Sorry if the blog is getting all sentimental and soppy recently…
This is my old local skatepark and it was overhauled in a big way while I’ve been living in France and now looks like its stronger than ever.
I’ve never been anywhere with a stronger sense of community between the users of a park. Awesome place, can’t wait to get back there………
Stockwell Skatepark
Inspiration distilled
One of the most inspiring things I’ve ever seen. Not sure how the guy ended up like this or whether he was born like it but it just goes to show what you can do if you really want to:
LEGEND.
Shaun Palmer interview from Freecaster. 40 years old and still ripping!
‘Misspent Summers’: James Bowden – Photographer
Another photograper working on James Mcknight’s forthcoming book ‘Misspent Summers’:
James has a penchant for old-school cameras (the ones that use film, remember that stuff..?) and does a lot of work for Howies. If you’ve seen their catalogue this year then you’ll have seen his photos:
Website: www.jamesbowden.net
Blog: http://www.jamesbowden.net/blog/index.php
‘Misspent Summers’: Damian Macarthur – Photographer
James Mcknight has been busy preparing material for his forthcoming book ‘Misspent Summers’. Here is one of the photographers he’s been working with over the summer season:
Check out the work of Morzine based photographer, rider and general legend Damian ‘Damo’ Macarthur. He’s been snapping The Search team over the summer along with many other local Morzine riders and the results are amazing:
Pila Helmet Cams
Finally got some helmet camera footage from Pila, Italy. There’s a full length run of the 12km track from Pila resort to Aosta town (in two halves) and a run of the world cup track (minus a few of the tech bits but you get the idea…).
The 12km run has to be up there amongst the things to do in mountain biking before you die, an absolutely incredible trail:
The Search Team at Chamonix Trails
The Howies Blog has a few snaps from one of the boys at Cham trails: here
Crans Montana
Due to popular demand we will now be running daytrips to Crans Montana in Switzerland! Check out the website for full details and a video.
http://www.thesearchmtb.com/crans.html
Fast, flowing trails in Crans Montana
Bristol Bike Fest 2009
I did a 12hr team enduro a little while back. You can read a full report of the day on southerndownhill.com : here
Sweden Part 2
The Spooky house
Well we road-tripped around the country a bit and ended up hours into the middle of nowhere, then 30 minutes off road (luckily Volvo had loaned us 3 brand new v70’s..) and finished up lakeside (one of the 96,000 lakes in Sweden) at an old wooden house, no water, electricity or toilet – back to life as it should be! This house and its surrounds actually used to be its own Principality about 100 years ago and something tells me some very strange goings on, went on.. The big freaky murals of wizards and the 100 wooden statues around the surrounding forest lead me to the conclusion.. I think that perhaps a little too many exotic substances may have influenced the people that lived here too.
Nevertheless, this was probably one of the coolest places I have ever stayed. We were surrounded by water, the sun rose at 3 in the morning, we had to chop wood to be able to cook, and we ate by a camp fire every night. Good time, goood times..
Not bad for a private lake.
Sweden Part 1
I’ve just got back from a couple of weeks in Sweden on a howies photo-shoot / road trip / holiday.. So I thought I would post a few pics from a few destinations we visited. Sweden is a country that I’ve wanted to visit for ages now but never really saw it happening as I spend all my money on doing bike stuff and it aint cheap to visit Scandanavia, so when I got the message from Tim March asking if I could make it for the shoot, my answer was a big YES!
This was a Swedish bloke called Frederick's back garden trail set-up. The jumps were pretty fun and had the biggest roll-in I have ever seen! Unfortunately it was a little wet to ride all the lines but good to get on some trails anyway! Jon from howies is one of the funniest people I have come across - here he is striking a pose for the camera.
Me in Gotenburg City trying my hand at photography..
La Bresse World Cup – Back to the old school!
Old school track, old school riders doing well!
