Well Morewood has proven to be a winning combination! Pro racer Geritt Beytagh has been working hard this year and absolutely dominated the USA National Champs at Mt Snow this year.

With a 2nd in the Pro Slalom the night before and then 1st in the Pro Downhill Qualifications with a broken chain and then 1st by 3 seconds over Decline Rider Cody Warren in the Finals.



Geritts Comments were" The bike was just so light and nimble that it was almost easy really.."



Well Done Geritt.

Geritt Beytagh has won the Canada cup in Bromont!! He had a blistering run and took first with 5 seconds over Steve Smith.

With Beytagh crashing last year and missing the top spot he was fired up and focused for this one!

Well done Geritt.

Hi all

Our pro racer has created a website that he designed himself.

In his site it has race updates and pictures plus a blog that is updated about 4 time a week.



Please take a look at it as it is quite interesting looking into the life of a pro racer.



www.geritt.com

After sorting through a number of promising riders we have decided to go small this year.

We have kept with Geritt Beytagh as our main Pro rider and we have recruited Will Collins, a promising Junior rider that is a hopeful for the US National team member for the 2008 World Champs in Italy.

Under the guidence of Geritt Beytagh we are sure that young Will Collins will be a National team member.



Our Main sponsors this year are pretty much the same.

CONTROL TECH are our main sponsor this year. Their product is of the highest quality and with them being around for so long they know what works well and what doesn't.

661, Formula, Lake, Cane Creek, E13, Industry Nine, Maxxis, Crank Brothers and Royal have all continued to support our team this year.



The races we shall follow are mainly North East races including the 2 World Cups in Canada also a number of the National series races such as Fontana and NY.

We will also be doing the Sea Otter Classic and some European World Cups including World Champs in Italy.



If you have any questions about our Team, Geritt Beytagh is self managed and can answer all questions you may have.



If you would like to be a sponsor of our team you can contact Geritt.  geritt@morewoodbikes.com



Cheers! And enjoy your ride!!

Mount Snow threw out its usual mixture of rain and shine for the 2007 US National Championships.   Although this event is for US citizens only, many riders from all over the country converged on the normally sleepy summer village of West Dover to challenge one of the most grueling Downhill courses on the national circuit. For many of the riders this is the final event to decide if they have a chance of being selected to represent the US at the World Championships and who is staying at home.

Wednesday and Thursday dumped all-night rain on the freshly-cut course so when practice began the rocks became slick with a mud and grass glaze and the parts in between became a morass of mud and water ditches. It was impossible to tell who the riders were at the end of their practice runs as there was not one part of their body or bike not covered with 2 inches of thick clingy mud. Pit crews worked endlessly changing tires to the gnarliest mud spikes possible and debating on how to get these tires that work great in the mud, not to be too sketchy on the wet rocky sections. Clipping the middle spikes off the tires seemed to be the favorite solution. Long lines formed at the bike washing stations as bikes and riders had to be sprayed down and scrubbed before they could be identified.

Fortunately by Saturday the rain had held off and the dual slalom event was held in dry conditions on a short, but screamingly fast course. Team Morewood consisting of Cole Bangert and Geritt Beytagh looked in deadly form as they practiced together – flying in formation as one observer put it. This was backed up by Cole qualifying 2^nd fastest behind Eric Carter and Geritt qualifying 9^th. The racing was incredibly exciting with only fractions of a second separating the riders. Geritt crashed out early along with Eric Carter and Cole finished 5^th after losing out to Rich Houseman by a tenth of a second. The event was won by the popular Chris Herndon, fellow North Carolinian and good buddy, with Houseman second.

The rain held off on Saturday night so the DH course was rapidly drying out, but still with a large number of muddy spots. The debate now became whether to keep the mud spikes on or switch to the less radical Maxxis Minions or High Rollers. The Morewood riders decided to keep the spikes on for the qualifying run which proved to be the wrong choice. Both riders had a disastrous qualifying run with Cole flatting at the top and Geritt losing it with the spikes on the now dry rocks and crashing heavily and losing his shoe in the process.

