For the 2011 season I will once again be working with Extra UK the British importers of Intense Cycles and Cane Creek, this season I will be riding the latest offering from /intense, the 951 with a Cane Creek Double Barrel Shock.

The Intense 951 features World Cup winning geometry and the adjustability to suit any track, the 951 is part of the new breed of downhill race bikes. With 8 inches of travel and the infamous VPP system handling things at the back; this truly is a great piece of engineering.

The rest of the bike will be made up of the latest Shimano and Sunline components whilst upfront I will be running RockShox Boxxer’s thanks to Adam at Bike Tart.com, CLICK HERE.

Some have described the 951 as the perfect UK race bike and I can certainly understand why! At first ride the bike felt very manoeuvrable and light through the turns whilst feeling effortless to pedal.

I’m very excited about this bike and could just sit there looking at it all day long!

My Intense 951, thanks to Extra (UK).

Having only the space for one bike at University meant I would need something that was a Jack of all trades. The answer; a Commençal Meta 5, one of the leading enduro bikes on the market today. Comfortable both going downhill and right back up again my new Commençal is a very fun bike to ride. It’s very light and nimble, but yet feels stable through the turns and in the air. Every time I ride this bike it really does remind about what riding is all about. Not the pressure of racing or every inch of a race track, it’s about enjoying the ride and getting out in the woods. You, the bike, the trail; riding this bike really does feel effortless.

Commençal Meta 5, my Jack of all trades Uni Bike.

I have decided to stick with the Vario Tequila as my 4X bike for 2009, I've always enjoyed riding it, it's never given me any problems always been super reliable.

Having adopted my Dad’s GT i-drive for the first few years of my riding, I finally got an XC bike of my own in November 2007. I choose the Commençal as it looked very clean cut, but yet sturdy enough for the downhill sections. Having raced this bike on numerous occasions it is very difficult to fault. It accelerates and climbs well, and feels very light to ride. Overall it has gotten me through many hard thought enduro races; the blood, sweat and the tears. It really is a dependable piece of Kit.

I got this bike just before Christmas 2002 and kept adding to it for the next year. Upgrades included Marzocchi Z.4 forks instead of the standard RST’s. An Avid front disk and back V-break instead of the standard Shimano V-breaks and many more. I rode this bike at Aston Hill, Bringewood and at Hopton.

I got this bike at the end of the summer 2003 after months of trying to convince my mum to let me have one. This was my first proper Downhill bike. For Christmas my dad brought me a pair of 2004 Marzocchi Junior T’s without noticing they didn’t have any rebound or compression adjustments so these got sent straight back. About a week later I got a set of RockShox BoXXer races to which we had team internals fitted. The only other real changes we made to this great value little bike was a MRP instead of the basic Truvativ chain device and Mavic wheels instead of the DN24’s which I buckled very early on and 205 discs to improve braking power. In 2004 I started to do a few races and raced the Aston Hill series, Specialized winter series and the last two rounds of the NPS at Combe Sydenham and Caersws on my Patriot. If Vario hadn’t come along I would have probably stayed on this bike for at least another year, I loved and adored riding it.

This GT i-Drive was originally my Dad’s bike, but when he decided he didn’t like the up hill part of XC I kind of adopted it as my XC bike. So far I have only ridden it round Woburn woods but I have plans to ride it in Wales this summer. The only change’s that have been made to this bike are the brakes. We changed the avid cable discs for hope Mini’s but these have now been sold and I have a Shimano XT on the front and Deore on the back.

I got my first ever sponsor deal with Vario bikes at the end of 2004 and received my Vario Harissa Team at Christmas of that year. This bike was amazing and I loved every second of riding and racing it. Again I only made a few slight changes. A MRP instead of the Truvativ box guide just because of the reliability I had with the MRP on the Patriot. The Alex Rims soon went after buckling them at Rheola these where changed for Mavic’s with gold Hope hubs. 2005 was my first full year of Racing with competing in the NPS downhill series, the Dragon Downhill Series, The Aston Hill series and the Specialized winter series. Piloting the Vario I managed 7 podiums in addition to mixture of ten 4th and 5th places, I never finished outside the top 10. I also went on the annual Aston Hill DeVo team (another sponsor for the 2005 series) trip to France. Again the Vario giving me no problems riding the many tracks in Morzine, Les Gets and Switzerland and trying some dirt and north shore jumps I would have never of attempted before riding my first Vario.

After successfully agreeing another deal with Vario I rode the 06 Vario Harissa Race for the 2006 season. I loved the new bike as it seemed to accelerate quicker and corner a lot faster than the previous one, also the geometry was more suited to my riding style. In the picture below the bike still has all of it's standard components, I have since upgraded the chain device to a E-Thirteen as this is a lot stronger and less open to damage than the original device. I loved the new 2006 Marzocchi 888’s as they were a lot smoother and plusher than the 2005 model. I really enjoyed my year on the 06 Harissa and was sorry to see it go.

After two years of hard graft I have now retired the Santa Cruz V10. It will now spend the rest of it days under the careful riding of my Dad. After a successful 2007 season I received a couple of offers from other brands, but decided to stay with the V10 as nothing else came close to its performance. For 2008 I worked with Maxxis Tyres, Sunline and Crank Brothers, with the rest of the components came from Shimano. The bike pedalled perfectly, felt very stable through the rough stuff and was good in the air. This bike has defiantly set a precedent and I learnt an awful lot riding it.

At the beginning of the 2009 season I started my partnership with Extra UK, the UK importers for Intense Cycles and Cane Creek. I was lucky enough to be riding a new Intense M6 frameset with a Cane Creek Double Barrel Shock.

This was a dream come true for me, when I first started reading the mountain bike magazines many years ago I always dreamed of riding an Intense bike, so to ride an M6 was a very exciting prospect.

The rest of the spec consists of the latest Shimano and Sunline components, whilst rolling on Maxxis Tyres. It was definitely a privilege to race this frame and certainly fulfilled a childhood dream. Although I had a disappointing season overall, it was the frame I raced to my first overall downhill title at the MIJ Welsh Downhill Series, so it will always have a pretty special place in my race history.

My 2009 Intense M6, thanks to Extra (UK).