Saturday is now GRIPday!!!!!!!! Adjust your calendar, folks, because the biggest special offer you're ever going to get is now available… every Saturday. The deal is ridiculously simple. You buy any GripSport product on a Saturday and your name goes into the draw for the big offer on Monday. And the big offer is just as simple. If we draw your name out on the Monday we phone you immediately and you get to buy any GripSport product of your choice at HALF PRICE. That's right… HALF PRICE. which means you could save yourself hundreds of dollars just by shopping with us on GRIPday. The 'fine print'… (we'll try and keep it simple) If you live in the metro area of Melbourne this is strictly a 'Walk-in' special – meaning you need to come in person to make your purchase if you want to go into the GRIPday draw. However, so we don't disadvantage our 'long-range' customers, phone orders (and entry to the draw) will be accepted from country, interstate and overseas buyers. Whatever you buy on the Saturday must be paid for on the Saturday (cash or card only) – If we don't have what you want in stock (on the Saturday) it will be put on backorder for you and you still get to go in the GRIPday draw on Monday. If your name is drawn on the Monday we will phone you on the Monday. Your chosen GRIPday (half-price) product must be ordered and paid for on the Monday and can be picked up or delivered (our standard freight/delivery charges apply if you choose to have your item delivered). Sound good? We think so. It's just another part of our ten-year anniversary celebrations. __________________________ ROLL-CALL OF WINNERS. Week 1 - Berin Boughton of Parkville, Vic. Downhill double carrier for only $179 (normally $358) Week 2 - Del Smythe of ACT. 2+2 Hi-Ride carrier for only $319 (normally $638). Week 3 - No winner! Someone just never answered their phone!!!!!!! Week 4 - Cathy Tollison of WA. Hi-Ride double carrier for only $199 (normally $398).

Posted Monday 9/8/2010 Guess which repair stand World Champions prefer? We got this letter and these photos last week. Pretty much explains itself really. Hi GripSport, At the 2009 World Champs in Canberra I was lucky enough to get into the Santa Cruz Syndicate tent, just after Steve Peat won the World Champs. Whilst I was there I noticed that the World Championship team uses world championship quality workshop stands, nothing but Gripsport! The attached photos are from the Santa Cruz tent after Peaty's win. You can see everyone celebrating, with your workstands in the background. Plus a shot of my mate John Power with the winning bike. Regards Damian Hodge As most people know... we're a terribly small company and we simply could never afford to buy publicity like this, so a big 'thank-you' to Damian for taking the time to write and send those photos. Now... who wants a world championship quality repair stand, eh? END CURRENT UPDATE. Scroll down for archives of old news. ______________________________ Posted Monday 2/8/2010 BACK TO NORMAL. A big thank-you to Andrew for 'minding-the-shop' so well while half the GripSport team were off island hopping around the South Pacific. But don't feel too sorry for him, because as you read this he's off on holidays himself and hitting up the NZ ski slopes for few weeks. We obviously pay him way too much! And thanks also for the understanding and patience shown by our valued customers. Things have been pretty hectic over the last month or so... we've made the big move into our new factory and then had people off on holidays... but the reality is what we do is pretty specialised and we put in LOTS of hours every week making sure we do it well and by mid-year we all needed a break before our brains melted out our ears! But everything is settling down again now, so as they say in the Cook Islands... Kia Orana and Kia Aere ra until the next site update. END CURRENT UPDATE. Scroll down for archives of old news. ______________________________ Posted Tuesday 12/7/2010 CLOSED SATURDAY JULY 17th. But that's the only Saturday we're not going to be around and to make sure no one misses out on their bargain... we're simply moving 'GRIPday' to Friday the 16th. Our normal hours are... MON - FRI 8 - 4.30 SAT 10 - 4 (but closed Sat July 17th) END CURRENT UPDATE. Scroll down for archives of old news. ______________________________ Posted Thursday 10/6/2010 OUR LITTLE SHOWROOM One of the benefits of moving into a new, much larger factory is we've been able to set up a specific area to show off all our products and services. We're not talking a full-on 'showroom' here with musak and soft lighting, but it is a corner of the shop where people can see and touch all things GripSport. Tyre-kickers welcome! Feel free to