 I guess it was a case of “if the dress-rehearsal is bad then it’ll be okay on the day”  Both Morewood riders started the DH final fairly early due to their poor qualifying time with Cole starting off like a man with a serious mission. Geritt started two riders later, also out to prove a point. Both of them had a faultless run with Cole clocking in a full 8 seconds faster than the fastest qualifying time and Geritt a few seconds behind. At this point it was Morewood Riders in 1^st and 2^nd place with Cole firmly in the hot seat. One by one the top riders clocked in, but none of them managed to beat Cole’s time and when the final rider, Duncan Riffle, failed to come through in time the crowd went wild congratulating Cole as the new 2007 US National Downhill Champion. The final finish was Cole, Luke Strobel, Chris Herndon, TJ Sharp and Geritt.

 It was a great event for Morewood Bikes with Cole and Geritt on the podium and Lisa Myklak getting a 3^rd in the women’s dual slalom and a 5^th in the women’s DH.

 Once again, Team Morewood would like to thank the great support from their sponsors – Fox Racing Shox, Control Tech, Maxxis,  e.thirteen, Industry Nine, Formula,  Crank Bros, Mavic, SixSixOne, FSA and Lake Shoes for the their great support.

Contact: Richard Beytagh

Phone: (828) 687-0788

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 11 May 2007:

TEAM MOREWOOD 2007 AT THE WORLD CUP IN VIGO SPIAN

The gravity racing scene starts in earnest with the first major Downhill event of the year: Vigo Spain is the venue for the first of 5 World Cup gravity events this year and both the Pro men in the Morewood team are among the 5 USA riders entered for this event. The European World Cup events attract the best riders in the world and entry list has over 160 riders registered, headed up the world best – Steve Peat, Nathan Rennie, Sam Hill and Greg Minnaar. It is expected that over 25,000 enthusiastic spectators will travel to Vigo to see the action and it will be covered extensively by the European sports broadcasters. Sadly, the USA still has a long way to go before we get this kind of support of what is an incredibly exciting sport.

Cole Bangert and Geritt Beytagh are representing the Morewood Team in Vigo and although Geritt struggled to get UCI points last year due to an injury that put him out for most of the season, he has earned a place on the US National Team and will be riding in the US Colors. Both Cole and Geritt have been training hard – Cole up at 9,000ft at his home in Twin Lakes Colorado, and Geritt on the incredible

mountain trail systems around his home in Asheville North Carolina. Their new Morewood DH and 4X rigs were delivered this week and the team is looking good with their black and gold color combination. With Morewood Team at the World Cup in Vigo Spain good results from the 2007 Sea Otter Classic and local “season openers”, they are both feeling confident of getting a good result.

Most of the riders arrived in Spain on Tuesday, and although they had an opportunity to walk the course,

official practice only starts on Thursday. Down-time has been well spent however, checking out the sights of the resort town of Vigo and visiting the mainly topless beaches of the Mediterranean. The Vigo DH course has a reputation for high speed crashes and reports are that it is fast, a little dusty with some

sections that will come up and bite you if you get too confident. There is some well documented footage

of Bryn Atkinson taking a horrendous fall on this course last year so riders are giving it the respect it

deserves. There is a huge road jump at the finish and a lot places where the riders are getting big air.

There are some complaints that the 4X course is too radical and is about 2 minutes long, but more on this later.

Once again, if it wasn’t for the sponsors, the Morewood Team would not be in Europe and we would like

to thank – Fox Racing Shox, Control Tech, Maxxis, e.thirteen, Industry Nine, Formula, Crank Bros, Mavic, SixSixOne, FSA and Lake for the their great support.

If you went to any of the big downhill races in North America last year you probably noticed more than a few riders on Morewood bikes. With the sudden appearance of the team riders Geritt Beytagh, Cole Bangert, Lisa Myklak and Joanna Petterson getting on the podium at a few Nationals and the U.S. Open, many people wondered where Morewood came from. Well, Morewood is from a little city called Pietermaritzburg in South Africa- a place littered with singletrack. Wanting to make a strong, low-maintenance frame, Patrick Morewood started building bikes in 1998 and eventually settles on a single-pivot chassis design. After becoming well established in South Africa, in 2003 Morewood started a U.S. Division in North Carolina, putting most of their marketing dollars into their race team.

