Innholdsfortegnelse for issue 186 i Australian Mountain Bike

We met up with Jindabyne local Tegan Molloy while on the Snowies Roadie, and had Sian A’Hern (above and left) join us from Canberra as well. Tegan gets so much out of living where she does, and explained that there is so much variety in the Snowy Mountains. “We’re pretty lucky around here. We have quite a large variety of trails from the gravity trails up at Thredbo to cross-country and enduro at Mill Creek and Tyrolean. Plus the little test track at East Jindy... it’s a fairly well-rounded trail network around here.” “It’s great to be able to go to Thredbo with the variety of riding in the area,” said Sian, “there’s everything there for the disciplines that I ride and race. Plus it’s a huge bonus that there…

Earlier this year Isuzu released a long-awaited update to the D-MAX, their best-selling ute. Isuzu Australia have often thrown us the keys to a D-MAX or MUX for our longer trips away, and a 4WD ute has to be one of the most common sights at any Australian trail head. The new D-MAX is said to be one of the safest utes on the market, and I was lucky enough to demo the top spec D-MAX X-Terrain for a couple of weeks in spring. Sit in any traffic jam and it is clear that soft roaders, utes and big trucks like the Isuzu D-MAX X-Terrain are becoming the most popular style of car to get around in. With a boom in domestic travel, road trips and off-road exploring happening, vehicles…

It’s fun to watch people stare at a paper map these days, their bodies articulating in no uncertain terms representing a failure to recognise where they currently are and a misplaced sense of where they want to go. The idea of purchasing something analogue like a paper map to anyone under the age of 30 is just as ridiculous as Boomers who spend the majority of their day using social media to complain about social media. Strange isn’t it how changing the medium that we use to consume information, analogue to digital, changes the way we interact with it. Maybe I’m part of the generation who fails to identify with either, having straddled the divide during my formative years when phones went from being tethered to a house, to more…

AUSTRALIAN riders have undertaken the mountain biking pilgrimage that is a trip to the NSW Snowy Mountains for decades. Classic locations like Thredbo’s famous lift-access trails, and in recent years the Thredbo Valley Trail (TVT) are destinations that are renowned across Australia, and even internationally. In the last few years other towns in the NSW Snowies have established trail networks worthy of recognition. The emergence of these locations inspired us to put together a week long NSW Snowy Mountains road trip, or our ‘Snowies Roadie’ as we took to calling it. The aim of our Snowies Roadie was to check out these other destinations for both the riding on offer as well as other activities. After our trip we sat down to think about what kind of rider each trail…

AFTER finishing up at Mount Gladstone around lunchtime on day two, we packed up the MUX and headed to the Bungarra trails, just outside of Jindabyne. All of the loading and unloading the car was made simple by our Shingleback rack. The beauty of the Shingleback is that none of the bikes touch each other, and there’s none of the puzzling associated with getting different frame shapes to fit on horizontal bike racks with arms. The Bungarra trails are located just off Barry Way on Bungarra Lane. The trails are open to the public; however, a small fee is required for a day pass due to the insurance costs of having the trails on private property. We headed to Bungarra to check out the trails, but also to see the…

NS (short for Northshore) is a Polish company that began making Dirt Jumpers over 15 years ago. Since then they’ve expanded into all aspects of mountain biking, from their XC focused Synonym to the Fuzz, their downhill bike ridden on the World Cup circuit. The NS Define 130 is NS’s do it all trail bike, sandwiched between their 155mm Define 150, and the 120mm Nerd. The Define 130 pairs 130mm of rear travel with a 140mm fork and aggressive modern geometry. NS pitch this bike as a do it all machine, saying ‘we believe that it’s big wheels and proper geometry, not the amount of travel that define what a bike can do.’ The Define 130 sits in a pretty trendy category right now. Specialized’s brand new Stumpjumper is also…

Mountain biking is booming, vehicles are getting bigger, and while eMTBs are getting lighter – they’re still heavy. The move from roof mounted bike racks to those on the back of your car continues, and the increased popularity of eMTBs and big gravity rigs can make vertical racks a little bit of hard work when mounted to a 4WD with a lift kit. The smart cats at Yakima have been working on options that suit what we ride and what we drive, and their new OnRamp bike rack isn’t searching to set a new high watermark on price, but it is setting new ground on functionality. The Yakima OnRamp was designed to work for riders with heavy bikes, like an eMTB or big gravity rig, and for those who take…

