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23rd May 2004	Back from Galloway and raring to go! Managed to dislocate my thumb across the summer and now I can't really ride the bike properly anymore :-( ... at least that's my excuse! The doctors reckon it'll be about 9 months until everythings back to normal! Oh well just have to take it easy for a while.....on the bright side though managed to pick up a new girl....her names Laura - embaressing pics to follow shortly! Not alot of riding happened since i've been back but that should soon change...also new car on the way, should be here on tuesday check it out here. It's the Tiger CAT-E1....awesome!
13th May 2004	The rain has descended, but I suppose we can't complain cos the trails were blisteringly dry yesterday and the Orange was hitting a fair rate of knots by the bottom of the hill. See vid here....The guys (Rich and Ross) are hard at work revisin for exams at the mo, but it didn't stop 'em making the most of dry trails! Got my carbon bars and Azonic shorty stem today...and gotta say they are mental! Also recently some comments were made on a descent world forum that were not entirely true, I'd like to apologise to anyone who took offence and hope that they can forgive me and just get out and ride! L8r dudes....
26th April 2004	Went for a bit of a dirt jump tonight with Richard. His hub started to misbehave so we were down to one bike!!! But that's OK cos it was the Orange......mmmmm.......Big stuff was goin on, on saturday; with MBUK making an appearance for a photo shoot. Sorry to anyone who was kept in the dark about this but I'm sure you can understand that we, MBUK included, didn't want the world and his mate turning up! and we didn't announce anything on the site because last time (March) it was cancelled at the last minute because of bad weather! Check out the pics here. (More pics will be added when we recieve them from Andy the photographer) we'd like to express some thanks to MBUK for recognising that there is life this far north! When we know exactly which issue we are to appear in we'll let you know! l8r...
21st April 2004	Goody, Goody, Goody - The Orange 222 has arrived!!! As hinted at earlier I have bought a secondhand Orange 222 - pics to come soon! So the rest of tonight is gonna be spent building up the gorgeous frame......new purchases also include a new XT - Profile 9spd drivetrain and Chris King no-threadset headset......reviews to follow shortly! Now all I need is a new fork up front, & to learn how to ride a bike.....(Rich)
27th March 2004	The weather has been absolutely CRAP! despite Mr Fish's optimism for a good spell over the weekend! Basically spent most of the day watching the rugby and working on the website! The Octane has been sold!!!! but fear not something much more beastly is in the pipelines!! (think steve peat) The rear hub on my halo wheelset has completely given up now after some dirt jumping! I took off and the wheel stopped turning in mid-air, needless to say it didn't start again when I touched down! So I've got a week of XC riding to look forward to, then skiing in france! wehey! Anyway keep them wheels rolling (if you can!)....Oli. P.s - if you have bought the halo wheelset, fear not my hubs are not the Diatech ones, they are crappy Ovation - Marins in house brand! DOH!
21st March 2004	Today is Mother's day....so of course we were all inside cateering to our special mum's every needs! Were we hell!! the sun was shining and we thought it'd be cool to go for a dirt fumping sesh at Drumoak. All was going well until my back wheel decided that it had well and truly come to the end of it's life and completely seized......granted that I did replace a few of the broken bearings with nothing but a good smathering of grease, which in hind-sight may not have been so a good idea as originaly thought!!!! So in many ways I suppose it serves me right! So a bit of photography was clearly in order! The jumps were surprisingly good after a winters worth of non-maintenance! Frazer Mann was out with us today with his bighit beast pictured below......nice bike! little heavy but NICE bike!!! Krispy (Chris) has disappeared to Galloway again but we might still have some riding info at Ae/Dalbeatie....??? Lot's of shore building going on at the mo, with Tom almost complete and Dick only requiring a bit more work on the landing ramp!! Check out the pics here. Dick is currently at the design stage as a suitable "hidden" area is clearly needed!!! So to some up the last week - lot's of building, lot's of riding and unfortunately lots of broken bits! L8rz every1 - keep them wheels turning! Oli.
