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My Biking Page
This page is dedicated to my favourite sport, Mountain Biking
This page is dedicated is my main passion in life, mountain biking.
Here are my bikes over the years! |
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Hot Chili World Cup '98
The frame is a Hot-Chili 98 DH frame fitted with a Stratos Helix Pro DH shock, which gives about 8" rear wheel travel! The front shocks are a pair of '99 6" Hanebrink LT6. The bike is kitted with Hope Disc brakes, Azonic bar & stem, cromo cranks, Roox Chain device, IRC Kujo tyres f&r, Mavic D521 rims.
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Specialized FSR Ground Control '98
The frame is a Specialized FSR Ground Control '98, upgraded with a BETD Long Travel upgrade plate (giving 4" to 6"), a BETD roller bearing kit on all pivot points and the rear shock was upgraded to a Stratos TR-1. Kitted out with the same kit as the Hot Chili!
Overall turning it into a mean DH bike! |
Me at Leamington BMX track
Me jumping the last tabletop jump at Leamington BMX track in February |
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Stinky Primo '02
This bike has two forms, DH bike and Play bike.
The main frame is a Kona Stinky Primo, with BETD Long Travel Plates, giving 2 travel options, 6" or 7", which in turn give a steep/slack head angle.
For DH use, I have a set of '00 Monster T's giving a very plush and forgiving 7", which matches the rear end perfectly!
For play/freeride use, I have a set of '01 Z1 Drop-offs! This give a lighter more agile bike, yet strong enough for big drops/jumps!
Wheel duties consist of a pair of Mavic 321's on a Hope Bulb 20mm up front
Braking duties are a Hope DH4 up front and a 02 on the rear.
For gripping to mud/rock/tree roots, I run a Mighelin Comp 16 on the front and Comp 24 on the rear!
The rest of components are from Azonic, FSA, Roox, Gusset, Shimano, 24/7 and ODI.
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RiDiNg
This part of the site is to tell you the details of my riding |
ORYX DD99
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Bush Hugging
So far, my only crash resulted in me landing in a bush.
I joined the locals for a play at Maratei, venue for Auckland DH race, few weeks back.
2/3rds way down, there's 3 drop-offs in a row. I came off 1st, lost it, made it over 2nd, and bailed sideways into a bush, causing minor arm scrappage and bruising! |
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Rotorua, Nationals 03
This was my first Nationals race! It was dry and very hot, high 20's and being in the woods, lack of breeze to cool you down!
The course became really rutted and dusty in sections, lots of breaking bumps ahd appeared! It was a realtively easy course to ride, just hard to go fast! The course was about 5m30s for me, a lot longer than UK DH! There were 2 step downs, a rock garden and one BIG double at the end!
Unfortunately, I suffered a techincal on my race run! I was gunning it full pace, and dirty ruts had appeared just before the 1st step down. I slid out just before take off, got back on, pedalled like hell! Shot off the take off and landed well further than in practise of the flat! This resulted in my shock bottoming out, chain getting pulled too tight and my rear mech ripping apart! It took out 6 spokes in the process! Luckily I wa unhurt!
I stopped by the side of the track, thinking it was all over, when a guy in the crowd, told me to continue if i could! I wanted too finish! Luckily my chain has a breaker link, so i undid the chain, unwrapped it from my freehub and used my belt to tie the dead mech to my linkage plate, then jumped back on!
I couldn't pedal, so had to run the few uphill pedally sections. And my back wheel was rubbing on both the chain and seat stays! I remeber someone shouting "pedal", to which I replied "I have no chain!" All in all, I made it down, but had to miss out the end jump! I ended up in place with a time of 9.59!
For Vorb race report, go to Fav. links page and click on Rotorua Nationals.
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National Champs, Blenheim April '03
The National Champs took place mid way through my road trip. I'd time it so I could get some mint riding, then go chillout for few weeks!
We arrived the day before the official practise day, but unfortunately unlike Rotorua, ther was no transport. We walked the course to get a feel of it. It seemed pretty cool, though there were some big jumps at the end! I spent most of the afternoon builing my bike and getting it ready for racing!
The course was steep in some sections, quite off camber, but that just adds to the fun. At the bottom, is left the woods, went through 2 berms, then the first of the end jumps, a road gap drop-off, big enough it fit a 4x4 in th gap! This intimedated me loads. I felt like i didn't have the speed to get over it! Once you landed, you had the next gap jump, over a rocky creek! I'd say about 4 bike lengths, take off to landing. Once over that, you had to shed your speed round a corner then down a rutted shoot, over a slight hip/hill and into the finishing jump over a river!
Stupidly, I zoned into the end jumps, and scared myself shitless, without realising there where chicken lines around each jump!
On practise day I only got one practise run! I was feeling bit dodgy in the morning and was being too causal! Not realising, I was going to pay for this!
On my 1st practise run, about 9am on race day my racing ended! From lack on knowing the course, I tried to jump over a patch of rocks and some how hooked up my front wheel, sending me over the bars! It was one of those crashes where you just hit "GAME OVER"! I found myself heading straight towards a tree! Luckily my head made contact with the ground just before! I hit the ground hard and stopped just by the edge of the track. Thought fuck, i'm alive, though in bad shape. My right knee was fucked, couldn't move it from the pain. No one else was around. I started shouting "Help". After a few minutes, some fellow riders came down the course, asked if i was alright and helped me off the track, then went to get medical attention!
I was checked over by a paramedic, my knee was fucked but head seemed ok, no concusion! I was spitting out blood, but that was from my wisidom tooth cutting my inner cheek! I was helped down at which point realised quite how steep the hill was!
I chose to end my racing there, not risk more injury. It gave me time to get lots of photography practise!
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Orange O2 sporty new slopping downtube!
My mate James Tinker's O2 deciding it wasn't up to the Alpine abuse! We were riding down a gravel track which had drainage ditches across it every so often. He pulled up on his bars to get over it, but insteadhis frame parted causing him to plumet hard into the ground. He luckily came away with minor bruising!
I had a head camera on at the time and all you can hear in the video is me swearing my head off, then looking at his bike and swearing more!!!!
Orange wouldn't warranty his frame even though in broke on the crud catcher mount because his frame was just outside the warranty period!!!
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