The Jigsaw Rides…

• • 2012 Kingdom Bikes, Adventures on Kingdom Bikes, Hard Tales..., Ideas Lab

Wowsers,

It’s been non-stop go-go-go, since the start of the year. New projects. Massive workloads. Not enough hours in the day, and not enough days in the week.

 

Since moving back to Dublin, Ireland – it’s been a complete life-changer. I’m frothing at the mouth at all the potential for riding new trails, meeting new riders and new events, having great craic and exploring like a mother-fcuker -  and dear lord the caliber of routes are amazing here – but it’s that little hour-glass with the time-sand running away, that’s changed the game and the way I’ve been riding lately.

 

I’ve found that the majority of my rides lately have been plugged into some majestic, complex jigsaw of time management and getting your ass in gear and hitting the trails, with just enough light left to get you home. Sneakily – I have some world-class trails’n'routes just 20mins drive from the casa, and every time I head out there, I challenge myself to take a new line/path/turn/what-looks-like-my-bars-will-fit-through-hole-in-a-hedge. And it’s been amazing. I once ended up in someones back garden. No joke. I pissed myself laughing. But like every junkie and their addiction – the bike/the ride/the Search is my fix: my eye’s glaze over – I have that euphoric look and a small drool leaks from the side of my mouth, and I’m happy. Jesus – if only you could bottle this feeling. You all know it. It’s what you fight with your partners over, and the kids don’t get fed because of it, but God is it worth it.

So even though your time might be short and limited, and the day will run out of light – it doesn’t matter when or where you go – just go. You’ll know what’s at the end of it.
Sheer and utter joy.

Nick

PS – the later you leave your ride the more creative your photos get. Honestly.

Come on in…

• • Adventures on Kingdom Bikes, Hard Tales..., Not Bikes, Uncategorized

There’s never a good time to talk about yourself. Not even when your 6-Guinness-deep or on the Shrink’s couch.

At Kingdom Bike Project, it’s a pretty unique set up. We’re bike junkies and riders of all sorts, with eye’s-to-heaven ‘different personalities’, creative scarf wearing bike-architects, hard working jokers, to the quiet get-it-done crew. We all hail from schools of varied backgrounds & experiences, and from different spots all over the world. There are lots of common threads that tie us all together for the love of what we do. But I don’t want to pigeon hole that to just cycling or riding a bike. Yes we ride and obsess over bikes – constantly. We challenge ourselves, our thinking, each others thinking and what we want from ourselves, all.the.fucking.time. But there is more that drives us.

 

 

There’s an open honesty amongst us – where no one is safe, nor are their ideas or thinking direction. And it flips on a very bright light in the room, that shows us just how lucky we are. As a collective. As friends. As riders. As thinkers. As creators.

 

 

Collectively, we’ve had some of the greatest adventures and experiences in Life together – that’s woven the very fabric of Kingdom Bike Project. We’ve tested our metal. From the simple burnished type upon which we sit, to the veins of it that runs through our personalities, even right down to the pins attaching our bones together. We’ve been on the wire; on that edge of the oh-fuck-just-keep-going, to the times where we’ve picked each other up, dusted ourselves off and given that nervous eye-twitch that wordlessly says’ let’s not talk about that one… And all those experiences have seamlessly bled into each and every project.

 

 

But this isn’t something new. We are all aware of that omerta between us that comes from hours, days, weeks spent side by side – YOU know what I’m talking about. You have been there. It comes from Time in the mountains. Time spent in the same pain-bath where the only thing you want to do is pull the fucking plug – but you knew your brother beside you wouldn’t let you. It comes from the places that made you Question and Doubt, and somehow you just keep going. You can spot your rider miles away. You know the roll of his shoulders, the head-bob or the way he moves. And that’s a big part of the Why and What about Kingdom.

 

 

There’s an incredible feature from the infamous Mark Twight that speaks to the very core of what it has taken Kingdom to get here, to where we are today. The way he speaks about his old climbing partner, is not only what I’d like someone to say at my funeral – but it tells so simply all the history of what makes them who they are as men. And it’s the simplicity and core message that we live and breathe by.

