Nikolais

Redlands, California, November 03, 2011 – The adidas Group today announced that it has signed a share purchase agreement to acquire Five Ten, a leading performance brand in outdoor action sports. The adidas Group intends to purchase the entire Five Ten business, which includes all of the issued share capital of Five Ten USA. The total purchase price is USD 25 million in cash at closing and contingent payments, which are dependent on Five Ten achieving certain performance measures over the next three years. The transaction is expected to close in the next couple of weeks. As part of its Strategic Business Plan Route 2015, the adidas Group expects sales in the outdoor segment to exceed € 500 million by 2015 based on organic growth. Through the acquisition of Five Ten, the adidas Group will be even better positioned towards the goal to become a leading player in the outdoor market. “We are very excited to join forces with Five Ten. Five Ten is a leading brand in the technical outdoor market and within the outdoor action sport community. Climbers, mountain bikers and other outdoor athletes around the world highly value their products,” said Rolf Reinschmidt, Senior Vice President adidas Outdoor. “Five Ten has continuously been at the forefront of innovations and shares the same passion for athletes as we do at adidas. It represents an excellent addition to the adidas Outdoor portfolio and will allow us to expand into complementary market segments. This acquisition underscores our clear commitment to the outdoors and our ambition to play a leading role in the outdoor industry going forward. I am very much looking forward to working on this journey together with Charles Cole, Founder and President of Five Ten.” “The deal provides exciting prospects for Five Ten. Supported by the adidas Group, we can finally reach the full potential that the ‘Brand of the Brave’ has to offer,” commented Charles Cole, Founder and President of Five Ten. “Here at Five Ten, we like the philosophy of adidas’ founder Adi Dassler, with his focus on product quality and in doing whatever is necessary to give the athlete the advantage. adidas has the same principles of putting athletes and performance first that have guided Five Ten for nearly 30 years and we are thrilled to be partnering with them.” Five Ten has been at the forefront of innovation in the technical outdoor market since the day Stealth, a revolutionary high-friction rubber compound, was created in 1985. Today, the Stealth product family includes more than half a dozen award-winning compounds that provide the highest friction to athletes in various conditions. The Five Ten Elite Team consists of some of the world’s most exciting athletes such as Dean Potter, National Geographic’s 2011 athlete of the year, JT Holmes, champion big-mountain skier and Suz Graham, the most versatile and progressive female action sports athlete in the world. adidas is the athletic brand in the outdoors. It has a long history in innovative outdoor products including highlights such as the ‘Super Trekking’, the first light trekking shoe, being worn by climbing legend Reinhold Messner for his first Everest ascent without oxygen support in 1978. Its award-winning TERREX collection offers lightweight, technical equipment to athletes in the outdoors. The tradition of adidas founder Adi Dassler, who worked individually with athletes to make them better, continues today. adidas Outdoor has teamed up with top outdoor athletes like the Huber Brothers (Climbing, Germany), Beat Kammerlander (Climbing, Austria) and Barbara Zangerl (Climbing, Austria) as well as prestigious organizations such as Zermatt Alpin Center (Switzerland) and Ragni di Lecco (Italy). About the adidas Group The adidas Group is one of the global leaders within the sporting goods industry, offering a broad range of products around the core brands: adidas, Reebok, TaylorMade, Rockport and Reebok-CCM Hockey. Headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Germany, the Group has more than 46,000 employees and generated sales of € 12 billion in 2010. About Five Ten Five Ten is a family-owned company that is dedicated to making the best outdoor sports footwear available. It offers innovative products to athletes in categories such as climbing and mountain biking. Five Ten was founded by Charles Cole in 1985, is located in Redlands, California and employs 37 people. In 2011, annual net sales are expected to be approximately € 16 million excluding distributor business in Japan and Korea. As seen on Vital MTB http://www.vitalmtb.com/news/news/Adidas-Acquires-Five-Ten-for-25-Million,370

Merida's more hard hitting bikes fall under the UMF brand. UMF (United Merida Freeriders) They make Freeride and Dh Bikes. http://www.umf-bikes.com/

No Danegar, that is for the full bike!!!! Boxxer races, Fox Van RC, Elixir 7's, X7 etc...... And there is a cheaper option too: The AL2.0. It has a lower spec but it is still a fully capable DH Sled. The AL2.0 Retails at an incredible 19 995 - see the oBike link below. It has 888Rv's, Roco R, Elixer 3, X5 etc... http://www.obike.co.za/Products/ProductsList.aspx

Have a look at these articles/vids put up on Pinkbike, they should assist; http://www.pinkbike.com/news/How-to-Corner-by-SGC-coach-Steve-Smith-2011.html http://mtbstrengthcoach.pinkbike.com/blog/3stepcornering.html http://www.pinkbike.com/news/Body-Position-Clinic-mtb-strength-training-2011.html and James Wilsons Channel: http://mtbstrengthcoach.pinkbike.com/channel/MTB-Strength-Training-Systems/

HAHAHAHA, Saw a pic on PB the other day of a DH race in the UK, and there were 2 kids who couldnt have been more than 13 or 14 and they both had V10's!!!!!! When I got into DH over a decade ago, my parents thought it was 'a phase', but they still matched me Rand for Rand for my first Bike.

Nice!!!!

Just saw this on Gumtree!!! 30K http://capetown-westerncape.gumtree.co.za/c-Stuff-for-Sale-sports-bicycles-fitness-Intense-951-Downhill-Mountain-bike-W0QQAdIdZ323222471

Oh Yes - Camaro SS... Wow. Any one from 67-69!

I would take this over any sports/super car any day!

Definitely going to get this!

The police forces search for the SRAM photo fiend has shifted into high gear......

So you turned around and SRAN.......

