Jason Miles winning the solo Strathpuffer 24 hour event in the far far north of Scotland, mostly in the dark (Dave Powell was third). Undoubtedly a grim suffer-fest …  aye, they love it. Blog link

Fen powerhouse Paul Ashby dominated Thetford forest winter 4 hour series again, the fastest Veteran and the fastest overall. 8 years on the trot now by all accounts!

Paul has been trying to smash our MT ZOOM products from our inception, he has now earned some MT ZOOM cycling attire

Dave Powell just about recovered from the Strathpuffer race and various ailments  to win the Senior’s category at Hit the North, Manchester. Blog link

Ant White  & Rich Rothwell won the Master’s 40+ category and lots of olive oil in the Andalucia Bike Race, a 6 day mountain bike stage race coincidentally in the mountains of Andalucia. Blog post

Ant also won the Vets category at the Brass Monkey 4 hour winter series in and around the Surrey hills  and was 2nd Vet in the La Santa Lazarote 4 day stage race (does that count as winter racing?). Blog link.

We now have a side access reversible bottle cage.

4 positions … perfect for small frames, left handed and right handed riders.

Ultralight Skewers – 37g!

The new version of our curvy MT ZOOM Quick Release skewers weigh 37g  … for the pair!

A lighter axle is the key. Available in black and red … they’ll do mountain bikes or road bikes … double bonus.  The split “ball and socket” nut gives great grip.

30mm, 36m & 38mm Ultralight clamps

Following the successful launch of our Ultralight 5g seatpost clamps in the common 31.8mm and 34.9mm sizes, we have now got 30mm, 36.4mm and & 38mm clamps.

This will keep the Cannondale Flash / Evo/ Scott Spark / Scale /Trek owners happy.  The 30mm weighs 5.4g, the 38mm weighs 5.9g  … depending on atmospheric pressure.

“Shroom” bottle cage bolts

They look like blingy little mushrooms, but the large surface of the bolt head holds cages supertight.

In go faster red,  1.2g each.

Handy Multitool / Chainbreaker

Lots of functionality, probably the best available in this “Chain Breaker Plus”  arena.

86g of tough stainless steel.

Those in the MT ZOOM supported Subaru Marathon MTB team finished the 2nd team in the Crocodile Trophy (Australia).

Over the course of the 9 days and close to 1000 km of racing, they dealt with rain, heat, mud, sand, corrugations, hills and backpackers.

The Croc Trophy is a big undertaking – it takes place in a remote location, runs for a long time, and is hard on equipment, bodies and relationships.

(Nice Shoes, and bikes)

Werner van der Merwe: Numerous masters M1 stage wins, the Masters overall jersey, and many top 5 stage finishes – including 4th outright on General Classification.

Justin Morris: Two top 10 finishes, numerous break away attempts, strong team support for Werner, 17th on Elite GC

Mike Blewitt: Two top 10 finishes, team support as legs allowed, 9th on Elite GC

Great stuff fellas!

(Werner on his way to winning the Masters Category and getting 4th overall)

Other notable rides from the MT ZOOM supported Subaru Marathon MTB riders came from Naomi Hansen, Mike Blewitt and Will Hayter.

In Australia Naomi won the Women’s 100 mile ‘Highland Fling’ ahead of World 24hr solo champ Jess Douglas, setting a new course record too.  Mike Blewitt came 4th in the super tough Men’s category.

(Naomi Hansen on the top step of the Highland Fling)

In exotic Mauritius, Will Hayter and team mate Jeff Bosler came second overall in the Omincane Southern Tropical Challenge stage race.

(Will Hayter proving Mauritius is far from flat)

Also chasing the sun or being chased by the sun (and humidity), Ant White was back at the Langkawi International Mountain Bike Challenge in Malaysia.  Ant finished on podium again, this time in 3rd behind fellow Brit Nick Craig (1st) and Italian Marzio Deho.

Ant’s report here

(Ant White in Langkawi – nice jersey!)

Rich Rothwell finished second at the Torq In Your Sleep 12 hour race and 1st the Vets at the Kielder 100 for the 2^nd year on the trot.

(Rich Rothwell and Ant White on the Vets podium at Kielder)

Both results helped him to second in the UK Endurance series overall.

(Rich @ Newcastleton on his way to winning the Vets category @ the Kielder 1oo)

Dave Powell and Jason Miles were the top two at the Relentless 24 hour race up in Fort William, Scotland … an event they are now dominating.

(Dave Powell and Jason Miles in 24hour  team time trial mode at Relentless in Fort William)

Gareth Montgomerie was 4^th overall in the Elite National Points Series and 3^rd ranked Elite cross country rider in the UK with a very solid year.

(Gareth (GT) – 2nd at the last round of the British Mountain Biking XC series)

Dan Treby slugged through the mud of this years Mountain Mayhem 24 hour race to finish second solo.

(Dan at the end of 24 hours of mud)

Meanwhile Josh Ibbett and Rich Rothwell rode hard in the mud at Mountain Mayhem 24 hour to get 3rd in the Mixed Elite Wiggle team …

(Wellington boots with cleats anyone?)

And earlier this year ….