Climate change and water use are a pretty hot topic, especially here on the driest continent on earth. While the latest bike cleaning product from Krush avoids using extra water and busting out the hose and bucket, the main aim for the new Illuminate Waterless Wash and Wax is to add in some easier cleaning between major washes – and as such it really suits bikes that don’t get as dirty. This could be your road bike, or bikes that you’re just a bit wary about full hose down washes – such as an eMTB. The Illuminate comes in a spray bottle, and it’s meant to be used on dusty and dirty bikes, not filthy bikes. If your bike is covered with a lot of dirt, dry mud, and general…

Choosing the items that connect you to your bike, also known as touch points, can make or break a great ride. Each foot, hand and bum is different and requires just the right contact patch consisting of the perfect blend of comfort, functionality and durability. Recently I have swapped back to flat pedals and while I am happy with my choice of pedal (a steel pinned composite low profile pedal) I have struggled to find a comfortable, grippy trail shoe that isn’t too stiff and devoid of grip and trail feel or too soft and casual shoe like. Specialized reached out recently and mentioned they were working on some fresh kicks and my hand went up fast. What turned up was a pair of Oak Green 2FO Roost Flat shoes.…

Falls Creek is one of my favourite Australian riding destinations, because of the variety of riding on offer. Perched just below the ridgeline, the Falls Creek alpine village has just about every type of riding to keep a bike rider happy. You might know Falls for some of the classic descents like Big Fella, or the long, flowing descent of Flow Town. But the resort trails have a multitude of options, and that’s just the beginning. From Falls Creek, you can tackle long, winding descents all the way to Mt Beauty, on wild four-wheel drive trails that will make you rethink the phrase ‘just fire road’. There are access trails that traipse the alpine plateau, from bluff to hut, to valley and back again. And of course there are trails…

After a year unlike any other, most of you will probably feel like a coiled spring, ready to go and ride somewhere new, somewhere special and somewhere exciting this summer. Save for Victorians, we all could mostly ride as we otherwise would have for the past 8 months or so – just as long as you didn’t have any big trips planned to Tasmania, Western Australia, Alice Springs, or Victoria. It’s been a great year to rediscover how beneficial it is to have trails in our own backyards – figuratively, but literally for some! However with trails in our alpine areas having had lots of work late in the riding season and a good rest over winter, you can be sure that the conditions up high will be all time…

What is it that makes a trail great to ride and what makes an awesome trail network that is embraced by riders? These are a couple of questions that I have been kicking around lately based on some new trails built at my local network, rider feedback on the trails, and way the trails have been adopted and used by riders. The diversity of riding abilities and the variances in what riders want to experience on a trail make it difficult to design trails that keep everyone happy. Often sacrifices are made to allow a broader rider demographic to ride a trail. This is especially the case for more technical trails built close to cities or major centres where trails are often tamed down to meet the experiences sought by…

LAKE Crackenback Resort (LCR) has everything you need for a mountain bike holiday in the NSW Snowies. Located halfway between Jindabyne and Thredbo, LCR has great riding, homely accommodation, family activities, and food options galore. We headed up to LCR on the third afternoon of our trip after finishing up at Mill Creek. Before checking into our accommodation, we went and met up with Jay, the manager of Activate, the in-house bike shop at LCR. Jay gave us the lowdown on everything including what trails were running well, the other activities on offer at LCR, and even some local knowledge on the alpine flora and fauna. The accommodation at LCR is top notch for mountain bikers. Firstly, the trails intertwine their way throughout the resort, meaning from all of the…

Is it that time already, we only saw the arrival of the asymmetrical swing armed Stumpjumper some three years ago and Specialized have hit us with a full redesign already. It would have been a huge task to tweak an already stellar trail bike, shed weight and make it stiffer. So how does the new Stumpjumper really differ? INITIAL IMPRESSIONS Specialized have somewhat streamlined their Stumpjumper offerings, doing away with the Stumpjumper ST (Short Travel) 130mm/120mm platform and brought the Stumpjumper back into the Trail realm of 140mm/130mm front and rear respectively. This also opens up space for the all new Stumpjumper Evo, which sits just above the old Stumpjumper at 160mm/150mm and dips into Enduro territory. Specialized wanted to create the ultimate trail bike, but that actually still required…

