Oneplanet's Commencal Demo Day meets the Atherton Training Days.

[Vic-Tim.com]

UPDATE: check thread for some pics....

Those crazy guys over at Oneplanet Adventure ( the team behind the cracking Llandegla trails ) are having another one of their famous Demo days this Saturday. Not only will Commencal UK ( Madison ) be there with all the new toys to play with. The Athertons will be there with their 2008 season kit to show off. Dan, Gee will also be running one of their popular 'Race' clinics ( on both Saturday and Sunday ) and Rachel is also aiming to run some informal ladies rides ( check at the registration tent on the day for details ).

Along with the Commy family there will also be other bikes to compare and the likes of Dakine, Fibrax, 661, Maxxis and Sunline on site.

With all this on offer and a multi award winning cafe, do you need any more convincing? ( ok I might be there as well, does that help? )

Everyone is going to want to be playing with the new toys, so if you are desperate to get your hands on a particular bike drop Jay an email on bikeshop@oneplanetadvanture.co.uk and he will do his best to make sure you get booked up early. For more info on the day call the info line on 01978 751656 of click on www.oneplanetadventure.com

If there are enough of us around, i'll even arrange an informal and impromptu Owners Club ride! ( as I know all the short cuts and where the good stuff is ).

Tim S

For info on the Llandegla Trails Click Here
For my report on the first Atherton Training Day Click Here
For more info on the Athertons Click Here

[Yard]

Already looking forward to seeing what bike porn is on offer (don't plan to try anything on this day as I'm still in the honeymoon period with the 5.5!) 

Will be riding with a few chums first thing, but could well be up for a CoC meet.......I'll be the one with the dodgy homemade mud deflectors

Cheers
Stu

[Affe]

not fare...

I ask Coc support fligh tickets

[Ant]

i'd be well up for having a COC meet.

Last forum ride i went on was a ukmb.net forum ride at llandegla. They made me show the way..

Suxtobethem though when i blast off dead fast.

ideally, i need to buy a towbar and towbar rack before then though, as i just got a new car too, and i don't want to get the inside filthy (Tis a new focus, pre facelift)

[Yard]

Well, lots of nice stuff at the Demo Day....went against my plan and did try something...just a Santa Cruz Superlight as that was on my list before I bought the 5.5. VERY GLAD I made the right choice - Superlight was nowhere near as comfortable to ride and there was either something wrong with the shock or the bike has very little travel in it....a spin round the car park was enough to make me gloat over the 5.5 again...

Tim - good to meet you up there - the bike looks even better in the flesh than in the photos! I trust you got your 666 shirt suitably dirty...

I'd already had a cracking run on the black in the morning - finding more and more travel in the bike every time I take it out. Few issues with gear changes (think sealed cables will be my first upgrade) but otherwise I could ride it all day. WOOHOO! 

[Vic-Tim.com]

Yep, a really good day over at Llandegla. Looking around the Commencal tent was definately the most popular with a permanent que to get on Meta 5's especially.

Some pics...



A punter making a wise choice and taking the 666 out for a spin.



Russ from Madison making sure the bikes ran smoothly and Jim from Oneplanet Adventure making sure the day ran smoothly.





I got to play with the Animal MaxMax in the flesh....£329....this is the best deal on a bike I think I have ever seen. I think I might be making a space in my garage...



This is the Superteam SDG seat...very hard to get hold of as a seperate item.I want!



The first production Titanium Flame. Not sure whether to ride it or frame it!



The Athertons were in heavy attendance, the boys took out a fully padded group out for some Race Training.



Dan Brown from Team Animal Commencal on hand to help out.



Ok I am biased in favour of Commy, but sitting next to the likes of Santa Cruz, Yeti and Kona, it was still obvious that there was something 'special' about these Andorran bikes. There is a soul, which you don't get with a mass-produced corporate machine. I was actually chatting to a marketing guy there about why one particular brand just doesn't stand up next to Commy. It isn't about kit, design, or cost, for me it is about the reason the bike was made in the first place. A Commy bike  hasn't been created to pay some shareholders, or make some good margin. It has come about from some passionate people making some passionate bikes.

Tim S

p.s. good to see you YardofTheYard....I did indeed get the bike dirty as it started to rain as soon as I got changed!

[mtc]

Ok I am biased in favour of Commy, but sitting next to the likes of Santa Cruz, Yeti and Kona, it was still obvious that there was something 'special' about these Andorran bikes. There is a soul, which you don't get with a mass-produced corporate machine. I was actually chatting to a marketing guy there about why one particular brand just doesn't stand up next to Commy. It isn't about kit, design, or cost, for me it is about the reason the bike was made in the first place. A Commy bike  hasn't been created to pay some shareholders, or make some good margin. It has come about from some passionate people making some passionate bikes.

DUDE! That's sooo inspiring!
Exactely why I bought a Commencal! 

[twin]

nice photos, but the middle part got too mushy for me Not to be negative here or anything.

