Sugarbush MTB GP race report

After two days of flying and two nights of sleeping in planes Katie and I made it to Burlington, VT on the East Coast of America and met up with fellow Kiwis James Rennie and Pip Holdom to begin our trip to the second round of the US MTB GP which was being held in the small ski town of Sugarbush, VT.
Having never been there before I was pretty unsure of what to expect but after checking out the track we were greeted with a fully taped, multi line, wide track that looked awesome! 

The better part of Friday was spent building up my fresh new Zerode G1 and thanks to Rob Metz, Jeremiah Dylan Dean, Shimano, Fox, Maxxis and Gamut it was looking pretty awesome! The new anodized blue definitely helps it stand out!

After finishing up building my bike I managed to squeeze in a couple of runs in the evening to get a feel for the track and start to get my bike dialed in.

Saturday came out hot and fine and with qualifying in the afternoon it was time to get all my lines sorted on the track and get up to speed. It didn't take much to get the Zerode feeling at home on the rough track at Sugarbush and by the time qualifying rolled around I was feeling good on the track.

Photo: Dave Trumpore

With an open format for qualifying we were able to do our timed run anytime after 3pm so I decided to get up there early and get it out of the way. I ended up being the 4th person down the hill which was good to avoid sitting around in the heat too long!
Straight out of the gate was a short pedal and I decided to push it in my run to see how I was doing but unfortunately after bending a couple of teeth on my chain ring during practice my bike had other things in mind and primary chain derailed on the second pedal stroke almost sending me over the bars straight out of the gate! Luckily I managed to hold onto it and not crash so all I had left was to ride my run chain-less and see how it turned out. Surprisingly I managed to roll my way down into 8th which I was happy with, although still 24seconds behind fellow kiwi Justin Leov who qualified 1st, but I still felt I had some decent time to make it up with a chain on!

Photo: Dave Trumpore

Sunday was another scorcher and practice in the morning was hard work in the heat but nice to be away from the NZ Winter!
After a bit of bike maintenance on Saturday night my bike was all ready and with two good practice runs in the morning I was feeling good for the race.
The race runs were seeded off of Saturdays qualifying so being 8th it meant a fairly long wait until my race run, luckily though I had booked a room in the condos which were literally right beside the finish area and lifts which meant we could hang out in the nice cool room until it was time to race!
My race run started out good and I hit the fast open top section of the track smooth and clean before entering the woods and trying to adjust to the big difference in lighting. Down through the trees was smooth and I hit all of my lines before exiting out into the open once again for the final few berms to the finish.
All in all I rode a good clean run but felt a little reserved through the woods while trying to ride clean and smooth, in the end my time was good enough for 8th place overall which I was really happy with considering I have been away from International racing for nearly two years.

Photo: Matt DeLorme/Vital MTB

We are now in Mt Saint Anne, Canada for the 4th round of the World Cup series which begins with course walk tomorrow. The track here is traditionally pretty long and rough so I am looking forward to getting onto it on Thursday to test out the Zerode down there!

This is New Zealand - rider preview

A few weeks ago I posted a blog about filming for a movie coming out later in the year call "This is New Zealand" and ever since then I have been meaning to post a link to the my Rider Preview that Michael and Hamish put together from the three days of filming. I'm pretty stoked with the preview and this is just their throw away footage! Can't wait to see the full movie!

Rider Preview | Kieran Bennett on pinkbike.com

Last weekend the Nelson Mountain Bike Club kicked off their Club Champs Series which runs over the winter with one race each month. Traditionally the series starts off with an easier track to try and encourage people into racing and this year a short but fun trail known was "Redwoods" was chosen in the Brook Valley right by town. With it only being around a minute long I decided to race on my 6" trail bike rather than my full on downhill bike because the track just didn't justify the need for it, it was also a short ride to the top too so I could pedal back up between each run which helped turn it into a bonus training day!

Due to there being no shuttles sign in began at 12 and everyone could do as little or as much practice as they felt like before racing began at 1pm. After a couple of quick practice runs I felt pretty well dialed in and was having plenty of fun in the casual atmosphere. Even so I couldn't help but put 100% into my race run and coming through the line with a 1.03.35 which was good enough for me to take the win with a clear 3 seconds over 2nd place which I was really stoked with, I have been putting in a lot of work over the last few weeks to get prepared for my trip to the US for the North American World Cup rounds and US MTP GP downhill rounds and to win by a good margin on such a short track makes it feel like my training is paying off!

