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.

Hey there, I don’t believe we’ve been formally introduced. My name’s Dean. I hail from Tasmania, Australia, and I’m responsible for the look of the Savant and Brigante Carbon.

I’m going to fill this series with my random ramblings and whatever else I can think of, with a few reviews chucked in too.

The funny thing about Australia, is we don’t have to wait until Summer to ride. The temperature even here in the southernmost state very rarely drops below 0 celcius. What does this make for? Epic year round riding that’s what!

The end of March usually marks the start of the Kellevie 24 Hour, a fun time that usually ends up with me in the lead up thinking “Holy shit, why didn’t I train?!”. Unfortunately the 24 hour isn’t on this year, replaced by a 6 hour at the same venue. Nevertheless, I still Haven’t trained so much suffering will ensue.

The track itself isn’t technically demanding, a 9.5km loop of tight forest singletrack, rocky climbs, open plains and plenty of corners. So long as the rain holds out, everyone will be happy and I won’t have to bust out my suit like last time.

I’ll start this recap off on Saturday afternoon. Myself and my partner in crime, Brody “B-Rob” Robins drove down the day before the race to secure our customary ‘spot by the jump’ , the same spot we’ve occupied since 2008, and for over 92 combined hours of racing. Turns out we were the first people to turn up, so we set up camp.

It’s always nice rolling up to a race early, it gives you plenty of time to set everything up without having to rush, then you can sit back and shoot the shit.

Buddies and brews. A good start to a race weekend if there ever was one.

Saturday night was cold as shit, to put it bluntly. I was glad when the sun rose on race day.  The race start was at 11, so the morning was spent fitting timing transponders, tweaking settings and building a dodgy gap out of some boards next to our jump to see if we could see some action through the day.

Race day also meant the entrance of our third and final team mate, the venerable Johnny Dalco, a legend of the local scene.

11 o’clock rolled around and Brody started us off with the first lap. The camp site/transition area is smack bang in the middle of the loop, so when your rider comes through you know he’s half way there. I was packing up my tent when John called out that he had stopped on the track. Turns out he had pinch flatted (first mechanical in 3 years of racing) in the rocky section into the camp, so John headed out to finish his lap. This meant I was up next.

Kellevie is not so much a hard track, as it is hard on you if you aren’t physically prepared for it (like me). It’s quite rocky overall, and there’s not a whole lot of climbing, but because they reversed the second half, there was a little more climbing and the descents were somewhat tight and unsatisfying. No matter, observe and adapt.

My first run was good, I found it much easier than I expected, having not ridden the XC bike properly for a good year. It was a good opportunity do compare 26 vs. 29 with the guy I was following. I was quicker on the hills and he was quicker in the rough. The track was quite dry and dusty by this point, so it made for some loose riding down the last descent into the camp site and halfway mark. It went downhill for me a little after that point, a niggle in my back flared up making it hard to put the power down up hills.

Words we should all live by.

By the 5 o’clock finish, I’d finished my quota of 3 laps, John drank a litre of coffee, and Brody had 3 pinch flats (two at the exact same time). We did 9 laps overall.

Racing at Kellevie is always a blast. Hopefully next time It will be another 24 hour? Who knows…

Special thanks to Glenn Hyland and all the guys at Dirt Devils MTB club for organising the event, and to the sponsors for donating spot prizes and funding.

Dean here, Signing out.

P.S, If you made it this far, sorry about my disjointed reporting, gotta start somewhere eh?

When I first got the box through I was very excited to pull it out and get it built up (and this ended up with me still building and tweaking at gone midnight!). I thought it looked fantastic! I rode the Supreme last year and loved it, and the bike looked like it wouldn’t disappoint. I was quite surprised to see the very (very!) short headtube, although with the tapered steerer it certainly looked mean. It had the same old-school stance as the Supreme and the kit was much the same. With a few componentry changes (saddle, grips, pedals) it was ready to ride.

I’ll admit to disliking the bike on it’s maiden voyage, especially coming from a hardtail weightweenie XC racer background. I ride either an 18lb carbon hardtail or a rigid steel singlespeed as my main bikes, and the Double9 felt ponderous when trying to get going. I persevered, knowing that a different style of bike requires a different style of riding. The bike really felt like a steamroller downhill and so much fun, but it was a massive pain going up and when I wanted to accelerate.
As a self proclaimed tech geek I knew that a component change here and there may make a difference, so off came the Maxxis Ardents (2.4 front, 2.2 rear) and on went a Specialized Fast Trak LK and a Bontrager XR0, both converted to tubeless. I also changed the chainrings from 32/44 to 28/40 and slammed the stem. Now the bike felt better! I loved the rolling ‘action’ of the 29er wheels, although it still didn’t feel quite as nimble as my 26er. A minor incident with the forks meant a change to a Reba 29 and the bike felt even better. However even with the super short headtube the bike still feels high at the front, so I may change the bars to flats ready for this weekend’s National race. Wish me luck!

