I don’t know about you, but I can’t see that video in the post above. It says it’s an unlisted video so only people with the link can see it. The link is
youtube.com/watch?v=0MMBlZ3M … e=youtu.be
if that doesn’t work, you’ll have to look at it through the JFG facebook page
Oh that works!
By the way, I can’t recommend Spank Spike pedals enough. I’ve had mine since the start of the year. At first I was running all the pins fully out and I felt like I was standing on the pins rather than the pedal body. I didn’t like it so I removed a few pins and backed them all off to about half height. Since then I feel like my foot is on the body and the pins are just stopping it from slipping. I’ve never spun a pedal or slipped a pedal with them either, the thin design really seems to do what it says.
Definitely a lot better than the wellgo pedals that came on my STP, and definitely better than the FUNN pedals I got last year with the glass paper on the tops. I’m fully on the thin pedals bandwagon since getting these.
What are your thoughts on 10-speed? I right fancy getting one of those new Shimano Zee rear mechs and shifters for the clutch system, but I don’t really want to go to ten speed. Anyone used the Shimano clutch rear mechs yet? Really as good as it says in the media?
[quote=“jaame”]
If someone qualified wants to teach me about it I’ll listen![/quote]
You make me laugh J - you should create a seperate thread or blog; “shitjaamesays.com”! 
Anyway, thanks for registrating me and endorsing SPANK - see you on saterday or sunday. You actually are the favorite this time hey? After riding all winter and being on your hometrail and all - not to mention your virtual supersets - this is your best chance to beat those kids - good luck!!!
Moshe Foster is coming and probably some other guys too, Georg Todtenbier and Nikoi Sanniez.
OK Pommes you’ve got me on the line. I’m really interested now because you sound like you think you’ve got something. I’ve done a couple of hours of internet research on this at lunch times this week and discussed it a lot with my colleagues, none of whom are qualified to talk about it. I admit, I don’t know that much about fitness and muscle vs power, I have been interested in fitness and muscle building for fifteen years, but only at the level of enthusiast. I’ve been in pretty good shape too, but never at the same time as being an active cyclist.
It’s just a commonly held belief that having more muscle makes you stronger and more powerful. If you asked everyone in the world, I think close to 100% would agree. This doesn’t make it true I know.
From the research I’ve done from a third party perspective, I feel there is not an agreement among fitness professionals as to whether having bigger muscles makes you “faster” or not. There seem to be two schools of thought (I admit I’m still struggling to even believe having bigger muscles could possibly make you slower, or even to believe that there is anyone who believes that). One school is, increasing muscle mass makes you stronger, more powerful and therefore faster. The other school of thought says that it could make you slower because strength and power aren’t the same.
I didn’t find anything specifically related to cycling and a ten rep max squat and deadlift routine which I would go after personally to gain muscle in the right areas.
Anyway enough typing. I’m interested to hear your argument as to why that would make me slower on a bike. I am open to the fact that I could be wrong, but I feel like you could be winding me up. Make a flippant statement like “actually it will make you slower” like it’s a fact and just see how long you can keep it going. It is a good joke I admit!
So come on, spill the beans. I’ll consider it proof when I read it on wikipedia.
Are you pulling my leg?
Anyway. The race on Sun, you’re both entered.
This is the schedule according to facebook:
check-in / practice before Sunday am11:00. 1st round from 12:00~13:10, 2nd round from 13:50 to 15:00. 1520~1540 ramp distance jump race. 1550 awards.
I’ve also been told that the final jump will be used, the one we built the landing for in the pissing rain this year. I’m not sure if they mean that will be used for the DH race (I hope so) or just the long jump contest, which I am not planning to enter.
As for being the favourite, I wouldn’t go that far. Certainly I know the track pretty well and I’m not in bad shape, but I’m not in good shape either because I haven’t been to the gym to do my squats or deadlifts for five years. I haven’t got much on the bike training in, but still I think I’ll do OK. Mr. Fan isn’t racing and he’s better than me. The young lad Dan Chiang will be racing though, and he’s been to Sea Otter and some other American races in the past two months, and I’ve never beaten him, or his brother who never trains but has big bollocks. Also I hear there’s a Belgian bloke who used to be a world cup DH regular going. I’ve raced him before and lost as well. Obviously I’ll be going as fast as I can and hoping for the best, but I think that’s what everyone else will be doing too. I’ve never won a race in my life. It would be nice to do it before I get too old and burdened to even be in with a chance.
Roel, I’ll get your mates on the list too. I’m planning to scope it out on Saturday arvo sans bike, because I have to work in the morning. See you then or on Sunday!
We’re all entered now, including Moshe, Georg and Nikko. There are three categories available - junior, advanced and elite. We’re all down to race elite at the moment. If you want to change it then let me know and I’ll tell that bloke who entered us.
I don’t know how many will be in elite though. I was told Dan is elite and Robin is advanced, and Robin finished 4th in the last race. It could be a big turnout because it sounds like a proper race with chips, not just a mates’ race with stopwatches. Even so, I’d be surprised if elite was more than 10 people. That race last January had 50-60 finishers, so would say this weekend could be pretty busy.
We’re all entered now, including Moshe, Georg and Nikko. There are three categories available - junior, advanced and elite. We’re all down to race elite at the moment. If you want to change it then let me know and I’ll tell that bloke who entered us.
I don’t know how many will be in elite though. I was told Dan is elite and Robin is advanced, and Robin finished 4th in the last race. It could be a big turnout because it sounds like a proper race with chips, not just a mates’ race with stopwatches. Even so, I’d be surprised if elite was more than 10 people. That race last January had 50-60 finishers, so would say this weekend could be pretty busy.
I’m not sure how i got into this but; obviously not - strong is not equal to fast.