Another five weeks to wait for round two now and then three days after that I will be on a plane with my wife Katie and en route to my first race in the US at Sugarbush Resort, Vermont!

Filming for "This is New Zealand"

Some of you may have seen bits and pieces about the New Zealand MTB documentary that is in the works called "This is New Zealand" which is being produced by two young guys out of Christchurch. Hamish one of the guys behind it got in touch with me a few months ago giving me a run down on their ideas and asking if I wanted to film a section for the movie in Nelson which I immediately said yes to because it sounded like the perfect chance to show off what Nelson has to offer.

I wanted to get a bit of variety in my section so we spent one morning shooting some of the local trails that I use to train on my trail bike, there is a big network of MTB trail's about 10 minutes ride from my house and we managed to get a lot of cool footage there with some interesting shots off the back of my ute!

The bulk of my downhill riding was shot on Fringe Hill on the National Champs track, I hadn't been riding there since National Champs but it didn't long to get back into it and have some fun.

We also spent a day out on the Ben Nevis downhill tracks just out of Nelson shooting Reuben's section and also some stuff riding together for the transitional period between our sections in the film.

NZ National Championships

Over the past weekend I had the New Zealand National Mountain Bike Championships here in Nelson where I took on the first ever Super D National Championship and raced the Downhill Championship for the 11th year in a row!

Super D was held on Friday evening on the backside of the Codgers MTB trails down Firball, Turners and Dogs which ended up being a really testing race. Each section of descending was quite different from the other and a good section of pedaling/climbing in between each of them to keep the oxygen deprivation high!

Since I have ridden the track a bit over the past year I decided on just one quick practice run before the race to get my head around the track again and get a feel for how loose the dust was going to be. This event was raced as a single person timed run just like downhill which I think suits the downhillers because we are so used to pushing ourselves against the clock rather than racing other people around us.

Being the local I ended up getting seeded to be last down the hill which meant I was chasing down some fast guys in the form of World Cup Downhill racers like Justin Leov, Jared Graves and Matt Scoles which was a good thing because it meant there wouldn't be any waiting at the bottom to know how I went.

My run went well and after trying to conserve my energy on the descents I hit the hardest and final climb with a good solid sprint but after about 30 seconds my legs were feeling like bricks and I had to sit down the last 15 seconds and spin which I was a bit disappointed with because it was so close to the top but as it turns out I still managed to cross the line in 2nd behind Justin Leov which I was stoked it. Justin showed us how much of a freak he is by putting a solid 12 seconds into me! I definitely had no answer for where those 12 seconds went and I will tell you all now you can put your money on Justin being a podium contender at the first round of the World Cup in South Africa in March.

Next up on the cards was Saturdays Downhill practice which was extremely dry and dusty after a couple of dry weeks leading up to the race. The track held up well though with only a couple of small turns getting blown out by the end of the day. I took the day pretty easy as I was definitely feeling a bit slow after blowing myself out in the Super D the night before.

Race day looked like the rain was going to come for most of the morning but eventually the sun came out just as predicted by Metservice! With such a long shuttle most people only got one run in during the mornings practice and that worked out exactly as I was planning for me making it up for the clear run pro practice before getting organised for seeding.

I wanted to put a quick run down in seeding to see where I would be standing heading into the finals so I decided to just try and ride a normal run down there so I knew I had time to spare and that was exactly how it worked it, I ended up crossing the line in 5th place about 6 seconds back from Scolsy who seeded 1st

Knowing that I would need to take about 8 or 9 seconds off of my seeding time I hit the track was aggression in my race run hitting the first few corners quick until a corner that had changed a bit since seeding caught me out and sent me to the ground. I was gutted to go down so early and got back on cursing myself for the mistake but forced myself to push hard again to try and salvage what I could from my run.

The rest of my run went well and I hit the tricky off cambers with an all or nothing mentality making it through them clean and fast.

Crossing the line at the bottom I was surprised to see my time was good enough for 2nd and only fractions of a second off the lead! With 4 riders left to go on the hill it was a nervous wait to see how my time would hold up but in the end I finished up 4th only a few seconds from the win which I was stoked with considering I crashed and still made the podium.

Justin Leov showed again he is on form taking his first National Downhill Championship and his second Championship for the weekend.

Iv'e got two weeks off now before the NZ National Downhill Series resumes for round four in Rotorua, I know a couple of things I want to work on before then so its back to training and getting prepared!

