Greg Minnaar to ride HONDA in 2004

[DOM]

Haro Press Release.

'World Champion Greg Minnaar Released From Haro/Lee Dungarees Team'

Haro Bicycle Corporation announced today the release of Greg Minnaar from the Haro/Lee Dungarees Team.

Haro President and CEO, Jim Ford, made this statement regarding the departure of the 2003 Downhill World Champion and NORBA downhill champion, "Greg is both a great person and a great athlete, but we choose not to match an offer presented to Greg to ride for Honda in 2004."

"Although the financial terms of the offer were significant, money wasn't the real issue. Greg and I talked and after hearing his desire to work with Honda on this project, I felt that it was best for both of us to end the relationship on a positive note."

Greg, who raced only one season for the Haro Lee Dungarees Mountain Bike Team, was quick to praise the team that assisted him to his World Championship title, “Obviously this was a difficult decision for me after having had such a great year with the Haro team and all they have done for me. I have been very fortunate in my career already, and I am very much indebted to all at Haro for their support and genuine loyalty this year".

Currently, Haro has no plans to replace Minnaar and will instead rely on Australian team-mate Mick Hannah to pick up where Greg left off in downhill and 4X competition.

The Haro Team enjoyed its best season ever in 2003 thanks to Minnaar's accomplishments and another NORBA title in Short-Track won by Canadian Seamus McGrath.

Cross-country and short-track rider Chris Sheppard and 4X specialist Mike King are expected back, along with Hannah and McGrath for the 2004 season.

Check out the pic of the Bad Boy Greg will be developing when his Honda deals goes public. Imagine this bad boy "bling bling"


Once again as stated in the Commencal signing... good to see another BIG BIG player enter the MTB racing circuit. Honda will surely throw some money into the sport.

[Ryan]

Holy shitballs batman! That's awesome news.

Honda aren't ones to enter a sport half assed, I ph34r the amount of R&D cash they're going to bring to the table for this campaign.

[peachy]

woah man that bike looks heavy as, i'm sure it isn't though.. i'd have it

[bb7 rider]

that bike looked sick on the world cup in the flesh, the riders dont even know how the gear box works and wherent allowed to let any one ride them, even mike hannah ex team mate of global wouldnt let him ride em. the mechanics didnt work on them in the open either it was all done in a closed trailer. i got to feel the weight and it wasnt to heavy pretty much average to everything else. should be intresting to see its development

[DOM]

yeah big discussion on dhrace regarding the bike.

apparently they are making it heaps lighter.

imagine minnarrs salary .. Yeooooow.

no shortage of cash with Honda .. playing with MTB's is like coming from their lunch money fund.

[Ryan]

That's a bit of an exaggeration Dom, Honda's lunch money fund would probably buy them the top 10 riders in the world ;)

I reckon someone just swiped a pile of bills from the suitcase of hundreds the Honda Champ Car team uses for lighting cigars on race weekends.

Though the bike is rumoured to cost $75,000 :O

[josh]

How interesting is tthis going to be. Can't wait to see Minaar's performance on this thing next year!

[jays_5000]

$75000!!!!!!!!!!! god damn!!!!!!!!!!!

i was lookin at it thinking it was gunna cost about $15000 tops

but $75000!!

[Ty]

it's called development cost, it would probably cost you $75000 in tooling to setup all the gear to make one single bic lighter, yet if you plan to make 75 000 lighters the cost per unit decreases dramatically.

[Turley]

I hope he does well.. Hopefully it will bring a bit of life back into the World Dh scene. All you need is a butterfly to flap its wings to great a hurricane. Lets just hope this is the case!

[DOM]

Yamaha Mountain bikes..

[juzza]

Holy cow! That thing belong in a cabinet. That just looks sooo cool but who knows how it rides?

[15inchstinky]

yeah that bike it so sick. i read an article on it and they originally had a red paint design but they scrapped it to save 14 grams. As if that would make any difference!

[DOM]

yeah i heard that aswell hahah they took away the paint to save weight hahaha.