Overview

The Shova LT is an excellent overall gravity machine with a well-built, single-pivot design. Equipped with 183mm of quality travel, it comes with a 135mm thru-axle rear end, a 1.5" head tube and can take a front derailleur. Built up with a high-end kit and you get a super light bike that is equally at home ripping a downhill trail as it is hitting a bike park.

The Technology

All Morewood frames are built in their factory in South Africa using custom drawn 6082 aluminium tubing to construct the single-pivot designs. The 183mm travel Shova LT is their all-round gravity chassis. Featuring a 1.5" head tube, full-length seat tube and the ability to run a front derailleur. The frame uses a large rectangular down tube that is gusseted at the head tube and a low top tube design for increased stand-over clearance. A CNC-machined shock mount links the top and down tubes.

The swingarm is built with square tubing and a 135mm thru-axle rear and. It pivots around the Stable Pivot Interface or main pivot, which features a unique design that Morewood says makes the rear end stiffer than typical single-pivot designs. The SPI system uses a large tube welded into the frame to house the bearing/ axle assembly. The end caps run through the swingarm, the bearings and into the frame, fastening to the threaded axle and producing a system that is stiff and user friendly.

Morewood sells frames and complete bikes but they also do partial builds and custom kits like our test rig. Teaming up with many of their race team sponsors, Morewood built us a very high-end test bike. The bike was leaded with eye candy- from the Industry Nine wheels to the Cane Creek Double Barrel shock. The Industry Nine wheels feature their proprietary aluminium spoke and hub design, and the Double Barrel shock offers adjustable high- and low-speed compression and high- and low-speed rebound damping. Morewood slapped on Manitou's Travis Triple 180mm fork with adjustable TPC Plus compression and rebound damping. The bike also came equipped with SRAM X.0 drivetrain, e.thirteen LG-1 guide, Maxxis Minion tires, Formula Oro Bianco Brakes, SDG I-Beam seat and post, and a Control Tech carbon bar. Aside from personal preferences, you can't get a better spec than that.

The Ride

Morewood positions the Shova LT as both a downhill and freeride chassis. For smaller/ lighter riders and people riding tamer terrain (think Sea Otter, Fontana and Sonoma downhills), the bikes low weight makes it a great downhill rig. It can also accept a front derailleur to cater to riders wanting a long-travel bike capable of pedalling into the woods.

Our test bike came dialled for gravity runs, but weighed under 38 pounds. It is amazing to ride a capable downhill bike that is so light. You can position it any place you want it on the trail and jump everything in between. The Shova LT's geometry adds to the nimble feel, working well for all-round downhilling. While the bike came with a lot of high-zoot products, the standout is the Double Barrel shock, which offers tremendous control and gives the rear suspension excellent performance.

Handling

The light weight of the Shova LT certainly helps its manoeuvrability, but it all starts with the geometry and the combo makes it easy to place your tires exactly where you want them. Sitting at about 14.25- inches, the bottom bracket is low enough to maintain stability at speed without causing you to skim your pedals through every rock section. The 67-degree head angle and 44-inch wheelbase make for a bike that can whip around switchbacks and handle tight turns in the trees, but it is still comfortable blazing fire roads and mowing over rough terrain. The Shova LT is made to perform on a variety of train conditions.

Suspension

While setting up the TPC Plus damping on the Travis fork is commonplace, the high- and low-speed adjustments on the Double Barrel shock always take time to dial in. That's because the four separate adjustments offer a lot of control over the damping. The Double Barrel adds a unique dimension to the rear suspension with a firm feel that seamlessly opens up the damping as it encounters impact. The damping tones down the shock's low-speed movement, providing the Shova LT with excellent pedalling ability without the sticky feel that usually comes with it. IT also helps negate the pedal feedback typically associated with high single-pivot designs and gives the bile quality travel with superb big hit performance. It makes you think that the rear end has 200mm of travel. The firm damping feel rides higher in the travel and uses less stroke to absorb an impact, which will cause you to run a stiffer spring rate in the fork, or a softer shock spring to balance the front and rear suspension. We chose to soften the rear shock spring by 50 pounds.

