HARO BIKES

Well, its nearly time for me to say goodbye! Welcome to my penultimate blog from Mikes Bikes in Aviemore

I still get to take part in staff development though, so last Wednesday we visited Wolftrax at Laggan and I was able to take the Diamondback Response Sport for a test. You don't need to me to provide an in depth review of this highly capable hardtail, however, as this year we have expanded the hire fleet to include it. The £500-£750 price band is extremely competitive which is good news for prospective customers. If you are in the market you could do a lot worse than take out one of our Response demo bikes to see what Diamondback is betting on. The Response Sport has been a very popular bike and at £649.99 it was incredibly well specced to include Quad hydraulics, a 130mm XCR fork with remote lock out, 27 speed Shimano Deore and Continental Mountain King tyres. Even more incredibly, we have reduced the last available one to £589.99  The same range includes the Response at £529.99 and the Response Comp at £699.99.

I won't be here for this year's Shop to the Top time trial so if you feel the need to abuse your cardio-vascular system, I'm sure that Hamish will welcome applications for the vacant position as stoker on his tandem. The date you need to block out on your diary is 03 June (first Thursday of the month) - this year's event will again feature Ridley demo bikes and the appearance of ex-Commonwealth Games and Scottish internationalist Drew Wilson. We wait with bated breath to see what Drew's excuse will be this year for not riding  

Ignoring all my advice about not waiting till the start of the season to get your bike serviced, I put my Raleigh Carbon Race through to the workshop for its annual service and treated myself to some new bar tape. Mike and Nigel managed to fit it in amongst a number of other appointments that haven't seen the sun since last summer. Its not quite reaching NHS waiting list proportions but if you are as organised as I am its probably better to be prepared to book your bike in for repairs and servicing! Next week I'm hoping to breathe some new life into my mountain bike by replacing the old Judy Rockshox with a set of Suntour air forks - I'd better make sure its in the diary!

Last year's Shop to the Top is on youtube featuring an original soundtrack by Fireproof Match - the bass player took part on a Raleigh