Showa me yours and I will Showa you mine

The once sought after piece of component candy may be just a little bit closer to your hands.
Showa really stepped up when Honda thought to grace us with the RNO1. The upside down fork was eyeballed and drolled after by many racers and riders. With the death of the Honda project we had assumed that Showa fell on their sword. Assumption is the mother of all what? With a secretive approach to all things they do it is no wonder that the forks were spotted on several Japanese racers bikes. Ryo Uchijima's Santa Cruz V10 and Naoki Idegawa's IronHorse Sunday both had the forks outfitted upon them. (Not the rear shocks) The continuation of this testing is still up in the air. The company has yet to release any type of press release or let us in on their intentions. These photos come courtesy of the kind gents at the Bike Spice. Next stop, Dorado!

Fairclough Transcends...

Frasier Britton has a great eye. He is the mastermind behind Transcend Magazine and is known for supplying us layman with great pictures from most of the World Cup Circuit.
He was on hand recently in Chile snappin away at Valparaiso Cerro Abajo 2008 Street race. He grabbed some nice pics of Brendan Fairclough aboard his new IronHorse Sunday and in the new TLD race kit. Take a gander and Transcend and see what Frasier has been up to.


Friends across the pond and fine makers of pedals, hubs and bars know as Burgtec have launched a new site. Some spy shots of a new carbon post are floating around on the site and currently details are scarce as far as a release date. The pedals are the cats meow and the new stems and bars will sure to have you drooling. With a stacked line up of riders you are sure to be seeing more of this brand in the future!

Greg Minnaar to join the Syndicate.

The Santa Cruz Syndicate is excited to welcome Greg Minnaar onto the Syndicate for the next two downhill racing seasons! We expect the addition of Minnaar to raise the bar even higher for the Syndicate and are eager to get the new Santa Cruz V-10 underneath him. Having Steve Peat, Nathan Rennie, and Josh Bryceland work and train together with Minnaar should elevate the playing field to new levels in the downhill arena.

Rob Roskopp (owner, Santa Cruz Bicycles), has had an eye on Minnaar for a few years now, and when Honda made the decision to end their involvement in downhill racing, Roskopp saw this as the chance he was waiting for to add Minnaar to the successful Syndicate program. Having talented bike racers with big personalities is a prerequisite for the Syndicate, and Minnaar brings his professionalism, engaging personality and dedication to his craft to the squad. Something that impressed Roskopp the most was Minnaar’s performance at the World Championships in Fort William, Scotland, when in his race run, he crashed and continued on to a successful 4th place finish with a dislocated shoulder and broken scapula suffered in the crash! Witnessing that type of mental determination and control was compelling for Roskopp to aggressively pursue signing Minnaar.

Roskopp comments, “I’m very excited to have Greg on the Syndicate. I admire his talent, professionalism and work ethic and have wanted him on the Syndicate for some time. The Syndicate will now have a broad range in the downhill squad from young, up and coming Josh, to seasoned pros and legends, and will truly be a very international group. Having Greg will be amazing, and I look forward to seeing him race on the V-10.”

“The most important factor for me in choosing a team I race for is the level of support, and the ability to race at my best. It’s clear that the Syndicate is driven by people who love to race. To have a race winning bike beneath me as well as team mates that will continue to push me, makes me very excited about the upcoming season. We are going to be a pretty tough team to beat!” says Minnaar.

Something we strive for in the Syndicate is to create an environment where each rider can express their unique individuality and develop their personas in the sport. Supporting and maintaining the momentum Minnaar has attained in his career will be a feature of his program.

Steve Peat remarks, “Greg is going to be a huge asset to the Syndicate. He and I have been friends since he first visited the UK, a long time ago, and I can see how his drive to win along with his professionalism will be a huge plus for us on the circuit. Welcome aboard Greg!”

Josh Bryceland excitedly says, “That's awesome news! I can't think of a much stronger group with Steve, Nathan and Greg! I have looked up to Greg as much as I have Nathan and Steve the whole time. His style and his consistency will just make the Syndicate even stronger! Also, we can both be newcomers together, ha-ha!”

Nathan Rennie welcomes Greg to the team with his sense of humor, “Looks like there are going to be three naked 6’ 3” men in the back of Steve’s van this year. I had enough trouble understanding Steve’s accent.... Welcome, and oh, by the way, that’s my sandwich Greg.”

Once again, it is with great pleasure that we make this announcement and welcome Greg to the Syndicate!


Kathy Sessler
Santa Cruz Syndicate
Team Manager

Dirt Interviews Martin Whitely

"All the team bikes go to Japan and are compacted as per HRC policy on prototypes."
A very candid interview with the former head of G-Cross racing, Martin Whitely.
As for Greg and Brndan for 2008? A little birdy here and a little birdy there have mentioned TREK? Dirt Interview

Matti breaks back

Yesterday, while filming in Helsinki Matti Lehikoinen suffered a terrible crash breaking 3 of his vertebrae. He still has all the feeling in his outer extremties. His prognosis is very positive and they expect him to make a full recovery, obviously quite a bit of time off the bike will be needed. His injury was sustained just a few days after the last World Cup race where he left the Honda team and signed with a new team for 2008. It has also been confirmed that he will be taking Kovariks place at MS-Intense.

"I spoke to Matti for 10 minutes this morning. He's in a lot of pain, but he is remaining completely positive. He told me that he went to go off a very small drop off, about a meter high, on his home trails when something caught his rear wheel just as his front wheel left the drop off. The bike pitched suddenly forward and threw him over the handlebars onto his back. He knew immediately that he had suffered a severe injury, and remained still as his mate called for the ambulance. Right now all we can do is wait for more information from the medical experts, and support Matti, and his family who have been very shocked by this news," - Martin Whiteley.