New Yellow LT

Here's a sneak peak at Santa Cruz's new Yellow colour.

Just incase it wasn't hard enough to decide what colour your new Santa Cruz should be!

Blur LT almost on NZ shores

New Zealand Customs are currently the only people in New Zealand that have sighted the new Blur LT.

I would hope that you have already harassed your local Santa Cruz stockist about your one, otherwise......they might let you ogle the one in they have in store for a while.

Go on, ring you local stockist now and harass them, you know you want to.

My personal LT will be one of the few that is painted in ORANGE, that colour is so last week now.

Orange, Sand and Gang Green is old news........Red, Lime and Yellow are the new cool......didn't Bob Marley sing a song about those colours?

I just can't wait to get my LT.....pictures and rants about the new LT to come.......watch this space.

Bicycling Magazine's Blur LT Video

Santa Cruz News Update

Got this message from Santa Cruz

"Hello All,
Sand is dead long live to Yellow.
Have a great week!

Mariano Gon Global Sales Manager Santa Cruz Bicycles"

Thought you might want to know, so Santa Cruz are dumping Orange, Gang Green and Sand and they will be replaced with Red, Lime and Yellow.

And for all of you that are waiting to see the new Blur LT, they should be hitting your dealers soon.
Best you go and bug them about the new LT. Personally, I've got one of the last Orange painted LT's in the world. I'll post pictures when I get it.

Syndicate Rule Fort Williams, click for Video

Go Here and check out the Fort Williams video of the Syndicate Team.

Syndicate Team Hog the Podium!

Lopes Wins MaxiAvalanche

LA MASSANA, Andorra , Sunday June 15, 2008
It’s no big news to hear that Lopes came down Vallnord mountain in 22:21.84 minutes, earning him the 1st qualifying spot for the MaxiAvalanche. What is news, is that he did this one day after an overnight hospital stay. Talk about a die hard competitor!
Brian who is best know for his sprinting abilities in 4X, decided to uphold his “all-around cyclist” reputation by competing in MaxiAvalanche held in Andorra. With a secured spot among the top dogs of this discipline; Remy Absalon, Franck Parolin and Tomas Misser, Lopes went on to inadvertently abandoned his signature hole-shot starts for approach, that proved successful, winning both his first and second run.
“It wasn’t easy, that’s for sure…and the flat sections were definitely the most challenging” said Lopes about his first MaxiAvalanche experience.
Men’s Results

1. Brian LOPES (Oakley/Ibis)

2. Franck PAROLIN

3. Remy ABSALON

4. Tomi MISSER

source: Paula Lopes

A Quiet Weekend in Nelson

Guy found a nice steep climb from Rifugio Perderu to Rifugio Fodara (greater than 20 degrees for 400m)

Winter in Nelson is a pretty nice place to be, the weather is always sunny, never much rain and there are epic trails from your door step.

BUT, after a few email updates from friends in the northern hemisphere, my thoughts of the grass being greener were hard to shake.

1) First was an email from Guy (from Ground Effect), he was doing a nice little climb in Italy, pictured above. Greater than 20 degrees for 400 metres, bejesus!

2) The New Zealand mountain bike team are also in Italy (Val di Sole) getting ready for the Mountain Bike World Championship. http://www.mtbvaldisole2008.it/

Kashi Leuch's managed to get the NZ XC racers free entry into Adamello XC race. Adamello is basically a ski resort http://www.adamelloski.com/Home_default.ashx?ID=3114&L=2, it's literally 'down the road' from Val di Sole, so a massive international turn out to their XC race.