The last time I strapped a battery pack and light to my bike, 700 lumens was an industry leader. But the output of the Magicshine Monteer 5000S has a maximum power output of 5000 lumens that would hold fast for two hours. Unboxing the Monteer 5000S, it was a bit of a case of less is more. There is a head unit, a battery pack and USB charger and USB/micro USB charging cable. The mounting hardware features a Garmin-compatible twist-lock device, with several different length mounting straps for differing bar widths. On the scales, the weight of headlamp is 127g, battery pack 304g and mounting hardware 16g for a total unit weight of 447g; not ultra lightweight, but very reasonable for the 5000 lumen output and endurance of the unit…

The 7IDP M2 helmet is an all-mountain/enduro focused open face helmet. When putting the helmet on you immediately notice the protection extending right down the back of the head. Despite this, the helmet’s overall size felt a bit small compared to other helmets I have been riding of late, such as the Bontrager Blaze and the TLD A2. The helmet was comfortable for me in a medium/large size, and I normally wear a helmet in the vicinity of 58cm. The helmet padding feels nice on the head, although I wouldn’t have minded slightly thicker padding to provide a little bit more cushion between the liner and the helmet itself. Tightening the M2 to the perfect tension is easy with the Boa dial in the classic right to tighten, left to…

With mountain bike wheel upgrade options skyrocketing in price, it’s refreshing to see wheel sets available that not only give you a few options in hub standards, rim width and wheel size, but they don’t cost the earth while doing so! The Funn Fantom wheels are available in 29”, 27.5”, Boost hub spacing and non-Boost through-axle width, and with 25mm, 30mm or even 35mm internal widths. They can also be set up with Shimano HG, SRAM XD or Shimano Microspline freehub bodies. There are even quick release adaptors available! So unless you’re riding a 26” wheeled bike or super boost axle spacing, you’ll be able to find a Funn Fantom wheel set that suits. We had a set of 29”, Boost width Funn Fantom AM35 wheels sent out to test,…

Rhino Rack is proudly Australian born and owned, offering the most diverse range of roof rack products available on our shores. The company is committed to reducing their environmental footprint and offering customers the highest quality products in Australia, NZ and the USA. With a focus on camping and adventure, our sport of mountain biking falls right into the mix with a large portion of us engaging in any number of “outdoorsy” activities which are well catered for by Rhino Rack. Their products are sleek, durably powder coated black and the ideal match for riders whom wish to carry their bikes on the roof and or wish to carry additional gear outside the cabin or tray. With domestic travel and road trips pretty high on the agenda for most of…

Hunt Bike Wheels are a British wheel manufacturer that have made leaps and bounds into the global wheel set market, thanks to offering a variety of well-built and thoughtfully designed wheels – without costing an arm and a leg (and a kidney). Their wheels have gained a lot of favourable reviews, from their alloy and carbon road wheels, through to their all-mountain, trail and XC wheels. At a glance, their mountain bike range isn’t as deep as their road range of wheels, with 8 options to choose from. However with carbon all-mountain wheels well under $1500, and Enduro and eMTB rated wheels under $800, they’re offering exceptional value for mountain bikers, no matter how you ride. The Race XC Wide wheels were my pick to test, as there isn’t a…

“Why the hell do I need to tuck!?” I hear you ask. Well, for the most part, most riders out there have absolutely no need to tuck when you are out for a rip, but for anyone who rides when a clock is involved – either racing or just trying to get a PB on your favourite descent – knowing the ins and outs of tucking carve a huge amount of time off your descents. And it becomes more and more effective the faster you go. Watching Greg Minnar ride to his umpteenth downhill World Cup victory recently was a master class in tucking. Once you hit a particularly high speed on your bike, there’s several things which can happen; you either run out of gears to pedal any faster,…

In a crazy year for everyone, it’s wild to think that it was still possible for a Mountain Bike World Championships to go ahead. With restrictions in place, Leogang in Austria hosted all the Mountain Bike World Championship events, from eMTB, to Team Relay, Downhill and Cross-Country. While Bec McConnell was set to ride the wave of success from 2019 into 2020, of course her season was not what anyone would expect – but she really delivered in the shortened World Cup and World Championships, riding in a medal position for the majority of the race, and finishing with a Bronze medal after a sprint with Italy’s Eva Lechner. If you saw the coverage, the course was intense, and the wild weather created some epic carnage. “Third at Worlds was…

Those of you who have been around long enough, or dabbled in different types of cycling, may be aware of ‘the rules’. These ‘rules’ are supposed to be adhered to by cyclists, but I am not sure why. Maybe it’s like the secret handshake into the MAMIL club? To be fair, the rules are mainly targeted at road cyclists (generally less fun than mountain bikers anyway), so if you’re into having less fun and staring at bitumen then go right ahead and live by the rules. For the rest of us, here is a little debunk of some of the rules: // Humps are for camels: no hydration packs. We live in Australia, the driest continent on earth. It’s either scorching hot, or pissing down with rain in monsoon season.…

