TROLE IND BIKE TEAM x LABYRINTH BIKES

The guys have teamed up with Labyrinth Bikes in what we know is going to be a great year. There is going to be so much cool stuff coming your way as these photo's should tell you.

Trole Ind Bike Team will be using the highly rated Labyrinth Minotaur, featured on the 2012 Dirt 100. 2013 will be a very exciting year for R53 and we are looking forward to working with the guys at Trole Ind developing the bikes and the brand through the year. 

We are sure they will do well and will become a regular feature on the race scene with many podiums and great race results. Their upcoming video and media projects are going to be amazing too.

Pete T Bell from Trole Industries had this to say: “This year Trole Industries Bike Team will be riding for Labyrinth Bikes. This is through the UK Distributor R53 Sport. The team consists of Pete Warner, Peter Treviss-Bell and junior rider Joe Scutt. All of the team are riding and racing downhill this year and will be at as many races as they can, always foot out and flat out having as much fun as possible. 

Everyone is looking forward to stretching the legs out and hanging off the back of the new bikes. So far it’s been smiles all round and the bikes have only been out for a couple of rides. Not only will the team be racing this season but we will also be working on some exciting video projects.

So watch this space.......”

FOREST OF DEAN 2013 - JOE SCUTT

It all started at about 5am, my alarm went off and I knew it was time to go racing! I hauled myself out of bed at the unearthly hour of 5.05 the morning (groaning and moaning at how early it was.) Then I loaded the van and waited for team mate Pete Treviss- Bell to arrive so we could set off for the Forest of Dean (FOD).

After a smooth 2 hour journey we finally arrived.  Already at about 8.00 it was starting to look busy. We went to go and sign on and then walked the track.

The track was called (sheep skull).  The track itself looked very fun with one or two rough/Rooty sections but nothing too complex. It had a few pedaly sections involved. We then got kitted up and pushed up to the top of the hill for our practice runs. Pete and I sessioned the top two fire roads as they where the two most crucial parts of the track. After about five runs we both had the sections feeling nice. So we both rode the bottom part of the track and then did a full run.

Soon race runs started so we both headed up to the top of the track and waited for our numbers to be called. I would be first as I was a junior rider and Pete was a senior. I was called up and set off for my run I pedalled hard out of the tent,  but then my foot came off the pedal and I couldn’t get it placed back into a comfy spot. Nevertheless I still continued on with my run, pedalling everywhere and anywhere I could to try and make up any lost time. I got to the bottom on a 1.40 and felt I could try harder in the next run so I could loose a few seconds. I waited for Pete to come down on his run.  Eventually he came down on a 1.31, he said his chain fell off about mid run but still placed about 

21^st in the senior category out of 100 plus riders.

We both headed back to the van and had some lunch.  Now up to the top for second race run.

I was soon called up to the line and before I knew it I was hearing the beeps. This time I kept my feet on the pedals and felt as if I was on a better run.  I hit all my lines as planned but just before the second fire road my front wheel washed out. I yanked on the breaks bringing the bike to a stop so I wouldn’t go down and tried to carry on, losing a bit of time. I pushed hard throughout the rest of the track and came down 4 tenths quicker but still wasn’t happy with how I performed as I knew I could have done so much better! I waited for Pete to come down and eventually he did but this time went 3 seconds slower as he had a mechanical right up in the top section.

We then loaded up the van and headed on home after a long day and lots of ups and downs, great track, difficult racing on a personal level but still having a laugh.

I would just like to thank Trole Industries for a great days racing and dad for driving us up to the Forest of Dean.

2013 FOREST OF DEAN

Rd1 of the 2013 Forest of Dean summer series race run by MIJ downhill events.

