Oak Bay Bikes Paradox Build

Oak Bay Bikes in Victoria BC have this great looking Paradox V2 built up. If you're in the area call in & check it out.

Kiara Downhill Domination 2012

Happy April fools everyone, I am sure everyone was quite happy that the Kiara race wasn't a joke with riders turning up from far and wide. A total of 136 participants took part, one of the bigger races we have had in Malaysia to date. FRM, (FreeRide Malaysia) the race organisers and trail builders, really out did themselves this time, a great combination of high speed sections, some nice steep technical sections and just a tad of pedaling to mix it up. Really shows the progression of trail building in Malaysia over the past few years.


With the large amount of riders present, most of race day was spent waiting around. Elites only came down for their final run at close to 5pm. Its the only real critique of an otherwise great race, we really need to start using 30 second intervals for seeding and finals. Makes the sport far better for spectators too.
It did rain over the past few days but it decided to stay dry today with beautiful blue skies welcoming in the month of april. Conditions were pretty much perfect in seeding run, just damp enough to keep the dust down and gives the tires something to dig into. Aaron seeding in 6th with a 3.12, I seeded in 3rd with a 3.08, rizal got a bit unlucky and crashed at the entrance to Bunians. Hong Chun put in an amazing run and seeded first in Elite with a time of 2.59.
With the blue skies and a gentle wind the track dried out further, leaving it pretty much bone dry. Watching the rest of the field coming down it was obvious that it was getting really slippery on the track from the amount of people crossing the line with soiled kit. Rizal too crossed the line with a frown, torn up his pretty new jersey. Just not his day today, crashed at the same place during seeding and warned us about the slippery conditions. He swears there is a stump hiding somewhere there out to get him. Me and Aaron were both pushing to go faster in the finals, Aaron unfortunately caught out on the slippery corners on the bottom of the track. I managed to hit all my lines and pushed hard on the pedaling bits, managed to go 11 seconds faster in the final. I was quite happy with my time, but was kicked out of the hot seat by the next rider down, beating me by 0.3 seconds. No surprise from Hong Chun, he put out an amazing run and went 2 seconds faster than his seeding time, getting a 2.57. It was nice to see a tight elite field, 1.7 seconds separating the top 3.
Back to the drawing board for me and trying to grow some legs again.

-Adam
Fakawi Team Blog

Flavia Delaroli Top Swimmer - Images

Flavia Delaroli Top Swimmer 

Flavia Delaroli (born December 28, 1983 in Ipatinga, Minas Gerais, Brazil) is an Olympic and National Record holding freestyle swimmer from Brazil, who won the silver medal in the women's 50 m freestyle at the Pan American Games in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

 Flavia Delaroli Top Swimmer

 Flavia Delaroli Top Swimmer

 Flavia Delaroli Top Swimmer

 Flavia Delaroli Top Swimmer

 Flavia Delaroli Top Swimmer

 Flavia Delaroli Top Swimmer

 Flavia Delaroli Top Swimmer

 Flavia Delaroli Top Swimmer

 Flavia Delaroli Top Swimmer

 Flavia Delaroli Top Swimmer

Flavia Delaroli Top Swimmer

Banshee ready for new UCI Downhill Ruling

The dust barely settles at Pietermaritzburg and behind the scenes something's cooking. I mean it's going to be controversial with the capital C.

Of course this is still early in development and what transpires is still merely a "Request For Proposal" but hey, you've heard it here first.

Round #1 Pietermaritzburg was exciting finish - for Greg but it's not getting exciting overall it seems - for the powers that be.

The playing field is not even enough, it's always the same guys, too much technology.
Believe me, even at World Cup level there are whiners. Whiners will always whine. Never mind that the elites put in solid work in the winter when the rest are busy swapping war stories and swigging from a bottle. Tough!. You take out what you put in. But on the other hand, all these murmurs on too much technology...
Now there's something that regulators can work on - regulating technology.

Or specifically equipment. Recall the story of Slovenian alpine ski racer Tina Maze was called to task by the FIS, ski racing’s governing body, after finishing second in a slalom in Lienz, Austria, for wearing “plasticized” underwear.

FIS rules outline what kinds of clothing can be worn by racers and are designed to protect the skiers, in this particular case from wearing long johns that don’t allow the body to perspire and breathe. “Competition suits and clothing worn underneath, such as underwear, etc. may not be plasticized or treated by any chemical means (gaseous, liquid or solid),” the FIS rulebook says, “and must have a minimum permeability of 30 liters per m2/sec under 10 mm of water pressure.”
The real issue, though, is the perception of competitive advantage.

Closer to home we have seen Rachel Atherton whining about Tracey Mosley's skinsuit which was later, gasp! banned. I guess beating Rachel by 4 seconds is just too much.