George Bennett (Nelson based Santa Cruz Team NZ racer) and Dirk Peters (Rotorua) finished well in their first international race. This is George's take on the race;

"Italy is pretty sweet have got to Val di Sole and already done first race. I didnt go that hard but finished the race. All other kiwis pulled out except Dirk (Peters). The Euro(pean)s make us look like amatures. There were 70 riders i finshed 22nd i think and Dirk got 32rd. Definatly could of gone faster but race on thursday (junior world champs) so didnt want to smoke myself. The race was real muddy and only 2 degrees to start with. the course was flat with a few running parts beat most aussies i think. Never had a race that big, helicopters and cameras. Part of it cut up thru a small village in the streets with big crowds. wicked race."

3) Anja McDonald (2007 NZ National XC Champion) also sent me an email in the weekend. She currently living in Scotland and manages to get to a few races, Anja isn't a person to rave about her results, but basically she WON the UK Single Speed Champs and the UK Cyclocross Champs.

She also turned up to Fort Williams, world cup race. Her lack of preparation, didn't help and in Anja's own words "- probably my most unremarkable performance to date".

Just another quiet weekend in Nelson.

One Ibis Mojo SL left in New Zealand -SOLD!

OK, a whole hour went buy after I mentioned there was ONE Mojo SL for sale and it got snatched up. SOLD in an Hour! How's that for fast as?

More coming, but best you talk to you local Ibis stockest and/or send me an email me hyperformance_hardware@xtra.co.nz and I'll put you on the back order list.

The new SL's are very, very, very good bikes. I'm still waiting for mine, but I want a UPS brown coloured one (did someone say poo brown?)
Thanks.







Oh yeah, if you currently have a standard Mojo and you want to 'Pimp Your Ride', I have coloured links and seat clamps (not QR) in stock too!

German website reviews Mojo SL

Light-Bikes.de review the new Mojos SL and I'm pretty sure they like it.

For those of you who can read German, click on this link;

For you non-multilingual people, like myself, we'll let Google do the hard work and click on this link
As you can see, they just love the new SL.....I think, some of the Google translation is a bit weird, still not sure what this is supposed to mean "the use of a fully integrated tax rate for an all-mountain bike". Why would the German reviewers even bring up the tax rate and how does that effect the way a bike rides?

Retro Santa Cruz's

My first Santa Cruz was a Tazmon, these we're the bikes that got Santa Cruz rolling. I remembered that I just loved mine.

So here are some pictures of a really nice old Tazmon (thanks Scotty). I wish I still had mine, these are classics.

I must also start my restoration of my original Heckler too, I'll get some picture of that soon. Trans. Blue, polished rear swing arm AND I have some old RockShox Judy DH's for it.......how cool is that?

Stolen Mojo!

Now this just sucks, a visiting Mojo owner got his large Mojo carbon stolen from Auckland.

If you see this bike or have any information you should contact the Auckland Police or email jprutter@hotmail.com

Details of the bike are as follows;

Frame: Mojo Size Large (Carbon Finish) Has a 'STIF' Sticker near headtube on drive side of bike, silver/chrome finish. It's the distributor sticker for the UK.

Fork: Fox Float (Has small circular Etnies sticker covering scratch on left fork leg, Burgundy and white colour)

Stem: Thompson Elite (Black)

Bars: Easton Monkey Lite CNT Carbon 31.8 Low

Shifters: SRAM X.0 Thumbshifters

Brakes: Avid Juicy 7

Front Hub: Chris King Iso Disc QR (Black)

Rear Hub: Chris King Iso Disc QR (Black)

Rims: Mavic XC717 (Black)

Skewers: Salsa Flipoff Stainless (Silver)

Rear Mech: SRAM X.0 Medium Cage Carbon

Front Mech: Shimano XTR Conventional 34.9

Cranks: Shimano XTR 970 175

BB: Shimano XTR

Chain: SRAM PC991

Cassette: SRAM PG990

Front Tire: Kenda Nevegal 2.35 Fold Rear Tire: Kenda Nevegal 2.35 Fold

Saddle: Flite Titanium (Black) not carbon but one of the super thin XC saddles.

Pedals: Shimano XTR 970 Extras: Avid Matchmaker to attach thumbshifters to brake lever.