Looking down the qualfying results you can’t help but notice a lot of familiar names near the top of the sheet. Pascal, Vasquez, Klausmann and ‘Old School’ himself, Steve Peat in the top slot. Is their experience of riding the old euro tracks paying off over the riders who grew up riding the more recent tech tracks?
That said all the usual big guns are firing and packing out the top ten….
Racing starts in a couple of hours and you’d be a fool not to but your money on any of the top ten riders!
The Search Team in DIRT magazine
The boys are all over the latest issue like a rash!
Go out and grab a copy to see some stunning shots by Andy Lloyd of Aston and Mcknight ripping the trails at Pila! There’s a great write up of the resort which will give you a good idea of what to expect if you are thinking about coming on a daytrip there.
The Search Team 2009
The same guys are back this year racing under The Search flag. We did 20 Questions for the website and thought we’d stick them up here so you can get to know the legends that are Mcknight & Aston!
Team 20 Questions:
Paul Aston:
1. Name: Paul James Aston
2. Name your mother calls you: Paul
3. Name everybody else calls you: Aston/ The mother fucking Astonator ™
4. Age: 23
5. Number of friends on Facebook: 369
6. Current sponsors: Mtbskills.eu, Mavic, Scotby Cycles,Saab Salomon Avalanche Trophy, The Search
7. Dream sponsors: Tetleys, McVities
8 .Biggest result: 67th, World Cup Schladming
9. Biggest crash: I went down on the Pleney main line last year at full tilt in the DRY, not a pretty sight, skin seems to grip a lot better there than the tyres!
10. When, where and who with was your best days riding? I don’t know, there have been so so many to choose from. A couple that stand out are the first time me and Mcknight rode in Chamonix, we just took a random lift up then spent the next 2 hours descending incredible single track, like nothing we had ever imagined existed. And last year in Chatel there were around 10 of us all good friends and similar speeds, doing 10Cross racing all day, it got pretty wild!
11.Who do you respect the most?: Everybody who lives just to ride and nothing else.
12.What’s the best thing you can cook?: Cups of Tea, Does that count as cooking?
13.Favourite place?: Morzine, France
14.Best thing about mountain bikes? Missing heart beats
15.Worst thing about mountain bikes? The never ending cleaning/ maintaining/ repairing.
16.You can swap places with anyone for a day, who would it be and why?
17.It’s raining hard. First lift or another hour in bed? First Lift
18.What word best describes your riding style? Loose as Ken (3words)
19.What are your goals for the 2009 season? I am aiming for top 10 in the Saab Salomon Avalanche Trophy, and i want to regain enough points to race World Cups again.
20.Is there anyone you want to say hello to, thank or insult on the record? Thanks to my family and friends, and to the people who helped most with my riding career, Simon Paton, Clive Forth, Steve Parr, Simon Baggot and countless others that have helped me out over the years.
James Mcknight:
1.Name: James Mcknight
2.Name your mother calls you: Lad, son, Jimbo, James. Depends on mood and how much money I owe her.
3.Name everybody else calls you: Jimbo or Europikey..
4.Age: 22
5.Number of friends on Facebook: Close to 300,000
6.Current sponsors: K9 Industries, Powell Fitness, howies, GUAK, The Search, SB-DH.com
7.Dream sponsors: Redken
8.Biggest result: When I’m racing and not injured, I count that as a result.
9.Biggest crash: Any crash on the Pleney is always huge. Injury wise nailing the nerves in my arm or tearing my little finger off were pretty savage.
10.When, where and who with was your best days riding? Fuck thats hard. Prob like Aston, Chamonix was rad or infact any time me and Aston have just been kicking out around the Alps, especially first couple of summers when we were pretty mad for it.
11.Who do you respect the most?: My folks.
12.What’s the best thing you can cook?: Pasta is the best and the worst thing I can cook in the way that it is the only thing I can cook.
13.Favourite place?: Alps, I hope I can afford to live there again soon..
14.Best thing about mountain bikes? Variety, friends and downhill racing.
15.Worst thing about mountain bikes? The cost!
16.You can swap places with anyone for a day, who would it be and why? Someone who works in an office, just to make sure I’m doing the right thing here..
