photos: Eric Palmer, Gary Barnard

Morewood Enza1

Morewood Enza - Day 1

I stopped Dirt Jumping in 2002.

I had a BB snap on the face of a double :0  The ensuing super man without the bike was fun until I slammed my hip into the concrete hard transition.  It took 2 weeks for the bruising to come out and another 2 before I could walk properly.  Next weekend I snapped my ACL wakeboarding and that was that.  12 months of rehab had me feeling a little less keen on dirt jumping as my knee felt a little weak.

I started Dirt Jumping in 2009.

After racing the World Cup in South Africa I realised that on that course jumping a DH bike could make up some serious time.  I was getting over the 55ft table alright but some of the smaller stuff I just wasn’t getting good downslope and lost chunks of time.  I figured it was time to learn how to do that s$%t again.

I put together an interesting mix of bits and bob’s from the garage and borrowed a frame from a mate.  This was my first non-Morewood bike I had ridden since 2003.  I started riding at some local trails and just didn’t feel right on the bike…..I wasn’t sure what exactly it was( wheelbase, Chainstay length, Head Angle) but it required a lot of thought to get the bike to do what I wanted.  I felt like a bit of a spaz but wrote it off as too much time off a hard tail.

Then I rode Jonty’s Enza……..hmmm, interesting!!!!!! Intuitive handling, you think about turning, it turns.  No ooh aaah maybe I’ll turn of my frame.

I HAD to have one.  Like really urgently/immediately.  Forget about the recession it was all I could think about.  Getting that frikkin frame. So after 1*10^8 (that is 100,000,000) phone calls to Richard at Morewood we worked something out and the Enza arrived.

It really is a tribute to everyone that brings a Morewood to life just how good a product they produce.  From the packaging, stickers, welds, finish, design and production it is a thing of beauty.  Not only because of what it does, but also, because of what is doesn’t do.  I just gets out of your body’s way and let’s your mind ride the bike.

I am thankful for many things and being able to ride for Morewood is one of them.

Morewood Enza

Balance is natural.

Why then it it so hard for us humans to achieve?

I recently took part in the South African championships.  I wanted to get enough UCI points so that I could qualify for the World Cup in Pietermaritzberg so I decided to race in the Elite class (I am 33…).  I have also just had a beautiful baby girl with my extremely supportive and understanding wife Noon.

Summer and Noon - Early Morning in Vic Bay

The weekend was planned and of we went to George (we stayed at Vic Bay near by) for the SA Champs; Noon, Summer, Gary, Makulu, Bright family and other DH friends.

Everything went perfectly except for one small detail: I didn’t sleep.

2hrs on Friday night, 3hrs on Saturday night.

Summer dominating the beach

Luckily I knew the course well and just rested up for my race runs but WOW it doesn’t feel good racing DH where reaction time is kinda important when you body is screaming sleeeeep.

 Gary – Rock Shoot

The race actually went well and I ended up with 3rd in Elite and more than enough points for the World Cup but I left the event feeling shattered. My second run my body just couldn’t respond and I had to pull way back.

Jonty the Babysitter

I realised that I need to find a new balance point.  

The easiest way to do that is to relax, let go of expectations and just go with the flow!

Happy Dad

Have you ever wanted something for your whole life?

Have ever wanted something for your whole life sadly knowing that you probably will never have it?

That is how I felt about BOS suspension.  Interestingly enough not everyone knows about BOS, their history and the prestige that accompanies it!

In my life BOS started off as the “No Name” single crown forks and huge rear shocks that the Sunn Chippie team used.  It then turned into the super sexy dual crown forks on the front of some crazy french dual slalom racer at the Stellenbosch world cup in ‘98 (a certain Cedric ‘crazy french’ Gracia).  The epitome was the unbelievable F1 racing quality Carbon upside down wonder fork that I saw in person in Vail 2001 when Nico won the World Championships.

Needless to say I wanted one and never thought owning one would be possible.

By a strange twist of fate I ended up being one of the first riders sponsored by a little known company in PMB, South Africa called Morewood Bikes.  A company that I have believed in 100% since the first time I rode a Morewood in 2002.  This company slowly but surely started to produce some of the finest handling Downhill bikes in the world and reached a level of design, build and performance quality that translated into a relationship with the enigmatic BOS engineering.

Now, many years after staring at the pages of the first Dirt magazines trying to work out who the hell made THAT, I now have a BOS engineering fork on my patio table!

