Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 152 i Australian Mountain Bike

WTB TRAIL BOSS TCS LIGHT FR Instantly recognised by their distinctive ‘wolf’ logo, the Wilderness Trail Bikes (WTB) brand was recently moved to Jet Black Products. One of the first treads to arrive is the all-purpose Trail Boss. Available in 27.5x2.4” and 29x2.25” sizes, the Trail Boss is designed to offer predictable traction across dry to damp conditions, and from hardpack to loam surfaces. Tubeless setup is simple thanks to the TCS design, and the Light FR model features a rubber compound tailored for fast rolling performance. RRP: $99.95 From: jetblackproducts.com ENVE HV WHEELSETS ENVE M-Series wheels are some of the most highly regarded on the market, with 4 distinct options that cover superlight XC race hoops, through to bomber wheels for World Cup DH shredding. The M60 HV and…

If you have ever been to an MTBA event you may have noticed a number of officious-looking people in red shirts. These people are MTBA commissaires and are vital to every event, from club to world-class level. According to Wikipedia, a commissaire is cycling’s equivalent of an umpire in football terms. They are there to enforce the rules of the sport but perhaps their more important function is to ensure the safety of everyone at the event. At the grass-roots level, commissaires are required to manage club events. Their primary concern is to manage risk and assist with running the event. They may even be a race participant. It’s quite easy to obtain the National Officiating Accreditation Standard (NOAS) level 1 qualification to perform this function through the MTBA website.…

The Swiss Epic organisers believe they have an answer to that with the Swiss Epic Flow (lets call them “Flow” and “Epic” to avoid confusion), aimed towards gravity oriented riders the Flow has less climbing and more descending by using vehicles and ski lifts for riders throughout the event. After a fantastic experience in 2014 in the Epic race, we headed back to tackle the Flow event in 2015 and find out how it compares to the full-fat Swiss Epic. Switzerland is known for being an expensive country to visit and on the face of it, the Swiss Epic doesn’t help that stereotype. The entry fee for a pair starts at $4000 for a “budget” shared accommodation option but many will opt for the Comfort package, which converts to $6000…

STUART SPIES RIDER BIO Riding Experience: Marathon specialist, loves a bit of cyclocross, miraculously finished 12th in the Elite marathon at Swiss Epic 2014 Generally rides: Carbon 29er hardtail ofdubious Oriental originsHeight: 183cmWeight: 76.5kgBike Test Track: Verbier, Leukerbad, Graechen,Zermatt (Swiss Alps) Our Northern Hemisphere cousins have enjoyed the benefits of Canyon’s unique ‘directto-customer’ business model. To them Canyon is a household name which forms a very natural part of any prospective purchase wish list and vies for attention as an equal to the likes of other European brands like Rotwild, Cube, Corratec or Nicolai. From relatively boutique beginnings Canyon grew rapidly, hitting the big time with their sponsoring of World Tour road cycling teams, Movistar and Katusha, and Topeak-Ergon and ther Canyon Factory Enduro Team on the dirt. Now available…

"THE BIKE DOES EXACTLY WHAT IT SAYS IT WILL - IT IS LIGHT, SMOOTH, STIFF AND STABLE – THE PERFECT COMBINATION FOR EITHER AN ASPIRING OR ACCOMPLISHED RACING ENTHUSIAST." JUSTIN MORRIS RIDER BIO Riding Experience: Raced XC MTB since 2000, countless marathon & stage MTB races including the Crocodile Trophy. Worked for 5 years as a professional road cyclist across Europe, USA and Asia. Generally Rides: CannondaleSuperSix Evo Hi-Mod, TrekBoone carbon CX, Orbea AlmaCarbon hardtailHeight: 186cmWeight: 78kgBike Test Track: NorthernSydney area, Manly Dam,Serrata, Garnia, Lane Cove NP,Hornsby OMV. Trek bikes have been around for donkey’s years making bikes at the top end of the performance and innovation spectrum. Based out of Wisconsin in the USA ‘mid-west’ they have a long and proud tradition of supporting and sponsoring some of the…