call in and say g'day (and yes we take eftpos and credit card if you decide on a spur-of-the-moment purchase). Our hours are... MON - FRI 8 - 4.30 SAT 10 - 4 END CURRENT UPDATE. Scroll down for archives of old news. ______________________________ Posted Thursday 3/6/2010 SATURDAY TRADING HOURS As most people would know by now we've moved into our new Thomastown factory. Our address and hours can be found on the contact page of the site. But to put it as politely as possible... we're knackered after the big move, so this Saturday (June 5th) we're going to slack-off and have a sleep in. Our normal hours on a Saturday are 10.30 till 4. HOURS FOR THIS SATURDAY ONLY (JUNE 5th) are 12.30 till 4. END CURRENT UPDATE. Scroll down for archives of old news. ______________________________ Posted Tuesday 19/5/2010 We've moved That's right.. same great services and brilliant products, but now it's all going to come out of our brand new factory where we actually have some room to move. See our contacts page for our new address, a map of where we are and our new phone number. Other than that everything else (including our emails) all stay the same. Feel free to call in and say hello. And finally, a big 'thankyou' to our understanding customers who have had to put up with despatch delays and slower-than-usual turnaround times during the insanity of our move over the last ten days. We apologise for any inconvenience we've forced on you. END CURRENT UPDATE. Scroll down for archives of old news. ______________________________ Posted Tuesday 11/5/2010 Some big news! We're moving! That's right, after 10 years of growth, GripSport has well and truly outgrown our tiny workshop and because we never like to do things half-heartedly we're going all-out and moving into a new factory that's 7 times larger than we're currently in. Please see our 'Contact' page for our new address. We're ahead of schedule with the move, but it's a hell of a job and the next 10 days or so is going to be a little hectic. So please bear with us as we try and keep everything running smoothly from two different locations while the move is taking place. But for now it's business as usual and business is pretty good too with another new product being released this week. Cast your eyes to the left and you'll see our latest bike carrier. And coming soon is a brand new quick-release hitch for mounting our carriers onto caravans and the sexiest, neatest little bike-rack lighting bar and number plate holder you can imagine. END CURRENT UPDATE. Scroll down for archives of old news. ______________________________ Posted Monday 23/2/2010 More very silly welding! Last month we promised you more 'show and tells' of really ugly frame repairs that ended up in our workshop for a proper job. Not a lot to say about this one other than what we've said in the past so many times... you simply can not weld up a broken/cracked bike frame and expect it to last. The reality is the simple weld-up job will always make the frame weaker than it was to start with. So here's that Banshee Legend we promised you. The broken swingarm was welded up nice and cheaply, but that failed almost immediately, causing the other side to break too and twisting the whole thing. The bottom 3 photos show you our approach to frame repairs. Each one is individually assessed and gusseted in such a way as to address the problem that caused the breakage in the first place. And if you have a quick look to the left of your screen you'll see that we've put up the second of our 10 year anniversary specials. Until next time.... Cheers from the team at GripSport. END CURRENT UPDATE. Scroll down for archives of old news. ______________________________ Posted Monday 23/1/2010 The good, the bad and the unbelievably ugly! This so-called 'repair/extension' came in recently and was so bad it prompted us to start a little 'show and tell' of some of the disasters we're so often asked to fix. This steerer tube (the top 3 photos to the left with the yellow background) had been 'professionally' repaired and extended. Unfortunately (for the owner), while the 'professional' who repaired it might have been able to run a bead of aluminium weld, they obviously didn't know squat about bikes... or the forces/stresses that bikes are subject to... or anything at all about repairing heat treated alloys. It broke... very quickly… and as you can imagine once a steerer tube breaks there's nothing but a brake cable or hydro hose holding your entire front end to the bike! Now keep in mind that it is almost always preferable to extend an existing steerer rather than replace it, but in this particular case the initial 'repair/extension' compromised the integrity of the steerer to such an