Descending

Built with nimble handling and excellent suspension, by now you probably know that we were pleased with the Shova LT's downhill ability. It rails over rough terrain as the high single-pivot design provides a good wheel path for absorbing hard hits. You will notice that honking down on the rear brake takes away some of the sensitivity of the rear suspension, particularly on rough terrain or when landing a drop. The bike has good top tube clearance for manoeuvrability and is stable in the air once you get used to riding a light downhill bike. The frame is responsive to subtle input to maintain traction, letting you push the limits in corners and thread the needle through tight sections. We liked the overall package of the Shova LT, providing great performance from a simple, lightweight design.

Chassis

Fork: Manitou Travis Triple; 180mm

Frame: 6082 Aluminium

Shock: Cane Creek Double Barrel; 183mm

Cockpit

Brake Levers: Formula Oro Bianco

Brakes: Formula Oro Bianco

Handlebar: Control Tech Carbon

Headset: Cane Creek

Saddle: SDG I-Fly I-Beam

Seatpost: SDG I-Beam

Shifter: SRAM X.0

Stem: Manitou Direct Mount

Wheels

Hubs F/R: Industry Nine

Rims: DT Swiss 5.1D

Tires: Maxxis Minion DHF 2.5"

Drivetrain

Bottom Bracket: Truvativ Stylo

Cassette: SRAM 11-25T

Cranks: Truvativ Stylo

Derailleurs F/R: e.thirteen LT-1 guide/ SRAM X.0

Pedals: N/A

Norba Final – Snowmass Colorado 11-12 august 2006: The last destination on the 2006 Norba circuit and site for the final showdown to decide the winners of this year’s Norba Season. This venue has been used for several years now and despite the area resonating to the sound of construction of the multi-million life-style center, the courses and organization was excellent.

There is no doubt that the permanently maintained 4-cross course is the best on the circuit and the newly constructed dual slalom course was tight and ideal for those riders with a BMX background, but great from a spectator perspective as you were able to view the entire course from one position. The downhill course was little changed from last year except the high-speed switch-back section had been made faster as the corners had been rounded out. Riders were hitting speed of 50mph going through this section and if you came off here, you stayed off….. I witnessed a hi-speed crash where the rider flew through the air for at least 40 ft before crashing to earth like a rag doll. His bike cart-wheeled a further 50 yards and disappeared down a ravine. Fortunately the rider suffered only a minor concussion, two tacco’ed wheels, a shattered helmet and a few cuts and bruises.

As this was the Norba Final it was mandated that all riders should be there and none of these races could be a discard in the series. So with a good turn-out of some of the worlds finest downhill, mountain-cross and cross country riders the scene was set for an outstanding weekend of riding. The serious racing kicked-off with a “fun” dual slalom on the Friday night which was, quite frankly, the best dual we have seen all season. Although it was a fun race, it was hotly contested with the two finalist being Greg Minnaar and Rich Houseman. In the final run, these two riders were absolutely neck-to-neck the whole way, giving it everything they had. Both crashed right at the finish with Greg sliding over the finish line to beat Rich by a fraction of a second. The women’s race was just as tightly contested with Amelia Colasuro finishing first, just ahead of 2nd placed Joanna Pettersen on her Morewood Ndiza ST.
The rain stayed away this year and the Mountain Cross finals went ahead on an awesome, but slightly damp course. Rich Housemen won his final in convincing style and was the overall Norba Mountain Cross champion for 2006. Joanna finished 2nd which gave her 1st overall for the Pro Women Norba series and Cole Bangert was the top placed Morewood men’s rider and ended up the Norba season as the 6th placed rider in the Pro Men Mountain Cross series.

The rain started falling in earnest on Saturday afternoon and turned the dusty DH course into slippery slope of muddy porridge. For the Experts racing on the Saturday afternoon, it was a matter of survival and trying to make it down the course without crashing. Identifying the riders and their race numbers became an impossible task as they were so covered with mud. It continued raining on Saturday night, but Sunday dawned clear and the course rapidly dried out and was in perfect condition for the DH final.

Disaster struck the Morewood Team in the morning practice as Joanna Pettersen, currently leading the Pro Women’s DH points, crashed heavily and rode down to the first aid tent with what transpired to be a broken ankle. This is a double disaster as Joanna had been picked to ride for her country in the World Championships and now she couldn’t compete in this or the mandated Norba final putting her out of the top 5 in the final Norba standings. Lisa Myklak, the other pro women Morewood rider, rode a precise race and finished in 3rd place just behind Tracy Hannah in 2nd and Sabrina Jonnier in 1st. Despite missing 2 Norba races in the early part of the season, Lisa ended up in 3rd place overall for the Norba series.