The art of getting bikes, riders, gear and more to trails isn’t an exact science. Not everyone has a local trail they can easily ride to for a late arvo shred. And even if you do, you want to see more and taste the rainbow of trail delights further afield, right? I tested the Yakima Two Timer in our Places That Rock issue last year – it made a great addition to my Subaru Forester, complementing the High Roller racks that live permanently on the roof. My car is low, I can mount the bikes onto the roof in my driveway, and my wife’s bike and mine fit comfortably up top. So while I can see aft mounted racks are great, I was happy to stick with my roof mounted…

At the same time, fast berms are also a fantastic place to come unstuck and I dare say anyone reading this has at some point felt the wrath of a slippery fast berm. Inconsistencies, braking bumps, soft patches and oddly shaped berms are all things which need to be assessed when deciding just how fast you might be able to go, but there are a few simple techniques which can assist no matter what lies ahead. As always, start out easy and work your way up. Remember that with berms and any corners there is a definitive point of just how fast you can go and if you keep pushing, you will more than likely go beyond that point. Take baby steps and perhaps if things start getting a little…

In previous articles I have spoken about the different training phases and, in particular, have focused on training the specific components of fitness required for an event. It is important to also plan to include some specific skills practice during your sessions. Even if you feel that your skills and technique are already at a high level, we can all benefit from going “back to basics” sometimes, making sure that we are not losing any time around corners or over obstacles. Sometimes, it is not simply being able to clear an obstacle that is important. How quickly you can clear that obstacle and how much less energy you use than your opponent in doing so can sometimes be the difference between winning and losing. It is also very important to…

Here we are, a bit over a month into another lap around the sun. 2016 is here with her flashy new bikes, temping trails and the exciting prospect of another World Cup on Australian soil. The end of summer also means we start to see the shadows lengthen and the trails maybe get a little moister. The days grow shorter, and your rides might be colder and darker. Not yet – but you know it’s coming. It’s an unpopular sentiment, but I relish the colder temperatures… not so much night-riding and frozen fingers, but a brisk breeze and quieter trails are excellent. But for now – it’s still summer! We spent the start of summer testing six bikes on trails up and down the east coast of Australia. Whether the…

In March and April, Mountain Bike Australia will crown National Champions in Downhill, Olympic Cross-Country, Cross-Country Eliminator, Observed Trials and Cross-Country Marathon. That’s a lot of jerseys to be awarded. In March, the National Mountain Bike Championships return to Bright, Victoria, for the third year running. The event has grown year on year and 2016 is expected to be the biggest yet. Racing runs from 17th-20th March and it’s worth checking out the event schedule at mtba.asn.au to see what you might like to enter, or spectate. Bright has far more mountain biking than just the trails in Mystic Mountain Bike Park that get used for the events, so it’s well worth planning a visit to watch, and rolling to Bright Brewery by the river for a feed and a…

Good things come in threes – and the Easter in the Alice is a three-day stage race that takes some beating! Mountain biking in Alice Springs should be well-known by now. When so many people rave about it, you know it’s not just hype. Beyond the kilometres of hand-built singletrack, you will always be riding under the watchful eye of the MacDonnell Range that runs next to the town. The three days offer a marathon stage, two shorter stages, including a hillclimb up Mt Gillen with $3000 on the line and a night stage, and finishes with about 60km of Alice Springs’ finest trails. As a club run event, it’s great value at $150 to enter. But it is also likely to get you onto some different trails. Rocky trails…

Dear AMB, I’ve been riding for a while now, about four years, and all I can say is that I’m so thankful for what the sport has given to me. I started riding to get into shape, and eventually started meeting people when out riding. Although it took a while, soon enough I wasn’t riding along and realised how social mountain biking was. What’s more, I was shown how good singletrack could be! Mountain biking has given me so much since I started, including a new passion for being active, which was gone for too long. I picked up your magazine a couple of years ago for the first time. I don’t get every issue, but I really liked the 150th issue and your Places That Rock issue. Keep up…

Having ridden mountain bikes for more than half my life, I have grown to love the freedom it provides, being a sport that can take you into true wilderness, allowing an escape from the mundane, an escape from the daily routine, and a chance to disconnect. But still, there were certain ‘rules’ that I was made aware of as I started to ride more and meet other mountain bikers. Not quite a code of conduct, not a strict set of written rules, but something that could best be described as etiquette. They were ways to behave and ensured a level of responsibility and safety when mountain biking. The essence of mountain biking used to be about adventure and self-sufficiency. That’s why the introduction of Tech Zones in the World Cup…