Thanks again to all of my awesome sponsors for making it happen again this year, Zerode Bikes, Fenwicks, Results Gym, Equilibrium Chiropractic, Fox Clothing, Scott Goggles, Maxxis tyres, Shimano, Pro, Fox Racing Shox and Interislander Ferrys!

In the news!

Earlier in the week myself and my team mate Reuben Olorenshaw met up with a reporter from the local paper and did a bit of an interview and photo shoot. It ended up coming out pretty good in a half page article in tonight's edition, check it out here! http://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/sport/6317578/Its-all-downhill-for-Nelson-riders

NZ National Series Round 3 race report

Hey Everyone,

Another round of the 2012 NZ National Series is in the books and Methven put on a good one! I had ridden the top half of the track at Dave Balderstones memorial race in November last year so I had a rough idea of what to expect which made practice a little bit easier not needing to learn a completely new track. The top was a fast, open and had a few fun jumps in it to keep it fun before heading into a steep flowy section through the pine trees down to the finish.

Friday's practice was a day of fun runs playing around on the track with Matt Scoles which helped find out which lines worked and which didn't. Scolsy is my usual practice buddy at national rounds and is good to ride with because he seems to be able to pick the lines that work and get up to speed quickly while still having fun.

With a bit of rain sneaking down over night race day turned out fine but overcast which was good to help keep the dust down and the light change not quite so harsh going into the trees although it only took about half an hour for the track to be bone dry and dusty again!

My seeding run went well and I slipped into 5th place behind four world cup regulars so I was pretty happy to still be up there with those guys and it gave me some good confidence going into race runs.

After a big break unfortunately due to a couple of riders needing to be helicoptered out we were back to the top and getting ready for race runs. I think one of the best parts of the NZ Nationals is how much fun it is at the top of the hill before runs, no wind trainers, everyone is hanging out and messing around, not like a world cup start area!

I put in another solid run and felt like I had put in a competitive time coming through the line a second faster than my qualifier which put me into 3rd with 4 riders still to come. My time ended up being good enough for 6th which i was happy with although a little bit gutted when I saw the results and found I was only .09 of a second off the podium!

This result was good enough to bump me up into 3rd overall for the South Island Cup behind Matt Scoles and Brook McDonald which was a nice bonus for the weekend!

Still I was happy to put together two good fast runs on the day and am looking forward to National Champs this weekend which are being run on my home track here in Nelson, as well as the downhill i'm also going to be racing the Super D on Friday afternoon which I have been putting in work to try and pull a solid result!

11 years and counting...

The opening round of the NZ National Downhill series on the 8th of January marked my 11th year of racing the series and it still only feels like iv'e been riding for a few years! 2002 was my first year racing the series and iv'e been there every year since, i think in 2002 I finished top 3 in the U17 class and I was hooked!

Believe it or not, that is me after my first National Series, looking absolutely stoked!

Queenstown took the honors of the opening round for this years series and it was a round that got everyone talking as it was expected to be held on the Skyline Gondola but after some complications it ended up being held off the bottom of the Remarkables Ski Area access round on basically a grass paddock. Don't get me wrong the track was a lot of fun but it seriously lacked anything technical so it was really just a matter of not making mistakes and staying of the brakes.

Sliding in the Queenstown dust

After a bit of a slide out in qualifying I came through the line in 13th knowing I had room to improve and after thinking about the run a few times I had a good idea of where to make up some time and hopefully put a better race run together.

Straight out of the gate I rode the first chute the best I had all weekend which put me a good frame of mind going into the rest of the run so I tried to put it all together the rest of the way and sprint where I could. I managed to ride a pretty clean run with only a minimal mistake losing me a little bit of time but still made up 6 places from qualifying and ended up placing 7th on the day only a second off a podium finish!

Thanks to all of my awesome sponsors for getting me to the series this year, Zerode Bicycles, Fenwicks, Fox Clothing, Scott Goggles, Shimano, Maxxis, Pro, Results Athletic Centre, Fox Racing Shox and Interislander

'Sprung' Super D series round 1

A couple of weeks ago the Nelson Mountain Bike Club hosted the first round of their 'Sprung' Super D series on the ever developing Codgers MTB trails in the Brook Valley. This a fun series of four races that is being run on Wednesday evenings over the next month catering to all skill levels and judging by the 50+ riders that turned up for the first event it will be very popular!

The first round was held down one of the most popular descents called Fir Ball and into Piplini which is a 9min+ run with a very good amount of pedaling in the middle to even out the broad field of downhillers, xc racers and weekend warriors that showed up.

