2014 was a belter, it ticked more than boxes for both the team and riders who sent it sideways everywhere from Scotland and a very wet Wales to the sun of Leogang and the crowds of Fort William. In Hafjell young Jacob Dickson stuck his ginger noggin on the World Champs podium and laid down some lightning speed that set the team racing at full tilt into the off season.
That off season has proven a busy one, Ben Reid has been flat out developing new sponsors and keeping current ones in play. With the help of new team mechanic and ex ‘Custom Sports Vehicle Builder’ Derick Davoren. He’s modified the Vampire Deluxe, again, and given her more than a lick of paint ready for the 2015 season.
New signings
The team has signed new riders with Bazza moving on to a new World Cup Team in 2015 things are looking fresh around the Dirt Orange pits. Phil Atwill and Al Bond join the Dirt stable for 2015 giving a lively injection of pace for Jacob to match and no doubt some top road based banter along the way.
Team Launch
Last week the crew met up with our man Jonesy and team videographer Tom Caldwell in North Wales to capture everything the team have been working towards all winter.
Bondy has been under the watchful eye of Alan Milway as his new coach and trainer and has spent a fair bit of time out in California training and riding along side the Athertons. Phil hasn’t been off his bike spending 3 Months in Malaga Spain with Roost DH. Young Jacob spent his winter at home in Northern Ireland with Colin Ross and Reidy laying out the weekly training programs having firm goals set on the BDS and World Cup overall as well as that junior World Championships title.
testing, testing
The team has been far from quiet and Reidy flew out to California for some pre-season testing with X-Fusion suspension to help dial in their new HLR damping for the RV1 DH fork and shock. Orange Mountain Bikes have been keeping themselves busy as well working closely with Reidy to further tweak the bikes so the boys can push them for every last second. The team will start the season on the first generation 27.5 frames from Orange and will cross over to some updated frames shortly after BDS and World Cup rounds 1.
Dream setup
From Reidy and the team cheers to all the sponsors who are onboard with us this year and for their massive efforts during the offseason to put the best equipment under us. Orange, Dirt, X Fusion Shox, Bliss Protection, DT Swiss, Schwalbe, Bell, Giro Shoes, Renthal, Works Commponents, HT Components, Formula, Gamut, Race Face Cranksets, Rip N Roll, Slik Graphics, Nutttravel, Dirty, Atlace.
Here’s a few shots of the team race bikes for 2015
Video bangers all season long
So, along with all the new changes for the year, you’ll be seeing a new online video series called Life Off The Mainland. Following the boys at the races, riding in between, bike parks, on the road antics and anything the crew get up to will form short episodes that will be sure to entertain. In addition to all this expect some stand alone shred-fest videos at locations such as Schladming and Glen-Coe.
We’ve got all sorts of other things planned and they will come from wherever the Vampire Deluxe takes us this summer so keep em peeled and in the mean time you can expect monthly team blogs with a few words from the riders and snaps of what they’ve been up to.