Nutcracker

I had the original yellow Indi SL (76mm, I think) on my 96 Trek Y11 explode mid ride. I still don't really know what happened to it but I had a spring shaped grease mark on my jersey, a bruised chest and the contents of the fork leg were never seen again. Replaced it with a 2003 Judy SL (100mm) which was not only immensely less crap than the Indi but it eased the head angle enough to make its 'sharp' handling a little more user-friendly. Found the Azonic DH bar that was on it in a drawer recently and had to laugh at how ridiculous narrow it was particularly when combined with what must have been a 110mm stem. Still have the Y11 frame hanging on the wall above the work bench, electric blue with an enormous bright yellow, red and grey TREK sticker down the side. Still running it's original System 2 wheels on a single speed hardtail along with the Judy, they roll so fast it defies logic considering how old they are.

Turns out he's faster than you, even though his kit's not brand new.

Nukeproof Generator DH wheels. I guess if he'd got them in stock Nukeproof yellow you'd never know the difference because they'd just be a blur of yellow as he flew past in a cloud of dust.

I have a vague recollection of reading in AMB magazine (early 2000's) about Sam getting signed up for $400k waaaay back when he first went pro for an international team. I have no idea if that was all tolled between the team and other sponsors and I have no idea if that was for a season or the total for a multi-year contract. I don't think these guys can realistically be asked to continually risk their lives for our entertainment and then get paid less than they could make sweeping the floor somewhere. More importantly than how much he's getting paid - Sea Otter, wtf? Why aren't we going to see Sam on the new bike at Mt Buller for the first round of the Australian season at the end of the month? Too soon? How about Australian Champs at Stromlo at the end of Feb? I don't care how many BDS rounds he gets to. Surely he's not happy about missing the entire Australian race season.

Certified cardboard helmet (instead of eps lined) including video about how it was developed. Warning: This video appears to contain actual facts from someone who actually knows what they're talking about and does NOT have a dubstep soudtrack. Contents may disturb young pinkbike users who don't seem to grasp science very well. http://www.wired.com/design/2012/12/kranium/ and they're working on a full face version...

Once upon time in a country far, far away a guy called Chris Kovarik was back in Oz for a break, 2002 I think. He turned up at one of the State DH races on a short travel hard tail and absolutely slayed everyone. You don't need more travel, you need better skills. If you "can't" ride the same trails with either 8" or 5" then you probably can't ride.

Gloves are cheaper than micro surgery. Knees don't work so good without all their bits. No matter how good your plastics guy is, you're probably never going to be pretty again. But at least if you crush your spine they'll give you a really generous payment plan, you can pay for it everyday, forever. There's nothing 'Progressive' about learning to walk or talk again, your core probably isn't as hard as you think...I hope Evoc's got your back.

Part 3: This is all a very long winded way of saying that when it comes to how ‘hard’ you wack your head when you crash, the only things that actually matter are how fast you were going when you hit the ground, how much you, anything attached to you or anything that hits you (such as your bike) weighs and how quickly you stopped moving. It could be suggested that the test impact SNELL is seeking to mitigate is orders of magnitude (implausibly?) high when compared to the sorts of impact forces an mtb rider is likely to actually experience in a crash. And as the article suggests, perhaps the side effects of compliance with such a high standard is not necessarily in the best interest of mtb riders. An engineering standard or specification such as M2010 responds to a documented set of required performance criteria. Therefore it WILL NOT give an optimal functional outcome for a completely different set of criteria. SNELL and DOT aren’t even targeted at Moto Cross applications, they’re designed to cater for Highway environments. If you crash your Hayabusa at 300 km/h SNELL is probably spot on, you’ll be dead anyway, just not necessarily from head injuries. Motocross helmets need to comply with the same standards so that you’re allowed to wear your helmet from your garage to your nearest MX track, not because it’s the best protection for you once you’re off road.