It’s Monday, just got back from the dentist, while the rebuilding of my tooth was a success, the Novacaine (or whatever they use) has hit my throat muscles.

I cant speak, i am having trouble with excess drool and dribbling and have bitten myself 3 times so far ( and counting) and i have to think about it and make an effort to swallow, so bit of a mess really, might throw up later, so work were not to keen on having someone that cant talk, looks a mess and might vomit in front of customers, that and they are knocking it on the head at 4pm, they sent me home ! so here i am.

So post world cup, i am raced out this weekend, been watching F1 and the Isle Of Man TT stuff, they got rained off at the I.O.M. and i caught most of the freecaster.tv that was fed to Southern Downhills website, tuned in to see Rennie cross the line, and everything after that, i enjoyed it, from the comfort of my flat, might even go next year and watch as i will only be 5 hours away and not the 11 hour drive i have at the moment. Anyway they got to talking about “helmet cam” footage of the track, freecaster tried to be tactful about this, as it turns out someone talked a rider into using a helmet cam that was like a helicopter rotor on a helmet, the UCI saw the rider, they where not impressed and banned the Use of all helmet cams. Cue Warner to blurt out that it was dirt’s fault that freecaster couldnt do a helmet cam run of the track. So Billy shut it down, imagine the chaos if they tried the plane cam, i can get a rocket cam kit for next year if billys up for it or maybe a balloon, all good stuff and fun.

So have some shiny thing photos from my recent trip to Riding High Uk and Axo-sport Uk, i like visting companies, it’s a game called “Shameless Promotion” i dont know all the rules to this game yet, they show you things, but you cant take a photo or talk about it, this happened at the Core show with the Evil bike, it’s a trade show and they got stroppy with anyone who pointed a camera at the bike. Create a hype ? i think so in that case.

So i am having a go at the game of “Shameless promotion” i am going to talk about something with out saying what it is, or does, talk about nothing about something. Here goes, Chris asked me to guess what the mystery object was for, nailed it in 10 secs flat, used it before on motorbikes, another crossover from motorsports ! it’s a technical gizmo, but oh so simple, and in some riders heads a technical advantage over the competition is a massive Mental advantage, and we all know the Mental side of racing is more important than the bike, a scared, unconfident rider will never outperform someone who has there head together, and for a test sample it was very well made and finished. But still in the testing stage, i was surprised to see this being used for mountain bike racing, see if it makes production ?

How was that, dont think i gave anything away, i will find out when they read this, if you see a edit of this in a few days, then i got it wrong and will be in trouble, that is also part of the “Shameless Promotion” game, damn i need to find the rule book for this.

Have some photos of stuff that i can show you.

Loads of shiny rims, and the spikes are coming in polished as well, so thats spike for DH, Tweet tweets for DJ and the OOZY for XC, might try them spikes myself next year, nice weight as well. On to the bars, no you cant have them ! well maybe ? they had a pair polished to see what they come out like, 780mm shiny polished flat DH bars, it was a bugger to photo, had to turn the flash off, just too shiny.

As i was there i took the chance to buy some new armour, yes “buy” not a test sample, i paid for it, you see after really getting cooked at Taff Buggy the other week i decided to get some lighter/cooler protection, my 3 1/2 year old Brand X jacket has lots of nice foam padding, but it just holds to much heat, it’s now the winter jacket, cant fault the BX still got some years of life left in it.

So why AXO then ? well i was going there, so i could try it on, kinda made sense, the local shops dont hold massive stocks of armour and i didnt fancy waiting for something to be ordered in. Better point out that you cant just turn up at Axo, it’s not a shop, go to www.axo-sport.co.uk and you buy direct on-line, as i am special ( i hear that a lot ) they let me in. This is what i got.

Say hello to an AXO EVO safety jacket £120. I liked the fact that it has cut outs in the arms, the base jacket is wider mesh than my old BX and there is less overall padding than the BX. However there is greater coverage of hard plate on the chest and back, and the shoulders seem to be more padded than the BX, which to me was all good.

I asked about neck braces, i dont wear one or own one, but more people are buying them and finding armour that works with it can be hard. So officially from AXO it is compatible with Leatt Neck Braces as is the EVO H jacket, the one up from mine. Chris had a back plate from a Leatt in the warehouse so we had a play, then we phoned up Si Paton (i am sure they said he wears axo armour too) anyway Si is the man for questions on Leatt www.descent-gear.com he ok’ed what we tryed out. The neck brace needs to be on your back, and not sat on the spine protector, now some jackets like the AXO evo you are able to slide the brace underneath the spine protector, some jackets you cant, as there is no gap, the back protector is stitched to the jacket, did that all make sense.

Now i maybe get in trouble again, they where busy trying to pack the van for fort william while i was there so it was a bit rushed, when i got home i started to fiddle with the jacket like you do. It came with a small bag attached with 2 spare rivets for the back plates. This got me thinking, why and what if ?

DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK, i know i shouldnt have done it, but i couldnt help it, i had to fiddle.

Look at the rear shot of the jacket, each spine plate has 4 rivets holding it in place, now i am not showing you how to, or what it looks like, because i dont know if you are ment to do this. I very carefully popped the rivets, which are snapfit and if you are gentle and take your time you wont break them. In 10 mins i had removed the top 2 spine plates, this makes wearing a neck brace easier, and is also what the new 661 Core saver does, on the 661 you just pop off the plates, although they havent made it over here yet. And as i was carefull i reused all the snap rivets and didnt break any. There is a chance i might remove that tip later, i may have shot myself in the foot talking about it, of course you all know that modifying equipment you have bought will void any warranty you had on it, and i reckon i might get an email from Axo about that, but then we try things out so you dont have too, and i bought it so if they get the hump they cant ask for it back, really really need the summer to be hot to give it a good workout.

Random update, i have now bitten myself 5 times, but havent thrown up yet, i think the novacaine is wearing off as it’s gone all tingly, think i will try a cup of tea through a straw in a minute.

There you go a mini roadtrip, i bagged a stack of Spank prizes from www.ridinghighuk.co.uk did a bit of shopping and quite possibly pissed them off buy abusing there product range, wait and see on that front. I (maybe) upset importers and Billy upsets the UCI, dont you just love hardtailers !

If i get barred from here you can find me over at www.hardtailnation.co.uk more later Ace.