Just keep it simple…

‘Eat when you are hungry, sleep when you are tired. Climb when necessary.’

The Kingdom Bike Project.

Cross on Cross. Irish Nat CycloX Champs 2012.

• • 2012 Kingdom Bikes, Adventures on Kingdom Bikes, Hard Tales...

Holy smokes, what a day.

I’m too tired to even write up what a spectacular event this was, and I was only snapping pics. Honestly – without a doubt, the sport of CycloCross deserves a big balls-up recognition as to how crazy and hard it is.  And all the El Pacucho-Nutso riders to go along with it.

Think about it – you’re basically riding a 29′er on a nosebleed tall frame, crap brakes that’d wake the dead, skinny wheels AND you were a Lycra-Onesie. Go figure.

Today didn’t let down in terms of action and appeal. With record number crowds, crashes galore, technical malfunctions to win or lose the race, fucking and shitting (as in cursing, not the 2-Girls-1-cup kind), sweat, snot, muck, slop, tunnel runs, steps, downhill racers competing alongside behemoth champs, and some cute girls to match. Oh, and that delectable and hilarious heckling to bring a smile to any sweat stained face. Even the dogs were laughing.

The faces show the pain. The pics do some justice to the incredible course. And the parting shot is of one carbon-footprint-mother-fcuking champ (Robin Seymour) stomping his way to his 18th National Champ Title. We who are about to sleep, salute you.

Nick.

Also another good write up here. And all the results here.

PS – if ANYONE wants to use our pics, you are more than welcome. But PLEASE just credit Kingdom Bike if you can…

 

 

 

Crazy for Cross

• • Adventures on Kingdom Bikes, Bike Stuff, Hard Tales..., Ideas Lab

Bless yourself. This one comes with a health warning. And a Lycra-Lookout Alert too. Scrap that – there’s supertight onesies with short legs in this article. And it’s crazy. But well worth a look.

After moving back to Ireland, as scribed before – cycling has exploded over here – and a major contributor to the two wheeled scene is, the mucho nutso sport of Cyclo Cross. After meeting up with a fellow native and a cross fanatic and stellar race course designer, Greg from Team WORC , I was bowled over at how incredibly popular the sport is, and at how quick the fire has spread. With a winter race league featuring numbers of plus 140 riders on any given race day – I had to sneak down to the latest race to see more for myself. With a promise of an incredible race course (speeding through stone doorways out of a Tolkien-like novel, DH worthy drops and berms, cross overs, tunnel-runs…) – the race promised to be epic. And it delivered. The Roadies killing everyone with scary turns of speed and the MTB’ers ripping all the technical sections – it was truly a feat of cycle-skill to be respected, no matter what side of the bike table you sit at.

We hope to have our very own Argo shortly, to add to the chaos and mix it up; and there are table scratchings and sweaty palms with the possibility of a co-sponsored Kingdom Cross Summer League. So keep checking the site, Facebook and Twitter for more info.

To be honest, I’m still digesting what I witnessed. Incredible bike handling skills to induce dropped jaws. Enough wattage from each riders searing legs’n'lungs to power a lighthouse. And a modest nod to the Lycra League. Kudos to all who raced. Race results here. Good write up bout the race here. And a cool little video here.

Nick.

 

Hard Tales #2: How ‘Hard’ is hard enough..?

• • Hard Tales...

It’s been a while since we added to the last Hard Tales section, and with due cause. We’re pretty worn out. It’s been a long year, with a lot of riding and hard effort – and we’re finally easing off the pedals… well, not just yet.

We were only speaking about one of our last quick-flash trips to Flims/Laax in Switzerland (by driving like escaped convicts from Copenhagen, Denmark) for a ‘weekend ride’. That was driving approx., 1200km in less than 24hours – one way. Then we ride ALL DAY for the next 3 consecutive days, pack up, squeeze everything back into the car and hit the road home again. Ouch.

