It’s been a long week and there’s been loads going on. We’ve been hanging out with the guys from Focus, too much to talk about now but they had some stories… All the new mags have arrived so that in itself creates tons of work, the new MTB and Road emails are due to be sent in the next week or so… got a cracking SRAM prize giveaway for the comp and, as ever, we’ve been filling the site up with top gear and scouring it for things we can save you money on.

This afternoon though we’ve been trying to chill out a bit and take it easy. We’ve been messing around on the net and playing a few wicked games online as well as having some fun with this South Park Create-a-character thing, it’s actually been quite funny!

Check out the games, they’re a bit of a crack just click each character’s own game and see what you think…

Shoot down those pesky sheep	Old Skool Lemmings!
Deal with all the Rubbish	Snowball out of control (Horace remake)
Good old fashion witch hunt

We’ve been getting a lot of questions about the new carbon some of the 2007 Focus’s are made of. I’ve hounded my contacts over in Germany and only managed to glean a morsel of info. Here’s what they said:

• It ’s Unidirection Mitsubishi Carbon fibre mat.
• At the critical sections like the head tube and BB, it’s wrapped multidirection, clockwise, seven layers deep.
• The main Tubes are three to four layers, cross wrapped, one over the other into a conified shape.
• Outer layer is a raw carbon layer (you can see in the pics of the Cayo posted previously).
• It is uniquely designed by Focus engineers, so no other bike in the world is made of the same carbon!

They assure me it’s lighter than last years carbon and a lot stiffer! And, to be honest, I believe them!

Like I said this is all the info I can get! If I find out anymore I’ll post it.

Came across this vid this morning…

 http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1376984239508077669&hl=undefined

Just remember - in no way do wiggle recommend leaping off cliffs or rock faces. If you do… be sure to post a link to the video ;)

Crikey last week just flew by, I can’t believe how quickly this year is going! Some of us were lucky enough to get out to Cologne for the IFMA show but I got the enviable task of heading off to Bracknell for the Launch trade show! In fact it was a really good show, it’s nice to see the cooperation between distributors and brands that enables them to put on a nice intimate show.

I went to look at the new 2007 ranges from Felt, Kona, Rocky Mountain and Cove and I got a few shots of things that caught my eye that I thought I’d share. Bear in mind this is all about aesthetics as opposed to performance, you’ll have to wait for the mag reviews for the proper techy stuff!

This new Cyclo-cross bike from Felt looks awesome. It’s called the “F1X” and it comes with a Custom Butted Super-light 7005 frame, carbon fibre forks, Shimano 105, Tektro Orx cyclocross cantilevers and some wicked wheels in the form of some Mavic CXP-22’s on Felt hubs.

There really are some very cool Cyclocross bikes hitting the shops for 2007. I didn’t manage to check out the Kona offering but I know the “Jake” range, which includes a new addition the “Major Snake”, always hits the mark, sit these next to our very own Focus Mares Cross and Cross Expert and you’ve got cyclocross sown up…!

Also on show was the superb Felt “Virtue 1″. This is one serious bike and the Equilink system is just revolutionary! I know Matt Skinner at MBUK thinks it’s great so I wanted to have a good look and I wasn’t disappointed, it is amazing. I also thought that the red colouring on the Equilink was very cool, in fact I think it looks a bit like a biology cut away diagram of a calf muscle or something similiar! I had a really good chat with Felt’s Director and he is very excited about what he feels the 2007 MTB bike range can bring to the market. He said that they have focused on “High end, incredibly specced, professional machines” and are pushing that right through the range. The road range looked fantastic too. None more so than the “F2″, I really liked the styling of this machine… very subtle… I also hadn’t ever seen a Dura Ace wheelset before!

A couple of Kona’s caught my eye. The new Kula in silver and slightly off white looked really nice in the flesh, great value for money too. The new Kona Kula Lisa HT also caught my eye, not least because it’s… well… pink! And the Queen Kikapu is one serious female specific bike. There’s a significant amount of ladies bikes, kit and gear now flooding the market which is great to see and about time too!

Unfortunately I didn’t get the chance to have a chat with the Rocky Mountain, Cove and Evil bikes lot… I’m pretty sure we’ll be continuing to do Cove this year and we have really got our fingers crossed that we can bring you all, if not some of the Rocky Mountain range. The bikes looked really really cool. I loved the styling of the “Element”… the white and purple looked super sweet. The two freeride bikes that caught my eye were the RMX 1.0, check out that baby blue…! Oh, and the Switch 2.0, I seem to remember my brother in law having a Santa Cruz Chameleon in this green and I spent most of the time being very jealous…! Plus green is of course the new black!

So, I’ve babbled on about that long enough. Onto more serious things… The list of new gear on the site is ridiculous! We have all the new 2007 Kona’s online, new Sombrio gear, New 2007 GT’s, ton’s of new Northwave winter gear, new Lifeline tools, Dakine Snowboarding gear, new Elite trainers (winter is coming!), piles of Torq energy drink, some of the superb new Ronhill winter kit. As well as all this we’ve expanded our Pearl Izumi clothing range, we’ve got all the hottest new Gore Running wear, some amazing lights from Nite Rider, new FSA gear and a load of new Grangers stuff too, PHEW have we been busy….!

Oh, and the eNewsletter sign up £5 off voucher promo thingy is back on! Click here to sign up!

Right, until next time!

