Saturday 16th January will be my first race of the year and also the first round of the awesome shopping centre races in Europe. These events have only been around for a few years and I’m over the moon to have been invited to the first one of 2016.
The overall series champion from last year Tomas Slavik will be there in force fighting to protect his tittle. Other top names from the Downhill and 4X scene will be racing too.
I will be racing my custom build Orange Crush. I spent 3 hours in my local shopping centre testing tyres out to see which performs best on the infamous slippy surface. Here is a small video on the test with Samways bike shop:
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We decided to change the drive train system that was on the Crush and to a simple close ratio 7 speed Sram XO set up. The small chain ring on the front provides great low speed acceleration so by adding a small DH 7 speed cassette we believe all necessary pedal power stokes will be accessible in the shopping centre. The braking system is a simple yet powerful Shimano Deore set up with uprated 180mm rotors front and rear. Stopping power is not essential in these races as the tyre contact on the floor and overall tyre friction is very low, meaning its easy to skid!
For obvious reasons I can’t show the complete bike with its custom set up until Saturday but here’s what it looked like before…
Round 2 is in Berlin on Saturday 32rd.
