teebeeess

@masters5: and then what? Think about this year's competition as a whole for a minute. How many big name international riders made the trip out to NZ to compete? How many world cup riders raced the downhill? How many in the dual slalom? Let's face facts here..... this year's event was already a bit of a fizzer. By far the biggest international field of top talent was the men's slopestyle, and they apparently did not feel that there was enough incentive for them to take the risk. So let's say you are right and Crankworx takes them to court for bring the event into disrepute. How does that incentivise the same field of top athletes to keep paying for the privilege of turning up at further Crankworx events? How long will the Rotorua event last if the main draw cards are being dragged through the courts? If the organisers want to risk chasing away the only people who make it a real spectacle then cool, but personally I can't see it happening.

@masters5: I could see that being the case if the riders were being paid to turn up and perform, but isn't the whole point that the riders are the ones paying to turn up? I can't see any damages claims being levelled at the riders... What are the organisers going to say? "You paid us to let you compete and then didn't, so give us more money?" I think you have this back to front.

The testing done by Zero Friction Cycling confirmed my prior experience with Muc-off chain lube. It flat out sucks. Worst chain lube I have ever used bar none. These guys must be some of the most cynical purveyors of marketeering psychobabble I have ever come across. Ludicrous AF is right. Even the name of the lube is a joke at the buyer's expense. https://zerofrictioncycling.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/MucOff.pdf

Aaron Franklin is still about here in Rotorua. He has been into my shop a couple of times and warned me of the dangers of 5G.

I was sitting in the shuttle queue in Rotorua a few weeks ago when I saw a Prototype Mondraker DH bike parked next to mine. Turning to my right I realised I was sitting right next to Brook. He looked at me and without thinking I blurted out "Oh, hi Brook!" like he was an old friend. Class act that he is he said "hi" right back and we had a bit of a chat about his recovery. He didn't know me from Adam but was totally cool and happy to talk, even after my overly familiar greeting. Good guy for sure, and it's one of the things that I love about this sport that the top guys in the world are so humble and approachable. And we all love a great come-back story.

Steve I met you in Rotorua some time in January and we rode some trails together. I saw the prototype of this on your bike and asked you about it. You told me it was a counterweight... ha ha.... I was happy to accept that as an explanation as I knew you would want to protect whatever tech you were working on. So stoked to finally see what it was you had cooking, and pretty keen to try one! Great stuff man.

We had the announcement this afternoon from our Prime Minister that the whole country barring essential services is shut down for a month. I can go into work (I guess) since there are only two of us, and we will probably arrange things to not be there at the same time, but I can't open the doors to customers.... only clear some of my backlog. The government is going to pay me a few grand to stay home. BUT we are allowed to go out and exercise, and the forest will be open here in Rotorua. So ironically I will probably do far more riding than usual for the next month. Time to work off some that dad-bod.

@HopeFbn: I stopped Brook MacDonald as he was entering Crankworx Rotorua to ask him about his collarbone break last year. He was happy to spend a couple of minutes discussing our different healing processes, and was very friendly even though he probably had somewhere to be. I also swapped a few words with Martin Maes as he was riding between stages at the EWS race. Again, super chill and easy to talk to. Later in the day I hopped in behind and followed the 50:01 crew down a trail... Sam Dale, Josh Lewis, Craig Evans and a couple of others, chatting a bit mid track while one of them picked himself up off the ground. FYI, those guys are stupid fast even when they are just mucking about. They're just people at the end of the day, and they love riding their bikes, same as us.

More Cathro. We need more Cathro.

Sheesh, was this written by a recent gender studies graduate, or what? It fairly wreaks of SJW virtue signalling zeitgeist. I don't think you're going far enough: https://www.whaleoil.co.nz/2018/06/high-performance-sports-2-0/