A well known location for trail riding and mini downhill race events was entering their 2nd summer series season. The location saw the dust emerging with some sort of warmth in the air as well! A rare site at the FOD from the usual damp and cold conditions we have come to expect as standard.
After the monotonous 3hour drive (4.30am start) we had arrived and ready to walk this new track, consisting of a long pedally section at the top, rough middle and uphill pedally bottom section with jumps thrown in for good measure. These jumps were very testing as after the 30 second flat sprint, your legs would be ready to drop off and collapse under the compressions! All part of it though ey?!
From the nature of the track I opted for the XC bike approach for pedaling efficiency, equipped with a dropper at the ready which I made full use of!
Practice was a great laugh with mates I hadn’t seen for a long time and considering the amount of cameras on the track we decided we had to have a play on the jumps. We sectioned the bottom jumps and got a real vibe going on. Fortunately Martin (MnDPhotography) managed to capture us in perfect synchronization!
Check out the rest here https://www.facebook.com/Ilovemndphotography. However soon after this we had to get our race heads on for the pedal that lay ahead of us.

 First race run was steady pedaling hard where I wanted and keeping it steady in the rough sections slotting into 5th position.
I felt I could easily knock a few seconds off on the following run but unfortunately my tiredness had caught up and I only managed 0.5 quicker. The times were very close and I finished up in 10th position which frustrated me as I felt I could have been on the podium, but it must only be a matter of time!
Max and Dave also finished top 10 and Lyle unfortunately had a crash ripping off his brake cover.

A thoroughly enjoyable day for most and I finished up with another 3hour drive home and chilling out watching the Moto GP whilst coughing the dust out of my lungs haha!

Pete Warner

Photo's kindly donated by
http://www.facebook.com/Ilovemndphotography
http://www.rootsandrain.com/race1777/2013-apr-7-forest-of-dean-summer-series-1-forest-of-dean/photos/?photog=724

SHORTS NO 2 PETER TREVISS-BELL GOPRO

The second in our series of shorter video's called "Shorts" This one features Peter Treviss-Bell of the Trole Ind Bike Team shot entirely on GoPro.

WET MONDAY AT PREVAIL SKATEHOUSE

On these cold wet winter nights there’s no better way for riding than spending your time at the South coast's newest in door skate park, no need to worry about the darkness or miserable weather!
 The Prevail Skatehouse is open for business from 10am till late with sections to meet everyone’s needs. A large warehouse packed with spines, quarters, wall rides, rails and rhythm sections not to forget the foam pit of course.

So Pete T Bell, Joe and Pete Warner all ventured in, below are some pictures.

NCP CAR PARK RACE

This past weekend was an unusual weekend for me, far from the typical weekend beginning on the Friday evening followed by driving hundreds of miles to the race venue. However, it was a lay in on the Sunday departing for Cardiff at 4pm for the evenings events at Cardiff. 

A group of us headed out to Cardiff for the first of its kind- Evans dual car park racing for £15! Sounds awesome right?!?!  With prize money of £1k, £600 & £400 it pulled in a lot of interest from many cycling disciplines, including the general commuter on a folding Brompton bicycle.
 

The track opened for practice and was great, flat corners, sprint sections, stairs and hairpins keeping it all interesting. The perfect location as a storm was beating down outside whilst we were dry having fun. I was really enjoying the track and followed a few friends down happily keeping up with them which made me more confident about the racing.  We quickly saw there were only separate lanes on the start gate and 5m before the finish line, so cutting people up would become possible to get onto the faster lines. We all had a short amount of time to try and get some gate start practice in, where I soon realised my head was extremely close to the ceiling (a fellow lanky friend even hit his helmet when he tried his normal technique) therefore I had to duck as I sprinted out the start and choose lines carefully noting where the low exit signs hang, strange to keep reminding myself but bearable.

 Qualifying time clocked around and it was time for 100 odd riders to have one timed run either placing them into the top 16 and into the main event or going home early. There were many top downhillers and 4x riders all looking to make the cut, so I had my work cut out.
 