extent we needed to replace the whole tube by pressing a new one into the crown. And in case you're interested, a properly repaired or extended steerer tube is every bit as safe and as strong as an original and the bottom 2 photos (white background) show the right way of doing it. Of course our way of doing it is a lot more expensive than a quick 'weld-up' job… it involves press fitting, bonding and pinning a precisely machined fitting into the steerer. But it's a lot cheaper than new forks… or the medical bills you're likely to end up with if the front end falls off your bike. Next time... we're going to look at a pretty ordinary repair job done to a Banshee Legend. END CURRENT UPDATE. Scroll down for archives of old news. ______________________________ Posted Monday 4/1/2010 We're back from our little break... ... and believe it or not GripSport is into it's 10th year! So far we've grown a huge amount every single year and we're determined to do exactly the same again in 2010. But of course we could never have even gotten through our first year without you, our customers, so as a 'thank-you' to you all we're planning a few specials throughout the year where we'll be offering some serious discounts. So keep an eye out and check back often... you never know what you might find. In fact the first one is up already. Look to the left and have a happy new year. END CURRENT UPDATE. Scroll down for archives of old news. ______________________________ Posted Wednesday 23/12/2009 Merry Christmas... ... and a safe and happy new year to all of you from all of us. This has been a huge year for GripSport (our 10th actually!) with the business continuing to grow each and every month. What's all this talk about "recession"? But of course we owe a lot of thanks to you, our customers, who seem to appreciate what it is we do and keep coming back for more of it. So thank you all. Enjoy your family and friends over the holiday period and stay safe... we want to hear from you again in 2010. CHRISTMAS CLOSING TIMES... We're now closed until 8am, Monday the 4th of January. END CURRENT UPDATE. Scroll down for archives of old news. ______________________________ Posted Thursday 29/10/2009 Pretty versatile! We've been getting so much positive feedback about our Hi-Ride Carriers that we thought we'd post up a series of customer photos showing just how versatile this thing really is. There's an amazing variety of bikes out there. END CURRENT UPDATE. Scroll down for archives of old news. ______________________________ Posted Thursday 4/6/2009 From one of our customers. Hi, I recently participated in the Gibb River Road Mountain Bike Challenge. This event was a relay race with teams of 2 to 6 riders tagging every 5 km or so throughout each day’s stage which ranged from 105 km to 230 km from day to day. The key was using bike carrying systems which protected the bikes from damage and were easy to get on and off. My friend Sam and I used a GripSport Hi-Ride double tow bar carrier (see photo 1). It was without doubt the quickest and easiest bike carrier present at the event. The carrier was put through its paces. We headed down the Kurungi track (see photo 2) which was extremely rough. The carrier did its job well. Congratulations on an excellent product. Troy Gildersleeve. There were 51 teams in this year’s Gibb River event (5 days and 700km). Troy and Sam were in a team of 6 riders called the “Pilbara Pedal Pushers” and they got 4th overall. Congratulations guys and thanks for the kind words. And there are lots more comments from customers to be found on our 'Worth A Look' page. Just click HERE and then on 'Comments From Customers and Reviewers' END CURRENT UPDATE. Scroll down for archives of old news. ______________________________ Posted Friday 27/3/2009 NEW 4-bike 'Hi-Ride' Carrier! The 'Hi-Ride' carrier has been our biggest selling product right from the moment we released it nearly two years ago. Designed for carbon fibre, light alloy and awkward shaped bikes that simply can't (or should never) be hung on the old 'beak' style bike racks, they've proven themselves to be the simplest, safest and easiest carrier ever and the reality is they sell as quick as we can make them. But right from day one we've been asked about carrying more than two bikes (which is the standard for our 'Hi-Ride')... and so now you can. Our new 4-bike 'Hi-Ride' is now available. Click HERE for a first look at it. PLEASE NOTE - these carriers are only available to suit a 50mm square-hitch (Hayman Reese) style towbar. Cost = $598. Please contact us for ordering information. END CURRENT UPDATE. Scroll down for archives of old news. ______________________________ Posted Monday 23/2/2009 LOTS OF NEWS... SCROLL