Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 173 i Australian Mountain Bike

Damian Breach adds course clearing to his photographer duties as he cleans up the loose dust on a dry corner ahead of the Flow-Motion Cup at the Thredbo Cannonball Festival 2018. Following on from several days of snow, Thredbo quickly dried up in time for prime conditions at the seventh Cannonball Festival, during the second weekend of December. It was a sibling double, with Kye and Sian A’hern taking the wins in their categories on the Saturday (above). Josh Carlson leans his way through the tall snow gums of Thredbo’s All-Mountain trail during Cannonball Festival 2018. Taking the win on the day with the toasty Thredbo summer sun shining down, Carlson shreds his way down the dry course with endurance and style, affirming why he is one of the best…

NSW’s biggest mountain bike stage race is back this May, with a new twist – you can race with your mate! Tackling mountain bike challenges in pairs is a pretty big deal around the world, and that’s the concept that is coming from the global Epic Series of events to the Oceania Epic Series. So in 2019 Port to Port, Reef to Reef and Cape to Cape will all be able to be raced in pairs, just like the premier event in the series - The Pioneer. Expect four days of riding and racing on some of the best trails in the Hunter Valley and around Newcastle from 23-26 May. Choose a team mate and get signed up, and be prepared to share the highs and lows on and off…

YAKIMA GATEKEEPER The Yakima GateKeeper is a new, larger tail gate pad that adds secure cradles for 5 bikes and extra coverage for your ute. It has a flap that allows your reverse camera to do it’s thing, and a rock solid attachment for the pad to the tailgate. RRP: $199 yakima.com.au DHARCO’S NEW GEAR! New Year and new season gear from DHaRCO! Part of this is the SnapBack cap with the same print as on Kyle Strait’s Rampage jerseys. You can see the whole range online. RRP: $29.95 dharco.com NS RADIANCE Understated, low profile and tough. Just about everything you want in a flat pedal, along with sub 400g weight, colour options and replaceable pins. RRP: $TBD NSbikes.com.au ENDURA REHYDRATION LOW CARB FUEL Endura Rehydration Low Carb Fuel is…

This is a bucket list race, so with that in mind you can never be too prepared. You will be in the mix with up to four thousand other riders throughout the week and while there are copious amounts of help within the village from traders and shops, you will need to be prepared. THE BASICS Megavalanche has become a week-long destination trip, and it’s worth it. If you get the full entry at approximately $200 Australian you get a 7-day lift pass, that’s serious value. There is a big entry pack full of goodies, lunch after your qualifying heat on Friday and depending on your result, lunch after racing on Saturday or Sunday. Bargain. These are all minor things you can find out on the website though, along with…

THE PARK Mt Beauty’s Big Hill Mountain Bike Park sits just above town with a trail head and carpark kicking things off. From there on, your only real option is up as this really is the foothills to the alps. But it’s not just slugging away to no avail, as on the other end of the climbs are Beauty’s classic descents. If you have read about or been lucky enough to already ride in the Big Hill park you would know about the classic feel that the natural trails deliver. There are steep sections, rock gardens, sketchy corners with no support and natural berms providing more support than something artificial could ever produce. The trails are built by hand so if you want to really feel the trail you’re riding,…

Andy and Adam are based in Brisbane, and are just one team that were seen to be laughing their way through the event. It was their first time doing The Pioneer, or anything like it. “I came to Queenstown about a year ago on my honeymoon, and fell in love with the place,” said Andy. “At the same time information about The Pioneer started to appear on Facebook so I said ‘Hey Adam, do you want to do this?’ And that was pretty much it.” “I thought yeah, that is something crazy to do!” laughed Adam as we sat around before dinner one evening. While they have both been riding for a while, The Pioneer was going to be a big step. “I started mountain biking in ‘98, at the…