Anyways, enough talking about the ladies, what we thought you loyal Banshee fans would like to know is what the UCI rulebook has in store for us. They have deemed that there is too much technology in the rear wheel setup. Gear box, derailleurs and purists are complaining. UCI actually wants to simplify things, removing too much tech by running a fixed hub.


CLICK TO ENLARGE: New UCI DH-F Ruling

One of the perceived main attractions of a fixed gear bicycle is low weight. Without the added parts required for a fully geared drive train, a fixed gear bicycle weighs significantly less than its geared equivalent.

Also, a fixed gear drivetrain is more mechanically efficient than any other bicycle drivetrain, with the most direct power transfer from rider to the wheels. Thus, a fixed gear requires less energy in any given gear to move than a geared bike in the same gear.


In slippery conditions some riders prefer to ride fixed because they believe the transmission provides increased feedback on back tire grip.

These arguments seems to make sense to the UCI and hence being part of the industry we have been given a referendum on the subject.

Here your chance for feedback and in the meantime, we show you a sneak peek of what compliance to UCI ruling will look like on the Legend MK2 F.


The current Legend Mark 2 underwent some changes to conform with the new UCI fixie DH requirements. Rear brake mounts are omitted and the rear derailleur hanger is no longer required. Some major changes will have to be made to the VF4B linkage to cope with fixed rear hub forces.

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Indonesian National Series (UKDI) round 1

It was the first race of 2012 that we did as a team with Rizal being able to join us last minute. Check out the video below for what we did to his bike! The track at sebex this year was the same as the one used for SEA games last year and shared the same bottom section as last year's APDC track too. It was a pretty tame track, no big drops or jumps, all the risky lines were taped off, word from the organisers is that they didn't want people to start the first race of the season by getting big injuries. There is no two ways about this track, you have to be fit and powerful, its one of those tracks where you have loads of fun in practice but loath it when it comes to racing. Due to the gentle gradient of the track, quick times require a lot of pedaling.

As usual, Aaron, Ian and me were the only 3 riders in elite category on flat pedals. No surprise there as the Indonesian riders have some power in their legs and aren't shy to use it. Practice for me and Ian was pretty relaxed as we knew the track quite well from SEA games last year, nothing really changed since then. We both knew that we just had to let it all hang out and embrace the pain in our legs when it comes time for finals. Aaron and Rizal were getting as much practice as they could and managed to do 8 runs on friday.

Saturday was qualifying with a short morning practice from 6.30 till 8am, we managed to get to the track early enough to put in two practice runs. The track was wet from yesterdays rain but I knew it would be bone dry again in the evening. Rizal in master b expert would have a slightly damp track but not enough to warrant a tire change. With 220 odd riders at the race and 1 minute intervals being used it was a really long wait, probably the worse part of racing that you never really get used to. Everyone had a pretty good seeding run except Aaron who decided to get a bit intimate with a tree. Rizal qualified in 5th and as looking to improve, as usual it was no surprise that all 3 of us in elite were near the bottom. Popo putting in a solid time of 2.20, Ian was the closest with a 2.35. All of us were looking to at least hit the 2.30 mark come race day.

After getting back to our accommodation it decided to rain pretty hard for a couple of hours, we were all dreading a wet track as it would just make the pedaling worse. Mud guards went on and we took out wet tires along for race day just in case. Luckily the weather gods smiled and gave us blue skies all day, the track was only muddy in one small section which dried out for the Elites again. Rizal dug deep and managed to go a few seconds faster, earning him 3rd place. Aaron got a bit unlucky and slid out on one of the corners, otherwise would have been set for a good time. Ian managed to go faster and shockingly pedalled hard, respect as he is the only person i know who hates pedaling more than i do. I too dug deep and managed to go 5 seconds faster. On paper our results don't seem that impressive, but we are right in the mid pack in elite category. Which in indonesia means quite a lot to us with sebex being one of the more pedaly tracks around. A significant difference from last year when we were no where close to even the mid pack elite riders, yet this time 4 seconds faster would have put us on the podium. There is a lot more work to be done but it doesn't seem impossible any more.

Right now the team is back in kl, everyone preparing for the Kiara KDD race this weekend. Stoked to have back to back race weekends, its how it should be! As simple and fun as the kiara track is to ride, it is going to be a challenging track to race on as you really have to keep it on edge the whole way down. Its going to be a great weekend of riding and racing!

Adam.
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Booker T With Wife Sharmell Images

Booker T With Wife Sharmel

 Booker T With Wife Sharmel

 Booker T With Wife Sharmel

 Booker T With Wife Sharmel

 Booker T With Wife Sharmel

 Booker T With Wife Sharmel

 Booker T With Wife Sharmel

Booker T With Wife Sharmel