[Ryan]

I think it was closer to 400 grams that stripping it saved. At least if you believe Mountain Bike Action/Fiction.

[ELX]

I dunno bout that thing...............It sorta seems like the sport has gona from mtb's to monsters. I mean really that doenst look like what most would think would be a mtb. It's good to see the sport progresing but i recon that thing looks like somthing off Futurama :shock: To me it just seems some companies are going to far with new inovations. But still it will be interesting to see it's performance.

[Ryan]

Damn progression, lets all go back to balloon tyres, sissy bars and hammering down Californian fire roads I say!

[ELX]

Word............................:D But i recon progression is a good thing but not when we makes dh to easy. I know that seems stupit but bikes like that make me think people will start adding wings and stuff so you can float over rock gardens. Like a recon there should be limits to travle and stuff in races. Like soon they will start making dh bikes with 10 inch travle front and rear and it's not needed. I recon they should just have cirterias like 9 inch max travle, no wings :D ect. To keep the sport real and so it still takes skill to control the bike through rock gardend rather than roll over them all with 15 inch dh monsters. I just cant help the thought of one day going to my local dh track and seeing al theses guys pressing buttos on a watch and there bike hopping 12 foot into the air................I'l be quiet now :D

[lupine128]

hmmm, i can kind of see what TJumper means.
i've said in other threads that i sometimnes worry about the cost of riding DH, let alone racing it. $6K for bike can seem pretty high when you are struggling to find $50 for a tyre.
it gives a huge advantage to whoever can come up with the cash.
that being said, i honestly think honda coming to the party will see a dramatic decreasein the cost of bikes if they decide to go full production in the sport.
my only concern with honda hitting the sport hard is that we might see a repeat of what has happened to 500 moto's over the last few years where honda wins everything, and other smaller companies are forced out of the sport. the same thing would have happened in superbikes if the series wasn't owned and run by the owner of ducati, who could rewrite the rules as needed. do we want that for DH? it would be a shame to see a company like santa cruz hit hard because honda can sell their frame for 1/2 the price.

[horsey]

I can see where TJumper is coming from as well.

Formula 1 racing has many restrictions on car and engine design, as well as tyre widths and tread patterns and stuff. This keeps all the cars as even as possible, making sure that the drivers skill is still an important aspect of racing.

Mountain biking isn't this far advanced yet though, its still a developing sport, and for the time being any new technologies and improvements should be embraced. A team like Honda putting lots of cash into the sport will help its development and hopefully give it some more publicity.

[big dan]

you guys are forgetting that you still need to be able to pedal like a demon so technology wont be as much of an issue as say 500 GP or formula 1

[Rory]

Are those carbon disks?

[MrPlow]

Sure look like carbon discs? Yay!! Bring backed the old ball burnished frames I say!!

[Ryan]

<p align=center>[/url] (http://www.farkin.net/image.php?image=a6055a0b3c22a826f984ce6c2549d7a8.j pg><img)[url="http://www.farkin.net/image.php?image=4389dfbcf5dee8dcbe453e16da6ca27f.j pg><img"] (http://www.farkin.net/image.php?image=98f8165f8ba0f0172b81015ca25675d9.j pg><img)</P>
Carbon discs by Akebono Brake Industries (Japanese MX brake manufacturers) carbon gearbox shell, carbon seatmast, suspension by Kayaba (Japanese MX suspension company)

Claimed weight 20kg/44lbs. Jesus H Christ in a chicken-basket.

[randall]

I wonder they'll have the same trouble Cannondale did when they tried to make a motorbike..... I'm guessin not given how big they are. Take a 2004 CR125, remove engine and replace with pedals, excellent....

Funny how all these automotive companies try to make pushis and they never take off....

Anyone seen one of those Porshe or Mercedes bikes around? How bout the Holden HSV kmart special?(ok maybe that one is because its crap)

[bazza]

some of the car compaines are just using frames and rebadging. i dont think a car company would go through all the trouble of rnd to make a push bike. might put it through there engineers or something but i seriously doubt they would make one from scratch.