Green Oil wins two Business Awards!

Congratulations to Simon Nash of Green Oil who yesterday were awarded all round winner of 'Business of the Year' at Bromley Business Awards organized by South East London Business. Green Oil also won an award for Sustainability against other finalists Big Yellow Storage and Circa Limited.

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WDMBA and ENGLISH CHAMPIONSHIPS 2011 BY Richard Acott

16.10.11 - Change of format for this race meant an early morning start in the dark and heavy rain instead of the usual leisurely Friday drive and evening track walk. When I arrived I was glad to see the track was almost same as my last race at Moelfre.

DMR Omen was fitted out with some well used Maxxis high rollers but after one run and puncture I decided to change to some new Specialised Butchers that I had won earlier in season. The 26x2.3 tyres downhill tyres would be strong enough to cope with the rocks on top and mid section. Fortunately weather had become dry and sunny so mud would hopefully not be a problem this weekend.

With the bike running well, blue sky and sunshine the day was really enjoyable and atmosphere in pit area was really good - the comfortable beer tent may have helped. Most runs went well but several red flags interrupted flow. The big step down on top section was a challenge for many including myself and caught several out.

This weekend we travelled home Saturday evening for first time this season on a race weekend which seemed very strange.


SUNDAY 17.10.11 - Arrived at Moelfre and sunshine broke out for my first practise run which went well. Plan was for a good steady first run and hopefully a good race time. After first race run I posted a time of 2.51 which was a ’massive16 seconds’ in front of next rider - I was very suprised. After short break I was thinking I could knock a good few more seconds off this time and going over various line choices.

My second run turned out a bit of a disaster as I pulled away from start gate and chain snapped causing rear to swing round nearly taking out two other riders. After such a rubbish start all I could do was freewheel down track. Luckily I had held onto my first run winning time.

FANTASTIC - ENGLISH NATIONAL DOWNHILL CHAMPION 2011

Race Statistics: 1st in Hardtail category. 16 second margin over second place.

Many thanks to wonderful sponsors for support especially DMR Bikes/Tektro/YBN Chains/Madison/Kik clothing.

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The Big Dance

“The culmination of all of the hard work this year, my goal since Ironman Arizona last November, my dream since I supported Chrissie and first experienced the magic of the event at the 2009 World Ironman Championships, this was it, I’d qualified and I was booking flights to the Big Island, and it’s amazing how quickly the race comes up on you.”

More Here

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3 Cyclo Cross victories for Kinesis sponsored Team Jewson, Cycling Team

Kinesis sponsored Team Jewson all guns blazing: The Cyclo Cross season has a few weeks now and Coventry based Team Jewson—M.I.Racing have recorded no less than 10 victories. The Team are the current British Team Champions for both categories 40+ and for riders 50+, and look set to retain their titles later in the season.

Results in from this weekend in Solihull were Darren Atkins (Photo) was the winner of the Senior/Pro race and Steve Knight Veteran winner (his 5^th this season). In Brecon, Wales Mark James won the Veteran race (his 5^th this season).

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Storm Troopers

Cycling Plus magazine have run a ‘Winter Bikes’ test in their November issue including our Racelight Tk2 bike with a 2012 specification build kit. The Tk2 came out very well against a strong stable of bikes.

Full artical here

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wtb freedom

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Long-Travel Bird Of Prey: The Pivot Firebird

The Firebird is a remarkable bike. No doubt about it. With nearly 7 inches of rear wheel travel, it’s almost a downhill bike on paper. However, this test bike was built to show the frame’s versatility. It tips the scales at less than 30 pounds and is obviously the brainchild of a company that decided to sweat every last detail.

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Pivot Phoenix - G-Shock "The Descent" Part II

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Pivot Mach 5.7 Carbon MBR Front Cover

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Rubber for the road

Freedom is expanding their Cruz tire lineup in 2012 to include an all-new 29 x 2.0" size. They'll be out in October 2011 and will retail for around $33 (wire bead only). Great news for commuters rolling to work on 29ers or monstercross rigs. www.freedombicycle.com


Interbike 2011: Rubber for the road, and beyond.

Submitted by K-Man on Mon, 10/10/2011 - 14:34

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Basic bike maintenance with Bath Uni CC

We drop by the Green Park Bike Station to go over some basic maintenance before going for a sweet ride.

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Forget Your Brakes

Last Friday Jo Burt and I took the newly built Crosslight Pro6 into the woods for testing and a photoshoot with Geoff Waugh. Although super powerful brakes are not the most important thing for cyclocross, I was keen to show Jo how well the bike handled, climbed and accelerated and how great brakes added to the riding experience.


The Crosslight Pro6 is fitted with the new TRP ‘Parabox’ system to convert from cable drop bar levers to Hydraulic discs. After a bit of bedding-in, the system was doing everything expected of it very well, the braking was powerful but not overpowering for the CX tyres. But the real discovery came when we got to the fast, tight, rooted trails.