DOWN. National MTB Championships. With all the drama of the Victorian bushfires we didn't get the chance to mention that Joe Brewer (one of Australia's very best 'trials' riders) brought in 3 broken frames in the days leading up to the recent MTB championships in Canberra. Now we've always known that 'trials' bikes cop just about the hardest beating of anything on two wheels, but to break three frames in the lead up to the nationals was not only impressive, but also left Joe with nothing to ride. But we burned a bit of midnight oil for him, got his chosen frame repaired and strengthened in time and Joe went on to win the Australian Championships on it. Click on the photo at left for a podium shot and some pictures of trials action from the '09 Nationals. END CURRENT UPDATE. ______________________________ Posted Wednesday 18/2/2009 Huge fundraising effort for the Bushfire Appeal! Thanks to the Mountain Bike community in Victoria, an enormous amount of hard work by organisers (officials from all the MTB clubs) and the generosity of Australia's cycling industry (who donated more than $17,000 worth of goods and services for raffles and auctions etc), the bushfire relief enduro (see details below in our last update) raised more than $37,000 last Sunday. Wow... and thank you to everyone who supported this fantastic event for such a deserving cause. END CURRENT UPDATE. ______________________________ Posted Tuesday 10/2/2009 LOTS OF NEWS... SCROLL DOWN. Victorian bushfires. Seriously... what can we say. Even though we're 10km from the nearest bad fires it was nonetheless a frightening couple of days in our area... still is in fact. Our hearts go out to every victim and our thanks to all the heros out there working their arses off in an effort to keep us all safe. Bushfire charity event THIS Sunday (Feb 15th). A 6-hour enduro is being jointly run by both the Geelong MTB and the Fat Tyre Flyers clubs. ALL proceeds going to the bushfire victims fund. Click HERE for event details. Click HERE for details and updates on the great raffle prizes being donated by (so far) Manitou, Kona and GripSport. Try and support this event... there's no doubting it's for a good cause. END CURRENT UPDATE. ______________________________ Posted Thursday 4/12/08 LOTS OF NEWS... SCROLL DOWN. Christmas closing dates. It's a shame, we know... but we all need a break. So we will be closed from 12 Noon on Monday Dec 22 through till 8am Monday January 12. A merry Christmas to all and make sure it's a safe and wonderful time for you and your family. New product! Just released is our new TANDEM ADAPTER KIT for our 'Hi-Ride' carrier. It means you can now carry your tandem bike on your car just as easily and safely as any other type of bike. Click HERE to see more. Staff changes. Mike has been one of our welders for a couple of years now and Steve has worked as factory hand and trades assistant for the last year. Both have now moved on and we wish them all the very best and thank them for their hard work and commitment. Joining us though is Andrew Gould, coming straight from a specialist welding position in the motorcycle industry. Welcome... now get to work! Wheelchairs. You've probably noticed already that the front page of our web site now shows two seperate entrances... one for 'Bicycles' and another that leads to a new 'Wheelchair' area. Absolutely nothing has changed here at GripSport, other than the fact that for some years we've been doing the exact same sort of engineering and repairs to wheelchair frames as we've always done on bike frames... so we decided to formalize this and actually start letting people know about it. Unfortunately there's a hell of a lot of people out there who simply can't find anyone to do this kind of work and if we can help then we will. Lots of new photos... We've been incredibly busy and just a little slack with freshening up the photos here on our site, but LOTS of new photos will be going up in all our albums over the next few days so feel free to have a browse. Remember though... new photos load up at the bottom of each album which means the newest pics appear last on the page. And finally!!!!! For anyone who bothered to read all the way down to here... you get a huge surprise. A genuine 10% off every GripSport product ordered between now and Christmas (2008). Does not apply to repairs and powder coating and you DO have to ask for the discount price because this is not a sale so much as a little hidden special we're doing for those customers who really do have a good look through our site. So... no tricks, no gimmicks... just a big saving to you. Cheers and merry Christmas. (PLEASE NOTE. Discount is now over... this applied to order prior to Christmas 2008)