If you go over to santa cruz headquarters or to cannondale and meet their die har fans you'll get the same vibe. Commencal just started out compared to these companies, but give em the same time on the marked and you'll prob see the same thing, meaning a company that got really popular due to brilliant bikes and thus expanded. So today (for commencal) you'll find a core of die hard fans who still have that enthusiasme for the brand (group one) and all the guys who just happened to buy one (the latter), with the first outweighing the latter. Though, while some companies got it - the IT factor ( i think commencal, santa cruz, cannondale, intense, turner: those kinda companies got it as far as i'm concerned; spesh, gt, ... and so on don't - spesh don't at all) some just don't. The point is the core crowd and the guys who run the show (at least a part of em) are really passionate about making bikes. At a certain point in every company's life though there comes a time when the majority of the owners are of the latter category (see above) and along comes another flashy new brand with the top pros riding for em and they too make brilliant bikes. All of a sudden the company is the old kid on the block. It still has the it factor buried in there somewhere, but not like the new kid with the majority of die hard fans Besides, when the buisness get to certain size the stakes are so high that the marketing sells bikes to the latter category outshines the cred from the core audience.

No, i'm not saying there's not something special about commie, there prob is, but don't give me that stuff about santa cruz being a big corporate machine. I don't buy it. Sure, they probably have larger revenues than commie, cannondale does for sure, but the people behind the brands are prob just as passionate as they were when they started out, except spesh who is profit profit profit. In fact, a big reason a lot of the larger ones are percieved as 'corporate' is due to core fans loosing faith after seeing the tenth wrong person on a similar bike and jumping ship.

Of course you see a lot of enthusiasm for commencal. Cedric, athertons, excellent bikes with an emphasis on efficiency and bombproof downhill capabilities, sweet designs, affordable - the list goes on. As far as the meet goes the Athertons were the only pros in attendance right? Go figure that commencal was also the more popular brand Guess it would be more interesting if the syndicate was there as well

The same can be said in snowboarding. Sure, i love my lib techs for it being a killer company that is way out there and are having a blast making and selling snowboards. But it could be as great as they want to, have all the soul in the world, but if their product wasn't the best on the marked i wouldn' buy it. But, there's still people at burton who feels the same way, the stakes or dimensions are just that much bigger. After all, at the end of the day mervin (lib, gnu, bent metal) are still owned by quiksilver and are just as corporate as burton. They need to be in order to survive. They're just able to pull more crazy shit because they are smaller.

sorry if this was a shitty reply, don't mean to come over condecending or anything. Critize companies like spesh all day long, but santa cruz? The main reason it's not as IT as commencal is the fact that most people can't afford them (though i guess that is all the more reason to try one ).

i love my supreme, but i won't claim companies such as sc, intense, turner, ventana, cannondale and so on are 'dead corporate machines' because of it. Spesh on the other hand, or mongoose, gt ... they prob make nice bikes, but for the most part it's all about profit for them now. Especially spesh. did i mention i don't like spesh

but let rejoice and take our lovely commies out for a spin. (man, my post just keeps on getting longer and longer. no wonder i don' have any energy when i go biking )

[Vic-Tim.com]

Rather long reply there!

I can only go on my experiences, and I am biased because of that. With that in mind and taking all things into consideration and from where I am sitting in the UK, dealing with the likes of Santa Cruz is dealing with a corporate machine. The decisions they make there are ultimately based on a corporate structure ( I would love it if Rob was ultimately in charge, but he isn't ). At Commie, it all ends with Max. Not an untouchable board room.

There are other companies like this around the globe, ( Orange for example ) but not a lot! ( and certainly hardly any which are re-investing into the UK scene with team and dealer support )

Your point at the Syndicate is interesting, if they were there, then SC would definately have had more of a buzz, but Peaty tends to stick over to his neck of the woods, whereas the Athertons run their courses out of the centre at Llandegla...again a factor in favour of the big C. Also Madison had three 'display' bikes including the very nice Titanium Flame and Team Supreme. Some of the other brands their were still running last seasons demo bikes! ( which you can't even buy any more? )

Combine the Commie thing with Madison, and in the UK you have the best set up of any bike brand ( in my experience ).

So maybe I did get mushy, but standing under the Commie tent in the rain and looking around at the other brands...it was even more obvious why I ride a 666 and not a Heckler, Coiler or 575.

Now stop playing devils advocate and declare your loyalty to Max and his band of merry riders! ( joke!  )

Tim S


I used to ride a Lib Tech, but having seen Jamie Lynn and his band play live in Munich earlier this year, I think I'll be riding Stepchild from now on 

[grgos]

Off topic me (csi) and my friends with Peaty in  Wc Maribor 2007 .I look little morose, beacous of hard night and to much of beer

[Vic-Tim.com]

Peaty likes his beer too...but he can win downhills with a hangover!

Tim S

[grgos]

Yes he likes Stella Artua beer  ha ha 

[Vic-Tim.com]

This One?

SteveB? Any ideas?

Tim S

[twin]

I used to ride a Lib Tech, but having seen Jamie Lynn and his band play live in Munich earlier this year, I think I'll be riding Stepchild from now on 

muahaha!

though, libs and gnus where's at from now on. The banana magne traction revolution, or the age of fruity enlightenment as they call it, truly is a huge step in the right direction. Why ride evil chamber when you can ride a banana!

ok, sorry. I was a bit off base there. I don't have the experience a lot of you guys have so i guess you are right to a large extent and i'm in the wrong. Oh well. Can't we all be friends? hehe, a club of commencal-riders. Hm, what to call it? Let's call it commencalownersclub! hah, genious!

oh well, i'm off to rip the mountains to shreds with my lib tech dark series magne traction. Man, i'm really looking forward to launching off jumps and especially hitting a nice pipe (we don't have any of those here on the west coast).