04/03/2016 - Talk About A Revolution

We spent Wednesday this week up at Revolution Bike Park in mid-Wales doing a test day with the team. We needed to get the guys settled and set up on their bikes, and also do some work on some ideas we have.

Revolution Bike Park Test Day 2nd March 2016

We needed a venue with uplift, that would test the bikes and the riders, but we also needed timing and the right kind of trails to make it work. JPJ from A Line Coaching has been raving about Revolution for months, and is running the Rider Development Program up there. To be honest, I've always been a bit intimidated by Revolution, thinking it was just for full on DH bikes, and then there's the infamous Quarry Line that was shown on The Atherton Project a couple of years ago. I thought it was all a bit above my pay grade! However, JP's enthusiasm was infectious, and having done a few coaching days with him over the last couple of years I trust him completely when it comes to choosing appropriate trails to ride on. With his contacts there it also meant we could go Full Pro and hire the place to ourselves for the day. How cool is that?!!

Revolution Bike Park Test Day 2nd March 2016

It's about a 3 hours drive from Sheffield to Rev's, and the weather was looking distinctly difficult, with torrential rain coming down just south of Chester. However, once we arrived it was cold, and there was snow, but the weather was blowing in and out and the trails are largely tree covered, so it was game on.

JP set about showing us the options he though best for testing the bikes, and putting up his Timelaps beacons so we could record the runs.

Section 1 was relatively flat, but very rooty, with tight s-bends and holes. It put a premium on carrying speed and not getting bogged down. The Section 2 we initially tried was really steep, rooty, catch berms and massive holes. So technical, but I bloody loved it! The bike was so stable and confidence inspiring through it, but your upper body took a pounding. After a couple of goes on that we decided to use the smoother, more bike parky Red run next to it as we were going to knacker ourselves out doing such a physical section all day, and we needed to try and stay consistent for the timing to mean anything.

Section 3 was the bottom of the Ghetto run, which was really fast and flowy, but again, roots and drops abound, with plenty of trees to try and avoid. Unfortunately Baybutt didn't manage that on the last run of the day. Ouch!

Revolution Bike Park Test Day 2nd March 2016

We did a load of runs and got some interesting data to work on for another time, but the guys got really comfortable on their bikes, and some shock tweaking and chat about lines resulted in some serious improvements in times during the day.

Later in the day we headed to the Freeride track to get the video you see below. Baybutt was a trooper getting frozen standing around getting the shots, and quote of the day goes to Rocketman Swinny as JP headed off on his bike to have a go on a Rocket for the first time....

"You look after her. She's called Tyrone!"

No, me neither.

Personally I'm not much of a jumper so I only did Freeride a couple of times then headed back to the steep tech for a final couple of runs.

If you're anything like me and liked the idea of Revs but felt a bit intimidated by the place, I'd highly recommend getting down there. It's tough riding, but it's brilliantly built and I had a great time. I don't think I'd have gone without JPJ giving me a helping hand choosing the right trails though, so if you're up for a day there, get onto A Line Coaching and Join The Revolution.

Was a really interesting, productive, thought provoking, and fun day. Need to shout our sponsors at this point as the X Fusion Sweep Roughcut HLR forks and Cane Creek DB shocks we are all running on were fantastic, and we're all now complete disciples of the WTB Vigilante as a front tyre. My usual 760mm bars also felt decidedly narrow after running on the 800mm Joystick Analog Carbons on the team bikes. Amazing how quickly you get used to wider bars.

#unsustainablyhighstoke all day @revolutionbp with a dream team of @chaymoose @jpswinny @aline.coaching @cyt76 and @Baybutt. Private session, timing poles, bike set-ups, prototype testing, and non stop awesomeness. Rad day out.

A video posted by Cotic (@coticbikes) on


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