What an utterly mental week, and it's only Thursday.

Tomorrow the bike show in Belfast Kings Hall starts, but for us it nearly didn't. Dreadful winds and crappy ferries nearly meant most of the bits to finish the new DH team bikes, and most of the Team Edition Commencal's didn't make it accross the Irish sea. Hours of frantic phone calls and a semi serious suggestion to charter a cargo plane  (yes, seriously!) later a massive huge super smashing lovely big thanks had to go out to Billy at Nutt Travel for getting the Commencal guys and our bikes onto the only ferry to run. So in the end everyone got where they were meant to be, and for us at least, the show will go on.

Not so sure about some of the others as the hall did seem a bit empty today at build up. It don't start til 3pm tomorrow (Friday 1st) so we'll know for sure then.

Regards the teams DH bikes, we've everything apart from the rear wheels! Halo our wheel sponsor sent us over plenty, but the box of rears seems to have got lost en-route. We're assured they'll be wth us in the morning, otherwise the new team riders will have to endo around the hall at the team launch!

 On our stand at the show we've all the things crucial to the life of a MTBer: Widescreen TV, stereo, DH Domination on the PS2 and beer. So get along, neck a tinnie, take the DH domination challenge and drool over the Team Edition Commencals.

Seeya over the weekend.

Yes, the bike show is this weekend, and believe it or not, we're almost sorted! In case you've not yet heard about it, it's this weekend at the Kings Hall.

We have lots of cool things sorted for the show, we might even take a bike or two!

Seeya there.

Halo wheels have a reputation for being immensely strong. Which is what you want when your racing DH on them. When your at the start gate and the start gate dude is counting down, you don't want to be wondering if your wheels are going to survive that rock garden or still be round after that jump. You need to have complete confidence that at the end of the run your wheels are going to still be round and still going round!

That's why when we went looking a wheel sponsor the first door we knocked on was Halo. And the man from Del Monte said yes!

So the boys will be running white Halo wheels on their white Commencal Supreme DH's.

How cool? 

Not convinced that the official aftermarket tubeless wheel kits are worth the money shop regular and experiemental head AndyL and I decided to have a go at our own home system. We can't take full credit for it as we got some ideas off the good old internet, but we've played around with the idea, had a few false starts, and in the end got it to work. Consistantly!

Before everyone starts asking lots of questions it's worth pointing out what we we're trying to achieve. We were not trying to get a system that would cope with nails thru the tyre, we wanted a system that would allow us to run normal single ply tyres at really low pressures with out pinch flatting. This I think we've achieved.

Now this system is not for everyone, if you change tyres like Lylo changes his underwear then this ain't for you. But if you change them once in a while (tyres not underwear) and don't mind a bit of flaffing when you do, it could be a goer.

Regards the actual "vidcast", bear in mind this is the first time we're ever done this sort of thing. We're not going for high production values, we just wanted to show you how to do it. Please DO NOT STREAM this video. Doing so will slow down connections for others. Do the old right mouse click save as thing and store it on your local machine.

That's about it really. Enjoy the video and running DIY tubeless for less than a tenner a bike! Oh ya, and save the STW style comments on the back ground, we know the workshop is a mess, and that the kitchen is small, and all that. OK?

DIY Tubeless video podcast (right mouse click, save as...)

Finally, our brand new 2007 Commencal Team DH frames have arrived. Yes, they're actually in store now. Yes, you can hold them. They are definitely ready for some Team Real Cycles / Commencal podiums this year!   more »

We've been looking at stocking this for a while now, it's not cheap, £50 to de-tube the average wheelset, but according to this video, it works: http://www.notubes.com/moviedemo.php

Nonetheless we're still not convinced it's worth £50, so shop regular (regular, he practically lives here!) AndyL and myself are going to start testing homemade systems. If we can get one to work half as well as Stans, you'll soon know about it. 

Wow, things sure have moved fast on this one in the last week or so. First off we got our first choice elite rider, then better still he announced he wanted to ride a Commencal. Then our Vet rider said the same, so a few phonecalls later and Team Real Cycles / Commencal was born. And now things are starting to get very serious indeed!

The two main guys (elite & vets) will be be on Commencal Supreme DH frames with their own choice of builds (Fox 40's, Mazzie 888, etc.) Our other vet rider (me!) will be on a Supreme6.1 and our senior rider will be on an as yet undecided Commencal.

We're still talking to a clothing sponsor but most likely now it'll be Commencal who provide it, which would make sense being that the complete range in going to available in store pretty soon.

The frames for the guys have started to arrive in, and my god they're a weapon. Long and low, with built in chain device, 150mm rear hub, adustable head angle and adjustable wheel base, these things are built for one purpose: To be very fast. If the lads can't podium on board these, they ain't ever gonna podium! Pete will get some pics of the frames up tomorrow.

The team will be officially annonced soon, in the mean time the rumour mill will continue to turn over on MTBrider.  

Things are sure moving on at a fast pace, it's almost 3 weeks since Causeway Coast Adventure Racing held the first race in the Realcycles Adventure Race Series.

Race Report

The first race took place in Banagher forest on the 21st October, 28 pairs took part in a race which turned out to be harder than most teams were expecting. The race route had been changed several times on the run up to the big day due to access restrictions, with the final route decided on the Wednesday before, when the Water Service finally give us permission to use the reservoir within the forest. All the competitors agreed the kayak section on the reservoir was one of the highlights of the race, even if it did see a handful of them take cramp.

Teams lined up at the start in the middle of one of the heaviest showers of rain we had during the month of October, as they headed of from the start they were still unsure what lay ahead of them until they arrived at the map give out point, all they knew was they were starting on bikes. The bike section was a short loop around the south section of Banagher forest.   more »

It might have the longest and most descriptive name in the bike trade, it might also be bright orange, but by god it's one sexy MF! My new DH race bike for 07 has landed, in the form of a Commencal Supreme 6.1 "Mini DH".

In previous years the Supreme range had been pitched as the long travel hardcore trail bike, a role it's filled well being a real good pedal'er, but the angles have always held it back from being a true all rounder. Over the last year there has also been a move to shorter travel downhill bikes as courses become more technical as opposed to being just plain big! Commencal spotted the rider trend to use the Supreme for DH duties so for 07 they re-worked the spec list, and rebranded the range, "Mini DH"   more »

Tyres are possibly the most inportant part of a bike, cus they are the only thing connecting you with the dirt (unless you fall ofcourse), and finding the perfect tyre is tough. Scratch that, impossible. But finding a good tyre is doable, it's just a case of knowing what your after. For Instance...... For the last few months I've been running Intense Edge FRO tyres on the Coiler. These are truly awesome on the downs but a nightmare on the ups. Weighing in at nearly 5lb a pair don't help, but what makes them sooo good in one direction (down) and soooo bad in the other (up) is the fact that they're made of some of the stickiest rubber known to man! Bottom line, not a great all round tyre, fantastic for DH but that's about it. I guess the give away really should have been the fact they are from the FRO range, ie For Racing Only..... D'oh!   more »