With the imminent arrival of the 2007 Focus range, we’ve reduced the remainder of what we have left 2006 wise. So if there was the slightest thought in your mind that Focus bikes weren’t offering enough value for money already take a look at this:

The Cayo Expert now has a huge 15% discount making it even more of a bargain at just £1,232.49. You will not find a carbon framed road bike with this reputation and equipped with this sort of spec anywhere in the UK. It has the same frame as the infamous “Cayo” but just saves you the hassle of upgrading at a later date! I’m not sure you’d be able to upgrade from Shimano 105 to Ultegra/Dura-Ace mix and new wheels for less than £240 but there you go! This Frame got 10/10 in Cycling Weekly and was ridden HARD all winter… At this price it is a no brainer!

The Northern Lite also has 15% off so you get this amazing MTB for only £510. Named “Star choice” and given 9/10 from MBUK in a test against three other bikes, one at £1100, one at £900 and the other at £750. The guys at MBUK know what they are talking about and they absolutely loved this bike, it took us a while to prise it out of their hands!

We’ve knocked 20% off the Focus Izalco road bike (2007 bike test coming up in Cycling + soon). Incredible race-ready frame, Dura-Ace, Aksium’s and FSA finishing kit for only £1,119.99!

20% off the 8/10 Cycling Weekly rated Izalco Expert. Upgraded version of the Izalco with Campag Chorus and Ksyrium’s for an extra £180! Was £1,599.99 now down to £1279.99!

There’s 20% off the Black Hills. Superb, Deore LX, Ritchey, Avid and RockShox equipped MTB for a measly £319! My lady has one of these and every time I pull it out of the shed I’m amazed at the kit it has on it for the price you pay! This is one brilliant bike for the cash.

Another magazine favourite! The Focus Variado got a 9/10 from Cycling + this year. We’ve sold tons but have a few left. Again you will not be able to get such a well equipped, high-end road bike at such a super low price, 10% off down to £620.99!

Just to let you know we now have our new “quick-view” stock checker live and ready for testing! Hover over the buttons to see what size and colour we have in stock! We think it’s great!

We have also added a product “quick-view” window to the full product lists at the bottom of each page now too…

Check it out and feel free to leave comments on what you think of it, bear in mind though that now they are available they will add two years to your life expectancy through saving so much time*…!

Have a look at our ebay shop too… we’ve got loads of gear scheduled for the next couple of weeks… It’s just bits lying around the warehouse, slightly soiled, end of line, damaged packaging, stuff we don’t sell etc etc etc…

*this statement is not neccesarily 100% accurate

A few months ago I sent off one of our Focus Black Forest’s for a “Mail order machines” review coming out in the October issue of MBUK. I was a bit nervous about it, I know it’s a really cool bike, a few of the guys here have bought them and now LOVE them, but it was going to be up against machines priced at almost double what the Black Forest is, even the custom build Kinesis from CRC came in at over £300 more expensive! (For not a lot more spec I might add)!

So, anyway, I’ve just read the review and it did really really well, as I expected! Scoring an 8 out of 10 and apparently, I love this “The Black Forest exudes an air of purposeful authority”! Ha Ha! Brilliant! The one critiscism was it was too efficient! I can’t work out what that means either?

I’ve got a fondness for our Focus bikes like a father with a child… I am watching the brand grow in the UK, through some hard work of my own, but also through the hard work of our friends in Germany as far as the actual bikes, design and speccing is concerned. I know 2007 will be another cracking year for Focus here in the UK, we’re still waiting for more of our samples to arrive so they should start to appear in the mags in the next few months. I should have the Cayo Expert and the Izalco pretty soon so shots of those will go up as soon as I have them. There’s loads planned for Focus this year, you might even see us at some events or even a team? Who knows!

Ooops, nearly forgot, how could I!? The Raven won “Best £1000 Hardtail” in the 2006 What Mountain Bike Awards. No mean feat considering the competition at this price point and the fact it’s the first year the bikes been available in the UK! The best thing is it’s voted for by YOU! So thanks! I can’t wait to see the three Raven’s we’re bringing in this year… One of them is in the amazing new Focus fat weave CARBON!

No news here on the Killer Bee yet, please don’t forget to keep your eyes peeled and ears to the ground. We’re putting up a reward of £100 worth of dhb gear to anyone that gives information leading to the recovery of the bike… Unless we find it we will have to wait for a full production model due at the end of September.

I’ve landed some quality SRAM gear, including some new “Rival” road kit, for the next two eNewsletter competitions, MTB should be going tomorrow, road in a couple of weeks, so I’ll chat about that then too…

Ok, I’m going to sign off, loads more to talk about but I’ll stick some more stuff up here later in the week. Unfortunately I didn’t manage to get any photo’s from Eurobike but there is a cool vid here and we’re off to Cologne next week plus the “Launch” show in a couple of weeks so I’m hoping to get a load of pics of some fresh new bikes and gear, Watch this space!

Don’t forget, it’s still 10% discount for over £50!

Cheers

We’ve added some brilliant new products to the site this month, here’s some of the highlights:

The evenings are rapidly getting darker (booo hisss) but light the way with some great new Electron Lights.

We’ve got some sweet new gear from Northwave, for those of you that want to look the proverbial while out on your rides.

Enhance your bike with some of our new Mavic wheels and wheel sets.

Protect your laptop in style with tons of new Crumpler bags. We’ve also added loads for both those last minute holiday deals and for day to day urban use.

Get ready for winter with some cool Ogio board bags and backpacks. We’ve got some great designs up on the site, some with up to 40% discount!

A great new range of Smith Cycle goggles, both clear and mirrored lense.

Just in are some really cool and unique Rocky Mountain gifts including Footballs, Pint glasses, Frisbees, Zippos and much much more!

A ton of Gore winter wear to keep you warm & dry has just been put up as well. Including Base Layers, Gloves, Jerseys, Overshoes and more.

See what everyone is talking about with the revolutionary new fitness product to either tone or help build substantial power and strength in hands, wrists, forearms and shoulders with the Ironpower Powerball range.