His rear wheel decided not to believe it either..... This is how it eventually decided to react: http://thesensus.com/strait-and-cam-zink-g-shock-commercial-and-what-happened-to-the-rear-wheel/

I will also be riding an alloy GT Fury for 2012!!!! Mine wont be the AL1 spec like Deans, but rather the AL2 as pictured at the beginning of the thread - so amped for my new sled!

This morning the UCI confirmed what appeared to be a lack of 4X on the official World Cup Calendar released yesterday. Following the publication of the 2012 Mountain Bike calendar, the UCI confirms that Four-cross events will form part of the programme of the 2012 UCI Mountain Bike and Trials World Championships to be held in Leogang, Austria. However, due to the high costs of constructing tracks and their impact on the environment, the UCI has decided to withdraw this speciality from the programme of events at UCI Mountain Bike World Cups from next season. -- UCI Official Release We can only wonder how many top athletes will bother to race and train 4X for World Championships only? There still appears to be a reasonable 4X circuit in Europe or at least parts of Europe, however 4X has been pretty much gone from North America for several years. All of the bigger North American events including Crankworx. the Sea Otter Classic, and the US Open have switched to a GS or Dual Slalom format for the past few seasons. With Jared Graves committing full time to DH next year he won't really miss it, but how about athlete's such as this year's women's World Champion Anneke Beerten or US 4X racer Melissa Buhl? Graves in one of the early rounds in Val di Sole this year. Graves has officially retired from 4X to concentrate on DH next season. Did he see this coming? While 4X may have been taken out of the World Cup Circuit there is still a decent 4X scene in Europe with several National Series and also the Scwhalbe Euro 4X Series which winds up this weekend in the Czech town of Pec pod Snezkou. We're waiting to hear the results of a 4X Alliance meeting tomorrow morning, we'll post what we find out. UK 4X racer Scott Beaumont had this to say on his facebook page 4X Alliance statement will be issued on Friday. It's not over yet #excitingtimes -- Scott Beaumont

I think the new section makes sense as it is a more sustained gradient (as you stated). Even though it eliminates some gnarly stuff, at least the momentum will be kept up - I am sure you could add one or two rock gardens to snarl it up a bit. We riding Cascades this Sunday, if you are there maybe you could show me the proposed section - if we have time.

http://www.pinkbike.com/news/Yeti-303-WC-Eurobike-2011.html

Gwin had a crash and became intimate with the netting. http://www.pinkbike.com/news/World-Championships-2011-Danny-Hart-wins-in-Champery.html "This year's World Championships downhill was all about who could handle the greasy mud on the super steep track at Champery, and all about Danny Hart! Marco Miliventi held the lead for quite a while as rider after rider struggled and crashed in the mud. Then Remi Thirion took the hotseat with a 1.9 second lead, look at the time! With rain pouring down, Brendan Fairclough put down an awesome run taking the lead by 6.63 seconds. Fabien Barel put in an incredible effort riding with 4 broken ribs to move into 2nd place in his last ever World Championships, he ended up 10th when it was over. And then came the rider that many were waiting for, Sam Hill. Still riding with a shoulder injury, Sam put in an amazing run looking so loose and picking singular lines that could have given him the win if he'd had the strength, but he couldn't manage better than 2.76 seconds back from Brendan and ended up in 7th place. Damien Spagnolo started his run fast, 0.8 up at the first split, and ended up smashing Fairclough's time by 1.436 seconds to put himself in the hotseat. Josh Bryceland looked liked he had an insane run going but he went down with a spectacular crash in the same place that Hill crashed in 2007, and unfortunately his bike tomahawked off the course and into oblivion, ending his chances of even finishing his run. Sam Blenkinsop made some mistakes at the top and was 2.65 back at the first split looking like it was all over, but he made up some incredible time at the bottom and even with a few more mistakes ended up only 1.29 seconds back to join Spagnolo on the hotseat in second place. After that rider after rider failed to put in a clean run as conditions seemed to get worse with the rain. And then Danny Hart hit the course with just 4 riders left. An astounding 4.5 seconds up at the first split, he was pulling tear offs in places where other riders could barely even hang on. Up by an almost unbelievable 10 seconds up at the second split, he threw a huge whip over the jumps at the finish and he moved into the hotseat, 11.69 seconds up on Spagnolo. Could anyone beat him? Gee really struggled with his run and was 11 seconds back at the first split, and then crashed again and again to finish 52 seconds back in 52nd place. Greg Minnaar started off 9.14 back at the first split and was out of the running, leaving only Aaron Gwin in a position to take Hart out. Gwin was giving Hart a serious run for his money, less than a second back at the first split, but he crashed and got tangled up in the netting, leaving Danny Hart with the win by over 11 seconds!"

Just watched Harts run this morning........ No WORDS!!!!!! "How can he sit with balls that big"

Misery Index: The Illuminaught!!!

Sorry Tumbleweed, I dont understand your meaning?

HART!!!!!.... BROSNAN!!!!!! Wow!!! I was rooting for Gwin to get the win to become the first male ever to win 5 in a row. I think he deserves it.

Awesome Frame - That romo paintjob is sweet!!! I reckon go gold for the rims, bars etc. Below is a Photoshop representation of what it would look like

I use Sidewinders and find these are perfect for DH. They are not too thin or bulky and give me the right amount of 'feel' through the bars. Fox Sidewinder For super protective gloves, check out the Bomber, the are just as comfortable as the above gloves, but with bulletproof polycarbonate knuckle guards and segments. Fox Bomber I got myself a pair of these because I have injured my hand and want to try protect my knuckles as much as possible.

Sweet looking paintjobs on those lids. Is the blue the same electric metallic blue that you used on the bikes???