Baisikel Magazine

WHEELS/ART/LIFE/CULTURE

THOMAS MERNAGH// //NEW ROUTES GEAR//

//PHOTOGRAPHY EVENTS & RACES//

//AND MORE..

DOWNHILL SPECIAL EDITION

UK 4.99 ROI 5.99 AUS 13.99 ISSUE NUM: 01 DEC 2011

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Editor’s Letter:

I would personally like to welcome you to Baisikel’s first ever issue! We strongly believe in a need to keep everyone informed through great writing and fantastic pictures. There are so many different subcultures revoliving around cycling that it can seem dizzying to keep abreast of it all. At Baisikel we decided to make our first issue a downhill affair, as it’s one of the fastest growing bike sports in the world. In the magazine you’ll find profiles of riders, reviews of gear and fantastic photography that really brings the sport to life. We certainly hope you enjoy Baisikel.

Regards, Ross Henderson.

PAGE 05: TRIPPING // Thomas Mernagh WE FOLLOW BIKING IN PITFICHIE, ABERDEEN

PAGE 12-18: GUIDE // New Routes CRAIG LUG, NEVIS AND PITFICHIE

PAGE 19-26: FOTOCAMP // DOWNHILLING NORTH A SERIES OF IMAGES CAPTURING DOWNHILL CULTURE

PAGE 28-31: REVIEW // 2012 GT Range and more!

WE KNOW WHAT YOU NEED TO GO DOWN

PAGE 32-35: CALENDAR // December & January Races BRUSH THE SNOW OFF, GET OUT AND BIKE

PAGE 40-41: VIEWPOINT // Readers Pictures PICTURES FROM RIDERS AND PHOTOGRAPHERS AROUND THE COUNTRY

PAGE 42: MUSIC&FILM // Reviews NEW AND EMERGING BANDS AND TOP FILM RELEASES

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TRIPPING// Thomas Mernagh Thomas picked us up in his bottle green Golf. His muddy bikehung from a rack on the boot. He grins as he downs some soda he found down the side of the door. “We’re going to Pitfichie” He says while contemplating the rear-view mirror.

On the way up he pointed to a rock garden covered in jagged stones, “I’m going to session this bit later so you can get some pictures if you want” He said while pushing his bike over a large boulder.

Thomas, or just simply Tom, is a student of geology at Aberdeen University and he’s been biking for years. In fact he tells me that he is giving up playing rugby so that he can put all his focus in to biking.

At the top the wind blew right through us and there was a track cut deep through the fern revealing the slick grey stone underneath.

When we arrived in the forest at two he changed in to his gear. It was a long trek to the top and the strain was amplified by carrying bikes, cameras and other items of questionable necessity namely Darragh’s (One of Tom’s friends who doesn’t bike, but rather came for the trip) overnight bag full of cider cans of varying degrees of fullness.

The team scurried down the hill and set up the cameras while Tom put his helmet on and sets off down the hill to session the crazy looking rock garden. After about half an hour or more the sun went down and we found ourselves enveloped in darkness.

Tom told us that we should pack up. Thankfully there was a fire road the whole way down the hill that meant we didn’t have to acquire a concussion on our way to the bottom.

RH

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FOTOCAMP// This Fotocamp features a selection of pictures from Ross Henderson’s recent biking trip with a group of local downhill bikers from around Aberdeen.

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FOTOCAMP//

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FOTOCAMP//

Tom’s wheel came so close to hitting me as I lay on the ground to get this shot.

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RH

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FOTOCAMP//

It was a fantastically frenetic day, everyone was running around the forest doing their own thing. Some guys sat contentedly beneath the balding, wintery tree canopy and talked about their bikes.

We met Martin, the guy who built the track, he told us his woes of the Forestry commission knocking the trails down in their infancy.

Martin showed the guys the best way to tackle a crazyy series of jumps. They gathered round and listened as he fervently pointed to every jump telling them where to speed up and lean in .

He grabbed his bike from the side of a tree and hauled it up to the top of the run. Once at the top he got on his bike and remained perfectly still for a while. Possibly this standing still was part of a pre-run ritual he exercised before every run, maybe not.

We didn’t ask.

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He launched himself down the hill, pedalling furiously. He hit arced over the jumps with the ease that only someone who built them with his own hands.

