Stilettos on Wheels are on Twitter

Following on from the resounding success of its first year of ladies mountain bike racing, Stilettos On Wheels is back for 2013. The northern round of the event will be held at Rother Valley Country Park, South Yorkshire this Saturday 18^th May.

The southern round will return to Stanmer Park, Brighton, on Saturday 7^th September.

With a strong focus on providing a fun and supportive race environment to encourage more women to try mountain bike racing, 140 women turned up to ride the fledgling XC race event in 2012. A mix of first-time racers and experienced competitors, including two national champions, created a terrific race atmosphere and feedback from both races was fantastic, one racer commenting: “Just wanted to say how much I enjoyed the race. It was so well organised and marshalled; everybody was so friendly and supportive.”

Event organisers Irene Lachner and Emma Peasland have been working hard to recreate the magic for the 2013 events. The Stilettos On Wheels pink has been swapped for purple (coincidentally, a colour which symbolises magic!) and a whole host of sponsors have already signed up to provide some amazing prizes, which definitely make aiming for the podium worthwhile!

The Stanmer Park track will stay about the same, with just enough tweaks to the flowing singletrack course to keep it interesting. The northern round of the event has moved to Rother Valley Country Park, the first place legendary mountain biker Steve Peat ever raced, where some great new trails have been developed for the race.

Emma Peasland said: “Rother Valley Country Park has strong roots in the Sheffield mountain bike scene so we’re really excited about holding the Stilettos On Wheels race there this year, it has some fantastic singletrack descents so the event should be challenging for every rider taking part.”

Stilettos On Wheels is a new XC mountain bike race for women only aimed at creating a greater focus on women in the sport. It is for both beginners and experienced riders, with fun at the heart of the track design.

Mountain bike racer Irene Lachner came up with the idea in the UK after being inspired by Danish women-only mountain bike race heelsonwheels. Irene said: “Mountain biking is such a fun sport but at many races there can be so few female riders that you can go through the entire race without seeing anyone you’re competing against which means racing isn’t always as exciting as it could be. Stilettos On Wheels aims to turn that around and get more female riders into the sport so that women are better able to compete with, and against, each other.”

Olympian and World Championship mountain biking silver medallist Annie Last has given her backing to the race, saying: “It’s great to see more women riding and racing bikes. My advice is just to get out there, give it a go and have fun and enjoy yourself. Good luck to everyone taking part.”

Entrants will be able to pick their challenge, either two or four hour solo race or in relay format as a pair in the four hour race. Sponsors will be on hand both before and during both races to offer help and advice on nutrition, bike mechanics, kit choices and more. The Stilettos On Wheels team will also be providing online support to new racers to help them prepare for the challenge of racing for the first time. As last year, every racer will receive a bespoke sprocket medal.

Registration for both races is now open. Riders can find more information, register for the races, and purchase gorgeous purple Stilettos On Wheels race jerseys on the website www.stilettosonwheels.com.

See you on the start line!

Green Race in Stroud launched our partnership with their demo bike last weekend!

Gill (MD) came 2nd in the Stroud Duathlon  – well done Gill!  The bike will be doing plenty of races with Gill over the coming months, we’ll keep you posted on where you can try the bike.

“Many thanks to Bamboo bikes for sending me my frame I won at SOW Brighton.

It rides amazing - feeling as light as carbon but as strong as steel, it takes pride of place as my best steed so far. I have already seen a difference in riding with it giving me more speed climbing up the hills and plenty of confidence descending on steeper trails than before.

The bamboo frame will be introduced to its 12 hour debut this summer and I can’t wait I am hoping it improves me even more!!

Gayle”

All next week, we will be running a different offer on Facebook each day, starting on Sunday 3rd February.  Like the page in preparation, and wait for the offers.

If you can’t wait until then, we are starting one offer right now on frame only orders:

Bamboo frame: BS EN tested, 5 year warranty with UK based sales support – £749 inc. UK postage and colour customisation

• CX
• 26″ XC MTB
• 29er XC MTB
• Hybrid- 26″
• Hybrid – 700c

To forward order your frame, email buy@bamboobike.co no later than midnight on Friday 8th February, after which all offers will expire.