Thing is, whilst beereviewing that trip and others, we noticed a pattern emerging that’s a common factor in all our ‘escapes’. Every time we go away to ride, we unconsciously ride ourselves into the ground (literally sometimes). Every day. We cram and gorge on all available trails and daylight – whatever the place, whatever the time/weather and like a fat kid looting a sweetshop we nail ourselves. It’s not a bad thing, not at all. But it can be taxing sometimes, mentally and physically…

This time we took one hardtail Foia with us, and put it to its limit. And ours. This area of Switzerland is stunning, big mountain territory – with an abundance of incredible ‘trails’. There’s chairlift and gondola access to get high, fast – but there’s also plenty of steep to meet your legs and lungs sadistic desire. On one particular day (our last day actually), we went on a glorious death march after a fabled ‘secret mountain route’, just to fill the belly with one last mountain meal of all-out riding. With uphill pushing & hike-a-bike sections that would cripple the best of us and un-nerve the strongest of the strong. At one stage (no joke), when pausing to breathe as much O2 as possible, we had to put the brakes on the bike whilst standing. That’s how steep the track was. Pushing like Superman up one of the steepest trails I’ve ever seen, it was insane. Ai, ai, aii! But what followed trail-wise was worth all the effort. Quite possibly one of the greatest trails we’ve all, ever ridden. We’ll never tell where it was or how to get to it, but it just proved to us that sometimes you need to shut up, bite down and just go for it. The hard work will be rewarded.

A side conversation also developed over beer fueled BBQ around riding capability with the current ‘tools available’. As said above, we brought one Foia hardtail with us, but the other bikes were all mountain full sus hard hitters. And with justifiable cause. Even though the hard tail could ride ‘fast and competent’ – it was left in a trail of dust most of the time compared to the full suspension. Whilst going down that is. On the flip, riding up, across and varied terrain the Foia held it’s spot with as much squared edged shoulder as it deserved. We’re totally aware of what we tote about our bikes, but in some realms they can’t be evenly compared – and the conversation becomes redundant because of different desired outcomes from the different styled machines. Sure you can easily gap jump, double-up and pin it going downhill on a hard tail. But you’ll be very hard-put to keep up with a full susser with a similarly skilled rider. And that’s where we will draw the line. It doesn’t mean you can’t have as much fun or are limited, but it just not that comparable. Besides – we wanted something different from our Foia’s anyway. An all mountain do-it-all hard tail. It does exactly what it says on the tin.

The lights fading on the Autobahn trip home. We’re foot flat to the floor and gunning it to try and reach a ferry sailing we just know we’re not going to make, but stick it anyway. Glazed eyes, stale bread flecked stubble and a smell that raises eyebrows at every petrol station we pull into. Each of us has the same death-brake-grip-induced wrist pump. We’re pretty wiped. But just how ‘Hard’ is hard enough? We know that we’ve ridden longer and harder in the past. And if we had to, we’d ride all day tomorrow – we wouldn’t even think about it. In fact when we got ‘home’ those few ‘hard days’ seemed to open something in us. A knowing and a saving in our characters that you know deep down inside, the body and mind are always stronger than you know. You can always go further than you think, and push deeper than you thought. It’s the mental barriers we put infront of ourselves that limit us. And that goes for the riding you do too. Doesn’t and shouldn’t matter ‘what’ you ride. Just ride your best.

The Kingdom Crew.

Quick Swiss Fix…

• • Adventures on Kingdom Bikes, Hard Tales..., Ridden


It’s Summer here, the days are long and you should be out riding or getting into some sort of mischief – so we won’t steal your adventure time by having you read a dirty, big snoring article.

Here’s the bones of this trip, and hopefully it’ll inspire you to just get out and have some fun….

3 x mates

1 x ‘Compact’ ladies-handbag car, 3 bikes, gear & surprisingly large bladders?

Brick-foot Autobahn driving from Copenhagen, Denmark to Flims, Switzerland. Do the math later…

Great big cold beers.

Uproariously loud laughing.

Uproariously loud farting.

Runny noses.

Wet feet.

Blown tires & wrong sized tubes.

Suspected broken bones (no comment…save it for winter beer stories).