Real flow and control are only possible if you can be light and fluid with your machine. This is the same for any kind of sport where you are controlling an inanimate object over unpredictable surfaces at speed. You really need to forget your means of transport and concentrate on the riding. Wrestling with controls slows you down, saps your strength and makes it far harder to hold your line.

The beauty of efficient brakes really becomes apparent during the tight and tech sections of a race [or trail]. Tapping the levers from the hoods, changing line and charging on becomes second nature, there is no transferring to the drops to haul on the levers and deal with the judder.

You are freed up to forget your brakes, get loose and put 100% into the riding.

THIS is where a CX bike with efficient discs has the real advantage over a conventionally braked machine. Then add super stable braking on long descents, lack of rim wear, unchanged braking in muddy conditions, less mud build up, late braking tactics…

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Milford Trails Update – Lovell Farm Trails Collective

This week the bulldozers move in on Milford Trails and what might seem like bad news for the scene is actually far more positive and another step towards a permanent home for one of the South’s top Dirt Jump Spots.

Behind the scenes a lot of work has been put into securing a piece of land donated to the Lovell Trails Collective. The new site is no more than 200 meters from the existing site and thanks to the kind donations from an anonymous land owner and DMR Bikes and subject to planning consent the trails (that all being well will be constructed this winter) will have a new permanent home.

Surrey Wildlife Trust who are responsible for the existing jumps have been kind enough to give to allow a stay of execution that saw the jumps stay for the summer holidays. But with the new site secured and questions being asked by the powers that be as to why the current jumps are still there the Trust was left with no choice but to call in the dozers this week.

Local and visiting riders are asked to be patient while the planning application goes through and to remember that starting work on the site before planning permission is granted could jeopardise the future of the project and the hard work of the Lovell Trails Collective to date.

Local Dirt Jump superstar and DMR sponsored rider Olly Wilkins had this to say. “Although it's sad to see the jumps go it's also an exciting and positive step towards building and riding on the newer improved area. Surrey wildlife trust have held back from knocking the trails for years and years now and it's greatly appreciated from all the riders. Now we need to focus on getting the next step complete, the planning finalised and the new trails up and running!! It's gonna be a busy winter!!”

Of course we will keep you posted on progress and we look forward to bringing you more news on the new trails soon.

The Lovell Trails Collective is made up of representatives of Surrey Wildlife Trust, CTC – The UK’s National Cyclists’ Organisation, Representatives of Rodbrough School, former Waverly Councillor John Sandy, DMR rider Olly Wilkins and a wealth of local riders, parents and supporters keen to support the development of the Lovell Farm Trails.

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Tom Lowes machine for Kona this weekend

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Jimmy Advert Edit

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Crosslight ‘CXd’ FORKS ARRIVE.

The frst CXd forks have arrived by air. Perfectly in time to get coupled up with our new Crosslight Pro6 frames and out to the first lucky customers.


These are some pretty unique forks: 500g, Full carbon monocoque with 1.5″ taper steerer and post mount disc. They are eyeletted for ‘guards and I have also added a threaded boss in the rear of the crown to make mudguard mounting neat and easy. There is a hose clip on the back of the LHS blade, no need for slipping zip-ties, insulating tape or Green garden string here!

3 colours to perfectly match the Crosslight Pro6. Pretty pleased with these I must say : ]

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Pivot Mach 5.7 demo bike end of year thoughts/review

As you probably know, we reviewed the Pivot Mach 5.7 earlier in the year and based on those rides and that review, we bought into the brand, including demo bikes. We have sold a fair few Pivot Mach 5.7s in 2011 (all of them in anodized black come to think of it!) and there are a couple knocking about in the Ochils on a regular basis. I think what those customers mention overall (and those who have tried the bike) is how well the bike climbs. It really does flatter you on the climbs and yet is super-plush on the descents. It is truly insane how the bike hardly bobs at all while climbing and yet is so utterly smooth when you need it to be.

The Propedal lever is basically surplus to requirements (I still use it as habit when I’m trying to get up the road climb from Logie Kirk onto Dumyat) because of the DW Link and the design of the bike. Lots of people will tell you how amazing a single pivot is, but personally, I just don’t see the point. Yes, I know it might hurt me a little more when I have to change the pivot bearings but I really don’t care – if I’m buying a bike as expensive as this, I am truly unconcerned about an extra cost every now and then (and besides, our demo bike has taken a kicking and it’s still as good as ever – no funny noises, no hassle, even the Press Fit Bottom Bracket is still surviving, which my cynical self is very surprised at!).


