Spunion has it spot on. I'm on my 2nd warranty replacement. They are the best feeling pedal out there but the bearings fail catastrophically leaving the races fused to the body making them nigh on impossible to get out without gouging the body and damaging them further. Poor show for a product that costs so much.

The truck is a MK II, or fourth gen Toyota Hilux extra cab, 83 to 89. In North America it was known as the Toyota Pickup. The Tacoma came later and was a completely different platform designed for the U.S and Canada.

"[I]An outline explaining why Downhill Mountain Bike Racing is the greatest sport in the world, and why all others are inferior to it."[/I] Well done for at least attempting to write an interesting essay on why you think the sport of downhill racing is so good, however I strongly doubt you're going to get much constructive criticism on mountainbiking website. It’s good to see someone championing DH, and your well within your rights to do so – it’s your opinion and your entitled to it but I think you’ve overlooked some things and you have been quite narrow in your definitions. Firstly, What’s wrong with just riding your bike? Is there something inherently better about downhill racing as opposed to downhill riding, or freeriding or simply trail riding? I am willing to bet that your answer would be yes, and that is purely because of the element of competition right?. Unless of course you feel that just riding bikes recreationally is a waste of time in comparison with racing? Surely then it's the element of competition in DH which fuels your passion as opposed to the bike riding element, otherwise why would you even right this article? You have chosen to directly compare DH with team sports. There are a myriad of individual sports out there and the same general arguments could be made for any sport where an individual competes against a clock as opposed to two teams competing. I realize it’s impossible to write a comprehensive list of sports to compare against DH (part of the reason why this is an exercise in futility) but you have left out sooo many other sports and types of sports it renders your argument totally impotent. Take combat sports as example, virtually any will do, the same basic criteria apply to them all but for the purposes of familiarity and hyperbole we’ll choose mixed martial arts. Cage fighting. Ultimate fighting. Vale Tudo. Call it what you want. MMA requires a much higher level of fitness than DH. MMA requires a much higher level of strength, muscular endurance , flexibility and balance than DH. In DH you race against the clock, all there is is you, your bike, gravity and the clock. In MMA you compete against a living breathing opponent who is determined to beat you. As you try to assert your game plan your opponent will adapt, improvise and change to counter you. With the exception of weather and trail degradation, a DH course does not change, it’s static. You choose the level you wish to compete at, you have the choice as to how fast or slow you go. In combat sports a living breathing opponent does this for you. When someone is trying to beat you, choke or break your bones you push harder than you ever imagined possible. I love gravity fuelled mountain biking, it’s what I do, but even by your own criteria there are better sports out there. If you doubt my words go down to your local boxing, jiujitsu, wrestling, muay thai or mma club and get on the matt. At the end of the day though it’s all largely irrelevant. Why we do or don’t love a sport is not based on any perceived superiority in comparison with other sports, its about intangibles. It’s about the thrills you receive from participating or watching that sport and those are totally subjective things. It shows an inferiority complex to even write this, not to mention a degree of immaturity within the sport. Who cares if we are the best sport or the worst? Why even feel the need to objectify something like riding bikes? That’s not why I do it, I didn’t think that’s why anyone did it. I ride my bike because at the end of the day it’s more fun than anything else. Isnt that enough?

I wasnt aiming to condense the documentary element into 3 minutes. This was a practical exercise for me to asses the time and effort required to put a sequence like this together.

Cheers Paddy, but I think you'll find.....you da man! The trail is near Belfast in County Antrim.

Shave their ankles maybe - it says knee and shin protection is now mandatory.

I'm sure it wouldnt be impossible to develop tough but tight fitting clothes.

The difference between wearing a skin suit and not is probably negligible, especially compared to a rider error. They probably only factor into results on tracks with long fast open sections, can't see them having much effect on a steep technical section. The difference in image though is immense. If skin suits became the norm it could damage the public's perception of the sport - the sports key demographic (young men) might become disenfranchised with it if they can't or don't want to relate. You only have to look at how many kids on forums like this one refer to them as gay. At the minute dh seems to be in the middle of a resurgance and the UCI probably want to make sure that continues and nothing happens to upset the apple cart. Downhill racing is generally percieved as an extreme sport and definately "cool". Wearing skin suits won't make the sport any less extreme or any less dangerous but it may change the publics perception. Had this ruling not been passed eventually everyone would be wearing skin suits scrambling to get the competitive edge and dh would become a sport where men in skin tights clothes ride bikes downhills. This would probably great for freeriding, not so good for attracting kids to dh.

Good riding, poor video. Even went as low as blatantly speeding up the clip at 59 secs. Not cool.