Tavi today.

Hi just got back from a good days shooting down at Tavi. both team riders mono and bloomers where down and i got lots of good team shots. here are the best 2 of each one.

mono

mono

bloomers

bloomers

WWW.JACOBGIBBINS.CO.UK

Few of me riding

Hi went out shooting today and got a mate to get a few of me. here they are.








( one i took , of pete revely )

New SDH site

Check out www.southerndownhill.com

Brand new front page with new articles.

Check out the Innerleithen review for a cool photo of Matt.

Confidence building

Headed out for a mid-week ride tonight with Ross and Jon, an early dart from work saw us at the local forest by 4.15!
We headed up the bridleway as usual to Charity Lane. This was Ross's first ride in Macclesfield forest and he didn't really know what to expect, having really only ridden man made trails in Wales and Scotland - suffice to say Charity was a baptism of fire, but one that the 6" of Kona powered travel put a big grin on his face!! Personally I felt on another level today, I floated a lot of Charity carrying a lot more speed into things and it felt so so good (so good in fact that thoughts of buying a Stinky for more plush travel are out the window! The Coiler DL performed, as did its rider!).
Onwards and in an effort to show Ross the best of the forest we headed down the favourite section of singletrack full of roots and off camber bits and again I felt a was carrying more speed into the top section... although the recent rain made me a bit more cautious on the lower slopes...
Back upto the main bridleway we did the Northshore steps as an old favourite before upto Nessit Hill. After a brief stop to admire the view we pushed on and nailed the final descent to the cars down the bridleway fireroad, drifting corners, nailing the pedalling and carrying as much speed down there as I think is possible...

Back at the car earlyish - 6pm - all with smiles for miles - meant I was home in time to give the Coiler its first wash since Scotland. See you next week? Damn right.

Dirt goes monthly...

Well to be honest this isn't new news, and I heard about it before it was hinted at last issue after I met with Mark Noble a few months ago... by the by... here is the press release from the Dirt site!
Good news for all of us Dirt fans - monthly means a lot more great articles, features, photography and Steve Jones.

It all sounds good - but if you fancy something new then check out Wideopen - looking to be the premiere underground dirt mag in the UK (if not the world). Issue 2 out soon!

Just so you know…it kind of all happened so quickly. Now I really have to cast my mind back on this; one minute I was finishing off our 10 year anniversary issue in the depths of rural Dorset, and then the next I was in a ‘media centre’ in London being told that all my dreams could come true. Now you see, I have always wanted Dirt to be monthly, I have always wanted to be able to go to my local newsagent and buy the magazine, I have always wanted a big team behind me, a new computer, a comfy office chair, a bike store room, an answer phone that I can hear, a new kettle, a colour printer that works…but most of all I have wanted opportunities for the magazine..
Most of you will find this pretty dull, but for one time only here is the ‘lo down’. 4130 Publishing was a small family business that was constantly fighting against the big fish of the publishing world, you know the score…David vs. Goliath, etc. So anyway, 4130 decided to join forces with two other action sports publishers to create a new publishing group, and that is called Factory Media. What this means is that we now have the resources to push Dirt into a new era. It means that we can build a strong and dedicated editorial team that will all be working together to produce what will hopefully become a great bike magazine. We are not on a power trip here, we just want it to work, mainly for you lot out there, our loyal readers. Readers who have been asking us for years “when are you going to go monthly? I can’t wait two months.”

So yeah, from now on Dirt magazine will be monthly. Of course we have concerns, our main one being that we don’t want to lose the feel and high standards of the original magazine, we don’t want to dilute it or pad–out the content, we don’t want mediocre photography, design or editorial, and we don’t really want to become too mainstream (if you know what I mean)…what we want is for it to be spot on, every time. We want to make the magazine inspirational, but most of all to reflect bikes on the dirt in the twenty first century. Sure there will be some changes, but that is all good.
So that’s it, that’s the story. I haven’t got the new chair or the answer phone yet, but they are on the way! - Mike Rose.

NPS Round 1

Again just want to congratulate Matt Simmonds on his results at the weekend. The top guys did well to cope with a corse that was constantly changing over the weekend due to the dry weather keeping it dusty and loose.
It was good to see so many spectators on the hill to see the countrys top riders ripping it up all weekend. Looks like this season is set to be a good one.
Full results are now online http://www.mikrotime.com/mtb/nps2007/inner072.html

NPS Result!

Well it seems team rider Matt Simmonds was pinned at the weekend, 4th in elite with a time of 3:08.29 behind Marc Beaumont 3:07.51, Gee Atherton 3:06.90 and Steve Peat 3:04.12.

Nice one Matt!

Sunday, the day of rest

Well, didn't rest so much, but did have a Downhill themed day. James C, Leo and I sessioned Teg's nose twice using a randomly thought up uplift service.