17.It’s raining hard. First lift or another hour in bed? First lift! Although two summers ago it probably went the other way a little when It was raining every day for 6 weeks!
18.What word best describes your riding style? Slow at the moment.
19.What are your goals for the 2009 season? To get up to a decent speed, get some results I’m happy with, look towards next season really. Also to get my own business going(mcskills.com) so I can get contracts guiding and teaching. And also to get the K9 bike perfected and out on the market.
20.Is there anyone you want to say hello to, thank or insult on the record? Thanks parents, Sean from Bertie Maffoons (first sponsor and the only way I could have ever got to races when I was growing up), Luis and Shinny from K9, Adam Powell, Mike Saunders from Switch-backs who is sound and has helped me no end, Si Dalton for his help and always kicking my arse into gear, Chris Jackson and his company morzinesessions.com and also along those lines, Jill from Riders Refuge who has housed and fed me and Aston on various occasions for no reason other than that she is a bloody nice person.
The Search Weekenders
The Search is returning for the summer of 2009! We are proud to announce that along with our popular downhill daytrips we will also be offering long weekend breaks!
We’ve been looking for a suitable partner to offer trips with accommodation for a while now. Finally, The Search has teamed up with Chalet L’Oreade in the picturesque French alpine village of Sixt-fer-a-Cheval to offer downhill weekends that take in some of the best riding in the Alps.
We offer a plush chalet with what is effectively it’s own lift accessed downhill track, situated an hour into the mountains from Geneva airport, perfect for a long weekends action packed downhill riding.
During the four days of riding we will cram in two daytrips to different resorts for lift-accessed riding, back-country shuttle runs and sessions on the local track. We are determined to show you the best riding we can with these weekends, so its action from the moment you hit the ground until the moment you leave!
On top of that, one of The Search’s Team Riders will be on hand (race schedule permitting) to give you pointers and improve your riding. We will also film your weekend on the trails with state of the art helmet camera’s from Snowcam.com and give you DVDs to take home, so not only do you have a permanent record of the awesome trails you ride but the opportunity to sit down and analyse your riding every night with experienced racers.
Full details are available at: http://www.thesearchmtb.com
Website Up
Normal website service has been restored! Check http://www.thesearchmtb.com for all the digital goodness!
Website Down
Sorry to anyone who’s been trying to access the searchmtb.com, the site is down at the minute but should be back in action pronto…!
Apologies…
Never fly Iberia
Just got back from a week that involved a wee bit of riding in the Sierra Nevada, a 5 Day intensive Spanish course, a 5 Day hangover, and probably nearly 5 days of waiting for Iberia Airlines to sort their asses out.. It cost 75 fooking euros to take a bike on flight, you can’t actually reserve a place for the bike (you just have to turn up and hope.) After flying out to Spain a couple of weeks before to do some guiding work, and having flown BA, I can safely say I’ll never fly anyone esle from now on! With BA you get 32kg of luggage PLUS 32 kg for a bike (for free), you get free sandwiches in-flight (hmmmm), allocated a seat so you dont have to barge, and most importantly free unlimited mini-bar..
James
Espana
Ahhh back in Spain for a couple of weeks of riding in the sun, Aston and his bro Chris are both here too and both pinning it even though Aston hasn’t ridden for 5 months and Chris, well he’s never ridden before! Learnt the ropes in about ten seconds though and has the Aston crashing gene..
This week my schedule includes flight to England, First Aid course, flight back out of England, 3 days in Bubion then starting a week long intensive Spanish course (/week long piss up) in Granada.. Then after that back to Engerland for the start of a hectic year for racing, can’t wait.
