Charge Bikes

Red Bull Hill Chasers Video Highlights

The Red Bull Hill Chasers video is now up and what a corker! Re-live the entire evening in under 2 minutes.

Featuring our riders Cunny, Neil (4th place) and new Charge rider Chris Metcalfe who was the eventual winner!

Many thanks to Red Bull for such an amazing event. We eagerly await news of another…….

New video featuring “Northern” Jon Watson

Our Jon has been busy racing Cyclocross all winter and Alex Rankin went along to film one of the National races late last year. This video is a fantastic insight into Cyclocross if you fancy having a go.

Check out the video below. A warning for southern UK viewers, you may need a translator.

“I always wanted a simple Ti frame with great geometry”

Andrew Dodd from MBUK has been using a Ti Duster as his long term test bike and is loving it.

We are so glad that he is been choosing this over all his other bouncy alternatives and keeping it real on a hardtail.

See the latest March issue of MBUK for more details of the long term test fleet.

Charge Splashbacks, Get ‘em while they’re hot!

The Charge Splashback tyres have just landed and they can be bought, only for a limited period, for £29.99.

We have been riding these all the time and on many types of surface. They are very, very happy on all weather trail centres and the dual compound hooks up well on rock and loose stone but keeps it rolling fast on hardpack terrain.

But best of all, they have gum sidewalls!

They are available in 1.8 or 2.1 variations depending on your bike, or style of riding.

For a limited period go to Evans and get your gum walled beauties.

Snug, Comfy, Snazzy socks from Surface

After a long wait, the Surface socks are finally here!

I know it's just a pair of socks but when you slip these on your feet you will be ready to take on the day. After each wash they feel just the same and will be your first choice in the morning.

They work brilliantly with Vans trainers and they work especially well whilst cycling of course.

Choose any of the bright, stripey ones to make an instant impression or just go casual with any of the Herringbone options.

RRP is £9.99 so run down to the shop and make your feet happy.

Red Bull Hill Chasers, Brizzle

In the short space of a fortnight we have just done another great Red Bull event, they sure know how to put on a good event and we sure are happy to help out.

Saturday the 29th January, 2011 saw another new format for bicycle racing. The Red Bull Hill Chasers.

This event pitted cyclists from all walks (wheels?) of life to race each other up Park Street in Bristol in a dual format. The street was closed especially for the event and all the cars that were still parked on it were loaded up on to the back of lorries and taken away. That would have been one stinker of a surprise for the owners when they got back!

The course was 250m long, 3m wide and went up a 1 in 12 gradient. The course was cleverly pinched down to 1.5m in two sections to help with rider tactics. Both the start and finish were decorated with the ubiquitous Red Bull inflatable arches and neon lights lit the track like some crazy runway.

The start housed a BMX hydraulic gate to hold the riders back. The gate ran on the random start system which dropped after a few beeps, these beeps can happen straight away or can be delayed. The BMX guys train on these all the time so they were going to be first out every time.

The first of the eliminations were over really quickly, it quickly became apparent that the road bikes were very quick at the top and the BMX riders had very good gates. This proved an advantage for them as they utilised block tactics and even had a go at moving across and ramming the other riders. This was all fair and great tactics as it evened the field and provided great entertainment. Our own rider, Neil brushed off an attempt at ramming by a bmx racer but Neil knew it was coming!

The racing was fast and furious, our own Jon Watson was up and it looked like he won, it transpired that his foot unclipped near the line and sadly lost his first race.

Surface rider Chris Akrigg won his first, all bets were on for Chris.

James Hoppe sadly went out representing Charge bikes, his gears were skipping around and couldn't get down the power to defeat his fixed geared opponent.

Tom La Marche showed an amazing pair of legs in his first ever race! The young FGFS rider from Philly just beat Trials rider John Shrewsbury up the hill. Tom is a superstar and showed a new side to his personality. The crowd and commentators loved it, "Viva la fixed gear trick bike!". The poor fella went white at the bottom. It just shows how versatile the Scissor is after success in the Minidrome and hillclimb. I think we need to find some more uses for it. Let us know.