This was the same track that we raced earlier in the year that I took the win at so I was looking forward to getting loose it in the wet conditions and pushing myself to sprint as much as possible.

I had a reasonably clean run aside for a couple of small stalls in corners but managed to win the senior mens class by 52 seconds and take the overall by 10 over Jamie Nicoll who destroyed the 30+ class.

The next round is on the 16th of November down a couple of newer tracks and then into a couple of the more established ones with not much climbing but still a decent amount of pedalling which should make for a good race.

Top of the South finals

Last weekend we had the final round of the Top of the south downhill series here in Nelson on the Fringe Hill Nationals track, although due to some problems with the track near the bottom we only raced the first 2/3rds of the track.

With steady rain on Saturday I decided to leave practicing until the morning of the race which i think was a good idea because the rain stayed away on Sunday and the sun came out which made things a bit better! The track was still pretty wet but was a lot of fun and really grippy to start off with but without the rain the mud had no where to go which ended up leaving the track boggy, slippery and unpredictable by the end of practice.

I had been feeling great all morning in practice but I found out quickly in my first race run just how unpredictable the track was with a big crash in the very first turn sending me off the big and into a tree. I decided to get myself together and just roll the rest of the run and check out the track as I twisted my bars and landed heavily on a rock on the back of my pelvis leaving me extremely sore on one side.

Still not feeling great I made my way up for second race run because I knew the overall title was down to the wire since I missed the first round and had no race to drop.

Starting out quite tentatively (mostly making sure I made it through the first turn!) I slowly got into my run and by the half way mark I was feeling a lot better although still struggling to pedal because of my pelvis until about 3/4 of the way down I hit a turn only to find the corner had blown out as my front wheel washed out and I went over the bars again, luckily onto softer soil this time though!

I tried to get up as quickly as possible and tried to get back into the run and ended up coming through in 2nd place only .2 of a second off the win!

It was disappointing to have two bad runs but not every weekend of racing can be perfect and my second place still gave me the overall title for the top of the south series which was a big bonus!

Another win in Rotorua!

Hey Everyone,

Over the weekend I flew up to Rotorua to race the first round of the new NZDH inc downhill series which is being held over the remaining months of 2011 as a build up series to the MTBNZ National Downhill Series which starts in January.

Friday afternoon in Rotorua greeted me with wet conditions once again but I wasn't too bothered as I enjoy riding the tracks there in the wet and have definitely improved with mud riding this year! Although once we started practice on Saturday although there had been some rain the track had held up well and was actually really grippy and fast, I had already put mud tyres on my bike and they were working well so I decided to stick with them for the weekend no matter what happened.

This ended up being a good decision because after practice finished on Sunday morning before race runs the heavens opened up and it started pouring with rain which left a lot of people scrambling trying to get their bikes set up for the mud that was waiting!

My first run was like riding down a river so I decided to play it a little bit cautious and try and have a safe, steady run down the hill without crashing! I ended up sitting in second place in the first run 3 seconds back off local Rotorua Pro rider Matt Walker which I was hoping I could improve on for the second run!

Luckily the rain eased up and went away for our second race run which made things a bit nicer not having to shelter from the rain but had also left the track very boggy because the rain had stopped washing the mud off the track! I started my run out not knowing what to expect so decided to go into it at 100% to try and make up the lost seconds after my first run and after a couple of stalls near the top of the track I got into a good run after steep sections and gave it my all for the last half of the track. Not wanting to lose any time on the flat sections I put my head down and sprinted through them back into the last couple of technical sections before the finish.

Going into my second run at 100% had been a good decision and I managed to improve my time by four seconds which gave me the win by just .85 of a second over Walker.

I'm stoked to take another win in such horrible conditions and with a busy couple of months of racing coming up it is great motivation to keep training hard!

Big thanks to Jasen at Fenwicks and the guys at NZDH inc. for helping me out getting to Rotorua for the weekend, the guys at NZDH inc. put on a fantastic event with a good pro purse and it really seems like they have a great series going on! Also I can't say thanks enough to all of my awesome sponsors who have been keeping me and my bike going strong this season!

My next race is the second round of the local Top Of The South Series here in Nelson on October 1st.

Brake Authority

A couple of months ago I got the opportunity from Kashi at Black Seal to trick out my trail bike and downhill bike with some new Brake Authority rotors and brake pads and I have been nothing but impressed so far!

