2011 has been quite the year over at TiS towers. We’ve organised races, documented our scene, made many new friends and had a right laugh on bikes. With even more planned for 2012 things are only going to get raderer from here on in. Heres the highlights of how 2011 went down.

Click on the photos and links for more details.

Nick

January

Skids

The year began with Timmy and Joe pulling a few skids once the snow had melted

Dual Round 5

The inaugural winter dual season continued with the 5th race in the series, the Christmas Special. With temperatures way below zero the Loam berms froze hard giving us a very interesting track to race on. Swinny nudged out Timmy for the win.

Chamwow

Stokes residence in the Chamonix Valley bore fruit from his White Stuff Addiction

Dual round 6

Changing things up for round 6 of dual we used a different side of the hill an many natural obstacles to keep it interesting. Swinny continued to dominate and took the win from Gordan.

BlackaGoPro

Larking around on Blacka with a go pro, Baker-Mount and the Alexander Technique.

Dual Round 7

Enjoying the dry winter round 7 used even more of the wood for racing obstacles. Timmy came out of top getting his revenge on Swinny.

February

Rainy Day

The rain set in but it didnt dampen TiS Spirits, Joe shot Ru and Swindog at sideways play.

PhilPOD #1

Duncan scored his first PinkBike POD of the year with this now notorious shot of Ruari getting his bars down.

Break the Pussy

Stokes getting up high again in Cham

Nant G

Swin and JoBo race on little bikes at Nant G, PhilPOD was on hand to shoot the action

March

New Gee Land

Gee reports in from NZ to depress us through the winter months

Peaty’s Steel City DH

Myself and Joe were part of the 5 man team that put on the Steel City DH. Incredibly successful, despite the weather, watch out for the next instalment this year. Swinny took second place in the elites, 9 seconds behind Peaty himself. Alex Rankin and Freecaster were on hand to film the whole event.

Dual World Champs

The day after the SSDH, the weather broke and we used to sunshine to host the finale of the winter dual series, the Dual World Champs. With a bunch of hangers on from the race we sessioned the Hell out of Farmer Jacks dual berms. Seb Kemp took the honours on the day and looked smooth as hell in the process.

BUCS XC 2011

The video that needs no introduction, just watch it again to make yourself smile.

PhilPODs 2nd POD

Duncan scores his second POD with this shot of Dan Sheridan and Nant G

April

British 4x Round 1

Duncan shot over at Lemington Spa and reported in as well as shooting some crackers.

El Jacko

Joe and Jack headed over to Spain for some end of season ‘training’

BDS Round 2

Dunc was shoting over at Moelfre for the second round of the BDS, check the sick slideshow and writeup.

PhilPODs 3rd POD

Dunc scored his 3rd POD of the year with this epic shot through the lens of Joes sunnies.

Wideopen

Jamie at Wideopen Mag came up to Shef for a long weekend and reported back on the glory he found

Swinny at Chicky

Dunc and Swinny met up at Chicksands, which proved to be quite a fruitful lark about.

May

Cotic X

The first sighting of the Cotic X cyclocross bike under the ‘contol’ of Swinny, more of that later.

Spring Series Starts

To keep us entertained through the Spring I came up with a series of races ranging from the sublime, to the ridiculous to the down right painful. The first round was a Dual and the second a pump track race at JoBos. Keeping track of  the results, we could crown an overall winner.

Spring Series Round 3

A Mini DH was contested for round 3 and what a night, sunshine and dusty trails. Swinny took the win with Gordon just behind.

Skye High

Ruari heads up to the Isle of Skye and takes advantage of the scenery.

Saturday Afternoon

Swinny showing why he’s moving on up to Elite this year. Shot and editted by Joe. Class.

New TiS Team Kit

With thanks to Bigstone and Chromag, the new team kit was born.

MegaDeath

Round 4 of the spring series was the race which has inspired a wave of similar races around the country. Mass start DH with a pint to chin at the end. This one was written up for DIRT #113 too.

Lezzer

Fame at last, the condom machine in’t Lezzer was ours (until they removed it, dont pull in the Lescar unless you are prepared).

Cotic X

Joe put together this promo video for Cotic to promote the X, their excellent cyclocross machine. Starring Swinny smashing it on the way to work and featuring Stokes (well his arse).

June

Fort Bill

Joe, Dunc, Stokes and Myself all headed up to Fort Bill for the World Cup, and what a weekend it was. The sun was out and the midges were in hiding. Perfect. The drunken antics after were worth the journey up there alone.

LycraFest

Arguably the hardest racing round to date, the LycraFest was just supposed to be a bit of fun in encliffe park. It turned out to be an hour of torture. Si Chop took first place with Swinny a very close and sweaty second.

Motivated by Snakes

Gee enjoying the local trails of NZZzzzzz

Leogang WC

Post Fort Bill Dunc headed to Leogang following the world cup train.