The past twelve months have delivered catastrophic fires, a global pandemic, and the start of a recession. But it’s not all bad news, as Australia has seen a boom in cycling (including mountain biking), trail teams have had time to refresh trails in time for summer, and the majority of domestic travel restrictions have lifted, meaning we can all get to some of the best trail locations around the country! With long daylight hours and time off work, summer is a great time to get out and ride. Throw in school holidays for an active family, and there’s a great opportunity to pack up and head somewhere fun to ride. Here at AMB we often showcase the big lines and hard trails in the popular riding destinations. If you’ve just…

ON day two of our Snowies Roadie we headed for Cooma’s Mount Gladstone trails. We hadn’t arranged to go riding with any locals, so we were going purely off Trailforks. Cooma is a scenic two-hour drive from Tumut, where you’ll pass through picturesque towns like Talbingo and Adaminaby. The devastation wrought by last summer’s bushfires is plain to see on the drive, with the charred trees serving as a stark reminder of the resilience shown by local communities throughout the region. Upon arriving at Mount Gladstone, we headed to the trail map located at the carpark. After a quick consultation, we decided to bang up the Fireroad to get to the descending. The East Fireroad was a cruisey spin up to Mount Gladstone Road, and before long we’d knocked over…

Cube have been making eMTBs longer than most companies, and they quickly adopted the 4th generation Bosch Performance CX motor, which I rode at the Australian launch about a year ago. I was keen to see how their long experience in the market has helped them with their current range of bikes. For our Snowies Roadie we had the 2020 Cube Stereo Hybrid 140 HPC Race 625 on test. now for obvious ease I’m just going to call it the “Stereo Hybrid 140” but I’ll get to that later. Cube are still not that well-known here in Australia but the German mega brand is a household stalwart in it’s native country and indeed most of Europe. With a model list that falls to the floor, and more than half of…

The art shuttling is all about fast loading and unloading. So any method of carrying bikes for shuttling needs to be fast – but it also needs to be secure. By simply padding the tail gate on a ute, you can let your bike’s fork and front wheel sit over it and it stays relatively stable, for fast shuttle turnarounds. Newer tail gate pads like the Thule GateMate Pro add a few more bells and whistles, like a taller height to suit modern utes, a nice plush inner to stop scratching your vehicle, flaps for the latch and reverse camera, and straps to keep the bikes in place. All these features make the GateMate Pro more secure than some basic older models. Fitting the GateMate Pro is simple, with three…

The art of making a good trail shoe comes down to building a shoe that has the support you need on a pedal, a grippy outer sole that doesn’t interfere with clipping in, some toe protection, easy to fit and take off, and a good appearance. Throw in a reasonable weight and a shoe that doesn’t hold too much water when wet, and you’re onto a winner. Bonus points if it doesn’t look like a football boot or fat skate shoe. Italian brand Fizik are no stranger to cycling shoes, but their trail-friendly shoes are a little newer. With a range of very fancy high-performance road and mountain bike shoes, along with some winter cycling shoes and even gravel-specific shoes, their attention turned to trail riders. While the Fizik M6…

So… I know banana bread has been done to death… but, I’ve wanted to share this amazing café style banana bread since I started working with AMB. I’m just going to get it out there and we can start fresh in 2021! This banana bread has been sold in cafés and always gets great reviews – it is made with over 50% bananas. Musa are an amazing fruit – the nutritional status changes as it ripens. When raw (and not overripe) they are a good source of fibre, Vit C and B6, potassium and magnesium. To make this banana bread, however, you need really ripe bananas and at this stage they naturally have higher antioxidant levels, lower amounts of vitamins but still a relatively high potassium content. The health benefit…

In the midst of a pandemic-focused world there is one thing none of us would have picked: cycling is booming. Those who dabbled in the sport are becoming more fervent adventurers or trainers, and those who got their kicks in gyms or in team sports are saddling up and exploring the great outdoors by bike. Training with heart rate and power is a great way to gauge effort and assess changes in fitness, but for both the newer rider and the experienced mountain biker, there is a lot to be said about riding on feel. After all; batteries fail, sensors have non-compliant moments, and during racing staring at a computer is a great way to miss what’s going on and never find your limits. Just as 90s fashion is back,…