We have just got of the Eurotunnel bound for Friedrichshafen.
Ahead of us is James Hoppe (the Charge bikes graphics slave) and Phil, the chippie, in the CSG wagon and behind we have Tim and Matt, the Charge stand builders. Tim is the loud one.

I'm pretty excited and nervous about the whole thing as I will be having proper, real life, meetings with grown ups. A great experience for me.

I'm looking forward to seeing all the new bikes and seeing old friends. Of course, they may be a few drunken nights too. Not too many I hope.

I will update more over the trip.
Keep an eye out for pics tomorrow of our stay tonight in a mysterious hotel.

Again, it has been a long ago since my last blog. I'm killing time at the piscine in Alpe D'Huez and thought lets do this blog thing! The weather has been fantastic so far this week and the riding is great. First day on Wednesday was a realisation that I wasn't used to alpine riding. We were all riding with stiff arms and backs and looked totally newb. An hour later we were all on it and sliding berms and floating the gigantic rocks. The riding here is amazing and arm pump is de riguer. Luckily both tracks have enough sections to rest your arms before the next onslaught. Qualifying sucked for me after getting up to front of the group, I could see the front guys so knew I was on for a very good ride, breathing good and hitting all the lines. Then disaster struck and I cut my tubeless tyre and the gloop inside wasn't working so had to change to an inner tube. I rode 10m before that too popped. I was near the top so the only thing for me to do was walk the 30mins down to the gondola and back to Alpe D'Huez in a foul mood. I'm in the Mega Affinity tomorrow to get a time so I can at least have some bragging rights when I get back! As a racer, not being in the main group has got me down but I'm looking forward to challenging myself on the immense course. I will update with piccies when I next get on my laptop so don't despair! Peace out y'all

Well here it is, my blog after many months! As some of you may know I also update the news page on this here site too, I should be doing more on that also, but that is another story! It's nearly 6 months since I started at Charge Bikes and it really has been the most full on job that I have ever done. It sounds like I'm complaining but I'm not, I have been to Taiwan twice and met the most fantastic people. I work with Nick and Ash to help drive Charge forward and we are about to smash the 2012 line into the big time. In the Charge race team we have a great bunch of riders and they all add so much variation and character. In fact I'm really looking forward to a get-together at the Erlestoke12. I will be in a team with Jon Watson, Chris Metcalfe and Abi Greenaway, I will be the most useless on that team but it will be a great laugh. We may be competitive (depending on my training) but I most look forward to swapping stories when we get in. The Charge team, as a whole, does have fast racers but we also have really interesting riders too, who live a lifestyle we can only dream of, I consider myself one of those: I ride/ give input into prototype bikes that no one sees for a long time, I get to ride fantastic, original competitions and I get to work in an industry that is also my hobby. Work and the team are good, but what am I looking forward to this year I hear you ask? Well, I will be racing the Gravity Enduros, Mega Avalanche, King of the Cobbles and I've gotta beat Akrigg at the Red Bull Minidrome. He will appreciate a good thrashing! I have been riding as much as I can recently, the amazing weather has helped me get out and get motivated. I really have to make up for the lack of exercise this month whilst away in Taiwan and helping out with various events. I've been road riding on my Skewer, xc on my Cooker 29'er. Also I've just built up a Ti Blender and will be at the bmx track in Bath for Good Friday and then dirt jumping at Weston. All in the name of training, of course! It will be fun all day. Good Friday will be a day spent on the bikes with friends. I will update with pics from this weekend of me shredding some rad. Keep your eyes open! That's all for now and now I've discovered I can write my blog on my iPad I will do it more often! Peace out y'all.

Well, I was all set for a trip to Bremen to do some track testing for the Red Bull minidrome event. I was really looking forward to it and it was a great opportunity to ride the new Scissor bike.

I set off Saturday lunchtime after checking the airport was open, roads were clear and the flights still on.

Most of them were....until I got to the M25! There were various crashes and I hope that everyone is alright. Each crash seemed to happen just before I got there so more long delays. Then the airport was closed for snow clearing, it opened an hour and a half later so I carried on..

When I did get going I was crapping myself! The snow was quite thick and really coated the motorway. I couldn't see the lines or a single catseye.

We were all going slow, apart from the lorries. Some drivers were crawling. Overtaking them meant I had to go over the snow tramlines that were forming but you had to be prepared to slide a lot when you hit those, I was almost sideways a few times!

I finally got to the Travelodge after 6 hours on the M25/ M11 just down the road from the airport and sat down to have my well deserved curry. I checked the flights which have been going ahead all day. To my horror they had just been cancelled! Rubbish.

At least I got a lie in on Sunday and enjoyed a slow trip back to Frome. It was much less dangerous this time. My now, finely tuned snow rally skills really helped with the journey back.

Sorry no riding this time but I will make up for it this week!

 

First time out in the black and white kit

 

It's been all change for me recently. I have a new job at Charge making tea for Nick. I have loads of bikes to ride (terrible, I know!) and I'm the new blood on the Charge team. They say change is good for the soul so keep it coming.....

When asked if I wanted to do the Gorrick MBC autumn race I was well up for it, more change. The last time I did an xc race on my own, I was a teenager. Those years have long gone and I've been riding mostly DH and doing the occasional enduro race (if it's not raining). Also I've done the odd road race on my own, but way back in the 4th category there are like minded folk and many varying dimensions.

At the Gorrick XC race there were a lot more lean people and it was raining, lots. Lean people are undoubtedly fit people as well, so I was willing to let them disappear up the first climb. They didn't disappoint and I didn't have a choice, they were long gone and I was breathing out of areas that shouldn't allow breathing. It was raining even heavier now and I wasn't enjoying myself, the only consolation was the excellent track and the fact that I had my team mates in sight.

The rain kept coming and I caught up with my mates and followed them round for a bit as other wet riders kept overtaking then falling off. My glasses were covered in spray and my bum was soaking but strangely I was getting into the racing. My breathing had settled and I was feeling pretty good, it was time to go and give myself some room so I left the guys behind and just got into a smooth rhythm.

I don't think I mentioned the rain, but there was some and I couldn't see anything and the sandy soil was making my brake pads disappear really fast. My gears were giving up too and I had to overshift and click back down, but the more I had to work with the bike, the more I enjoyed it. It was great using the front wheel on the side to scrub speed on the toboggan run downhill.

The last lap was a balance of avoiding cramp and dealing with the spray. It was so wet I was drowning on the fireroad sections with the water coming up from my wheels and filling my mouth. The track was slippier and a lot slower in some places so it was important to maintain speed before the short ups and some of the downhill corners. The trusty skinny Duster and the Splashback tyres held up well and helped me through the last couple of miles.

The finish was sudden, very wet and quite a surprise, I checked the results and I finished 13th out of 50 odd. I was chuffed with that and I know a top ten is definitely a go-er.

So that was my first race and I'm looking forward to my next ones. So check back when you can and see how I did......

Thanks for reading, I've now got to check some 2012 Charge stuff.

 

 

Charge Bike's are proud to present our latest employee and team member Neil Cousins,

Name: Neil Cousins
Age: 32
Where's home: Frome
Job: Operations Manager at Charge Bikes
Describe yourself in 3 words: Flats, clips, hoppy
What type of riding do you do: XC, DH, 4X, Bmx, Road
Your favourite place to ride: Peak District
Years riding: 17 years
What bike do you ride? Skewer Ti, Skinny Duster and a Trek Remedy