Heavy weights and few repeats create short muscles that have to be stretched + need additional speed / flexibility training to become fast. You can ask all the superstars you mentioned before. Once you reach a certain level (unless you’re a bodybuilder), half the time in the gym will be spend stretching. (Which to me is even more horrible then pumping itself)
As for my credits I will tell you again on sunday - maybe this time you’ll listen. Either way this is OFF TOPIC so lets stop this BS right here or open another thread that I can ignore - as you know, argueing on the internet is like running in the Special Olympics… (nothing against the Special Olypics and their athletes!)
of course, just about anything will do to improve our level - 
Chiang got 97st @ Sea Otter and will probably still beat you - still; I think you have a chance. I remember how fast you were with the shitty STP, so…
PS; Long Jump contest? where?!?
PPS; hope it rains for the race; there’s a 2.1 Medusa on the rear of my borrowed bike and i am too lazy to change it.
I though I remembered you telling me about your sports science degree just after I typed are you a sports scientist? Anyway it is on topic, it’s about DH mountain biking.
I’m not just being a cunt for the sake of it. I am genuinely interested to hear what you have to say about it.
So you’re happy to be in elite are you? Are Lance or Kain coming over? Mike or Leo?
Bad news re: x-ride. My wife has got it into her head that George is going to pop out the day I go to Taichung so I did the right thing and agreed not to go. She needs the support and I don’t want to make my life a misery so I’m going to stay at home and be miserable about not racing. At least the misery will last less than 3 days. Hell hath no fury.
Young Dan Chiang is fitter than me and has bigger balls and clipless pedals. I think I was a fast as him last year in the twisty wooded part of the track and probably on top, but that was last year. He’s got a lot better and I haven’t so I’m not expecting to beat him. He’s won every race he’s enetered since I’ve known him. Still, I’ll keep my fingers crossed for a good result. After George comes along I don’t forsee much riding happening for me in the next year.
I’ll be over there checking it out on foot probably about 3pm tomorrow. Parking on Sunday could be an issue, there is much less parking space there now than there was.
Guy’s name is Stijn Deferm. Rode with him in Miaoli (Sanyi Mountain) a couple of weeks ago.
WC DH record:
rootsandrain.com/rider23293/ … m/results/
James, please put us (me, George, Nikoi and Moshe) in Advanced class. Thanks!
Meeting place is at the temple grounds right?
Around what time should we show up there?
[quote=“lollapalooza”]
Guy’s name is Stijn Deferm. [/quote]
that record is not complete - but better stay away from that dickhead. I heard he stole some other friends girlfriend and destroys other peoples bicycles on purpose whenever he has a chance! Pretentious POS-know-it-all from what I heard…
ON TOPIC; Last thing i heard registration is between 8 and 9am. There will be 2 runs, both on a different track however. :loco: Especially one is not even a real trail - just slamming down the hill. (I guess they want to make sure their local guy wins more then giving him a chance to encounter some competition.)
Big Up for Spank rims btw - I was riding SO low pressure it felt and sounded like I was riding on the rim - yet they still look mint. (28mm)
After a nice day riding today, i don’t feel like being wet for 5_6 hours s will decide tomorrow if coming over. Or not
enjoy!
Luckily I changed my mind and did show up - after all it stayed dry all day and I got 3rd (we assume - timing was kinda loose as well)
Jaame 4th after hesitating for 48 hours whether or not he should jump the roadgap.
Only thing to criticize IMO is that the bottom part of the track was just straight down instead of taking one of the much nicer twisty trails instead. Thanks to Lollapolooza & co for cheering!
What about X-Ride? Will there be a DH race at all? From what i heard only XC and 4X…
I heard X-ride would be only 4x and bmx. If that so, I’m not going. 
especially because it’s on the VP Track which is a sad example of a good idea and great efforts went terribly wrong. It could have been so nice…
Anyway; bears-bike.com/archives/2719 for more info…
Georg send me a vid link about the Taoyan race but doesn’t seem to work yet - asa it does i will put here.
Maybe we can gather in Taoyuan once and shuttle. Jaame’s line is fun and there’s some other trails still to be exploited as well.
OK boys, my wife’s going to have the baby in the next few days. Could even be tomorrow! Yikes!
Looks like I’ll be out of the loop for a while… wish me luck!
P.S. I’ve got a deposit down on the CR80 already!
hello everyone. My name is nico, I live in the US, and will be living in Tainan next year. Ive been reading your posts since I found out I would be living in Taiwan. I do a lot of biking here, some DH, but moastly XC. I’d love to move more towards doing solely DH. The biking scene in Taiwan seems fantastic, not too huge, under the radar, and composed of a tight group of people. I would love to become involved.
how hard/ expensive is it to find a decent DH bike in Taiwan. I dont anticipate being able to ship it back with me so im looking for something pretty inexpensive or something I could easily sell. Also, how hard is it to access trails? I wont have a car…
Thanks! I look foward to hearing from you guys.
-nico
Nice! I plan to see some of you all out on the trails in the coming months since I’m moving across the pond too. Stunts built with pallets? Yikes. OK then. From the video it looks like there are a few guys over there that can really ride.
Hi boys
My toe is still painful from that ride two weeks ago on wu zhu shan. I had it x rayed yesterday annd he said it doesn’t look broken, coulld just be infected inside. Or it could be a hairline crack and it’s already healed enough ffor the x ray to miss it. Either way I’ll be out for a few more weeks.
I’m still keen to try out speed trap.
Also I’m in the proccess off trying to get a ddisused rice field down the back of my house to turn into a pumptrack.
Also I’m thinking about selling my ccorsair and getting a new Glory at the end of the year. Can’t believe they diddn’t do carbon or Zee, but maybe next year they will.