Twelve50 Bikes

2014 UKGE Round 2. Innerleithen, Scotland 8:55. Excellent, time to fit in a brew before Ross arrives to load the van. Matt’s at the shop early to swap his Maxxis tyres. Weather forecast’s looking grim, go for the Minion mate. Get that Ardent Race outta there. Packed and rolling, round two here we come. Apparently Russ and Co arrived yesterday and set the pits up, all Ross and I need to do today is turn up and ride bikes. In the mean time, the traffics flowing nicely so lets kick back, tune in to Radio Two and get up to speed with the local election results. Rock and roll baby. 13:30. Twelve50 towers is standing proud but looking quiet as we roll in to the arena. Time to relax and realign my life with pushbikes for another weekend of racing. The usual friendly faces are floating around, busying themselves setting up gazebos and living quarters for the next three days. The cogs of the UKGE machine, quiet since Ae last month, are whirring back to life.  No pts ar...

UK Gravity Enduro Round 1 Ae Forest 13th April 2014 9 team members, 2 podiums , 5 great stages, 6 beer can chickens, 2 Weber barbeques and 4 WAGs. Those were the magic numbers for the opening round of the 2014 UK Gravity Enduro Series, Ae Forest, Scotland. Alex Stock getting 2nd Place in Elite for Twelve50 Bikes A trip north of the border so early in the year left unsettled nerves as to what the weather gods might smite us with. The fears were unfounded though as, with the exception of a couple of showers and some strong winds (that helped to dry the wet ground), conditions were near ideal. In fact, looking at some of the early photos that are emerging, those that didn’t attend would be forgiven for thinking we had a weekend of sun and blue skies! The winds did cause some havoc across the pits on Saturday with more than one gazebo getting airborne, landing in a crumpled heap of plastic and metal. The Billy Can seemed to have it worst than most with double flying gazebos an...

More barbecues than you can shake a stick at, freshly shot, plucked (that’s with a ‘P’ Mr Read!) and butchered goose, stargazing to shame Sir Patrick Moore, a midnight birthday count down and some of The Midlands finest trails. It could only mean one thing, team Twelve50 were back in town for the fifth and final round of the 2013 UK Gravity Enduro Series. With an unavoidable mid season venue change, Eastridge once again answered the call and rounded out what can only be described as an awesome seasons racing. Stretching the format with an additional sixth stage come race day Sunday, we faced old favourites, some with freshly cut corners to keep us on our toes. Saturdays seeding stage was repeated twice on Sunday, prompting extra attention paid to the stage that would bring nearly half the weekends racing. With a good mix of fast, loose, tight, technical, rocky and rooty trails, the woods lived up to their reputation and seemed to please everyone who came down the hill. C...

Round 4 of the UKGE race series saw us take a trip down to Dyfi Forest in Wales, with torrential rain and a land slide to navigate through on the way, it promised to be a damp affair......   If it's variation in trail types people wanted at this round, that's what the organizers gave us!! Team Twelve50 looked a bit thin on the ground at this round, with Rick out (recovering from a dislocated shoulder) and Cheri out with a recovering "Snapped humerous" it was down to the rest of the team to slug it out. We were also a major part of the team missing, our chef Dez... also out of action after Russ broke him on the local trails (Another dislocated shoulder) On the Friday with Russ and Ross (With Nikki helping) setting up the pits, Dave and Nicole went to ride the tracks to see what it was all about.   While we filled our faces with some of Russ's BBQ feed, Reedy was very descriptive of the tracks...... in a Northern no messing about kind of way Stage ...

Riders rolled into Hamsterley Forest,  Co. Durham for round three of the Gravity Enduro series.  Last time out at Coed Y Brenin, riders battled strong winds, driving rain and freezing temperatures. This time, however, couldn’t have been more different with clear blue skies and hot sunshine all weekend, happy days! Rick (me), Ross, Russ and Ryan rode this round with Matt broken and Sidey unavailable Arriving on Friday night, the rest of the team had already got there early and got Twelve50 pits looking pro as usual. Some BBQ lasagne (oh yeah!), a quick spin to stretch the legs and there was just time for a beer or two and look forward to the following days practice. Looking pro as ever... The loop at Hamsterley was shorter than previous rounds, which gave plenty of time to have a proper look at all the stages and check out at line choices. It seems a few riders had more imagination than others as there were rumours of some, er, creative line choice, cutting wh...