Spain, my home for the last 3 years - Bubion nr. Granada
James
Snow
Okay, finally an actual composed and reasonably considered post, rather than random snippets of news and crap. Although there is some more news coming shortly…and its not crap… I know The Search is all mountain bikes but the fact is these days I put the bike down when the snow arrives and wax up the snowboards! So although Mcknight & Aston are in the UK and Spain respectively getting their pre-season bike time in, I’m snowboarding pretty much everyday and finding it hard to get excited about my bike! People are out digging trails or doing long XC rides in the dark and I’m feeling a bit like I’m not earning my place in the lift line come summer! So here is a post about the winter:
Winter is here in a big way at the moment, after a couple of on/off seasons snow-wise we’ve finally got a good one on the go here in France, loads of snow and good spells of clear weather afterwards. So with such good conditions its fair to say that you have to up your game! The old excuses like: “I’d do that with a bit more snow on the landing…” just don’t cut it anymore, you have to man up and live up to all the talk! For such simple pieces of equipment it constantly amazes me what it is possible to do on a snowboard/skis, how fast you can go, how far you can jump, how high you can drop….
This got me thinking a bit because I’ve started to do things on my snowboard this season that I thought were so far off in terms of my ability/balls that I wondered if it was more to do with the good conditions or the groundwork that I’ve put in over the past seasons when the snow wasn’t as good? Probably both but what about approaching winter from the perspective of a mountain biker? I’ve been riding bikes a lot longer than I’ve been snowboarding …
Late winter season or early summer season?
Coming from a mountain bike background has its advantages when it comes to winter sports. Obviously the parallels between skiing and DH have come up before but what I’ve noticed is the attitude nearly all the DH’ers have had when they have a go at skiing/snowboarding. A few mates from MTB have stayed on for winter seasons or come out on holiday and they’ve clicked straight into their boots and are nipping around the mountain in no time compared to others who don’t ride. Many evenings were spent discussing whether you use the same techniques/movements/parts of the brain to riding a bike? Maybe we’re just used to the sensation of speed and already have the sharp reactions needed from riding rough trails? But in the end the answer was much simpler. The ground is softer.
Paul Aston on Pleney not on ski's
The learning curve for skiing/snowboarding is much shorter than for DH riding. We all know it takes a good few years for the average rider to start getting good at riding a bike, while the average pleb who doesn’t really do any sport normally can get up and about in a week of skiing and they‘re normally necking half a bottle of wine with their lunch…. Just imagine how much quicker you’d pick up the DH skills if rocks and dirt didn’t cut you to ribbons every time you made a mistake! Or imagine the insane joy of crashing a snowboard off a 5 meter drop like I did today, landing on my face and the only thing that bothered me was some snow down my neck!
Snows brilliant stuff and we need more of it in downhill.
Winter
Icicles
Just a couple of photos from winter so far: Looks pretty don’t it, just wait until it takes you 45mins to dig your van out and move it 5 meters off the driveway!
Frozen solid...
Trail Building
Another pic from Autumn in Spain, this was after the snow had melted up to about 2000Metres, we went out and dug a load of new trails down the side of this mountain that has a ton of natural gullies running down it that can be shaped into perfect ‘bobsled’ runs, just like on Chavannes in Les Gets but totally smooth and ssss-weeet for my hardtail!
Here’s my ass:
James
First Race of ’09…
I’m going to be lurking around and racing in Britain a bit more than usual this Spring so I decided to get the first race of the year under my belt.. For some reason I decided it would be a good idea to do an XC race, no idea what was going through my mind at the time. However, turned up to the race (Gorrick Series) and there was the best part of 700 people there, urrrgghh. I got to the start line what I thought was very early, but it so happened to be a tad late and ended up having to start at the back of my category, which meant I had some serious overtaking on my hands! Was wicked fun passing so many people on the single track and I finished (thankfully!) in 17th. All I can say is i’m glad I took up downhill when I was younger ! It was so wierd just turning up, racing and then going home. Not quite the ‘family’ feel of DH races but it was fun all the same and I might just do some more…
I have to say I found my competitors a little intimidating..
James
2009 Website Live
The Search website has been freshened up for 2009. Out with the whiteness and in with a new darker colour scheme and a few new bits and bobs. The Seasonaires Guide is one such new development. If your considering taking the plunge and coming out to the alps riding for a season have a read through, we’re going to try to keep it updated as much as possible with fresh information and tips!