Build a Jump

Peaty launched a competition to build and ride the best jump. Joe was on hand to help out.

Swinny Training Hard

He’s got what it takes.

Swinny hit the BDS hard last year, with mixed results.

Mega

Joe hit up the Mega as part of his summer tour.

Cycle Speedway

For round 7 of the spring series we hit up Sheffield imfamous cycle speedway track for a dust and fun filled evening. The Sheffield Stars and Rob Mahwood keep welcoming us back thankfully, it is so much fun.

Single Track Weekender

I and a few mates hit up the Singletrack Weekender. We battled the weather and each other and had a reet laugh.

Cham Stoked

Stokes had a few visitors in Cham this summer, most of em brought bikes.

British 4x Champs

Dunc worked the 4x champs at Harthill and produced this banger.

National Champs

Swinny raced over at Llangollen for the national champs.

August

XC Heaven

The final round of the spring series was an XC blast around the hope valley from 18 bikes. Somehow I came out victorious in both this round and overall. The investigation still continues.

This is Sweeden

Joe spent a lot of the summer in Sweden with Hanna, he produced this great edit. Love the intro mostest.

Whinnets

Line poaching at its finest. Ru and Joe do a fine job.

September

Swinny = Winny

Swinny had a change a luck at the end of the season

PhilPODs 5th POD

Dunc’s run of form continued and he was awarded another POD on pinkbike

Hey Bud

Ed Thomsett spent the summer ripping up Whistler

PL40

I was lucky enough to be taken away to Norway with a bunch of mates for the weekend by a good mate of mine Piers Linney. It was to celebrate his 40th birthday and will never be forgotten.

PhilPODs 6th POD

The dream team on Dunc and Ruari crack out another beaut and Dunc was awarded his 6th POD of the year. Amazing talent.

Farmer Johns

A bunch of the TiS crew headed over to race at Farmer Johns, at night!

Hobo

We raced and Partied in Swinny’s field to celebrate the sunshine and commiserate the loss of the HOBO.

Autumn Gatherings

Our Autumn get togethers kicked off in style with a couple of pints and a big bunch of mates.

New Gee

Gee becomes a Dad to Zella, welcome to the world!

SPS in’t Woods

Dunc shoots a few with the SPS lads

PhilPODs 7th POD

The dream team get another POD on pinkbike

Second Autumn Gathering

For our second gathering I put together the TryAwfulOn, Simon Choppin was first in the water.

October

Average Weekend

Some weekends are more average than others, Dunc shot Ru and Joe for this banger.

Third Gathering

The Enduro gathering suffered from bad weather and rain affected technology. It didnt really affect the grins, especially on Cheggers’ face when he was first past the post.

Fourth Gathering

The great folks over at Hassop Station Cafe hosted a gathering for us and the Time Trial was born. Everyone on the same bikes, clad in Lycra, a great laugh. Martin Baker took the win.

Dad on a bike

Gee took advantage of the burgeoning NZ spring.

Autumn Finale

The final of the Autumn gatherings was hosted by Farmer Jack on his Dual track. A great night with fires and food to follow. Peaty rightfully took the win over LooseDog Lewis.

Martin Baker took the series win, with Timmy second, Ruari Third, Dave Griffiths 4th and myself 5th. Good work lads.

Privateer

Andy Waterman from Privateer mag spent a couple of days with us in Sheffield and took part in the TryAwfulOn. He wrote a great piece about the mates races and TiS.

November

BDS round 4

Swinny’s run of form continued at Round 4 of the BDS.

PhilPODs 8th POD

Duncan was awarded his 8th POD in a year for this shot of Matt Jones which was also his first Mag print in Dirt.

MBR

PhilPOD and JoBo collaborate and Dunc’s photo gets a double page spread in MBR

Merch

We had our first TShirt printed this year, local sourced, organic and RAD. Still available for sale.

Not Philpott POD shocker

Ed Thomsett scored another POD for TiS with this beaut from Whistler.

Dirty Sheffield

Dirt #118 featured 10 pages dedicated to our fair city. Dirt ‘Tog supreme Grant ‘blurry’ Robinson spent a couple of long weekends with us in Shef and documented the scene. I then tried to condense the entire past, present and future of the Sheffield Scene in to just 10 pages. Joe did a fine job of documenting the beginnings and aspirations of TiS itself.

December

Winter Dual

With the winter in force, It was time for Dual to start up again. With the best turn out to date, the first one of the series set the tone.

Gnar Wars

Baybutt caught up with Danny Hart at a MX track and he had this message for us… the gauntlet has been passed.

VOD

To round off an amazing year Dunc and Joe were awarded VOD over on Pinkbike for the Radwheel edit of the year. Brilliant.

So that it, 2011 done. It was incredibly Rad and has set the bar very high for 2012. However, we’re even more inspired than we’ve ever been and aim to make many things happen. So keep it locked to TiS we aim to keep you riding and grinning.