Riders from around the globe converged in Rotorua, New Zealand for the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships.  It was way back in 1999, SID’s second year as a production fork, when now TDF mountain Hero Michael Rasmussen, riding for Gary Fisher, piloted SID to her first World Championship. This past weekend, Frances Julien Absalon rode to his third straight XC World Championship taking SID to her 8th consecutive World’s Title.

While SID was working it’s way to a decade of winning, another RockShox fork was working on it’s first. Jill Kintner won the Women’s 4X aboard a BlackBox Revelation. This was Revelation’s first win at the World Championships. Jill also had Avid BlackBox Juicy Ultimate’s on her World Championship rig. A step down on the podium was Anneke Beerten also aboard a full SRAM equipped bike.

On the DH side, MTB’s new ‘Golden Couple’ Sam Hill and Sabrina Jonnier dominated their respective classes. Sam referred to his run as “flawless”. It was hard to argue, because when the smoke cleared he had won by an astonishing 4.22 seconds over Greg Minnaar. Sam and Sabrina’s runs marked the first win for an air sprung fork in DH since 3″ was considered long travel. Both Iron Horse riders road with the lightest production 203mm fork on the market, the BoXXer World Cup on the front of their Sunday’s.

When I was a kid racing BMX, the Friday night before race day was spent cleaning and tuning my bike. At age 13, I didn’t have the hundred or so dollars to buy a repair stand. Instead I would do what I could with the handlebar balanced against a tree, or if I needed to remove a wheel, or repack the bottom bracket, I’d flip the bike over. The handlebars and seat made a really nice, built-in repair stand. But a real repair stand really is handy, and I can afford the luxury of a Park Tool stand in my garage. Still, if you don’t feel like forking over the dough, or just like to build stuff, here are instructions for how to build your own bike repair stand for under $20.

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Chicago L.A.T.E. Ride - See this post.

Whistler Bike Park - Corbyn Tyson is an award-winning videographer who I’ve known for years. He traveled to Vancouver, B.C., the folks at Whistler hooked him up with a rented Kona and a guide, and talked about the park. Corbyn also produced the Trail-Logue from Whistler with a song called “Hundreds and Thousands of Stars,” by The Class of 98.

My feet were getting numb when I’d ride for even short distances. Pat Moran at the Rockford Bicycle Company suggested a cleat alignment. The process is part of a full bike fitting using a device, called a Rotational Adjustment Device, from Fit Kit.