A couple of new riding venues will be added towards the start of the season, so keep your eyes peeled for them!
End of 08 season(yes I know it was a while ago but I’ve got some catching up to do here..)
My last day XC guiding in Spain for 2008, after this it snowed like ken so I went skiing instead in Sierra Nevada resort(Pradallano) which was rad! Piste conditions were sooo good for pinning it and the hill was way better than you’d expect for South Spain!
James
Quick Update
Happy New Year!
Just a couple of bits of news to stick up. I might get around to writing some more posts now that I’m injured and can’t go snowboarding….. until then though:
Some more bloggers have joined the fray: Look out for posts from The Search team riders James Mcknight and Paul Aston. We’re looking forward to hearing about their pre-season build up and any other thoughts that spring out their heads!
A review: The fellas over at Southern Downhill.com came riding in Chamonix with us over the summer. They wrote up an account of their day, so if you wondered exactly what happens when you come riding with The Search have a scan through…. here.
Finally, the riders from Portsmouth University are running The Search logos on their race kit! Nice one guys, hope to see you again next season!
Portsmouth University Race Jersey
Fixamotosis: Fixies are a plague.
There is a disease spreading across the cycling world. It affects the free-wheel and brakes of perfectly serviceable bicycles until the infected parts either seize or are amputated. The owner is left riding a severely handicapped bike, constantly in fear. Scared to pedal too hard in case they gain to much speed, worried they won’t be able to stop in time while their legs are spun endlessly as they wobble to the whim of their diseased machine…
Research has shown that the disease enters a bicycle directly through it’s owner. The rider themselves contract Fixamotosis through an over exposure to fashion and ‘lifestyle’ orientated media or by blindly following a herd of other infected riders.
It is simple to spot a Fixamotosis infected rider, the symptoms include an air of superiority over their fellow cyclist, a compulsion to wear retro cycling gear (with no clue to its origin) including a racing cap at all times and messenger bag. They will also unwillingly trackstand at every red light on their journey regardless of ability to complete the manouver. However some are harder to spot. If it is difficult to identify an infected rider from their appearance you can rely on the subject to babble deliriously about the purity of fixed-wheel cycling and about how it changed their life and that brakes are the most insane invention ever created.
The disease is spreading now to mainstream manufacturers who are breeding infected bikes in labs across the world. This is like genetic engineering to the meat industry, these bikes are so simple to produce as they lack most of the complex features of a regular bicycle that the easy profits are causing more companies to turn to this unethical form of bicycle production. The singlespeed plague was bad but this could be so much worse.
How do we fight this affliction and prevent it from taking over the cycling world? Although figures are vague at the moment it appears that the numbers of infected cyclist are self-regulating. The lack of stopping power and general cycling ability means that many are eliminated from the gene-pool by the heavy traffic of our cities before they can be cured. Vigilance seems to be the most effective method of combatting this problem. If you notice a friend displaying early signs of Fixamatosis it is recommended that you take the piss mercilessly until they are cured.
Fixies. Seriously. Whats the point?
It’s all coming together:
The 2009 team jigsaw is starting to look a bit more complete.
In the last week or so several major players have confirmed their riders for the following season, the biggest being Trek finally announcing their team.
So first up Trek: From all the hype surrounding the formation of this team and the buying power of one of cycling’s biggest corporations everyone was expecting a real superteam. I was hoping they were splicing the genes of Sam Hill and Nico Voullioz in a secret lab somewhere to produce a new breed of billion-dollar-super-rider to take the Session 88 bike to world domination. Several Syndicate riders were linked to the new Trek team and at one point the jungle drums said that the entire Atherton family were jumping ship from Commencal…
In reality, while the team they have is solid and will no doubt have the consistency needed, it was all a bit of an anti-climax. Justin Leov and Andrew Neethling are both amazing riders, they just seem to be a bit ‘beige’ compared to what everyone was expecting. We’ll see, Martin Whiteley is known for bring riders on.