Compared to the standard Reign product line, the Reign SX is different in several ways. One of these is the amount of suspension travel going from a 170mm travel fork to 180mm travel fork, bumping the front out with a slightly slacker head angle from 64.5 degrees to 64.0 degrees. It has also increased the trail on the fork from 120mm to 123mm which will offer you a little more control and grip at speed. The rear end keeps 160mm travel but you lose the remote lockout found on other Reign models which is a bit of a nod to the Reign SX being more about going down than going up. Giant also shifts away from a carbon frame with a full ALUXX SL alloy frame for the Reign SX…

Have you ever tried to describe riding down a trail but you're still too excited to actually communicate what happened? Caught up in the moment and full of adrenaline, you're trying to tell everyone at the bottom how courageous you were but all you can do is just fire out random words like shotgun pellets chasing a clay pigeon. It's the reaction of others that normally makes you realise that you're talking nonsense, and it's then that all you have to do is crack a rye smile and offer a simple“that was a goodie” to let any mountain biker know that it was a trail they need to ride. It is pretty simple really. So from me to you, regarding Big Fella at Falls Creek -“it's a goodie.” The trail…

I am a little late to the Teff party but this little grain packs plenty of nutrients into its tiny size. These little beauties are a great lunch box filler or out on the trail snack. The best part, they are super quick and easy to whip up and won’t eat into too much of your trail time. A warning though, the first bite I took I was a little unsure of the flavour but after the second, I could have eaten them all in one go. WHAT’S GREAT ABOUT THEM? Teff is a gluten-free, protein rich grain that has a mild, nutty flavour. It’s a wholegrain, which means it’s rich in fibre. This type of fibre resistant starch, has been shown to promote a healthy balance of bacteria in…

This issue we are going to give you a few tips on installing Bunnyhop bike wraps. As with any frame wrap, you’ll need a clean environment and a bit of time and patience to get it perfect. 1 Bunny Hop frame wrap comes with a few different sized pieces. These will require trimming down depending where you put them. To start with we cut the supplied printed ruler from the sheet. We will use this to measure the length, then the width of the top tube. 2 We took this measurement and marked the decal. Luckily the width worked out for us so we only had to trim down the length. We rounded the ends to keep it looking tidy. Although ours didn’t come with a Bunnyhop Template, they should…

Mountain biking has changed a whole lot in its lifetime, and it seems like a lot of the current growth in our great sport is due to there being more options to get uphill with less effort. And as we release our second Alpine Issue for this summer, it’s probably worth reflecting on it. Is mountain biking, as an entire sport, the same if you took all the uphills out? My argument is no. I have no qualms about using a chairlift, a shuttle, a lift with a mate, an eMTB or even an easier trail or my own two feet to get to the top of a trail to ride the descent. But if I only rode in places where I could shuttle or take a lift then I…

Canyon have hit 2019 rolling fast, with an all-new Strive with 29” wheels and their ShapeShifter feature landing on the trails. We were super impressed with the first iteration of the Strive, and this version brings some much anticipated changes, like Boost through-axles, 29” wheels and geometry updates to match progressive riding. The ShapeShifter does what you’d expect, it changes the nature of the ride. For the 2019 Canyon Strive the push of a lever, body weight shift and gas spring changes not just the suspension travel from 150 to 135mm, but also the geometry making it 1.5 degrees steeper, and of course the suspension firms up. Canyon have worked closely with Fox to get the system even more refined than before. This means the 29” wheeled enduro beast can…

RideSports continue to expand the range of bikes and gear that they offer in Australia. Not content with bringing THOK eMTBs, Kellys and Sunn bikes to Australia, the dynamic company are now also stocking and selling NS Bikes and other parts that the influential brand sells. The Snabb 160 C is a standout frame for those looking for a unique all-mountain or enduro bike. While it can be bought as a complete bike, the frame set is anideal way to build up a dream ride. NS wanted the Snabb 160 C to suit riders who want to chase the downhill kids in the bike park one day before cranking out an epic ride the next. Mixing those two different skill sets is still going to rely on a lot of…

