Tag Archives: demo

CommercialEvents, Events, Multiday

Hargroves QE Cyclefest

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The Club is targeting a few commercial events during the year, and would like to get as big a group of riders as possible to attend. We’ll take along the Club gazebos and make each event a big ‘Club day out’.

There are two parts to this event, a demo day similar to our own Hargroves Demo day at the Croft Trail, and a race held into the evening.

The event runs from 3pm on Friday 13th May for camping, with the demo day and race held on Saturday 14th May. Camping is available on Saturday night also for those wanting to make a weekend of it.  There are 300 free camping pitches, allocated on a first-come-first-serve basis. So, why not make a weekend of it and enjoy the festival.

QE Cyclefest demo day

Hargroves will have a fleet of demo bikes available for you to take for a try on the Queen Elizabeth Country Park (QECP) trails, which offer a variety of routes for all culpabilities.

QECP Day Night Enduro

This enduro event is open to riders of all abilities – race in your age category or just pootle along as a ‘Fun’ category racer.

This event is billed as a ‘Day & Night Enduro’, so you’ll need lights.

Entry to the event went live on Saturday 12th March at 09:00. As this is not a team / relay event we will not be co-ordinating entries on behalf of members, so please enter direct on the Moredirt site

Categories

PRO (Mens): For riders in top 10% of last year’s event or if you race in PRO, Expert, Elite in XC/Enduro or DH
SPORT (Senior): 19-29 Aged
SPORT (MASTERS): 30-39 Aged
SPORT (Veteran): 40-49 Aged
SPORT (Super Veteran): 50+ Aged
FUN (Mens): If you are starting out at racing (if you finished in the top 10 in fun last year’s events you should move up to your age category)
U18: Aged 14 – 18
WOMEN: Female riders all ages.
HARDTAIL: Aged 14+

Schedule

Sat 16:00 – Marshall’s briefing
Sat 16:30 – Rider’s briefing
Sat 17:00 – Start of practice
Sat 19:15 – End of practice/start of race
Sat 23:15-23:30 – Results, Prize giving and Raffle

 

Ride Report

Hargroves Cycles MTB demo day at the Croft Trail

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Photos from the Hargroves Cycles MTB demo day at the Croft Trail in Swindon. This was an opportunity to try out brand new models for free.  Brands present were Specialized, Scott, Cube, Stevens and Genesis.

The MBSwindon club stand and BBQ was present. Coffee, cakes and sandwiches were served by Cafe-Xpresso and Donna from Back2fitness Extreme was on hand to answer sport therapy questions.

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Specialized Camber 29" CarbonI tried several 29″ bikes and was impressed with all of them. After being underwhelmed by the wagon wheels a year ago it was great to find that the latest models now go round corners whilst having a subtle and noticeable improvement over undulations compared with 26″ wheels.

 Both the Genesis models I tried were point and shoot rockets. However, after riding only hard tails from 2002-2010 before converting to full suspension  it was a shock to ride hard tails again.

The best bike for me on the day was the Specialized Camber 29″ Carbon. I already own an alloy Stump Jumper and this very similar, just with bigger wheels. One hell of a bike if you are comfortable with the Specialized brand. I know that the image conscious can struggle with that. If you rate the riding experience then, for the money, Specialized hit the spot. 

Photos from 2012 and 2011.

MBSwindon sponsored race teams

Ride Report

Ride report: QECP Cycle Fest (MBUK Royal Rumble)

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MBUK Royal Rumble

MBUK Royal Rumble start

The QE Cycle Fest 2012 was held at the Queen Elizabeth Country Park near Southampton. It was organised by Hargroves Cycles. There was a 60km and 80km sportive on Saturday, the 4 hour MBUK Royal Rumble plus a live band with food (Quaver catering) and beer from the Flowerpots Brewery.

The QECP trail building group were opening a new section of trail on the weekend.