Specialized: Nothing official yet but it looks like Hill is definitely on Specialized if the photo’s from the first Aussie national are anything to go by. We’re still waiting to see if Brendan Fairclough and the rest of Hill’s entourage has jumped from Ironhorse with him. Looks like he’s taking all his current sponsors with him including top jim-jam makers TLD. In a perverse way I was hoping he’d end up with one of those butt-ugly Specialized helmets!
- Sam Hill on Specialized – Stolen from Pinkbike.com
Sam's new race kit, the cape should get around the new tight clothing rules.
GT: Big moves from GT after dumping Bryn Atkinson and Jill Kintner. They’ve signed up UK rider Marc Beaumont, who’s finally off Bikeradar after god know’s how long, it’s cool to see him on a fresh team. Kevin Aiello will be joining him, not heard of him at all. The name rang a bell but that turned out to be Laurent Aiello the touring car driver.
Yeti: Pretty much the same, minus Leov but it looks like they’ve got Graves back in the DH gate now he’s done with being Olympic. They must be expecting big things this year after Blinky’s Schladming performance and the launch of their secret weapon, Aaron Gwin.
Santa Cruz Syndicate: Same. Although maybe minus The Beast. The current hot rumour is that Rennie is going back to Ironhorse…
Commencal: The Athertons have another year to run on their contracts and seem happy enough where they are and you really can’t see Gracia moving on, he must be used to having the factory next door!
Mongoose: Needles has hopped off to GT leaving the door open for Mick Hannah. Good to see him back, he always said that he was just going to take a year off but its often the way that that’s the last you’ll hear of someone. Eric Carter is doing something for Mongoose too, not sure what exactly…
Orange: Not a clue. I guess a strong UK presence again but the days have gone when every other rider was on an Orange. It’d be nice to see someone in Halifax get a big team on their bikes again.
Giant: Another well known manufacturer with no cohesive team. There’s plenty of riders on the Glory but no proper factory team for a few years. Shame that.
All in all it’s shaping up to be another amazing season. This year has a lot to live up to but with a few more riders riding at the level where they can think about wins realistically the WC overall is going to be a close fought thing!
The Uprising
Just a quick one to say Callum Swifts new movie ‘The Uprising’ is out today:
It’s got style and a sense of fun that’s been missing from bike movies for a while and some wicked music. Get out and buy it now…!
The Clothes Make The Man
I’m almost certainly not qualified to give advice to racers or the UCI (a decidedly average results sheet tells me this) but I do have an opinion on the skinsuit issue and the image of downhill racing in general. From what I can see of it the internet was made for spraying opinions about so thats what I’m going to do:
I’m sat in an airport writing this. It’s not glam, I’m not in a 5 star lounge sipping cold champagne. It’s a big tin shed with lots of british tourists heading off to Majorca or someplace cheap and sunny…. I don’t like airports or their inhabitants so an air of negativity may permeate this article, I’ll try and be objective but if it sounds narky its because I am.
There was a bit of controversy earlier in the year regarding skinsuits when the Mojo team elected to use them at Fort William World Cup and then later in the season Tracy Moseley wore one at Canberra to take the win. Once again the image of downhill was in question and it was all about style vs performance.
Then this weekend a UCI communication stated a raft of new rules and recommendations that riders and teams have to abide by next season, among them is a ban on ‘tight-fitting’ clothing an
d an insistence that riders wear a visor.
I’m not going to benefit from wearing a skinsuit. Nor will 90% of the riders in the world. But at a level when racers are putting so much effort into the preparation of their bikes it seems ridiculous that something as obvious as aerodynamics is ignored and now banned….
It should also be pointed out that what I’m talking about here is racing and at a high-level, not just riding for fun with your mates. Fashion and style will sit happily with function when we’re dicking about in the woods but when hundreths of a second are important wearing gear purely for its looks seems a strange way to go.