I was just at a junior development camp with a bunch of young shredders. Some of them were full of piss and vinegar, others less confident, with the typical awkwardness that teenage boys and girls possess. But all of them were respectful, and committed to furthering their cycling, in whatever capacity that may be. I attended as a wizened old-person mentor (yep, you realise that being in your 30s is VERY old when you’re hanging around with teenagers!) and did some skills sessions and a trail ride with them. We had stopped at the trailhead for the bunch to regroup, and I asked one of the other coaches “so buddy, do you have any sizzling hot wheelie tips?”. A few of them looked stunned, as if maybe admitting my wheelie…

For those of us who live to ride, it’s no surprise that orthopaedic injuries are the most common ailment affecting mountain bikers presenting to emergency departments, with upper limb fractures being the most common region injured. In this article we are going to unpack some injury patterns common to mountain biking, including head injury, spinal injury and extremity fractures, and what to do if you come across these in the trail. DONKED NOGGINS Head injuries, the type referred to as Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI) by medical personnel, are a very real risk factor for any cyclist. The combination of speed, airtime, and tiny ice-cream buckets as the mainstay of safety equipment means that many cyclists will at some time be diagnosed with a TBI; be it mild, moderate or severe.…

THE PARK At first glance the spaghetti lines of the park’s trails can be a bit confusing, but the park is signposted and it is generally easy to find your way around. The yellow loop takes in the majority of the park’s best features with some short cuts or extra sprinkles added off the beaten path. The trails are very natural and make full use of the granite boulders to add extra excitement to the ride. The rocks add technical challenges but if you do tame them, great flow can also be found. There are a few ways down from the car park with the traditional cross-country descents joined by the short course downhill and some favourites just off the main lines. The climbs back up feature lots of flowy…

Even before the rise of Danny MacAskill and his ability to make it look like the most fun bike ever, the Santa Cruz 5010 had a reputation for playfulness, versatility and durability. However, in an industry increasingly focused on bikes with 140mm travel or more, the 130mm 5010 has the ability to get lost in the mix and overlooked as not being capable enough for hard trail riding. With a week of the steep, rough trails of Nelson, New Zealand ahead of me, I was excited to see what the little brother in Santa Cruz’s 27.5” range was capable of. As I was riding the personal bike of seasoned Enduro professional Jamie Nicholl, with a wildly non-standard (but totally awesome) spec, this review will focus on frame related ride quality…

When faced with the option of building a custom wheel set most people have one dilemma to solve – Hope hubs or DT Swiss? King or Industry Nine tend to operate at a much higher price bracket! Hope and DT Swiss both have a lot going for them, although the British hubs often come out ahead for riders who ride hard and in foul conditions. The United Kingdom is not known for fair weather the Hope pride themselves on making gear that stands up to proper muck year after year – all with servicing of course. I had a set of carbon rims I was testing built onto a set of Hope Pro 4 Boost hubs, as something to use and abuse on my trail bike. After 6 months of…

Last year I used and abused the BLS VeloRacing Bag. It offered a way to store and carry my shoes, helmet, clothing, tools, spares, food and even bottles or a small hydration bag to the trails or a bike race. It was a lot easier to deal with than a backpack and a couple of reusable grocery bags, which would often be my default option. But for this summer BLS (BlackLine Sprinting, from South Africa) released the VeloRacing Backpack. At 20L it is smaller, but still has the ability to have different compartments for shoes, a helmet and your kit. It’s also nearly half the price. All this functionality means you have 3 zippered openings. One up top, one on the front, and one on the bottom. Conceivably if you…

Call them what you will – I have heard countless names over the years, but for me a cuttie is a cuttie and the term ‘cuttie’ is the preferred Australian slang, so cuttie it is. The first I heard of a cuttie was about 20 years ago from legendary DH racer Johnny Waddell and, since discovering what it entails, I still reckon I do at least 10 every ride because damn they are fun. What is it? Well there are lots of reasons to have the skill of performing a cuttie, but for me it’s about being able to generate a good, sharp slide of the rear wheel whilst simultaneously digging deep for as much traction as you can get. The skill crosses over hugely into short, sharp and fast…