Eight years ago the Cape to Cape started up with a field of around 100 racers, most of them WA locals from Perth and the race’s home in the Margaret River region. Over time, smart moves by the race organisers, including astute marketing, a willingness to listen to feedback, and new alliances with local mountain bike groups have seen the event gather more and more enthusiastic support from across Australia, peaking at a massive 1,400 racers – that’s hundreds more than our most popular marathons and well above any other Australian stage race. These days the Cape to Cape attracts around 1,000 participants, many of them flying in from interstate, but some from as far away as Europe and Asia. It’s easily Australia’s most popular stage race… No mean feat…

CHRIS BARLIN RIDER BIO Riding Experience: I have ridden Downhill for over 10 years. Have raced all around the world and all around Australia. Have even done the odd XCO race and road race. Generally Rides: Trek Superfly, Trek Top FuelHeight: 182cmWeight: 73KgBike Test Track: Thredbo, Old Mans Valley,Cascades Mondraker have been around the downhill scene for a long time now. With their first downhill bikes being tested and developed by the likes of Fabian Barel their bikes have their own style. The Mondraker Dune is a bike that has come directly from those years of R & D and it shows. The Dune has 6 models in total, 3 carbon and 3 alloy. The Dune RR sits in the middle of the 3 carbon models. Having been in the…

“ON MY LOCAL TRAILS, I FOUND MYSELF CLEARING JUMPS WITH PRECISION THAT WERE PREVIOUSLY STYLISHLY CASED.” ANNA BECK RIDER BIO Riding Experience: Has ridden and raced XC, XCM, Enduro and road for a few sneaky years Generally Rides: Niner Air9, Yeti SB, TrekEmondaHeight :167cmWeight: 60kgBike Test Track: Les Alps of Brisbane, Noosa Norco bikes began in 1964 in British Colombia, Canada and in 1984 they were one of the first manufacturers of mountain bikes. My early experiences of the brand are essentially so disparate to what I was faced with in the Norco Revolver 9.2 FS, I could hardly believe it was the same brand. Working as a bike shop squid while at uni, Norco was always the cheaper, somewhat nastier alternative to higher end bikes on the market. Norco…

The Hellfire Cup notched up its 3rd year in 2015. After a disastrous first year that saw the original race date rescheduled due to the devastating bushfires that ripped through South East Tasmania, the Hellfire Cup has come back with a vengeance to become one of the most highly regarded events in the country. Bringing riders from all over Australia to the small town of Kellevie (just 45-minutes drive north west of Hobart), the Hellfire Cup is a 4-day mountain bike stage race that puts just as much emphasis on the festival vibes, as it does on the racing and the sublime hand cut singletrack. The event is held on a beautiful private property, with the race village housing an expansive campsite, hot showers, a coffee van, a taco truck,…

Each issue, we have a competition with our subscription offer, which means you can win something and get the magazine a lot cheaper and delivered to your door. We also run competitions in most issues where you don’t need to buy anything – you just head to AMBmag.com.au and enter. Believe it or not – people really do win. Tracey Barrett was the lucky winner of our Yakima competition, and had her car decked out with Yakima gear so she and her mates can get to the trail without playing car Tetris. Thanks so much to Yakima Australia/New Zealand for providing such a useful prize to our new subscriber. Just in time for Christmas, Doug Brown received the Norco Sight C7.2, our 2015 Dream Bike prize. Having been playing with…

What if I were to tell you about a dream destination that had over 400 miles - or 600 kilometres - of singletrack at your disposal? A place high up in the mountains, where you could explore a new trail every day for weeks on end? A place with trail connectivity like nothing else you’ve experienced before, where you could take advantage of a free bus service and chairlift infrastructure to link up multiple trail centres into the one epic ride? But what if I were to tell you that this place wasn’t just all about the riding? What if this beautiful alpine environment was also packed full of family-friendly outdoors activities, and free open-air music festivals during summer? And what if it had an amazing foodie culture too? A…