Below is a shot of the rotors im running on my trail bike which are the "aggressive" rotors in 180mm diameter. They are a semi-floating rotor which is designed to help dissipate the heat and keep them cooler which seems to be working because on a lot of the long trail ride descents we have around Nelson I haven't had any issues with fading in any conditions.

The rotors below are Brake Authoritys more traditional offering called the "burly" rotor which also has some little tricks to help with getting rid of the heat in the form of the wave shape around the outside of the rotor.Paired up with rotors on both of my bikes are Brake Authoritys Ceramic pads which are designed as an all around pad which performs well and lasts longer than regular pads. They also only took about a minute to bed in with the new rotors which I was pretty surprised at, normally iv'e found new rotor/pad combos will take a couple of runs to really feel good but these were feeling great by half way down the first run.

Another bonus is you can buy them straight from www.brakeautority.co.nz and they will courier them to you so if your local shop doesn't stock them then check them out online!

Nelson Club Downhill Champs Final

Hey everyone

Over the weekend the final round of the Nelson MTB Club downhill series was on the newly rebuilt Broken Axe DH track in the Maitai Valley here in Nelson. With a good week of weather leading up to the race it was set to be perfect conditions for the weekend of riding and racing.

I spent Saturday afternoon doing a few practice runs on the track with some friends who had made the trip up from Christchurch for the weekend and after one run down the track they were loving it and couldn't wait to get back up for more, luckily having been involved with rebuilding the track I already

had the track locked in my memory from start to finish so I spent the afternoon showing them some of the fast lines I had found and having a bit of fun on the jumps.

After the disaster and disorganisation I had at the last round I made sure I had my bike washed, preped and ready to go for race day straight after we had finished riding and all of my gear clean and organised!

Race day rolled around with another perfect day blue skied day and I was eager to get into the racing! After a couple of practice runs to warm up and check out the track I was set to go and looking forward to seeing what sort of time I could lay down on the track.

With a flat tyre upsetting my first run and resulting in a DNF I did some quick work in the pits and got back up the hill for the second run which went a lot more to plan! I really wanted to take the win and my run was awesome, I managed to ride every line exactly how I wanted and carried really good speed especially on the fast choppy fire break section where my Zerode G1 ate it all up and made it feel like nothing.

I ended up winning the race by eight seconds and also taking out the overall club champion title so it was a great weekend for me and a really good confidence booster knowing that my training and hard work has been paying off.

My next event is on the 18th of October so until then its ba

ck on the bike and work on going faster!

Thanks to fixedfocus.co.nz for the awesome pic!

Reuben Olorenshaw x Maitai Face

Check out this video of my Zerode Bicycles team mate Reuben Olorenshaw riding the top section of Maitai Face here in Nelson for a bit of Champery training before the World Champs next month!

Reuben is on his way to Europe at the moment to race the World Cup finals in Val Di Sole, Italy and then will be heading to Champery, Switzerland to race the World DH Championships in the under 19 class. Keep an eye out for him!

Zerode bike check

For any of you that are interested in bike set ups I thought id post up a spec list of what i'm running on my Zerode G1 this season and a few random shots of it.

Fork: 2012 Fox 40 RC2

Shock: 2012 Fox RC4 w/ Nuke Proof Ti spring

Cranks: Shimano Saint

Chain Ring: Gamut Race Ring 32t

Pedals: Crank Brothers Mallet/50 50

Seat + Post: SDG I-Fly and Carbon post

Bars: Raceface Atlas cut down to 760mm wide

Grips: ODI Ruffian lock on

Brakes: Shimano Saint

Wheels: Atomlab Pimp Light wheel set

Tyres: Maxxis Minnion F 2.5mm

Headset: Custom Zerode 2 degree angle set

The frame runs a Shimano Alfine 8 speed hub which is modified by Zerode for use with the frame. My bike is also running a full Ti bolt kit which is available from Zerode and also a set of prototype light weight chain adjusters.

Nelson Club Downhill Champs Round Two

Last weekend saw the running of round two of the Nelson Club downhill champs held on awesome Ben Nevis Mountain just outside of Nelson.

The hill has had downhill tracks on it since before I started riding and it is always fun even in the pouring rain! Luckily for us though the weekend was perfect blue skies although a little bit chilly with a good frost greeting us on race day.

After a few practice runs on Saturday I had the track pretty well dialed in and decided to just do a couple of runs on Sunday morning to save my energy as th

e track is pretty well established and wasn't going to change at all.

My first race run started well and I was feeling really good until about the midway point when I got that horrible feeling of a tyre going flat! Sure enough a couple of turns later all the air was gone so I limped my way to the finish and got it sorted and ready to go for race run number two.