The start of a new year is always a time to reflect on the year before. You should recognise the new skills that have been learnt and the achievements and goals ticked off the bike riding bucket list. It is also a time to learn from the things that didn’t go to plan and understand why they went wrong. By understanding the positives and the negatives we are able to empower ourselves to set new goals. It’s easy to think that it’s always the physically gifted and talented riders that win races or complete their goals, however, this is not the case. What is it that really underpins performance and drives you, what motivates you to drag yourself out of bed? What is it that makes some athletes give up…

Thredbo MTB once again put on a show for all, with the Cannonball Festival continuing for its seventh year in a row during the second weekend of December last year. Over 900 competitors descended the steep slopes, with hundreds of spectators flocking to the lower sections, where they enjoyed 5 different events over 4 days under the alpine summer sun. Perfect conditions kicked off the first event of Cannonball Festival 2018, with competitors taking on the 11-minute race run down Thredbo’s Osprey All-Mountain Assault from the top of Gunbarrel chairlift. Racing kicked off by mid afternoon on the Thursday, with tight times between the top 3 in Pro categories. It would be Josh Carlson in Pro Men, and Sian A’hern in Women who would take the wins, both only several…

The Shimano MTB GP Series is a staple on the NSW endurance event calendar, and in 2019 the series turns 10. With a range of events from enduro, downhill, 12-hour events, charity events, school events, women’s only events, timing for club racing and more, we spoke to Rocky Trail’s Juliane Wisata about how the Shimano MTB GP fits in. “The Shimano MTB GP has always been our XC base of events, thinking back I see so many faces flash up at the start lines - riders who started as teenagers and are now competing on a national and international level and it is so rewarding that we can accompany so many riders on parts of their riding career - be it a hobby or professional path. The developments, growth and…

1. THE DEATH OF SOCIAL MEDIA The day mountain bikers started putting the word “influencer” in their Instagram bios I thought would be the day we would say a collectively F&^K you to social media. How wrong I was. I can’t wait to see how many more “influencers” hide themselves under the term “athlete” for the new year, but it does look to be the hot prospect of 2019. With our sports’ growth intertwined with social media there are many fall backs should people start to pay more attention with what’s happening at their local trails than worry about followers. But not to worry, it doesn’t seem like social media is going anywhere soon. 2. EMTBS BECOME UN-COOL Who knew that putting a motor on a push bike would be…

Mountain biking is one of the best ways to escape into the bush and spend time having fun, get a thrill, spend time with mates, make new friends, get fit, connect with nature or all of the above! One of the reasons mountain biking has had such great growth as a sport recently isn’t just because it’s awesome, but because mountain biking is becoming easier to get into as well. Trails are built for us, companies are set up to guide us on trails, and you can get great bikes for less money than you had to pay 5-10 years ago. There is a catch though. While many of the skills for mountain biking can be self-taught, it is very easy to learn poor technique that can leave riders very…

• Downhill tyres only: Plain and simple, if you ignore this advice you will hate life, if you are travelling with someone who doesn’t want to take DH tires, leave them at home. • Strong wheels with aluminium rims! You can always bend back rim strikes if you get desperate, there is a lot of rock on the mountain and each one seems like a magnet aimed at your wheels. If you can pack a spare rim, it’s worth it. • Big Travel: Minimum travel would be 150mm to get the most out of the week, in saying that be prepared to be passed by random Frenchies on what appear to be supermarket bikes. • Powerful brakes and spare brake pads: These are self-explanatory, your week will suck if underestimate…