Downhill racing is the most technologically advanced disciplines in cycling and also the most image concious. The fact that virtually all serious racers will happily remove three of their rotor bolts to reduce the rolling weight of their wheels, cutting down number boards (see Steve Peat’s number board –right) and recut tyres yet will not even entertain taking their peak off illustrates this perfectly.
Don’t get me wrong, image is important, an image sells, especially to sponsors. The question is do we have the right image and who are we selling it to?
When I was growing up and started taking a serious interest in mountainbiking I saw an image of Philippe Perakis in a magazine (probably MBi) and thought it was the coolest thing in the world. I c
ouldn’t find the exact picture (he was in a full tuck with lumo-yellow Dainese armour at the Kamikaze) but this image illustrates his style perfectly. Dainese made their first mountainbike body armour for this guy, he was one of the first to race in a full-face lid and goggles. You could argue that he influenced the image of downhill more than any other, more than Palmer & Hill?
When Palmer came onto the scene riders rejoiced, we finally had an image that set us apart from the xc guys and it looked cool. Kind of. Cool enough to send downhill into the big time for a couple of years. The biggest snowboarder in the world at that time had come downhill racing and everyone paid attention to what he was wearing and followed blindly. Me included. Straight down the shop for a set of Axo moto trousers and a Fox jersey please…and can I get a big fat TLD peak for my helmet?
In hindsight the guys like Fabian Barel, Pascal etc were pretty much bullied into wearing the baggy stuff. Barel for one got so much grief for taking off his peak after the ‘Gentlemens agreement’ to not use skinsuits and to keep peaks on. Was it this that stopped downhill clothing evolving? Were riders suddenly scared to experiment with new things for fear of their peers slamming them? I think there’s no doubt that Barels image and marketability as a double world champion (certainly in the UK & USA) suffered. And is the reason no-ones been experimenting with skinsuits because of this? The cliquey nature of the downhill community doesn’t do itself many favours sometimes. Hop off the band-wagon and its a long walk back to acceptance.
The next big influence on the image of DH racing has to be Sam Hill. He started getting massive results drifting sideways at stupid speeds wearing a t-shirt, no armour and super-wide bars. Suddenly everyone has the excuse they need to ditch the sweaty body armour and parade their scabs around being hardcore as f*ck (I should say at this point that I don’t wear armour either, I’m right on that band-wagon too). And now he is responsible for the current TLD ‘pajamas’ craze, which is still MX gear sold as downhill equipment. We’re no further on than 1998.
Is now the time to move on? The MX companies have done us proud by investing in our sport and have no doubt done well off the back of it but is that really what DH is all about?DH racing is still marketed as an ‘extreme’ sport, thrown in with snowboarding, bmx, fruit-booting, skateboarding and all the rest. It’s always sat a bit uncomfortably in this company, we’ve never really fitted in. Should we really be hanging out in this corner of the playground with all these scruffy, snotty kids? Or should DH racing be getting its homework in on time and hanging out with the more prestige performance driven sports? Although, it’s interesting to see rallying in the X-Games etc.
Downhill has become pretty stagnant in terms of innovation in recent years. The bikes are getting to the point where we’ve figured out a range of geometry, suspension and tyre variables that work well. The weights are coming down and the reliablity is starting go up, this is refinement and fine-tuning and all good. It’s time to start looking at other areas to evolve and clothing has to be one of them.
It would be nice to see some of the big companies develop some purpose made race suits that actually improve riders physical performance, protect them, shed mud and keep them cool. It should be possible using the same technology in the new 661 Evo pads to integrate flexible protection in to a suit, the technology is here already. That would be padding that doesn’t move around and a one layer less to wear. Or how about a suit that actually enhances your power and awareness and delays fatigue? Sounds perfect for downhill, been done here.
All this could still be done, the door is open so long as you hide it under something that isn’t ‘tight-fitting’…..a wolf in sheeps clothing or the emperors new clothes? Downhill should always be about innovation and the UCI has now introduced a couple of rules which will now restrict this.
The Search Blog 