The Royal Rumble route used parts of the trails plus some extra parts and a few diversions. It was heavy going and conditions were still a bit sticky following a lot of rain earlier in the week. The long climb was rewarded with some really fun downhill though. The trail required a delicate approach and the final descent worked really well if you were prepared to roll with it.

We couldn’t believe how fast the proper racers were – still hammering up the hills on the last lap.

Results are here (Time Laps website). My best lap was 35 minutes dropping to 49 minutes after 6 – the winner was 27 minutes dropping to 29 after 9 of them!

On Sunday it was a bike demo day, with Specialized, Cube, Cannondale, Stevens, Scott, Kinesis, Pivot and Salsa present, plus stands from Shimano and Garmin.

We took a few bikes out for a test session. The personal favourite was the Specialized Camber FSR expert carbon. This went up the hills with little effort and swallowed all the down I could throw at it. It was so assured and fun on the roots and mud. A very flattering bike to ride. I also tried a Camber Carbon 29″ bike and there wasn’t much in it really. I still prefer 26″ wheels myself.

QECP mountain bike trail map

Announcement

Mountain bike test day 6th May 2012

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There’s less than a week to go now until the mountain bike test day on Sunday 6th May 2012 at the Croft Trail in Swindon.

There will be over 45 new bike models to try out. Just turn up on the day with a passport and credit card in order to take a bike out.

See the event page for more info.

There will also be a BBQ, cakes and the Coffee Gang van with fresh coffee all day.

Please help us promote the event by printing out the poster below and putting it somewhere where a lot of people can see it.

Hargroves mountain bike demo day in Swindon.

Announcement

Model list for the Hargroves demo day

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Hargroves Demo Day 2012

This is the list of demo bikes that will be available at the bike demo day with Hargroves Cycles in May 2012 (event info).

Scott

  • Scale 20 M/L
  • Scale 29er M
  • Spark 20 S/M/L/XL
  • Genius M/L
  • Spark 29er Pro L

Stevens

  • Glide SX S/M/L
  • Fluent ES S/M/L
  • Ridge M/L
  • Colorado M/L

Cube

  • 18″ Fritzz
  • 18″ stereo hpa
  • 18″ stereo HPC
  • 18″ AMS 150
  • 19″ reaction 29
  • 17″ AMS 120 29
  • 18″ AMS 130 pro
  • 20″ AMS 130 race
  • 18″ AMS 130 race
  • 17″ AMS 110 wls
  • Medium Hanzz

Specialized

  • Jett Comp Wmn 29er 17”
  • Camber 29er L
  • Carve Pro 29er M/L
  • Epic Comp Carbon 29er L

Cannondale

  • Flash Carbon 29er 3 medium
  • Flash Carbon 29er 3 large
  • RZOne20 1 Small
  • RZOne20 3 medium
  • RZOne20 Large
  • Scalpel 29er medium
  • Scalpel 29er large
  • Jekyll 3 medium
  • Jekyll 4 large
Events, Local Event, MBSwindon Event, Novice Friendly

Demo Day with Hargroves Cycles

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Hargroves Cycles in conjunction with MB Swindon are holding a demo day at the Croft Trail. There will be a great selection of the latest bikes to test ride over challenging terrain rather than just round a car park.

Also on-site will be members of the MB Swindon team should you wish to ask questions about the Croft Trail, to have a guided tour or just talk bikes.

Currently Hargroves Cycles will be bringing their test fleet of Specialized, Scott and Cube bikes. An amazing selection for any rider to try.

The event will run from 10am – 4pm. For full details see the Hargroves Cycles website.

Ride Report

Event report – Red Planet Santa Cruz demo night 12th May

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This was an event organised with Red Planet bikes. They brought along 11 Santa Cruz demo bikes. We had around 20 people who took test rides over the three hours. It was great to be handed a new bike and told to go and ride it. Thanks to Red Planet bikes. They have a demo day this sunday (16th May 2010) Check their website for more info.

They also brought a bbq and food along, so we had a good social too.

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