The next draw for Charge riders was unlucky, Rich Cunynghame and Neil Cousins against each other. Both are racers through and through and both wanted to win badly. Cunny really wanted to make up for the Mini Drome a few weeks ago and Neil wanted to get a great place. The race was tight with Neil edging it out toward the end, the Ti Skewer road bike had the advantage but Cunny's quick accelerating Blender Ti and lightning fast 4x gate starts were perfect. With starts like that he will do well at 4x this year!

So with Neil through, Akrigg through and Tom through it was time for more racing.

Sadly Akrigg lost out to Tom Palmer on the BMX. Tom La Marche went out to a fast road rider and Neil was put up against Dave Wardell. Another race against someone from the Charge family. Dave had a good gate and blocked Neil but Neil powered past after one of the chicanes and Dave couldn't match it.

All were out now apart from Neil. He went on to race Tom Palmer and even though Tom tried to barge him out of the way, Neil kept his cool and powered on past.

Neil then raced Chris Metcalfe next and was feeling really tired by now, Chris showed him a clean pair of heels and was gone. Neil rolled back down and he had changed colour to a white/ green combo.

Time for the 3rd and 4th place race and the acid in Neil's legs got the better of him, he rolled past in 4th place and Ben Superior into a deserved 3rd place.

The final was between Chris Metcalfe and Paul Derrick. Both went off like rockets and continued that way all the way up the road! I have a feeling they could have done a few more races too. Chris won and picked up a custom gold coloured Charge Plug Freestyler. 2nd and 3rd place picked up silver and bronze Charge Plug Racers.

A big thanks to Red Bull and also Bristol for closing the street down for the event. A massive thanks to all of you in the crowd too! Your cheers made it so much easier for the riders to get up that hill.

It was great seeing the different disciplines sharing the same environment. It was such a true celebration of cycling. Let's do some more!

Red Bull video

Red Bull have just posted up a video of all the thrills and spills at the Mini Drome. Check it…..

You will be glad to know that nobody was hurt in the making of this event.

Congrats to Surface rider Chris Akrigg for the win and Christian who finished 2nd behind Chris on a Charge Plug.

Spoon saddle on Dirt website

Big thanks to the folk over at Dirt HQ for putting this up.

Off the back of their excellent Dirt 100 mag which featured our Blender bike and Spoon saddle they are going through all the products bit by bit again to show how good they are.

Here is what they had to say…….

Click on the pic to get the full skinny.

More Mini Drome pics

Our resident snapper and graphic guru, James Hoppe, is going through all his images and uploading them to our Project page.

Click on any of the pictures and re-live the evening as it happened.

Red Bull Mini Drome, wow, what a weekend!

The Red Bull Mini Drome, supported by Charge Bikes, took place last weekend and what a great day it was.

Hundreds of cyclists from all over descended on York Hall in Bethnal Green, London. They all came to watch the crazy cyclists negotiate the tiny velodrome as fast as they could. The venue is used for Boxing matches and it was destined to see more battle that night.

Just over a hundred riders were whittled down to 32. This was based on who was fastest around 10 laps of the track. The 32 riders then raced a 2-up pursuit format to eliminate each other over 10 laps or when the other rider was caught.

Charge/ Surface riders filled the top 5, Juliet was first to get the number 1 spot, then Richard Cunynghame took it off her. At the end of qualifying Surface rider Chris Akrigg was fastest, Cunny was 3rd and Neil, 5th. Juliet was just outside the top ten but qualified easily.

Sadly Juliet had to race Chris Akrigg in the first of the rounds, we wished that Juliet could have a chance against other riders because she is fast! Needless to say she went out, boo.

Cunny and Neil were dispatching riders through their rounds as well but Cunny fell foul of the track and didn't get through to the final 8. It was just down to Neil and Chris now, everybody and their dog must have had money on Akrigg for the win. Neil raced against the eventual finalist, Christian, and lost by a hairs breadth after the pursuit went the whole 10 laps, close stuff.

Chris dominated all rounds and was pretty much untouchable smashing the minidrome world records.

The final came down to Surface rider Chris against Christian from Cologne, Germany on a Charge Plug.

Chris caught Christian within a few laps and leapt off the track to celebrate.They both won custom coloured Charge Plug frames and a snazzy trophy from Red Bull.

We would like to say a big thanks to Red Bull for asking us to be part of such a great spectacle.

It was a brilliant event and there is a rumour that there will be more, so watch this space….

Just a little something extra for your coffee break……