AMAZING INSANELY INCREDIBLE TRAILS, VIEWS & RIDING.

Chairlifts and Gondola’s.

Hike-a-Bike and rubber-suit worthy sweating.

Brake death grip.

Dropper saddles and cheeky, sneaky grins.

Sweaty helmets & dusty goggles.

Railing berms.

Ice cold Swiss mountain water and BBQ’s.

DIRTY.

BIG.

SMILES.

EVERY.

DAY.

Go get yours and tell us about it… Best ‘Summer Story’ gets a FREE Kingdom T-shirt!

The Kingdom Crew.

(For more info on Flims and Laax riding, check out:  http://www.flims.com/en/biken/ )

 

The Single Life…

• • Adventures on Kingdom Bikes, Bike Stuff, Hard Tales...

The Kingdom Bike crew had managed to get a slot on the European Single Speed Championships, 2011 – in Maredsous, Belgium. And I had never ridden a single speed mountain bike set up before. My thoughts turned immediately to – somehow this is going to hurt. Skip forward to two weeks before the Champs, and I’m finally set up and ready to ride my first single speed ride. Left that one a bit late alright, but onwards we went.

20km into that first ride and my lower-back locked up. I had never pedaled out of the saddle so much before, and suddenly it’s dawning on me that, a) I should have done this ‘introduction’ a lot earlier and b) I was now going to have to start searching for someone that looked a lot like me and could ride a single-speed mtb. It was pretty pathetic. Or I should say, my school-girl whinging was pathetic. Endure onwards I did though, and managed to finish the ride, whinging, red-faced, scared of what was to come in the Euro Champs standard and not feeling to good about myself. However – something had changed within me…

A couple of contrast showers later and another trial ride the next day, and it started to get a little easier. Or maybe I should say – more, graspable. I have to admit, my eyes were opened very widely to the world of single speed riding – especially the mountain bike side of the sport. I’ve ridden with guys who used to ride a single speed road bike for the start of the winter training months and often wondered why they did and what was the point. But I’d never even considered it on a mountain bike. The technical ‘awakening’ came pretty early those first few rides. The simple fact that you have to pedal up and down nearly EVERYTHING was enlightening to say the least. And the level of focus and attention required was increased ten-fold. Slight rest here. Quick pedaling here. Dig in and get up this normally easy incline, don’t die, don’t die, don’t die! Yeah, the single speed animal was getting it’s claws in deep. And it’s addictive. It’s a completely different style of riding and those who do ride single speeds, having that knowing smile and winking nod with each other. They all ‘get it’.

Two weeks later and we’re in a clapped out rent-a-vibra-bus/van and screaming our way down the autobahn towards Belgium. The drivers seat was the best seat in the house – and had most room. Road trips are really best remembered AFTER the fact. Snickers, red-bull, terrible sandwiches of ration-like portion from petrol stations that look like small villages and paying for a piss? – Epic.

Road trip ‘vibro-bus’ style.

But what greeted us in this beautiful part of the quiet Belgian countryside was a like finding the Shire out of a Tolkien-esque tale. It’s evidently clear that the single speed world of mountain biking is ‘special’. This is not a criticism or a snide slag at people who ride single speed. No. Single speeders are tweakers, geekers and hawkers of the mountain bike world. Everyone comparing gear riding ratio’s, tyre width and rolling resistance, colour schemes and carbon forks, converted contraptions from god-knows-where, lamp-chop sideburns, inked-ankles and a secret level of determination to be unique and different. And we loved it. Everyone was so welcoming and open. Quick to laugh and stop for a chat. Share a beer and geek out. All the different nationalities mingled, jousted and joked – from noisy-Netherlandians to crazy French in onesie-morph suits, the level of weirdness was off the charts. But that’s why the event was sold out months ago, and the people who were there all fitted in.

Classic Single Speed Race gear.