Following the launch of our new 29er, CX and Hybrid models on Friday, here’s a little info on them.  And if you weren’t able to get along on the night, it’s not too late to see them!

Our launch took place at Look Mum no Hands in London and all the bikes are staying there for the next week, so if you are in London, be sure to pop along for a coffee and a nosey – great cakes there too!

Our 29er compliments our existing 26″ XC MTB: just as good as the 26″ at eating up those bumps and vibrations, you’ll notice the responsive frame immediately.

The CX is completely new for us, offering a bike for racing or commuting – sleek, fast and smooth.

Last but not least is our Hybrid for all you city dwellers – complete with rack and guards, this bike will offer you comfort and performance whilst transporting you and your goods around the city.  We also offer a 700c wheeled city bike with an Alfine hub, or geared.

Please feel free to visit Look Mum no Hands to take a look until Sunday 28th January, contact buy@bamboobike.co for more info, or take a look here for a list of demo sites around the country.

• City bike – geared or with Alfine hub, 700c wheels
• Hybrid – 26” with rigid mtb forks with mudguards and pannier rack
• Cyclo-Cross
• 29er
• plus our existing 26” Mountain bike

The frames are available with 6 colours of twine, with custom colours available, from late January. Frame price is £1,199 and full bikes start at £1,649.

We are now closed for Christmas and New Year, but will be back in from 2nd January 2013, when we will be able to take orders again!

Happy New Year to all – eat, sleep, ride, enjoy!

We had a wonderful time in Brighton at Stilettos on Wheels back in September – great course, great organisation, great people!

Plus we got the chance to give away another frame, and here are a few words from Gayle who was our lucky winner – pics to follow when she receives the frame!

“I guess as someone who has battled arthritis since a teenager it is ironic that I appear fragile to some but really I’m strong as an Ox, so it’s fitting I have won a Bamboo frame which people underestimate for its strength too!!

I cannot wait to get riding on it especially having got the endurance bug in 2012 and looking forward to a few more races in 2013!!

Gayle”

Stilettos on Wheels returns to Sheffield in May and Brighton in Setember 2013 – see you there!

The gang at Fetish have been looking after one of our demo bikes this week, and have written up a review , thanks Mark! – check it out below: -

26″ frames available to order directly from us now, we have some stock; 29er frames available to pre-order – buy@bamboobike.co

contact: buy@bamboobike.co to order your frame

Big thanks to &Bike Magazine for the review – glad you enjoyed riding it!

Thank you to Blue Door Bicycles for lending out their beautiful demo bike!

“Not so long ago, &Bike was offered the chance to borrow a bamboo bike for a week – we would have been mad to turn it down.

Watch out for pandas, steer clear of naked flames and don’t take it out in the rain were just some of the comments &Bike received when riding a bamboo bike around the streets and parks of London.

If nothing else, it provides a talking point. But what else? Can bikes made from grass (yes, bamboo is a grass, not wood as we’ve now learned) realistically take a chunk of the UK’s bike market. Can bamboo rub shoulders with carbon, aluminium alloy, steel and titanium?

Well, yes; and, no. But then it really is of little relevance. As Bamboo Bikes’ managing director Rachel Hammond rightly points out, it’s a material that divides opinion. “It is a Marmite-type product, and the ones who love it ‘really’ love it,” she says.

So, did we really love it? Well, yes, but in a way that we love a mongrel terrier more than we love a pedigree labrador. A mongrel has personality and character. Oodles of it. And so does a bamboo bike.

There’s a reason why labradors are the most popular dog breed in Britain. They’re predictable, loyal, a bit, well, boring. They wag their tail when you want them to, fetch your slippers and chase sticks when you throw them. Terriers, by comparison, scratch their arses on the carpet, chase squirrels and chew your slippers into tiny little pieces. Terriers aren’t for everyone.