LACHLAN (LOBSTER) MCKILLOP RIDER BIO Riding Experience: Raced nationally and internationally in downhill and has been a World Cup mechanic General rides: trek remedy 8Height: 175cmWeight: 73kgBike test track: thredbo, northen beachesdownhill, ourimbah Bred from the North Shore of British Columbia, Norco has been one of the longest serving mountain bike companies to come out of Canada. A brand that has a pedigree for downhill excellence ever since 1999 when they delivered the VPS, a bike designed to cope with the rough tracks of ellusive and exclusive “The Shore” trails. Norco’s first downhill bikes were burly and quickly became synonymous with freeriding, moving away slightly from the downhill scene, until recent years. The Aurum platform was launched in 2013 and brought a revolutionary design for the brand, being piloted by…

IMOGEN SMITH RIDER BIO Riding Experience: A regular AMB bike tester, Imogen has spent her adult life riding and racing mountain bikes. Riding Experience: Generally Rides: BianchiMethanol 29 FS SL, Cannondale Caad 9 road bikeHeight: 171cmWeight: 57kgBike Test Track: Noosa trails The history of Orbea is the history of Europe in miniature. The Orbea brothers, based in the Basque town of Eibar in Spain, started their company in 1840 to make guns to supply Europe’s booming market (a fact of which the company seems unusually proud). Through the 1800s and throughout the bloody years of World War I, the company grew and flourished, taking advantage of newly available electric technology. Business was good until peacetime brought a comprehensible downturn in the demand for deadly weapons, and in 1930 Orbea began…

Shimano have been in the footwear game for over 25 years, and they have produced shoes that have set the industry standard for durability, comfort and stiffness across road, mountain and touring market places. But for 2016, they gave their gravity range an update, listening to feedback from the quickest family after the van der Ploegs – the Athertons. With requirements for a grippier, lighter shoe with more protection, Shimano’s footwear designers were set to task. And what they created in the new AM range illustrates their hard work. The AM9 sits atop the range, above the flat-soled AM7. Both shoes feature a higher side for increased foot protection. The shank in the midsole (where the pedalling stiffness comes from) has been updated with pro rider feedback. They have aimed…

Beyond the mountain bike trails at Hollybank, including the well-regarded Juggernaut, the township of Derby has been the focus of a lot of trail building. Opening about 12 months ago, the initial series of trails continues to grow, and one of the most recent trails to open is the 10.8km long, all-mountain trail – Atlas. It opened in October and has brought a new option for riders who have already visited the Blue Derby trail system. With naming, and signs, that depicts a trail capable of carrying the world on its shoulders, there’s every chance that Atlas might become THE trail that supports new visits to the trails in the Blue Derby region. The trail design is as a point-to-point wilderness trail, and as such the trailhead is a bit…

INGREDIENTS - 400g dates- 100g sunflower seeds- 2tsp beetroot powder- 1/4 cup cacao- 2 Tbs Protein powder- 1/2 cup quick oats- Pinch Salt- Sesame seeds, for coating *Beetroot powder can be found at health food stores and online. METHOD 1. Cover dates in boiling water to soak and soften for 10min. Drain. Set aside. 2. Use a food processor to whizz sunflower seeds to form a rough, breadcrumb like texture. 3. Add drained dates, beetroot powder, cacao, protein powder, oats and salt to sunflower seed mixture. Mix until combined. 4. Use the mixture to form balls then roll in sesame seeds. Kapow! These beetroot power bites might not be the most enticing looking training treats, but not only are they packed full of nutrients but they taste delicious! These bites…

RIDER PROFILE NAME: Darcy CouttsAGE: 16HOMETOWN: Ballarat, VictoriaFAVOURITE TRACK: MT BAW BAW Darcy Coutts, is one of the fastest downhillers coming out of Victoria. We caught up with him to find out about his new sponsoship with Nukeproof and the new limited edition steed that comes with it. Is this your race steed for this season? Yes this season I’ll be riding the 2016 Nukeproof Pulse Sam Hill signature edition. How would you describe your riding style? Pretty weird I reckon. You must be one of very few people in the country aboard the new tweaked version of the Nukeproof Pulse. How’s the ride so far? So far I’ve loved it, it really suits me a lot and I feel super comfortable on it. I’ve never ridden a bike that…