9th March 2004	Quite a bit of riding recently! Went for a burn down Scolty a few times with Richard on Saturday then started building North-East Shore Part Deux!!! Met up with Frazer on Sunday for a ride down Scolty and more building in the afternoon after Ricky joinned us. The bighit is a beast! Expect pictures of Frazer and his beastly bighit stead! Needless to say - bighit, monster-T's, hope, MRP etc etc.....mmmmm! A tad on the hefty side though Frazer. BIG, BIG, BIG news for next weekend though! I'm not letting on yet in case it doesn't go ahead but believe me when I say it's BIG! Should be some pics of the new shore coming any day now and a possible domain name change??!! Expect more to come......Oli.
18th February 2004	Went for a ride with Chris today on the freeride track on Scolty. No brake problems today! Wehey! The octane was working perfectly until my chain device decided to hit the chain stay every time I topped out quickly! Easily resolved with an angle grinder!! So a bit more fetteling....expect more riding over the weekend....
13th February 2004	Well following on from last week - we were indeed skiing! wehey! Half-term has rolled around at last so I scieved a day off college to go riding with Rich and one of his mates Ross. After a morning of general tomfoulery on Scolty including the new section of track complete with step-down! (see Chris' diary for more...) we moved across to the "freeride" track where after a bit of slabbage we completed the rest of the track and played around on the nuke for a while. My brakes seem to be working now after some "fetteling with a sledge hammer" so my bike will at least roll now! Which is kind of novel considering yesterdays efforts when my brake decided it liked that special bit of rotor so much that it wouldn't let go again! (seized) I bled them last night (humanely) and them seem almost good today! cool cool! Rich has a new sweet wheel! mmmmm! Hope bulb! Howver we did notice a downside of the mavic way! - whilst trying to fitting a Tioga 2.3" tyre complete with a nokian gazzalodi innner tube to the Mavic EX823 (why oh why did they change the names!) I should at this point point out that the 823 is a tubeless wheel! Nice one Rich! A snapped tyre lever later and it was on and doing quite well! Hopefully will be more biking over the coming days we'll keep you updated. I have also setup my e-mail now so you can contact me on: oli@banchorybikers.plus.com Expect to see some exciting improvement to the website in the not too distant future! I'm not giving anything away yet! (see pic at bottom of page - Octane in the pit after some brake mis-haps yesterday!)
24th & 25th January 2004	This week I have combined the days just to keep things easy! Yesterday (24th) myself, Chris and Richard went on a ride around Scolty. Just sessioning tracks that haven’t been done for a while, including the new (freeride) track complete with 8 foot slab (see pics). Finaly done it now! (Big Baby!) anyhow. So a good bit of riding on Saturday. Today (25th) we took the demo car for a spin and tested it’s bike holding capacity to the limits with an Octane, Custard (Muddy Fox) and the Kona Beast! Well it managed impeccably and we were waffted in ultimately luxury to the local jump spot in Drumoak about a 10 minute drive towards Aberdeen. A friendly farmer who’s son rides BMX built the jumps with his digger and we often go and have a good sesh on ‘em. We all managed to do our first intentional one-handers. Not very impressive to all you dirt jumpers out there but hey you know one-hander today, superman indian air tomorrow (well maybe not). I even managed a half n’ half….although I didn’t exactly set out to! So a pretty productive weekend on the whole! Probably not gonna be any update next weekend as snow is forecast so we will be skiing! (Hopefully!)
10/01/04	Saturday 10th January 2004: Street ride around Banchory - YAWN! Nothing left that hasn’t been riden, well not quite nothing. There is still Tillybrake roof??!! Maybe I’ll let Chris go first see if he breaks anything....here’s hoping not, although that would making quiting the co-op an easy descision for him. He’s just walked in after a 10 hour shift - could it get any worse?? The Octane is still a beast, although there was an abundance of orange coloured oxidised iron on my chain this morning (Rust). The old Marin is currently shacked up in Chris’ garage awaiting it’s XC make over. Starting to look a bit like a Shoreline with a Judy up front instead of the Jnr T’s. Proper old-school XC riding, ah gotta love it! Going back to Tilly (Pictures coming soon!), we were on the roof again today, didn’t get shouted at makes a change eh! But I gotta say it’s looking very do able! New Product of The Week - Scott Octane frame (Don’t expect anything new for a while!) New Drop of The Week - Tillybrake, drop in at skatepark and bowl Phrase of The Week - yeehee! (in a michael fish stylee) This week I have mostly been listening to - DMX The Great Depression Puncture Counter - 0! Don’t expect that to last for long!