heavy rain. A little dampness on this course is a good thing as the loose gravel at the top gives far better grip. Fully wet however and it’s probably no advantage and as we got toward the bottom it was clearly going to be a very wet weekend.

Saturday started badly and went downhill quickly if you pardon the pun. My first run was OK but I fell a number of times on the now very muddy tree line sections and began to wonder if there was a clean line through at all. My second run only lasted to the deer fence about a 3rd of the way down when eight spokes broke on my back wheel pretty much jamming the wheel in the frame. With no spare wheel in the van and none available locally in the right axle width we only had one option. Try and fix it. This was made more difficult when the rear maxle also snapped getting the wheel off the bike. We made a run in to town for parts and spent the rest of the day and early evening making the best job we could for Sunday. This was not a weekend where I could afford to miss practice so went in to Sunday really unsure and on the back foot.

On Sunday morning I had time for only one practice run which wasn’t great and again put the rear wheel out of true. We got it straightened again in time for the my first race run though. Seeded 13th from the first round results, I crossed the line in 7th but again finished with the wheel rubbing heavily on the frame and requiring another few spokes. I knew that holding on to 13rd was going to be difficult and by the end of the first runs I was 15th. I could tell by the times of my usual competition and some mates that I had a lot of time still in me so was hoping for a solid top 10 come the end of the day. Unfortunately that was the end of the day. We managed to get the bike going again but a number of long red flag periods in some of the other classes had delayed the event too much and with the wind getting up it was decided to halt racing and call it on the single first runs.

I’m still riding the loaned 2010 bike but it had seen a lot of riding even before I got my hands on it and its starting to tell. A complete wheel rebuild and some other TLC is really overdue. With the BDS race at the very tough Glencoe ski resort in under two weeks time I hope my new bike is going to arrive on time.

Photos by Paul Cram http://www.rootsandrain.co.uk/photos/paul-cram/

Katy Curd - South Africa WC1

Katy Curd sent over a couple of posts from her last few races, kicking off with the World Cup in SA.

Last weekend saw the first round of the World cup kick off in Pietermaritzburg, south Africa.

I always find the first world cup the worst, as you’ve been training your tits off for six months solid, all working towards this very race. You never know where you or anyone one else is at in terms of fitness or skills all you can do is get your head in to the game and hope all the hard work has paid off.

Unfortunately as Pietermaritzburg isn’t the closest of races for most people it meant the entry list was minimal with only 9 girls entered. The track is one of the longest tracks on the circuit but not massively technical favouring some of the fitter, stronger riders.

For qualification I thought the times would be fairly spread out as just one little dab of the brake or a slight mistake and you lost so much momentum. The times as expected were pretty spread out, with Anneke Beerten coming in first, closely follow by Anita Molcik and I slotted in third with a time that was a second off Anneke’s.

Racing was made interesting with one off camber corner catching everyone out. In the first Heat it was Anneke up against Melissa Buhl and Celine Gros. Anneke had an comfortable lead from start to finish and left Melissa and Celine to battle it out. Melissa was sat in second for the majority of the race but Celine didn’t give up and just managed to take it on the finish line.

The second heat was Anita Molcik, Fionn Griffiths, Lucia Oetjen and myself. Anita shot out the gate into the lead, and I was sat close behind in second but unfortunately Anita got unluckly on the off camber corner and slipped out hitting the deck fairly hard. As she hit the deck I knew that was it, as I tried to squeeze through on the inside Molcik rolled into me taking me out with her leaving Fionn and Lucia to roll past for an easy ride in to the A Final against Anneke and Celine.

Again to no surprise Anneke had a easy lead for final, leading from the start gate and keeping 1st all the way to the finish. Fionn made a impressive move in the first corner, taking the inside line moved from 3rd up to 2nd. Leaving Celine and Lucia battling it out for 3rd and 4th. Lucia put up a good race but Celine managed to put her downhill skills to good use carrying good speed to the line to take 3rd place leaving Lucia to take 4th.

I was pretty disappointed with my result, six months training and travelled half way around the world just to get taken out. Emotions got the better of me at the end of that race but its now on to Fort William where i will prove i can get the results i have been training all winter for.