While a bamboo bike won’t eat your slippers, it certainly won’t be for everyone either. At first inspection, it looks like seven sticks held together with parcel tape, but get it out onto the trails and it soon becomes a trusted friend. It’s positive, stiff, solid. There’s certainly no feeling of flex or weakness. We put about 90 miles on the bike during our loan period, about a third of which was off road. And while only a blip in the lifetime of any well-used bike, it performed very well.

In fact, looking back, as soon as we pulled away from Blue Door Bikes, the UK’s sole stockist of Bamboo Bikes, it felt confident and positive.

The reality is there will always be a proportion of the bike world who think that bamboo is a bit of a gimmick, that it’s not comparable to the more common frame-building materials – and it’s a reality that Hammond is resigned to. “There will always be people who remain unconvinced – [it's] the same with anything considered ‘new’, such as carbon fibre,” she tells &Bike. “The advantages and facts of bamboo speak for themselves, in terms of how it can stand up against other frame materials. It has a higher tensile strength than steel, withstands impact better than carbon and our frame comes out stiffer than an alloy equivalent.”

We can’t prove or disprove these claims, but neither would we feel the need to disagree.

Monday:

Decked out resplendent in Hope components, the bike was soon raising smiles. The individuality, not just of the frame’s appearance, but of each length of bamboo used in its construction, was a surprising draw – even when hurtling down trails, avoiding trees and bunny hopping ditches, the fact that the bike was a bit special was never far from our mind.

That’s not to say that it performed any better than a more traditional alternative, it was just that while riding it was obvious that it was completely and utterly different.

So, would we buy one?

Yes. But only if we had a garage and bank account big enough for several bikes. It wouldn’t be the first mountain bike we’d choose, but it wouldn’t be far behind, and it may well be the first hardtail that we’d choose.

On the bank account side, the XC frame will set you back £1,199 or £1,499 for a custom. Complete bikes start from £1,750 reaching £2,499 before the Hope upgrades are in the picture.

Thursday:

Getting high on grass

So, how, where and by whom are the Bamboo Bikes frames built? How long will you have to wait for your new build to arrive? What are the specs?

First, Bamboo Bikes, perhaps not surprisingly, is a small company based in Yorkshire. They build all their frames in a workshop in Scarborough and as of April there was a lead time of six weeks on new orders. The bikes are built by hand, using flax fibre lugs (the bits that, at first inspection, look like parcel tape). They are available via the Bamboo Bikes website, London’s Blue Door Bikes and, soon, Edinburgh Bicycle Cooperative’s stores up and down the country.

Current build specs include the base model based on a Deore groupset and wheelset, with Rockshox Recon 100mm forks at £1,750, while an SLX groupset and wheelset build, with the same forks comes in at £1,999. The XT-equipped bike, with handbuilt wheels and FOX 100 32-F series forks is £2,499. XTR pricing wasn’t provided, and Hope upgrades (as per the above) are available on all models.

Here’s the technical claims Bamboo Bikes makes about bamboo as a material:

• Bamboo has a higher tensile strength than steel
• Our designs maximise the natural stiffness of bamboo making amongst the stiffest frames out there
• Bamboo is extremely absorbent of vibrations and bumps in the road & trail
• Absorbing impact well, bamboo performs well for performance riding such as mountain biking
• Bamboo tubes have extremely consistent properties from one to the next & so make an ideal natural material for high tech applications like bicycle frames
• Aesthetically beautiful, each of our frames is unique due to the markings on bamboo
• Using flax fibre composite lugs, our frames are constructed using natural materials wherever we can rather than man-made alternatives. This makes for great aesthetics & stronger frames
• We use advanced jointing technology, working in conjunction with Oxford Brookes University

Whether you’re ready to jump into the world of bamboo will probably depend on your outlook on life as much as your search for a particular type of bike. Aesthetically, it won’t be for everyone; but saying that, there will be others who fall immediately in love with them too (like one of our close neighbours did on seeing it for the first time). Performance-wise, however, they certainly do the job.

If you are the type of person who wants something a little different, something with character and soul, then bamboo could well be for you.

David Rae “