Does it live up to all the hype?

Hell yea, It is my new best friend

Well almost…Here is my real new best friend.

Summer Barnard - Super chilled

This is my first post to the blog, if I get it write it should be the first of many…

Just got back from the 2nd round of the MTN SA Cup Series in Mankele, South Africa. Mankele is a bike park 1hr away from Kruger National Park. The park is very well laid out with XC, 4X, All Mountain and DH trails that cover everything you want to do on a bike.

Coming from Cape Town it is easy to forget that deepest darkest Africa is on our doorstep. After a 2hr plane ride and 3hrs in the Taxi we where at our Hotel, we arrived at night and had no idea where we were. First light showed that we were perched on a mountain top surrounded by indigenous forest, the worlds largest Dolomite cave (Sudwala) and HUGE insects. We talking foot long and scary as @#$%. Anyone who loves bikes, the bush and the African sky should stick this spot in their GPS.

The course is an interesting mix of High and Low speed, Grass and Trees, Mud and Rock. Probably the steepest course I have ridden in SA, a bit tight and 1 lined in places but still looked to be a good tester for my Makulu and me.

I have had the Makulu for just on 2 months and haven’t really had a chance to experience how it reacts under real race conditions. The 1st round of the SA champs was fun but the course was pretty smooth and didn’t really stress the edges of suspension which separates good bikes from great bikes. I was looking forward to putting the finishing touches to my suspension setup as there was a great range of conditions it had to handle.

Practice started with Wet Screams (been raining up there since 18^th of December), the course felt too tight and really didn’t flow well. As the course dried out in the 30 degree Celsius heat the speeds went up and it all began to fall into place; drop the forks out a little, a few clicks more compression front and rear and switch back to Minions and there where happy faces down at Quantums (2 SA Taxi’s that the 8 of us rented).

The smile disappeared from my face after smashing my Crank Bros into a coffin sized rock that bent my axle, bruised my hip and battered my thumb. Grumpy G then got stung by a Hornet (small assault insect with a Flame Thrower as its primary weapon) on the way back up the shuttle.

Race day rolled around with a 6:30am wake-up call from 2 fighting Monkeys who where tripping from eating Sugar and Cremora down at the open air breakfast buffet (no kidding).

Punched out 2 practice runs, thumb was OK and all systems where go for the race. In SA we do 2 race runs with the fastest run counting.

Race 1 went down and I just never really got going, felt like a slow practice run and my 2:16 was good for 7^th overall. Andrew Neethling was 2^nd fastest with a 2:09 and Johan Potgieter was fastest on a 2:08.

Andrew, Jonty and I all felt that we never really got going in the run and were looking forward to Race 2.

In Race 2 I just focused on the spot 5 meters in front of me and felt like I was being pulled down the track. I had a good run and took 6 seconds of my time for a 2:10. Andrew battled back with a 2:04 and Johan had a slightly slower 2:09. Jonty also dropped 6 seconds for a 2:11.

In the end we had a great weekend. 6 riders, 3 medals, 1 Speeding Ticket and 0 bad injuries.

Thanks to Gary, Tom ‚ÄöMens Health‚Äö Pierre ‚ÄöPrime Time‚Äö Andrew ‚ÄöNeedles‚Äö Jonty ‚ÄöJonny Tang‚Äö Vanessa ‚ÄöThe Mexican‚Äö and Mark ‚ÄöChoppie‚Äö for a great weekend. To Morewood (Pat put down his welding torch for the weekend and won Sub Vet), Fox (Kyle, despite a ‚Äötreecheotomy‚Äö didn‚Äö crash) and Rush Sports (Andre, being the nice guy he is didn’t ride while he lent his rotors to XC pinner Roan) for their ongoing support of a married Dad who is still trying to ride bikes and to Noonie and Summer for being the best fan club in the world.

Words by Gary Barnard

MTN National Cup in association with MiWay
Downhill ‚Äö Round 2
Mankele, Mpumalanga
Leading results
MEN
Overall
1 Andrew Neethling ‚Äö Trek World Racing 2min04.54sec
2 Johann Potgieter ‚Äö Cannondale 2:08.56
3 Gary Barnard ‚Äö Fox Morewood 2:10.18
4 Jonty Neethling ‚Äö Fox Morewood 2:11.64
5 Hayden Brown ‚Äö Mongoose 2:11.65

All pics by Gary “Flipper” Perkin