Good craic and not too tiring, the push up in the middle was hard going though. That was the only exertion of the ride! Was good to hammer Teg's nose "fresh" (or lazy), but the rain had just started to come on, so it was a bit greasy under tyre. So much so I came off at speed and have a nice top layer of skin on my forearm removed for my efforts. The DH descent was awesome though, twisty, tight, fast open and some awesome speed. Still went for it despite my detour to the ground. I think we were all buzzin off it, definitely my fave descent in the area. Difficult to find grip in many places, but a good chortle on a Sunday :)

Jacobgibbins.co.uk

Team photographer Milky has a new site up and running (designed by me funnily enough). You can see all his recent photographs and can buy prints off him for a fair few race events.

www.jacobgibbins.co.uk

Go visit and check it out and look for an interview and feature in Wideopen in the near future.

Ooh the memories

Loving the pictures. What a weekend of top riding. I learned a few things, and having seen the photos I definitely need to work on my facial expressions! Despite the look of fear etched on my coupon, I was actually really comfortable on the wall ride. On the Sunday I was running onto it straight of the large drop off with tweaks off the drop, but maybe a full facer will hide my sorry fear look! Shame there's no pics of me thrashing the DH SDA course, but that will live with me for quite some time, believe me :D

Scotland pictures now online...

Well I'm still waiting to finish the film in the Fisheye camera but the best snaps by Chris and myself are now online in the frame to the left (or click on the image above).

Full writeup of the trip and race report from SDA Round 1 will be in Issue 2 of Wideopen out the beginning of May.

Back on the boil

Out last night in Macc forest, did a bit of filming since the video camera was in the bag - another gorgeous night and Jon, Scott, Phil and myself had a right good laugh.

Scott punctured his puncture proof tyres on Charity Lane before we headed over to Wildboardclough and down the other bridleway - the weekends riding caught up with me and I think the tiredness was the root cause on my two crashes... but as I said to Scott at the bottom, I've a feeling I was going a lot quicker than I thought down there!

All good.

SDA Round 1 - Inners

What a weekend. It must have been the hottest weekend this year and it was a great way to start the season. The track was really fast, and the dry and dusty conditions ment there was alot of loose corners to contend with. The hot weather also ment that staying cool and hydrated was a bit of an issue.
Uplifts were run using the old system of cattle trucks with bikes in one and riders in the other. The system works well so plenty of practice could be had on Saturday.
Come race day and I was pretty comfortable with the corse and I thought I was mentally ready as well. However I got a little over excited in the first race run and washed out coming into a flat corner far too fast. So for the second run I wanted to go sub four minutes which should have been easily doable but I had tired over the weekend and it just wasnt to be. A reasonably clean run saw me come across the line in 4:01, and that placed me 42nd overall in the senior category.
I would have liked to make the top half of the field but I'm still pretty pleased with my result. I'll just have to go for it when I revisit Dunkeld next month for round two!

Over the weekend I also met up with all the guys who were up in Peebles for the weekend. I was really good to catch up with you all again and I hope to see you at a couple more races this year...

Scotland can't be beaten...

In summary...the best weather, the best tracks, the best parks, where we do our best riding, and have the best weekends away.

I loved every ride, every jump, every trail, every minute.

Favourite moments would be watching the SDA DH round 1 (respect to all riders!), Freeride park antics on the wall rides/drop offs/tabletops, seeing some new moves come out from all, spooky woods every time, the Ewok shore stuff, but most of all.....

.....riding the bottom section of the Innerleithen DH route today. I watched it Sunday and rode it three times over on Monday, as well as some Red Bull route through the woods. This has really given me the taste for it. And I felt capable of doing it :) Cleared the big double, and handled the gnarly woods stuff better than some riders I saw on Sunday. I've definitely been bitten....

The weekend is a godsend...

What a weekend... news in brief:

Just back from the Tweed Valley - 24degC, awesome trails, awesome riding, progression from all, reinstatement from some and a great afternoon at the SDA Round 1.

Full writeup and some photos later in the week...

My hi-light? Probably a toss up between watching the SDA (and meeting up with Matt and Ste from the team again) and starting to learn bar tweaks (the beginning of a cross up?) at the free-ride park.

Just wish we never had to leave :(

Tired, sunburnt but happy.
Rock on.

Check it out...

Check out this bad boy, all blinged up for the weekend.



New Hope Pro 2 hubs, sounds like a mofo, on Halo SAS rims. Michelin tubeless DH 16 (front) and 24 (rear), but I've got tubes in cos I have no conversion kit yet!

New cassette and chain, tuned to perfection by moi. New Truvativ giga dh BB. All brakes bled and working perfect (front pad needs bedding in).

All in all, she's good to go (maybe a bit heavy!). And her hardtail sister the Sanchez is looking sweet too.