WDMBA ROUND TWO, GETHIN 24th APRIL 2011

WDMBA ROUND TWO, GETHIN 24^th APRIL 2011

Gethin, we hadn’t been there since the dying days of the old Dragon Downhill uplifts when Joel was about nine or ten riding his Kona Stinky 24. I remember that it was a freezing day in mid-winter and the mile or so push at the top from the uplift drop off point to the start of the track was a killer for a nine year old pushing a 40lb bike through thick mud shrouded in freezing low cloud.

So we had to decide, do we enter round two of the new Welsh Downhill Mountain Bike Association series or give it a miss? As last week progressed the weather looked like it would hold for the weekend and by Wednesday evening the boys (having chatted to some mates who had entered) decided they wanted to give it a go. A couple of frantic emails to the organisers on Thursday and they were in, many thanks to them for being so accommodating.

We arrived on Saturday morning to be met by a bright, sunny and warm day. Close inspection of the track revealed a dry, superfast, dusty course which had recently seen some revamping but retained lots of the old character including the infamous rock garden. The boys both got on with getting some decent practice under their belts and by mid-afternoon had completed several runs each without any real incidents. The Rose Beef Cake FR’s were running well with the added advantage that after being dropped off at the top they could flick the Pro-pedal on and ride the mile or so to the start ahead of other riders thus having a clear course ahead.

All the discussion through the day centred around which line would be quickest through the rock garden and as a father I have to admit that I didn’t want to advise them or indeed watch them navigate a successful path through this most challenging section of the course. Even Dan Athertons dad looked uncomfortable when Dan came charging through the section.

By early evening, we all agreed that it had been a successful day. No real hold up’s, the uplift had run smoothly, the boys felt they had the course dialled. So it was off to the hotel for a shower, some grub and a good night’s sleep.

Sunday morning and we were greeted by equally bright and dry weather although thankfully a little cooler. We were a little late arriving but the boys were straight into the uplift queue whilst I sorted out our pits. Again they had a solid practice run each before heading up again for their first timed runs.

Racing got under way at 11.30am with the hardtailers and Juvenile riders kicking off the proceedings. Joel had been seeded middle order in youth category so it was a little while to wait for him to make an appearance. He did duly appear with a time of 3.17.4 which I think put him into 11^th place in category. He declared that he had had a clean run but hoped to be able to go faster in his second attempt. Other more experienced riders in his group were having a torrid time.

The junior category followed in which Isaac had been seeded 4^th. We waited by the finish as rider after rider crossed the line with times tumbling towards the 3 minute mark. Could any junior manage a sub-3 minute run? As Isaac approached our hearts were in our mouths as he went 2.59.51 to put him first with three riders left on track. At the end of the category Isaac was placed 4^th but was confident that he could improve on his time in the second run.

Second runs got underway at about 2.30pm. Hardtailers and juveniles were first down followed by the youth category. Joel had a clean run but was unable to improve on his first time coming home in 3.18.58 a second or so slower but at least it showed consistency on his part. Some of the faster riders managed to get the act together to unfortunately push Joel down from 11^th to 15^th place.

Now our eyes were on Isaac, 4^th last on the hill we waited in anticipation. Could he better his first run? The times were tumbling towards the magic 3 minute mark and when Isaac appeared it was clear that he would break his earlier time. He finished in 2.56.57, a little under 3 seconds faster. This pushed him up into 3^rd place with three riders yet to finish. Could he hang on to that position? Two of the riders went slower but one went quicker which slipped Isaac back to 4^th. He told me later that all the way down the track he was saying to himself that he could win this race and he very nearly did missing out by only 2.38 seconds.

So a good fourth placed podium for Isaac. He is still only a first year junior with the three riders ahead of him all in their second year and a solid middle order result for Joel who we believe was the youngest rider in his category and really still recovering from injury. Joel’s consolation was that he got his own little section in the WideOpenMag edit of the event. He’s well chuffed!

The boys would like thank everyone at Rose Bikes for all the support and are very excited about the prospect of taking delivery of their new Beef Cakes in the next couple of weeks or so.