Once again it was another good start to the run and I was pushing hard wanting to make up for the first run disaster. Unfortunately only seconds before where I had got my puncture I messed up my line coming into a turn and washed out hitting the ground hard and scrambling to get back up and going again.

Even with the crash in my second run I still managed to

take out second place and was close to the win so even though the weekend seemed like a disaster it was good to take some positives out of it knowing that I am still riding strong and fast and that my training is paying off.

My Zerode Bikes team mate Reuben Olorenshaw dominated the under19 class winning by 5 seconds and showing how much his training and preparation for the upcoming World Championships is paying off. Hes off for his first taste of racing in Europe in a couple of weeks so im looking forward to seeing how he will go there!

R&R RIP Super D

On Sunday we got the last chance ever to ride the R&R trail in the Maitai Valley which is getting logged this week and the Nelson Mountain Bike Club decided to make a good day of it by running a Super D event on it.

The flow and technicality of the track made it one of Nelso

n's best rides and its a disappointment to see it have to go but the chance to race it was one I couldn't pass up!

My good friends James and Pip came up from Christchurch for the weekend to race so after a couple of laps of the track on Saturday I was feeling pretty good apart from a nagging head cold.

I decided to not practice the morning of the race and keep myself fresh for my race run and after a bit of a wait at the top of the hill I got to be the last one down after winning the last Super D race here.

My run went a lot better than I expected and I felt good

until the last climb when my legs started to feel like lead! But luckily it was only short and it was back into the last section of single track before a 30 sprint down a fire road to the finish.

I ended up taking 2nd place only a second behind Super D weapon Kurt Lancaster so I was pretty happy to still be so competitive. We've both had a 1st and 2nd placing now so hopefully the club runs another event so we can have a show down for the championship!

Ive got a couple of weekends off now before I head to Rotorua on the 17th for the Winter Downhill Championships and then the weekend after we have the first round of the Nelson Club DH series so its going to be a busy month!

Thanks to Shuttersport.co.nz for the photo and to all my awesome sponsors for keeping me and bike dialled this year!

Something a little bit different

The first gravity race on the Nelson Mountain Bike Club's calendar was held during the weekend with a Super D race on the Codgers trails in the Brook Valley.

I spend a lot of time riding my trail bike around Codgers so I was pretty excited to have a race there and the track they ran was one I have spent a fair bit of time on while I was setting up my new Fox 36's and RP23 last month. With the bulk of it being descending with a few fast flowing flat sections and only one real climb it made for a perfect track for the downhill guys.

I knew the track well but I also knew there would be some good competition in the form of New Zealand's reigning unofficial super d champion Kurt Lancaster who has won the last two big super d races around NZ and some other quick local guys who have been up getting plenty of practice in!

I got one practice in on the course in morning and it was pretty loose so I decided to tone things back a little bit for my race run. I had a couple of small mistakes but managed to keep it clean and get some good sprinting in.

I ended up posting a time of 8.50 which put me 6 seconds ahead of Kurt in 2nd and nearly 25 seconds ahead of 3rd!

The race was a lot of fun so hopefully some more stuff like this catches on and starts popping up around the country!

Thanks again to my awesome sponsors who make this all possible!

the great outdoors

After breaking two fingers quite badly at a local motocross race back in October last year I didn't get to ride much over the summer but over the last few weeks iv'e managed to make it out for a few days of two wheel action that doesn't require pedaling.

Last weekend I got to check out one of my mates tracks for the first time and with a bit of rain the night before the dirt was perfect for a few motos.

Check out a few shots below that my friend Luke sent through to me that he shot while I was out riding!

Fresh bike for the winter

After the NZ national series was all done my bike was looking a little bit worse for wear and with new suspension being built by Fox Racing Shox for my bike I decided it was time for a freshen up and after having white bikes for the last 3 years I thought black would be a good change!

After a couple of emails with Rob and Dodzy from Zerode we had the colour ways chosen and new graphics getting printed.

I finally got the frame back on Saturday and after a nervous hour of putting the new graphics on I was extremely happy with the end result!

New colours

New Fox Racing Shox Factory Series 40's

The finished product!

I can't say thanks enough to Rob and Dodzy at Zerode Bikes and Fitzy at Fox Racing Shox for all their help this season and to all my other awesome sponsors who have been helping me out!

Keep an eye out on Vitalmtb.com for a full bike check coming soon!