This weekend is gonna rock, shame I can't enter the Inners SDA round (poor planning on my part!).

Pinned!

Just got back from a evening with the boys out the woods!

Was an amazing evening of major pinnedness all round - me, Jake and Ash were pushing it hard in the dusty conditions; everything was sooooo loose in the corners but it was unbelievably fun! Highlight of the evening for me was managing to keep up with Ash on a pinned run on the Krash track pretty much to the bottom, a real achievement as I've never gone that quick down that track before! OK so I crashed near the bottom and smashed my face, knuckles and ankle into the floor but that was due to a silly mistake on a relatively slow section rather than being out of control so I'm still pretty stoked about the run.

Can't wait till the weekend, got to try and pin Avill!

Matt Simmonds riding at Abercarn. Well done on the good result Matt.

Thanks to James Alexander Photography for letting us use the pics

http://james-alexander.fotopic.net/

Abercarn results...

Round 1 of the Dragon downhill kicked things off at Abercarn this weekend and Fearingout were represented by team rider Matt Simmonds, who was 5th in category and 7th overall.

Full results can be found on the Dragon Downhill website (or direct here)

Full writeup and interview with Jason Carpenter in Issue 2 of Wideopen (out in May).

Boom boom

Went for my usual ride up Macc forest this afternoon. Gorgeous blue skies, almost perfect but there was a fair wind up top. Anyway, Charity lane was awesome as usual, scared the shit out of some ramblers as I flew by them as they chatted about paint and walls and drying (assumption), but as I landed 10 foot away all I could hear was gasps and no doubt "tutts" followed as well as the crackle of the rocks all around me getting belted out the way. I say this every time, but I did actually go even faster today, particularly the middle section. I was actually out of breath at the bottom from hammering it so hard!

Onto the bombhole and then the climb up Wildboarclough. Descent from there was all about the line of attack. Definitely got that dialled now. The 2nd half was immense, more ramblers were shocked as I accelerated over the gnarly rocks, but I was loving it as usual. The "what the fuck trail" is gettting damn fast too these days. Shame I've not gone for DH racing yet, I'm feeling on fine form!

A few purchases and tinkering to be done midweek before next weekend. Front brakes need bled but the nipple isn't for opening up. I'll need to tickle it or something! New rear cassette and chain as my rear is losing teeth in 5/6th gear despite retuning the gears. Also a new BB as there is some play in mine now. Still, it's lasted 18 months of heavy duty pounding! The wheels are here, but no sneak previews until midweek!

Shot from today, total bliss...

Hell yeah...

The Coiler is finished, ready for the Scotland trip :)
New colour on the fork and rims, new bottom bracket and chain and through deep clean and service and she's looking pretty pimp. Also check out the prototype Fearingout bash guard to fit Raceface cranks.

Monday nights, sunny nights

In light night Monday fashion, I trotted off round Macc forest and Wilboarclough for my now regular ride in idyllic conditions. Charity lane was superb, I was flying over even the deep layers of loose stuff, really need to start timing myself to get some times on the board :)

Bombhole run was tops too, scaring the shit out of some lycra seatpost jockey as I drifted past him, accelerated (!) into the final corner and used some "fundamentals" to drift at speed round to the road. Then a little road section and climb to Wilboarclough, where I was sizing up lines all the way up.

Descent back down was possibly the best I've ever felt on the stinky, all the lines, all the speed, and the bike and I were loving every rock, drop, twist, all at speed of course. When we first walked this a few weeks back there was a lad beans-ing it down there and I was quite impressed. However, he was slow compared to me today! Definitely found the float over the loose stuff all the way back. After the bollox climb back up to Standing Stone, I went down the "what the fuck" trail. Blasted down and then back to the car, smiles all round.

A few pics...

At the top of Wilboarclough, contemplating reinstatement

Gourmet sun setting at the reservoir, Macc forest

Chicksands results...

Full results and a writeup are on British Cycling here and Dirt Bike Supply here.

Team rider Matt Jenkins (board 17) came 3rd in Juniors.
There's a particularly unflattering photo on the start gate by Joolz Diamond on British Cycling's gallerys! I'll not post it...

Not much FUNN

Some random industry news...

Looks like FUNN are having some "issues" with Sun. That isn't meant to rhyme, but hey. Basically Sun should be making FUNN rims for 2007 season, but having tried to get my hands on either the Descender rims or the complete Wheelset, it seems that FUNN are having trouble getting Sun to make them. Sounds a bit like a dummy has been spat out, but what the hell am I going to do now...?

Looks like bling factor may be at risk. I'm either going to get real Sun MTX in orange (but I already have my DIY ones!) or Halo's in white. Or I may get Mavic729's and paint them white myself.

Anyways, here's the rim no one can get their hands on....