The rest gave it a go with varying results. Joel flew off his bike on the second jump but got up with a grin. All was well.

Afterwards, everyone sat in a clearing and Darragh, Tom’s friend passed around some cans of cider he’d picked up from a cornershop on the way.

It was a successful day, the signs were there- everyone was absolutely covered in mud. Not to mention the fact that some of the non-bikers were drunk.

RH

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BAISIKEL FLAT PLAN

BAISIKEL House Style 1. Wordage Articles should be no more than 2500 words.

Reviews should be limited to 750 words.

Poetry submitted should have a clear link with Lapidus’ aims and objectives.

2. Layout Typeface and Size Where possible, work should be submitted in Times New Roman, size 12.

Paragraphs All paragraphs should be left-only justified.

Any ‘further reading’ or ‘references’ paragraphs should follow the main text, in roman. These should be indicated by ‘Further reading:’ or ‘References:’ in normal text with information running on.

Informative paragraphs at the end of main pieces should be set in italic with a line space above.

3. Punctuation Full Points The stop at the end of a sentence is always followed by one space, never two.

Quotation Marks Use single quotes throughout, except when quoting within single quotation marks. Then use double quote marks.

Apostrophes Do not use an apostrophe for plurals: The job of PCs in the 1990s became difficult. (correct) The job of PC’s in the 1990’s became difficult. (incorrect) Ellipses Ellipses are made up of three dots only. They should never be preceded or followed by a full point, comma, colon or semicolon.

4. Numbers Write out numbers one to nine as words unless they relate to a unit of measurement or are linked by a dash: 7pm, £2, 9km, 5–14 Write out a number if it starts a sentence.

Put commas in thousands: 1,000 Write out ordinal numbers: first, eleventh. Over 100 use numbers, keeping the ‘st’ on the same line: 101st Units of Measurement Avoid the decimal place in money, unless absolutely necessary: £1 not £1.00 and 99p not £0.99. But, It cost me £3.57 would be correct. £6.3 billion, not £6,300,000,000 (one billion is defined as one thousand million) Dollars are assumed to be US, unless otherwise indicated, eg NZ$.

Dates Write out as 17 November 2002 or Sunday 17 November 2002, The 80s, 1990s, The 21st century, The class of ’89, 1995–2002, but 1955–6

Time Write out as eleven o’ clock, but if using a number make sure ‘am’ or ‘pm’ follows without a space and no full points.

It was 11.57pm when the gunshot was heard.

5. Abbreviations Upper-case Do not use full stops between the capital letters of the abbreviation: BBC, not B. B. C. Write out the name of an organisation in full the first time you use it (unless it is universally recognisable, e.g. the CIA), using capitals for the key words only, and place the abbreviation or acronym in brackets after it: the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). From then on just use the abbreviation or acronym.

Lower-case Use full points without spaces where abbreviations are used within the text, but note that abbreviations that retain the first and last letters of a word do not take a full point.

St, Mr, Mrs, Dr, Ltd If the abbreviation does not end with the final letter of the full word, then it should have a full point. Circa, however, is abbreviated as c only.

Initials Use a full stop followed by a space: E. B. White.

Measurements Metric and imperial measurements are never followed by a full point, and plurals do not have ‘s’. Use the abbreviation when preceded by numbers in the text.

In text set in the present and recent past, use metric measurement, but note that miles is still held to be more acceptable than kilometres as they remain in common use, particularly on all British road signs and maps.

While consistency within the text is crucial, do not try to change common expressions to metric, but leave as ‘tons of love’, ‘within an inch of his life’, ‘you live miles away’, etc.

6. Italics Italics should be used sparingly for emphasis.

Use italics for foreign words, but check whether thay are now accepted in English.

Use italics for titles of newspapers and magazines, although the definite article of a newspaper is usually in roman lower case.

Titles of books, plays, films, TV programmes, records or CDs, ships and works of art are all in italic, but not short stories, songs or extracts. These should be in quotation marks.

7. Citing References Be consistent with this form: Author, X. Y., Title, Publisher, year of first publication, page number An item of a bibliography will follow the exact format above, omitting the final comma and page reference.

8. Preferred Expressions Language used to describe people should be inclusive, inoffensive and person-focused.

Do not use gender-specific language unless you are referring to one sex in particular. Use plurals, plural pronouns or the person’s profession to avoid ‘he/she’ awkwardness.