And as to which race to enter next? They think we maybe taking a little run down to Woodland Riders at Tavistock this Sunday for the final push up race of the winter series.

Joel, Isaac and Duncan Anderson

Scottish Downhill Series Round 1 – Ae Forest

The Scottish downhill series got off to a great start on the 16th/17th of April at Ae Forest deep in the south of Scotland. After a 5 hour drive south on Friday afternoon in glorious sunshine, I walked thetrack as the rain started. The track looked quite technical with a horrid look off camber section coming in to the final section before the drop off. The thick tree cover in the middle of the track had kept the sun and wind out and was still pretty muddy which was a shame as over all the track looked pretty quick.

Saturday the 16th – Practice, Warm and sunny

I met up with my good friend Lachlan Blair and we spend the day trying to get a handle on the middle muddy and continually worsening off camber sections. I just couldn’t get a clean run and all the time the roots were getting more exposed. Four runs later and I felt I was getting quicker but still making mistakes. There's a fine line between speed and staying on and I was struggling to find it.

Sunday the 17th – Race Day, Hot and sunny

One practice run on the morning didn’t improve things with a few more falls. I went in to my first race run still unsure how to handle the middle section but soon found the extra adrenalin of racing seemed to do the trick and I was flying error free. Half way down however I was brought up by a red flag. Someone had fallen in the final drop to the finish and was blocking the track. At the bottom I was told to get back up quickly for my re-run. Again I was running well. Fast and error free down over the drop off and in to the big berms. On braking for the tight left turn in to the last drop the front just wouldn’t stick and I went down straight in to a photographer on the outside of the corner. On getting back up and on the bike I found the reason. A front flat. I must have clipped a rock on the exit of the fast berms and not noticed until I needed to turn again. A slow run the last 100 metres got me in 30th of 43 riders. Not a happy bunny at all. My second run in the afternoon was uneventful and maybe I was over tired or something because although if felt OK I was off the pace and came in 7th eventually dropping to 13th.

I started the weekend seeded 6th and thought that was about right so although I had a great time, 13th doesn’t feel like I got what I wanted from it. Last year I’d have been over the moon with 13th so I shouldn’t complain and it is still a decent result.

That should be my last race on the 2010 Rose Beefcake as I’m reliably informed that my 2011 bike is at last on its way. Fort William world cup course next on the 14th/15th of May let’s hope I christen the new bike with a good result.

I’d like to thank Rose Bikes UK for my bike and the SDA for running another great event.

Euan

Photos by Ian Linton and Paul Cram

Charlie Watts pre-season training.

Rose Bikes - Hey Charlie, how’s it going?

Charlie Watts – Good thanks man, just back from a session at PORC.

RB - Cool, been practicing into the mulch pit there? what new tricks have you learnt for the new season?

CW - Yeah, its great there, i got truckdrivers the other day

RB - Is that a 360 barspin or two barspins?

CW - 360 barspin. Also got 360 no handers and double whips

RB - Sweet, what comps are you hitting up then? Have you got any road trips planned?

CW - I’m going to hit all the dirt wars comps and hopefully Riva again in Italy. I”m still not old enough to drive but a couple of my friends are so we are going to have another week in Cornwall in the summer hitting up the track and anywhere else we can find. Woburn is always an awsome place to ride so I’m going to go there loads this year also PORC.

RB - Are you getting anything different on your Rose Bruce this year? Or are you going to run it stock?

CW - Well from the pics i have seen the bike looks amazing so I wont need to change much maybe the handle bars and seat, swap them for some lighter ones. I’ll have a play around with the rear wheel too, I need to see if there is anyway i can get around using the massive axel it comes with. To be honest though, I’m just looking forward to getting it and starting the competition season!

RB - Cheers Charlie, looking forward to another great season!

Winter Series Results.

The results for the Scottish Winter Series are in and Rose Bikes Flow Team rider Euan Hird finished with a 3rd place overall!

We're all really stoked on this and hope that Euan and his 2011 Beefcake DH carry on the good results through the summer. Next stop, Glencoe BDS.