ATTITUDE

Happy Old Year

It has been another fantastic year, I have learned so much this year and it brings me into a new year fresh and ready for new challenges. I have changed to riding a Tallboy 29er and feel comfortable with the move, I am looking towards being a mountain bike leader and using skills attained in biking over the years to help others achieve their goals. I've had a shoulder injury and hooping cough (seemed like Forever) which has stopped me from doing some of the big rides I had planned but all that has made me re-focus on this coming year. 2012 has been a great year for British Cycling with the Tour de France, Olympics etc, some of my friends have had a great year too. Steve Peat continues to dominate the downhill scene with consistent performances, Josh Bryceland is realizing his potential as world champion material again, just a matter of time really, and Greg Minnaar became World Champion for the second time. All the Santacruz team having a great year on the whole, it's so good to be part of the Santacruz network, but riding a Santacruz is good on Any day. I helped one guy train do a coast to coast ride he had wanted to do for years, 130 tough miles in 13hrs, for me it's sometimes about helping others believe in themselves and achieve things, nice to see him do it on my old Blur. I have to thank many people for their support in 2012, Steve Peat, Santacruz, Stif, Royal, Craig at Evenort, Exposure, Nomad and Hedcamz, I look forward to working with them in 2013. All topped off at Christmas with Will and Maria becoming parents, congratulations. So here's to the new year, only we can make it what it is, remember in your life 10% of it is what happens to you, but 90% is how you react to it, Attitude is what makes the difference, lets give it 100% in 2013.

Happy New Year.

PEATY'S WHARNCLIFFE CHRISTMAS RIDE

It's always nice to go on a mountain bike ride around Wharncliffe Woods, especially with friends like Steve Peat. He knows the place like the back of his hand and took us around a challenging ride which included some nice muddy and rooty single track. It started off with a shot of rum to warm us up and once the large group of riders had congregated off we went. It gave me a chance to try out my new bike, a big yellow Santacuz Tallboy LTc, 29er wheels long travel, mud and a bit of downhill, just what I needed to get into it.  As you can imagine, there were lots of Santacruz bikes about and my big 29er got a bit of interest, I hadn't tried it in as testing an environment until now and the more I rode it the more I realized how good it was and there were only a few things I wanted the tweek. The rims were hard to get going due to their weight and the suspension wants setting up for my liking but worse than that the tot of rum from before we set off was showing signs of rearing it's ugly head again. After a while I got into it and we all stopped at the bomb hole to have a group photo, about 70 of us in total someone said. It was also nice to ride with some mates I hadn't seen for a while, Berg, ebay Dave, Paddy and Farmer Jack among'st others, but also good to ride with James Dabill (well renowned trials rider) who had a Tallboy too, comparing notes and generally shooting the breeze. I found wheelie mode once or twice on the ride and to say it has a lot more travel than a standard Tallboy it was easily as good at it, once we all got back I shook hands with them all and left them opening beers and swapping tales about a very memorable ride, a ride with a very nice group of people with a lot in common, who I feel lucky to know. Look forward to the next time out, Wharncliffe and Tallboy LTc.

SANTA'S HELPER, GOOD ELF!

All the chocolate that was kindly donated by all the guys who came to ride at the Santa Cruise this year has..

STRICTLY SANTA CRUISE THE RESULTS

Getting a ride organised with a couple of  mates is hard enough but.....

29er BETTer?

29er BETTer, FASTer, HARDer, STRONGer?

The 26 or 29 discussion is comparable in many ways to that of discussing the merits of a two stroke over a four stroke moto-x bike.

They are harder to ride, slower, more expensive, just a fad, don’t handle, don’t accelerate, can’t go round corners, won’t manual or wheelie, hard to jump, won’t change direction as quick and are not really an mtb. Various comments made by bikers but did they give 29er’s a break?

APP ATTACK

There are many ways to track your training routes to keep tabs on how you are doing, Strava, Endomondo,
iMap my ride etc, to state but a few, most of them will work in conjunction with phone or gps type devices.

THE 2012 SANTA CRUISE

BRIEF INTRO VIDEO FOR THE SANTA CRUISE 2012

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-t6z2SvFXw&feature=youtu.be

The ride sets off from Cannock Chase car park at 8:30 ish on Sunday the 2nd of December, and will have Steve Peat and other Santacruz team riders in attendance. Bring a selection box and we will swap it for a festive beer and enter you into a raffle that is drawn after the ride.Anyone wishing to donate a prize please get in touch with Joe at Whitakers Signs on 01909 530660.

INTRODUCING HEDCAMz

HEDCAMz are the most recent addition to the support we receive. There are many reasons for wanting to use a head camera, firstly Mountain Bikers usually

WHAT MOUNTAIN BIKE

It was a surprise to see my name in ''What Mountain Bike'' this month, although

FREE BEER

A Very rare and much sought after thing of beauty,

URGENT HELP FOR SANTACRUZ BIKES

ATTENTION ALL MOUNTAIN BIKERS SANTACRUZ BIKES MISSING.
Thieves have been at it again, this time they have broken in to the Santacruz demo van in Ilkley and stolen a large amount of bikes the list which describes them below:

SECRET MORDOR TRAILS

Just got back from some secret trails, that very few people have ridden or know about, I can't tell you much but it is part of an upcoming challenge that will become evident. I can't tell who, where, why or what, what film crew or magazine will be involved but it will be interesting so look out for it, here's a taster video. Mordor Video

MUD MAYHEM

Wiggle Mountain Mayhem showed such promise on the lead up but

LOOKING FORWARD TO MOUNTAIN MAYHEM

This weekend is the Wiggle Mountain Mayhem 24hr Mountain Bike race, so I'm dragging the family kicking and screaming to do the yearly pilgrimage to the Malvern Hills to

MY MATE JACK

It's great to hear about people I know doing stuff for charity, MY MATE JACK has just done something fantastic though, he's just

WHEELIE GOOD NEWS!!

JOE WHITAKER PICTURED WITH ROB ROSKOPP OWNER OF SANTA CRUZ BICYCLES AND STEVE PEAT
PICTURE COURTESY OF STEVE BEHR

Cyclist No1 is a good site to keep up to date with all things Bike, and I am stoked they take an interest in some of my exploits. The latest journey they have put on their website is

YOU'VE BEEN FRAMED

I'm not afraid to make a fool of myself, especially in aid of charity, but this hurt....

URGENT NEWS ABOUT STEVE PEAT

Just to introduce...

MOUNTAIN MAYHEM 2012

Don't forget to get your entry in to this years Wiggle Mountain Mayhem 24 hour race, go to their website at:

WHWX2 CERTIFICATE

Last weekend I was invited to go to Scotland to be presented with

WELSH COAST TO COAST

I had the honour of being asked by Gary Lake of Cyclist No1 to provide a few words on what it is like to be an endurance mountain biker, he is using it to help boost the profile of his Welsh coast to coast challenge.

He is doing the ride in aid of a very special charity, please give it a look and help if you can. He is not just riding this in a normal fashion, please give the article a read to see what he is doing, I am sure he will do it, and do the challenge justice,  Go For It Gary! Go to this link:  http://wc2c.cyclistno1.co.uk/2012/01/whats-it-going-to-take/

INTERESTED IN LEJOG?

I know a few people who want to tackle Lands End to John O'Groats at the moment, a mate asked for some advice as I had done it before, so I showed him a write up I did. He thought I ought to post it up, after reading it again I realized how much of the journey I had forgotten, which shows how important it is to write about the stuff you do. Read on below or go to my older Lands End to John O'Groats post.