THE PARK The Yackandandah mountain bike park offers a great range of intermediate trails based around the old mining infrastructure. Some trails take in old mining races used to divert water while others take you deep into sunken mines which is a very unique experience for the region. The park is split into three loops of between 15–18km long and they are all signposted with either red, yellow or purple arrows starting from the main trail head. What all these trails have in common is fun and flowing singletrack. Epic technical riding or super gravity trails aren’t really Yack’s aim and that’s fine especially when they pull off flow so well. Going for a group ride or a solo ride where you can switch off and just ride your bike…

This is the story of an epic adventure. A bike ride with friends on a trail deep in the mountains. It spanned close to seven hours though we’ll shorten the story here in sake of whatever else you have to do today. There will be highs, lows, confusion and elation. We could focus on the highs and put a rose-coloured tint on the photos, though that would be selling the adventure short. Adventures aren’t about smooth sailing, they’re about riding the waves of whatever comes your way in the part of the world you decide to explore. Mt Buller in the Victorian Alps is the part of the world that our little big adventure takes place. It’s not a random corner of the universe that we decided to roam but…

For 2016 and 2017 I raced a 100mm XC 29er, with 1x11. And in 2018 that was pretty much the same except for a few useful changes. I put a Fox 34 SC on the front, and the 120mm travel slackened the head angle a little bit. I also rode with slightly wider tyres that still rolled very well. My dropper post was 125mm long, and I fitted a 180mm front rotor, ensuring I had metal pads front and rear to deal with lots of descending and potential wet weather. The Fox 34 SC was stiffer and plusher off the top compared to my usual Fox 32 SC. It’s not totally advisable to go whacking a light trail fork on any XC bike. But this really transformed my Norco Revolver!…

Adventure cycling is flooding the bike-riding world currently, but what exactly does it mean? As a kid, the mere process of riding was an adventure in itself and the bike represented a machine of freedom. Every ride had limitless potential from the moment you left the front door. From the moment I got my first bike all those years ago the world suddenly seemed to grow in possibilities. The chance of an escape on our bikes was ever present in my consciousness whether it was heading next door to build sweet jumps, down to the creek via local gravel roads to do skids and creek crossings or to continue the building of our very own trails. It was always about hanging with mates and relishing the opportunity to get away…

Yakima’s recently released FoldClick bike racks are a new step for the American gear haulage and carrying company. Yakima have a few classics in their range of rear-mounted bike racks with dependable models like the HoldUp and TwoTimer and the more recent Dr. Tray – but none have the range of features or versatility that the FoldClick series has. Coming in both a two and three bike model, the FoldClick range folds away for compact storage – which you might have guessed from the name. We had a Yakima FoldClick 2 on test and it was barely over 14kg, which is substantially lighter than many rear mounted racks that can be up to and over 25kg. Extra weight does make a rack pretty bomber, but it can also be really…

In the GPS wars there is a fierce battle between Wahoo and Garmin – but what about Bryton? We have tested three units from the third major player in the market before, and have been impressed by the simplicity, battery life and pricing. We’ve come to expect more and more from the devices we carry, be it our smartphones or GPS devices on the bike. The Bryton Rider 450 boasts almost 80 functions and integrates with your smartphone via an app. SETTING UP THE BRYTON RIDER 450 The best thing to do is download the app, as it is an easier way to create your user profile. But you can do that with the unit as well, and you can also create two different bike profiles. This is really handy…

For almost as long as humans have been around on Earth we’ve been drinking alcohol. Usually we drink for the buzz, the taste or for the social connection when out with friends. Only recently has it been about sports performance. Several studies of the last few years have looked at alcohol and performance, with a specific magnifying glass being held over beer. Media have picked this up and reported on athletes drinking beer for recovery, even up to the highest levels with non-alcoholic beer being provided in the Athletes Village at the last Winter Olympics. So what’s the deal? THE THREE RS OF RECOVERY. First we need to look at the principles of eating and drinking for recovery. Recovery nutrition to improve performance is all about three things: rehydration, refuelling…