Alan Vogt from Frameskin sent us these photos of his beautiful custom made timber road frame. The frame is made in the US by a well known frame maker in a town that is also home to Chris King components.

The finish on this frame is fantastic with the 3 different timbers used giving the frame a beautiful appearance.

The lamination features 3 different timbers and the quality of the workmanship is amazing. At the recent Melbourne Bike Show this was one of the most touched and drooled on bikes at the show, it has this fantastic feel and colour that you only get from natural materials.

Aluminium inserts are used in the seat tube, bottom bracket and headtube.

The ride is meant to be incredibly smooth as the timber has excellent vibration damping qualities, so it’s a great all day in the saddle ride, it’s the sort of bike that would get hung in your lounge or bedroom rather than being relegated to the garage.

The bolt-on rear end also offers the option of setting the frame up singlespeed

A straight forward build on Alan's bike with SRAM Rival and Mavic shallow sectioned rims

The first 3 readers of the blog who can name the bike company and the town where they are based will win a roll of Frame Wrap from Frameskin and the next 5 correct answers will win a pair of Limar socks… size Large only

The bonus prize will be the person who comes up with the most amusing name for Alan’s new steed – a copy of 24 Solo and a Freewheel T-shirt ~~ this answer will be judged by Alan, so please nothing crude.

Entries close Tuesday 31st of August

The Jet Black 12 Hour race celebrated it’s 10th anniversary this year, and was (event promoter) Rocky Trail Entertainment’s most successful event to date.

Brett Bellchambers held off fellow Mal Adjusted rider Ed McDonald for the SS win. Must have been the beard.

"Disco" Stu Ferguson tags Tim "TK" Kerle as the pair head out for another lap. These boys went on to win the men's pairs.

The race moved from Yellowmundee in the Lower Blue Mountains to Dargle Farm up near Wiseman’s Ferry, due to new rider restrictions placed on the original venue.  Rocky Trail Entertainment laid out all the infrastructure for a festival-like atmosphere that was social, family friendly, and made the non-riding almost as much fun as the riding!

The surrounding hills dwarfed the riders, but there were no complaints when the trails only took in about 100m of climbing a lap.

The course was described by most as a pedally one, but much time could be gained in the punchy technical sections.  The trails were damp and tacky and compared to Yellowmundee’s dry, rockier tracks didn’t deliver even a fraction of the upper body punishment you would expect at the end of 12 hours of riding.

Katrin Van der Speigel debuts a new bike and new race kit in the lead up to the Solo Worlds.

Jason English also has new kit, which confused a few riders on the track as they tried to work out who was in the lead.

Jason English and Katrin Van der Spiegel made winning the solo categories appear far easier than it must be, with Jason very nearly beating all the teams categories as well.

The switch to Dargle proved a very successful one for this format of racing.  Taking in the happy chatter from riders and families grouped around a large bonfire in the evening, we feel as though 10 years is just the beginning and wonder what year 11 has in store!

The event had a great, festival like feel, aided by the warm bonfire that burned into the evening. It may well still be burning now!

For full results and further information check out the Rocky Trail Entertainment website,  www.rockytrailentertainment.com, and look out for a longer report on the event in the next issue of Enduro.

Thank you to Tristan Cardew for the great photos: www.tristancardew.com

Whether it’s athletes training for the World Solo Champs in October, the lure of the sunny weather (and a break in the rain), or just the fact that the popularity of long endurance races makes 4 – 8 hours seem like less work than it used to, solo racing is really booming.  At the Rocky Trail MTB Grand Prix opening round held at Awaba (near Newcastle) solo entries outnumbered teams by 114 to 46.

Kathryn Cox was the fastest female in the 4 hour race

James Lamb riding for the Turner/Light and Motion Team

The MTB Grand Prix offers riders the choice of a 4 hour or 8 hour race.  For the solo riders, the 4 hour format proved most popular with more riders in the Open Male category than all the 8 hour soloists put together.

James Lamb had planned to race most of the 4 hour but leave early for a work shift.  After vocal persuasion from the enthusiastic crowd he continued to pedal until the four hour mark, claiming the Open Male victory by a slim three and a half minutes over Robbie McNaughton.

Jon Odams built on his recent win in the SRAM Singletrack Mind Series with a first place finish in the eight hour GP.

The MTB Grand Prix Series continues at Dargle Farm on Sunday August 8, following the Rocky Trail’s Jet Black 12 Hour race the day before at the same venue.  For more information, and full results from the first race of the series, check out www.rockytrailentertainment.com.

Solo rider photos courtesy of Ross Cairns.  Start line photo courtesy of Neil Thompson.