Race morning was not fun though. Pre-race prep the night before was a full dousing of Belgian beers, waffles, pomme-frites, night riding (and more drinking whilst riding), face plants and minor bike-and-bush entanglements. But all we had to do was turn up and ride. Besides, we just passed an American rider in just his Y-fronts, helmet and mtb shoes. And he was followed closely behind by two guys in naked women outfits, who were passed by those crazy French in their multi-coloured onesie morph-suits. The level of competition was fierce. Very serious indeed.

Colour co-ordination is rife in the world of SS.

Five laps later, the race was done and won. A technical course that was challenging, fun and with just enough sections of oh-my-god-not-this-climb-again. Back to the beers and chillin’ – proper post-race-recovery. Back to the tent for some R&R and soak up some sun and max out on those wicked waffles… good times.

The afterparty…

A rickety 11 hour van trip back home, and all the way back I’m questioning myself about whether to put gears back on my bike or leave it as a single speed for the time being. I can’t decide just yet. Am I converted to the Single Speed Life you may ask? That’s a tricky one to answer honestly, but as this entry is being written – the chain still sits on a single speed. In fact, I’m now thinking of changing the gear ratio, and possibly putting on some rigid forks. Maybe changing the tyre’s too for better rolling resistance. Oh lord, I think I just answered my own question.

If you ever get the chance, or even get just the slightest bit curious of the Single Speed world – don’t hesitate to try it. It’s easy to convert your bike and not expensive at all. But what you’ll get out of it, well – you’ll just have to try it to see..!

Here are some pictures from the event to try and show a glimpse of it’s uniqueness…and madness!

http://gallery.me.com/nicholaskeegan#100369/ITA_0156&bgcolor=black

Hard Tales…

• • Adventures on Kingdom Bikes, Bike Stuff, Hard Tales..., Ridden

Myth: You need the biggest, dirtiest, loudest-bangin’, latest and greatest, swing arm, pivot bolt, on-the-fly-self-adjusting full suspension bike on the market – to have the greatest fun out riding AND it will make you the best rider you’ve wanted to be.

Fact: We’re going to prove that myth wrong.

We here at Kingdom Bike Project have set ourselves a simple task and challenge – we want to go back to our roots: Hardtails. Hell, we’re even going back to fully rigid rides (no suspension at all) – but more about that a little later. Right now let’s keep it simple, and just ride everything you possibly can on a Hardtail. That’s all styles from cross country, to bike-tard parks to full on freeride monster days, where the air get’s thin, and your brake discs can cook an egg in seconds.

But don’t get us wrong here – this isn’t a throw down, or a poke at full sussers. No, that’s not our point at all.  We love all bikes, and respect all riders of every discipline – we just want to take things back a notch or two.

So where to begin..?

Towards the end of Autumn 2010, when the nights were getting cooler and the beer was tasting even sweeter after the last evening rides, we got talking. We had done a couple of Euro Pikey road trips, and on each one we had brought one of our best hard tail test bikes – the Foia. The Foia sat like a little unassuming Terrier amongst the Rottweiler’s of the full

susser bunch. Like the wimpy school-kid, that knows Grand-Master no-belt jui-jitsu. But just keeps smiling. And it (or more to the point, the riders) could handle ALL the same trails that the other All Mountain Full Suspension, DH bikes could.

Something was up. All the other riders started taking notice. Which made us take notice. Which got us talking even more. Because at the end of every ride, the same result kept popping up: all the riders said they had more fun, had to really think about what and where they were riding, but also there was the general feeling of re-discovery of how much fun it was to ride a bike as simple and free as a hardtail.

So there and then we made a pact: for the next year+, we were going to ride our own hardtails up and down everything possible. All mountain, Enduro, DH, Bike Parks, Freeride, Cross Country – whatever, it didn’t matter. Become a better rider. Have fun. Get back to that feeling of ‘how’ to ride.

So we’re going to be writing a regular column about ‘Hard Tales’. Ours and others adventures on all rides, of all calibre and mix – all over the world. Hopefully they’ll inspire you to get back to your roots too… or even to just get out and ride somewhere new and different than before.

The first ride will be about a magical Springtime trip to Molini di Triora, Italy and how we got a plateful of what we really asked for – and more!