I had a brilliant start and first few corners I hit perfectly, I peddled down a long middle straight but much faster than in practice, began braking and two wheeled drifting towards the barriers :-/ somehow I wall rode over the railing legs at 2mph and then hopped into the preceding stair set. I sprinted to the line and was very disappointed with my mistake, however I qualified into 9th position, but felt capable of knocking 0.5s off without the mishap. Still I was grateful to be through as only 0.6s separated the top 10 riders! A few fellow uni friends didn’t make the cut, but joined into the supporting crowd.

Greg and Will

 
So I was into the main event, I was drawn against Alex Bond; this looked to be an interesting race against a pro downhiller! In the first round I beat him out the gate and led down the track, he put down and great move along the long middle straight pulling up the inside and first into the steps... I didn't give in and kept on his rear wheel as the final corner approached I aimed for my wider lane whilst he went tight inside drifting out a little in front of me, my gap appeared and I peddled through to take the lead by a fraction on our first runs. Phew !

 Lane change, now I had the inside lines, again I led out the start and down track, this time I checked over my shoulder to see what he was getting up to, I went inside on a few corners and put some extra effort in. I led through the finish and was into the 1/4 finals.

 
This time didn’t go quite as planned as I had noticed somehow my headset was loose, but didn’t have access or time to tighten & add a spacer before the next race. Unfortunately I had to take it steady this run, trying not to damage my frame/fork but not let too much of a gap appear, so I had a slight chance of closing it in the following run.
Luckily to my surprise I found Gavin who kindly had a spare spacer and tools for me to pop it onto my bike. Quickly doing the bolts back up I headed up top for my second run, I had to try and win by over 1.2 seconds to go through to the next round but I gave it my all. My start was average and I was just behind (10-20cm) but a little too far back and he cut in fringing taking the racing line, a fair move but frustrating. I kept pulling up next to him however there was nowhere I could possibly overtake, as we sprinted to the line, I was still down by 0.15 and was out!

That was it; the guys and I were out! So it was time to watch the final rounds whilst the chaps knocked a few more drinks back.

Me and Andy

 Altogether it was such an enjoyable evening (bar my bad luck), overall this finished me up somewhere in the top 8 which to be fair, I was pretty darn chuffed about!!
 
This has certainly inspired me for some more racing and I look forward to the next event! (We are definitely hoping there’ll be another. 

REDBULL WEAVERS

This unusual Monday we saw a unique one off event that was a collaboration between Charge Bikes and Redbull.

A combination of 29inch bicycles (the latest model from Charge Bikes) and a wheat field with a carved dual slalom track sourced by Redbull in Froome near Bristol.

The day began with amateurs and professionals having two practice runs followed by a timed seeding run. This usually is no stress however today was another matter as no-one was allowed to walk the track and very few had ridden the 29" wheeled bikes before.

The qualifying track was fast and twisty in places with many blind corners in the waist deep wheat adding much confusion to where the track would go next whilst hurtling down! I had a solid run putting me into 9th and PTB 14th, both feeling there was room for improvement...We had both made it into the final 32 riders to go into the knock out stages of the event, one run in either lane head to head with the winner progressing to the next round. I had a successful first run beating out my opponent but whilst pedalling to the line my pedal caught the top of a deep tractor rut resulting in catapult action over the bars, thumping my helmet and almost ending up in the hay bail padding.

My finger tip was drooping so I quickly splinted it with the neighbouring finger, dropped off my glove and headed back for run 2... We changed lanes and this time I won it much more convincingly and headed to the quarter finals; I was sliding all over the place running wide into some of the longer wheat but edged out to take the win and headed up for the second run as the sun was dropping. Again I had a great start and edged out but I quickly entered a drift and was lucky to hold on whilst going into some deeper corn, I had lost a large margin and was trying to close the gap but I couldn't make enough and was just edged out from being in the semi finals. My day was over...

I got my hand checked out again the following day at A & E and it turns out I had fractured my finger tip bone during that early crash and now have to have a mallet cast for a while :-/ Altogether an awesome event and the Trole Industries Bike Team/Riders will be looking forward to the next event!

Pete Warner

Checkout the event photo's over on the Trole Ind Media Tank