Im finishing off my final year at uni now and have got a dissertation hand it looming (this is perfect procrastination) so I dont get to ride as much as I like. Ive been commuting to campus as much as possible to get my ridding in. Its only five miles each way but its incredibly hilly so inevitably I get carried away and turn every ride into a race.

The ride to uni is uphill biased so I tend to stick to the roads and mash the pedal strokes in. Ive managed to wear out two tyres in as many months (race kings and crossmaxs) so im clearly still putting a dent into my normal routine. I also get to see the sea every day, twice a day. Its something I love and will miss terribly next year. Along the way I always try to beat my manual effort, which the foia is king at. I can pretty much manual any distance providing im carrying the speed which I have never done on any other bike.If im lucky I can get into the slipstream of a bus and cheat part of the way. Im trying to improve on my time of just under 22 minutes (not bad considering the monster elevation).

What goes up must come down and oh is it good. I set a route through my campuss, down a few stair sets, through a small section of woodland, down another and then home. Its the best ending to a hard days work. Gives me time to forget everything and just focus on the moment. I tend to leave later in the evening giving me an empty path all the way down to the road. There a couple great hip jumps and transfers on grass and concrete banks. I thank the post-modern architects for the crazy designs. I can only assume he’s a ridder too otherwise its just the best luck ever! So having dodged a couple student and lecturers, transferred and whipped my way through campus I then carve through the woodland. This time of year it gets a bit loose so I tend to go sideways (had a few offs too). I then join the road and have a bit of fun with the speed bumps before leveling out and spinning my way home. My best time is well bellow 18 minutes (with traffic light stops, giving way and the rest).

The ride is so much fun; come rain, shine, wind or calm weather. I always feel the surge of adrenaline through my veins when I leave to unlock my bike and fasten my helmet. I think the foia helps make the ride special. The foia is seriously quick whilst also reminding me to stick the back end out when I fancy it. Grin factor? Ear to ear.

Getting sideways

A sight I get to see every day. Beautiful.

Ride on and make the most of what you got !

kai x.

I did so much thinking about bikes today that I had what can only be described as an epiphany. Possibly due to being on the fastest and definitely one of the lightest bikes I’ve ever ridden, but probably more to do with Spring being in the air.

Some background.
Being an ‘old un’ I started racing way back, 1989 to be precise. In those days fully rigid was not a quirky label applied to riders who shun suspension, it was MTB’s or All Terrain Bikes (as they were also called briefly).

I raced XC in the UK for about 6 years, 5 of those on various fully rigid bikes, until things started to get a bit more serious and I  picked up a sponsored ride with Specialized who through in some front suspension. That’s when it all went wrong after a year of being almost a pro rider, I dropped out of racing completely and vowed, never to race or wear lycra again.

What’s all this got to do with my 13th March ride?

Well fast forward to 2012 and there I was riding through the woods, 20 years on riding a fully rigid bike on XC trails and absolutely loving it. Marveling at the speed and acceleration of rigid forks, enjoying the feeling of being rattled down rooty trails…a flashback but without the bright spandex leggings…

What a funny thing life really is. I guess there’s no difference between the emotion of riding a bike in 1992 or 2012, except the technology; carbon forks, frame and cranks, gears that work, tubeless wheels and clipless pedals. All weighing in at 20lbs.

It looks like I’ve gone full circle, maybe I’ll start doing some XC races again…except this time it will be on a Double9.

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.

A movie of Danny and The Brigante by Martin Paldan…very nice…

In return for loaning out our new baby, we’ll be gathering feedback and reviews on The Brigante from all the test riders which we’ll upload verbatim on our blog throughout the next few months. Verbatim is a word we like at Kingdom Bike so expect all the details you’ll ever need to know about The Brigante, the good, the bad and even the ugly

As an Apéritif to the main tour, Danny Sørensen, you may remember him from winning The Swedish 4 Cross series on a Kingdom Vendetta last year, took The Brigante and his full face lid out yesterday and gave it a damn good thrashing in the woods.

Here’s some really nice pics from photographer Martin Paldan. Click here to visit his site.

Delivery is pushed back slightly to July this year due to a last minute change of shock position, and we expect the RRP to be around £1799 if not cheaper. That includes a Fox Float RP23 Kashima shock.

We will also be offering some different shock options, so watch this space for more updates.

At this time of year, all Riders are getting itchy feet at the prospect of a few more hours of light in the evening, and riding a little bit longer and farther. The darkness is fading. And the Big Days Out are coming. Well in the same breath of anticipation of knowing something good is approaching, we are really excited to share a sneaky couple of pics of one of our most coveted projects yet – The Argo. Our first (and long-awaited) CycloCross project. Light as a feather. Swift as an arrow. A carbon fiber adventure maker and heart breaker. Oh, and it’s Disc ready. Yes, we can see the future (well of ‘Cross anyway…)

So, you keep prepping yourself for the onslaught of riding to come. And we’ll keep the working wheels of Kingdom Bike Projects spinning. Just make sure to keep your eye on the site for all our developments and projects. It’s gonna be one hell of a year for us both!