chinamtb 08

A group of U.S Olympic cyclists upset a few Beijingers when they arrived by wearing face masks to protect themselves from breathing in pollution. The team later apologized for their actions and stated that they were not making any kind of environmental or political protest and were sorry for any upset caused.

BEIJING (AFP) - Four US cyclists who wore masks over their nose and mouths over pollution fears when arriving in Beijing apologized Wednesday to Olympic organizers, US Olympic Committee chief executive Jim Scherr said.
Mike Friedman, Bobby Lea, Sarah Hammer and Jennie Reed were among about 200 athletes from an American delegation of 596 who were issued masks by their US sport governing body to combat pollution in Beijing.

“They’ve now seen how their actions have been perceived,” Scherr said, after footage of the four arriving on Tuesday was run prominently by international news channels.

“They were very eager to take the right action, which was to apologize to their hosts.”

You can read the full article here on Yahoo.

If you didn’t already know the 2008 Beijing Olympic games will be official opened today. I will do my best to keep you updated with the mountain bike and BMX results over the coming weeks plus any other interesting Olympic news. Luckily for me we are situated in Qingdao the Olympic sailing city, and have been fortunate enough to meet with Olympians from Australia, Italy, Israel, France and many others.

The picture above was taken last night just outside the Olympic Village in Qingdao and show the preparations for tonight’s opening celebrations.

Norco unveiled thier 09 line up a few weeks back and some crafty bugger managed to get a picture of this. It’s the 09 Norco Fallout complete with Hammerschmitt? Looks to me as this is what all the fuss is about and I’m really impressed by the neatness and shear size of it. I found more pics yesterday, but forgot to save them DOH! so only one….. for know. Keep posted!

We’ve just stumbled across 2 hot new products and thought we’d share.

The first is not so new but the price point is pretty damn new!! These little ATV’s can get up to 45km/h (dependent on the rider weight and engine size) engines are available in 50-70-110cc and are all air cooled 4 stroke units.

The next product is a little more interesting. Its a 2 wheeled motorized ’skateboard’ which rides in a similar way as a snowboard i.e you carve and lean to turn. You stand inside the wheel, which lowers the center of gravity, which in turn makes it a very maneuverable little machine. Both on and off road versions are available.

If you are interested in either of these products, or the folding bikes we mentioned a few weeks back, email: andi@chinamtb.com for prices and shipping costs.

If your going to be in Qingdao, China for the next few weeks during the Olympic Games, your going to need to get yourself on a bike. Qingdao has so much to offer, from expensive shopping malls to beautiful green mountains, the beaches to the beer festival. Unfortunately the public transport is a little unreliable and getting on a bike really gets you places and see spots you wouldn’t normally see.

Our bikes range from 1100 RMB alloy folding bikes (see above), Mountain bikes starting at 1450RMB, Road bikes from 1300 RMB and even kids bikes. All of our bikes are from top companies like Giant, Atomlab, Santa Cruz, MacMahone……etc.

If you want to find out more drop me an email :andi@chinamtb.com OR call me on 135 153 27143.

10:30am

I’m not entirely sure what time the torch arrived, but luckily for you and me I was in the right place at the right time with my super zoom camera! I was under the impression the torch would come first in the procession, but I was wrong. The first thing to come along was the Coca-Cola float followed closely by the Samsung and Lenovo vans. Then the cheering really got started when the new torch bearer came along and stood practically in front of us. After a bit of posing the former bearer arrived and the torch was lit…. and that was that. I’ll post more pictures later.

8:30am

Still nothing much going on, however the crowds are here and the helicopters are flying low.

7:44am

You may ask why am I awake at this ungodly hour when I should be tucked up in bed dreaming of shiny bike parts. Well the reason is today is the day the Olympic torch and its bearer/s come to Qingdao. Luckily for me my home is a quick 30 second walk from the main route of the torch, however it also means I get to here the drums banging at 7am in preparation for the big event. I just had a quick look around (there’s not much to see). The main Hong Kong Rd which runs through Qingdao has been blocked off and is lined with brightly dressed Olympic volunteers (1000’s of them!) equally huge numbers of police are out and about, and there are a handful of vendors. I’m not entirely sure when the torch is due, and I doubt I’ll get to see it (there’s going to be huge! crowds) I may even take my bike for a ride, however if I am around and I have my camera I’ll get a pic.

For the past few years everyone has been drooling over all the shiny white components that have arrived on sale. Deity were one of the first to introduce white parts, but everyone followed suit (eventually). MacMahone came to the wedding a little late however, its only in the last few months that their white handle bars and seats have come to the market and were waiting on the rest. But being French and all they’ve decided to jump on the new ‘In’ color bandwagon ………. green. I think my brother is going to be happy as he can now get his Jackal to look like a lime and orange Tic Tac, but is green the new white? I’ll continue to wait for the industry to go full circle and offer everything in anodized purple again.

Check out the gallery below for some of the latest Macmahone parts and colors.

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When buying new gears for your ‘rig’ (ha ha there you are Ash I said it) you have really one of two options…. don’t you? Shimano or the ‘Big S’ hailing from Japan, or Sram or as they say in China ‘S ram’ from sun bathed Cali. I’ve always liked to stay away from the mainstream so ever since I can remember I’ve always chosen what I considered to be the ‘Underdog’ option. Anyone remember Sachs wavy shifters? I had those, and my current ’sled’ (ha ha I did it again!!) has nothing from the ‘Big S’ on board. However now even Sram is pretty mainstream so I’ve been hankering over something unique. I already have two single speeds before you start, and a hub gear has been rattling around in my mind for some time. No, what I want is something people are going to look at and either say ‘Wow, thats pretty cool’ or for the uneducated ‘Why would you use a piece of sh1! like that?’.

Today I found this, the Driven range of top end bike parts from………. Sunrace!! If you’ve been in to cycling for a while you would have heard of Sunrace. Back in the day when everyone was starting out Shimano, Sunrace and Suntour were all pretty level pegged, however the other 2 S’s struggled to keep up, and are only just gaining momentum again.

The Driven range has been in development for sometime and consists of both mountain bike and road bike components. Everything from hubs, shifters and derailleurs have been designed and made of advanced materials such as carbon, ceramic and beautifully cnc’d aluminum.

The Driven mountain bike range comes in two flavours the NMX and NMZ (the X is presumably the higher of the two models as it has gold bits !).

RDMX - 9 Speed Mountain rear derailleur, All alloy construction, CNC alloy pulleys with sealed bearings, Alloy hangar bolt, Shimano compatible, Weight: 227g
FCMX - Mountain Crankset, 2 Piece External Bearing System BB, Sealed Bearing BB, Patented Fluid Drive shifting ramps, Shimano Compatible, Weight: 771g including BB

Keep posted for more pics and info on the rest of the Sunrace range, and something I find interesting from good old Sturmey Archer.