Mullets and Road Trips

At this very moment the Remolition guys are shredding their way North on a two-week road trip from Lands End to John O’ Groats. If you haven’t already, please feel free to sponsor them (the money is going to the Midlands Air Ambulance Service – a great cause for us riders who like to do stupid things in the middle of nowhere).

 You can track their progress on Remolition Extra and arrange to meet up with them on their travels (due to lack of showers, I would probably suggest meeting up with them sooner rather than later).

I’m hoping to find them when they are around the Lakes towards the end of this week and will probably be sticking around and heading up to Scotland for a couple of days riding (if Scotland hasn’t been flooded by that point).

Whilst up there, I thought it would be a good opportunity to have a go at riding with 9’s on the front and 8’s on the back; what I like to call the Mullet (business up front and party in the back)...although that name doesn’t seem to be sticking for some reason. It’s a technique that’s been pioneered by freeriding guru Roger and it seems to be one of his better ideas, so I thought I’d give it a try. The idea behind it is that the 9’s on the front get you over any rocky/muddy ground but the 8’s on the back retain their manoeuvrability and reduce weight.

 So up front will be the normal 9 inch Primo Strikers on Primo Composite hubs and on the back are my lovely 8 inch GI Maks on some MBS Rockstar Pro’s. This does mean that my freestyle board currently has no wheels...but the idea of me doing anything that remotely resembles freestyle is quite frankly...absurd.

I’ve also got a set of Maks mounted on a spare NoSno Alloy Axle, so if I get the whim to ride brakeless (it’s not happened yet, but you never know...), I can easily swap out the front axles without having to mess around with the brakes.

BTW: if you or anyone you know of is selling a NoSno Custom 12*790 deck – please let me know.

ATBA Downhill Series 1 - Write-up

A slightly late follow-up to last weekends posts live from the Downhill Comp in Whinlatter.

The final results and a great vid can be found here.

I was surprised by how packed the Masters was and it was a battle to end up 8th in the class - but I was pretty happy with my time. Typically...I only had one bail on the day; the final corner of what would have been my fastest run (it was about 3.31 with the bail)...but thats life.

A massive shout-out to Roger for organising the day and to Allan for helping out and building a roll-in that didn't terrify anyone or break. Also congrats to Travis and Brennig for tearing up the Seniors class.

I managed to get in some filming with varying results...I had attached a camera mount to my front axle...but unfortunately the mount was aiming too far up and only caught the sky.

I managed to film the entire run:

 
I also managed to get some decent footage on the final corner of the track and had my first attempt at trying to edit to music - its pretty basic but let me know what you think.

Now I cant wait for the 2nd comp in Wales at Dave and have added a 12x790 custom NoSno deck (the 10x770 is just way too flexi for me and is killing alot of speed) and maybe a GoPro to the shopping list...  

ATBA Downhill Series 1 - More from Whinlatter

So after a long but great days riding, JC has been downhill king of all he surveys.

It really has been a great competition - with a bit of snow, mountainboarders being packed like sardines, feral NoSno's and some epic shreddage at the final corner of the course.

Lots to come soon!

ATBA Downhill Series 1 Coming at you Live!

FreerideNW's roving reporter is at Whinlatter Forest in the heart of the Lake District.

It's nice and sunny here and we've just come back from testing out the competition track with Al and the guys from KentATB and can report that it's s'all good!

Now where's my beer?