Some battered themselves and tested kit in a couple of the brilliant early stage races …

Notably Josh Ibbett  (with his race partner Ben Thomas) rode  to 23^rd place (out of 500 teams) in the Cape Epic.

Endurance Veterans  Rich Rothwell and Ant White rode to 5^th Masters in the Andalucia Bike Race.

Ant went onto win the UK Vets 12 hour title and come 2nd Vet in the UK Marathon Champs.

Dave Powell won the UK 12 hour champs outright

Team mate Jason Miles took 2nd in the WEMBO World 24 hour champs in Finale, Italy.  Savage stuff.

New MT ZOOM devotees Alex Welburn and Gareth Mongomerie have been having strong XC results.  Alex is currently ranked UK number 2 Junior in the BCF rankings and Gareth 8th in Elite.

Ben Sumner in his first season stepping up from junior level is building on a solid winter of cross to getting further and further up the Elite XC results.

Billy Whenman won a rack load of early season road roads and then got a pro contract on the Hope Factory team … well done fella.

and we’ve got a new graphic filtering through …

more subtle measurement lines, and bead blasted finish in all the right places … which we like.

The new batch of our Ultimate carbon flat bars (ultralight and bar end friendly) have less white print on the graphics and a bead blasted finish around the stem area (and around the bar end area on the bar end friendly versions).

Our new batch of bar ends are now 5mm longer.  We’ve also changed from a plastic end plug to a aluminium one … the funky lightning bolt graphic therefore will not rub out! Also we now give away a pair of bar end grips FREE with each pair purchased.  Bonus.

The aero bottles have a little cut out now on the cage.  It saves a few grams but doesn’t effect performance.

We try to move quick on these things, sometimes too quick to even update the product photos on the website.

Superb engineering on this new clamp means it just weighs  5-6 grams and clamps really well.   Made from super strong high grade 7076 T6 Aluminium. A world class product.

Available in 34.9mm and 31.8mm and 7 colours: http://mtzoom.com/clamps/mt-zoom-ultralight-seatpost-clamps-5-5g/

30.0mm and 38.mm are due within the month.

Handy Strap

It’s black and red and is really handy for holding a multitude of trail and race kit.  Lighter than a saddle bag, you can carry a pump/tube/levers  etc or whatever … thoroughly tested with some slippery fish.

The rubber fabric on the inside means it grips very well, and yes it’s very handy: http://mtzoom.com/clamps/handy-strap/

Stem Bolts

Our ultralight ti bolt range now includes taper head stem bolts (M5 x 15mm), aswell as rotor bolts and caliper bolts: http://mtzoom.com/clamps/taper-head-ti-stem-bolts-1-7g/

Extra Long / Wide Bars

They are both 165g for 740mm, super strong bar end friendly and can be cut down.

The XL flat bar

And the XL low riser bar.

More stuff coming …

We’ve got some more great products on the way. They’ll be light ones .

Watch this space, or for more frequent product or racing news LIKE our Facebook page.

Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pages/MT-ZOOM-Racing/324712824208363

That involved riding non stop for 200 miles with over 7500 metres of climbing.  Josh used a few of our lightweight trick bits to help him out including our new (at the time) 5.6g ultralight jockey speed wheels.

He’s still using them, throughout the winter training, and they are still going strong.  Although superlight and thin the metal seems to hold up exceptionally well to the elements.

SDD ride report http://www.joshibbett.com/ : scroll down to Sept 2011.  Video here: http://vimeo.com/29690504

Josh is currently out training in Gran Canaria for the season ahead, first up, the Andalucia Bike race and then his sights are set on the UK 24 hour solo title.  Good luck.

Lots of options to pick from here: http://mtzoom.com/handlebars/ultimate-carbon-flat-bar/

We are also working on extending our riser bar range to 2 variants, around 150g in weight and extra length. Watch this space.

We sell a few ti bolts now.  Nice and light taper headed caliper bolts and seriously hard premium ti rotor bolts: http://mtzoom.com/clamps/premium-ti-rotor-bolts/

Ant White & Mike Blewitt race to 7th pair in the Sudety Challenge along the Polish Czech border.

Race report here: http://www.xcracer.com/viewblogpost.php?blog_id=234

Tough Sudety Terrain:

At the end of  October Ant extended the British summer by flying out to Malaysia to compete in the Mountain Bike Tour of Langkawi. In the tropical heat he came 2nd in the Vets Category behind the seriously rapid pro Italian Marzio Deho.

Race report here: http://www.cannondaleracing.co.uk/news/2011/11/3/langkawi-international-mtb-challenge-2011-stage-race-ant.html

The Crocodile Trophy in Australia is right up there as one of the world’s toughest marathon stage races with over 1000km across 10 stages.  It’s savage in terms of conditions and speed/quailty of field

The 3 members Subaru MarathonMTB team lasted the distance and all performed excellently. ALL finished in the top quarter of the race.

Hard core sadists:

2012 will see more stage racing for sure .  Loads on the agenda including the Andalucia Bike Race and Cape Epic looming large very soon.

All have hard wearing ceramic bearings and a hard alloy body –  ideal for dealing with wet muddy gritty conditions, in the winter or summer.

Blue seems particularly popular, orange is particularly nice.