The Pro Men’s DH series winner would be decided between Sam Hill in top spot, only a few points ahead of Greg Minnaar….Greg had to win by 3 places to be declared the winner. Morewood riders Cole Bangert - USA and Jonty Neethling – South Africa, both of whom have been selected to ride for their countries in World Championships, were going to be extra careful to make sure they didn’t get injured prior to flying to New Zealand. Geritt Beytagh, the “missing” Morewood rider who has been sidelined with a broken shoulder for most of the season, was back in the saddle and keen to prove that he can still mix it after a 12 week layoff.
Jonty and Cole put in fairly conservative runs and finished with a 26th and 20th respectively. That placed Jonty at 25th and Cole at 10th for the overall Norba season. Geritt, who had had a slow qualifying run due to a flat tire, came blasting down the hill and occupied the hot-seat for the next 40 minutes until the final eight riders descended and he ended up 9th - just 5 seconds behind the eventual winner Greg Minnaar. Sam Hill finished 2nd which was enough to give him the overall Norba DH title.

Overall it has been a great Norba season for Team Morewood and despite some serious injuries they finished with 18 Pro podium places and 3 riders selected to represent their country at the World Champs in New Zealand.

Morewood would like to thank their sponsors for their great support – Manitou, e.thirteen, Industry Nine, Cane Creek, Dainese, Crank Bros, Hayes and Sun Ringle

Norba # 2 – Sugar Mountain North Carolina 11 June 2006: This popular ski resort based deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains near Boone NC hosted the 2nd NORBA NMBS event for 2006. What a change from the dry dusty conditions of the 1st NORBA held at the Fontana Southridge Park location in Southern California. Downhill riders arriving for their first practice session on Thursday 8 June were met with misting rain and a course that looked more like a muddy river bed than a national DH course.

Technically, if courses were rated 1 for easy and 9 for extreme, Sugar would be close to 9 and the wet made certain sections almost unridable. Crashes abounded and not a single rider came down from the mountain without bruises and grass stains. Pits were a hive of activity changing tires to spikes and dusting off the wet weather gear. All the talk was about the “waterfall”, a treacherous 15ft vertical drop at the top of the course that had an almost impossible approach, an intimidating set of rocks that were bound to claim a few riders. In the wet, this was only being attempted by the most skilled or plain crazy riders.
Friday dawned mostly sunny and warm and so it stayed for most of the weekend except for a sudden thunder storm that halted the pro dual slalom and sent the riders and spectators running for cover as lightning struck the nearby ski-lift.

With the course drying out rapidly it was off with the spikes and back to dry weather tires for the rest of the weekend. Pro qualifying was on the Saturday and Sam Hill gave a convincing demonstration on what was to come by qualifying 1st from fellow antipodean Justin Leov. The Morewood riders did well with Cole Bangert and Joanna Pettersen both qualifying 5th in their pro classes. Now for the bad news; 2 of our top riders were out of this race, with Lisa Mykak sidelined with a badly bruised shoulder and Geritt Beytagh sadly out of this year’s Norba with a broken shoulder blade from a fall on the Dual Slalom course.

By the afternoon, the course had dried out and had turned from a scary-dangerous course in the wet to a challenging-fun course in the dry. The Pro women came down the mountain first with young Tracey Hannah showing great form by beating Sabrina Jonnier into 1st place with Joanna coming in with a great 4th Place.
Cole was hoping for his first NORBA podium and achieved this with a faultless run to get 4th place to put him on the podium with fellow US rider Duncan Riffle. Predictably, Sam Hill absolutely blew away the competition with run that was 14 seconds faster than 2nd placed New Zealander, Justin Leov.
With Joanna’s 4th place in the women’s Dual Slalom, Morewood had three podium places for the weekend, adding to the previous six from the 1st Norba in Fontana and the US Open.

Morewood would like to thank their sponsors for their great support – Manitou, e.thirteen, Industry Nine, Cane Creek, Dainese, Crank Bros, Hayes and Sun Ringle