So this is a big comment and we have not tried every single bike so far but this is my favourite bike I have ever ridden. A Pronghorn 150 climbs slightly better but the hassle even trying to get the hangers for them, its geometry and my fear for it dying on me puts me right off that bike. Turn the Pivot Mach 5.7 round after losing ten seconds to the guy on the Pronghorn and point it downhill however, and I would really struggle to find a better beast for the travel. Where it has excelled for me is on all the trails nearby – a fantastic mix of singletrack, dropoffs, rocky technical sections and those supersteep natural, soggy climbs we all love. It doesn’t get any better than this for the money. If you don’t want to shell out the significant amount of money on a Pivot Mach 5.7, either save up some more or simple get a Lapierre Zesty 214, 314 or 514. They are close enough if you have £1800 – £2800 rather than £3K+.

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New Feature For Our B2B

To All Our Retailers

We have added a new CSV order upload feature to our B2B site

Visit your shopping cart for template and upload feature

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News / “…ALMOST LIKE RUNNING IN MID AIR”. “…ALMOST LIKE RUNNING IN MID AIR”.

The Racelight GF_Ti has just been tested on road.cc and it’s safe to say they liked it a lot! “While climbing you don’t get the usual feeling of pushing the bike up through the pedals, it just feels like its attached to your feet and coming with you, almost like running in mid air”.

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Final BMBS Round, Plymouth- 9hr drive, 1 mint course, 3 laps, two legs, one bike…

Posted by Katy
…would it all come together? It's been a long season with every race throwing a different challenge at me. What was going to happen in this race? Could I still come out on top?

I knew I had to win if I wanted to win the British Series title. After riding the super slippy and actually technical course I realised it could be possible. There were three main climbs each followed by off camber rooty descents which suited me as I could recover in between the climbs. It was going to be so much fun to race!! I pre-rode with Lucy Grant (Scottish Youth racer) and as we went round she was shocked by the way I was riding… I had started to hop over everything, ride at crazy speeds and generally show no signs of fear – "em… Katy your riding like… like a downhiller!!! It's scary!" This was okay in pre-riding because your not so tired but in a race this could prove dangerous if I forgot the limitations of an XC bike… which I did….

On race day I had devised a plan. Previously, in races, I'd follow Beth and stick on her wheel, well, try anyway. So, I decided that I'd lead from the start and take early control of the race. It was a fire road start into a single track climb then another bit of fire road for a steeper climb into the more technical of the 3 descents. I knew that even if I didn't gap her on the climb I'd at least get a slight advantage after the decent. From then it was just about racing, going super hard on the climbs, nailing the descents and keeping it consistent – hopefully avoiding sickness, a back spasm, crashing at the start, mechanicals and any other possible bad luck!


(British Cycling photo. Taking control of the race)

To say my plan worked was an understatement! It worked so well that I already had a 40second lead by the bottom of the first decent. Up the second climbed I pushed on, 40seconds was a closeable gap over the 3laps. Fighting through the juvenile boys, I managed to safely complete lap one with a 50sec gap. Second lap I got slightly excited, and down the first little bit of single track I went way too fast into a little dip, flew out of it unable to squish my speed properly and straight through the tape… much to a juvenile boy's despair as he angrily SCREAMED "rider!!" at me. Never the less I continued at a good pace for the second lap only being slightly sick due to the honey in my bottle – I didn't drink anything the rest of the lap until I got water!

3rd lap and there was no way Beth was going to catch me now. I just had to concentrate on getting a clean lap keeping a good pace, I needed to finish. Flying down the last decent enjoying every minute of it knowing it wasn't long until the finish. Through the river my dad gave me a time update "3 minutes" YAS!!!!!!!! I knew that even if something went wrong now I could run to the finish and still win. Fortunately though there was no need to run, I weaved through the switch backs to the finish. Hands in the air I soaked up the victory. It's been a long fight all season and to finally have a smooth race and to win by such a margin… well, there isn't a better way to end the season!


(Claire Oakley's photo Beth, me and Claire)

It wasn't just a good day for me, but for all the Scots!! With series wins from, Lucy Grant, Ian Payton in the Youth categories, Callum Magowan in the juvenile male and Grant Ferguson and I taking the Junior titles the Scots dominated a mear 500miles from home! There was also really impressive performances from Ben Forsyth, Isla Short, Eve Hanlan Cole and Calum Grant (aka, JB – who over two laps got the same time as his sister Lucy!!). Well done to everyone who raced!

Thank you to everyone who has helped me this year and never stopped believing in me!! Special thanks to Dom and Paddy at upgrade for sorting out my bike, Reynold wheels and all the bits, Oli at Morvelo for the coolest kit on the MTB scene, the Hope bike wash man who comes to all the races and always keeps my bike lovely and clean, My dad for his fantastic support and everything he does for me and the rest of the Scottish lot for getting us to races and having great banter! Thanks to Beth for a great year of racing, best of luck for next year missy in that lovely champs top! :)


Next: my BC Academy application has been sent… I'll find out in October if I've been selected! Watch this space!

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