We love Ben Reid and the Dirt race team, and everything that they do for us. So we are very proud to announce that for the 2016 and 2017 race seasons Ben and the gang of riders will be racing under the ‘Propain Dirt Zelvy’ team banner.

We’ve always supported young, up and coming riders, many of whom have gone on to great things, and the 2016/17 race season will be no different. We keep some old faces and bring in some new ones… and of course we have some new (major) sponsors on board. Team Manager Ben Reid takes up the story for us:

“When one door closes another one normally opens and I am pleased to say we couldn’t have been more welcomed by our new title sponsors Propain Bikes and Zelvy Carbon who will make up the new title position of team ‘Propain Dirt Zelvy’ for 2016 and 2017. I’ve been really happy with how the team has progressed this past few seasons and its nice to see the hard work by everyone paying off, having more choice for sponsorship than any other off season in the past it has really allowed us to pick and choose and I feel really confident in the brands we are moving forward with.

Within days of talking to Robert Krauss from Propain it was clear that the understanding of what it takes to support a World Cup race team was there, and from some of our first chats with Robert he was already offering custom frame sizes to insure the bikes would be a perfect fit for each individual rider considering their size, style and preferences. I spent a fair amount of time looking around the Propain booth at Eurobike this year and the undeniable quality and attention to detail of these bikes stood out to me, following this up by studying the suspension kinematics of the Propain Rage it was clear what I was looking at had a lot of thought put into every detail. At that time we had several frame manufacturers to consider but testing the Propain bikes sealed the deal for us.

Zelvy Carbon is a company who make a lot of high tech carbon products and they will be supporting us with their carbon wheelsets whilst joining Propain and Dirt to make up the team title. I was really impressed by the information Greg Geldard from Zelvy was able to show me from all the testing they have carried out. Zelvy make some of the fastest and best value carbon wheels on the planet and we had been eyeing them up for some time and watching them sell their wheels all over the world. I know Steve Jones, Deputy Editor at Dirt, has been testing a pair for almost a year now and from what I understand he might never give them back! We know they’ll give our team an advantage over the rest, with the added stiffness of the carbon riding with precision it is a lot easier and even keeping the bike rolling as things flatten out is much more efficient. Greg had talked about improvements they made to help tyre stability and to eliminate burping, which has been a problem in the past, so it’s great to know they have covered every detail. Our partnership with these guys is something we are very excited about and I firmly believe their products will go a long way in helping our guys in their chase for results.

We have had a great first season with X-Fusion suspension this year and I know I can speak for everyone on the team to say how happy we are to continue with them, out of the box these are truly outstanding products with quality far greater than the price tag. We are also very pleased to continue with our clothing and protection partner Bliss, the team has been working closely with them as they developed their first line of race kit and again these guys put in so much effort into making sure their products are top notch, they also go over and above to make sure the team has its own unique kit, and as you can see they are on it already having our 2016 kit well under way.

Bell helmets, Giro shoes, Schwalbe tyres, Works Components headsets, all long term supporters of the team who we couldn’t be happier to continue with. Juice Lubes will be keeping our bikes and truck shiny clean and well lubed all season, which is other new partner we are pleased to welcome on board. You might have seen some of their ‘Home To Roost’ episodes showing a bunch of fast UK riders at their local trails, if not it is worth logging onto their website or Facebook page and checking these out. It’s clear to see the company is made up of true bike enthusiasts.

Another welcome partner to the team in Funn Components who we have signed with for both season as well and I am pleased to say they will be decking our bikes out with their bars, stems, grips, cranks, chain guides, chain rings, seat posts, saddles and seat clamps. Funn is a company I used ride for myself back in my Iron Horse days, for me these guys really set the standard with modern handlebar geometry that a lot of companies seemed to follow. I remember getting way too attached to my Funn ‘Full On’ handlebars and have since found it hard to have the same comfortable feel. The team is also proud to be working with Crank Brothers pedals and again the passion these guys are showing for the team at such an early stage is unbelievable and they are already talking about custom team coloured pedals, a relatively small detail but pretty cool all the same. X Force will be keeping the muck out of our eyes as the team’s new eye wear partner, another company getting on board and offering the team custom colours. Last but not least Slik Graphics have been a big part in the image of the team and will continue to make all our team graphics for the frames and forks.
I would also like to thank Nutt Travel for their continued support with their ‘competitor discount’ rates on our ferry crossings back and forth to mainland UK and Europe, these rates are available to anyone heading to a sporting event and are always a ton cheaper than booking direct, you just have to ask for the ‘Competitor Discount’ rate. The guys behind the desk at Nutt Travel are all motor bike and rally enthusiasts and always go over and above to offer the best available prices to anyone out there competing in wheeled sports of any sort.”

Full sponsor list for 2016:

Propain, Dirt, Zelvy, X-Fusion, Bliss, Funn, Juice Lubes, Bell, Schwalbe, Giro, XForce, Crank Brothers, Works, Slik, Nutt Travel and Atlas.