Innholdsfortegnelse for May-June-July 2016 i Mountain Biking Australia

I like new gear and bike tech as much as anyone. Even so my head is really spinning at the rate of change that we’ve seen in recent years. A few years back I thought things would settle after the 26-inch wheel was killed off. I had nothing against 26ers (I actually liked the way they rode) but welcomed the idea of some stability. However before the last shovel of dirt was tossed on the 26er grave, the industry was already cooking a new wheel ‘standard’ and 27.5 plus rolled into town. Offering a little bit of fatbike traction in a package that’s light enough for general trail riding, they’ve definitely caught my interest but where does it stop? Of course there’s the boost axle ‘standard’ too. A few millimetres…

AUSSIE DESIGNED DUALLY CRAFTWORKS Cycles has joined forces with suspension design specialist i-Track to create a unique Australian designed MTB. Currently you’ll find a handful of downhill bikes that employ a really high suspension pivot and modified drivetrains with idlers to eliminate pedal kickback. Placing the pivot up high creates an exaggerated rearward axle path for better performance over square edge bumps. The new Craftworks ENR uses a similar concept but applies it to a 160mm travel all-mountain or enduro bike. Running 27.5 wheels, it will be offered in two frame sizes; medium and large. Both sizes will run a 455mm seat tube and simply vary in reach and wheelbase length to suit differing rider heights. At 75-degrees the seat angle is steep (good for climbing) while the head angle…

Dark and deeply moody; that was my first impression of Ella, but it was night-time when I clambered off the long distance train to meet her, high up in the mountains of Sri Lanka. Ella is of course a town, not a person, and I’d stumbled upon her after a small amount of research along with an educated guess. What followed was a few days of extremely scenic and sweaty riding towards Little Adam’s Peak, around Ella and through the surrounding tea plantations. It was mixed terrain riding, some of it on-road and some of it off, but it served as a good warm up for the epic rides that followed. With little more than Google maps to guide me, my first properly big day out was a twisted out…

Riding tubeless is great. It allows you to get away with lower tyre pressures and virtually eliminates pinch flat punctures. Of course it’s not all beer and skittles. The initial setup can be a hassle and you need to keep tabs on the sealant level inside to ensure that it’s still liquid. Modern tyres and 'tubeless ready' rims are making life easier but how do you know when the sealant has dried up? You can deflate the tyre and remove one bead to check inside, but this can be messy and it’s a hassle that many people try to avoid. You can also shake the wheel and listen for sealant sloshing around but this tends to be hit and miss. Swiss company Milkit has developed a system that aims to…

I’ve been riding mountain bikes for some 20 years now. In this time the MTB has taken me a long way. From smashing myself on long stage races in far flung places such as Mongolia, India, Italy and elsewhere to travelling thousands of kilometres on long, remote tours. I’ve run bike events and tours and been surrounded by knowledge and technology far beyond my grasp. All this riding has been done paying only lip service to how my bike fits me. I’ve never been one for tweaking stem lengths, saddle positions, fork pressures and the like. I’ve yawned through hundreds of pre-race camp discussions on such things and raised eyebrows at claims that a half turn here and a centimetre there had made such a difference. Sure I’ve looked at…

I think there’s a bee on my back. Can you flick it off’ Megan innocently asked Laurence, who was standing behind her in the queue for the shuttle bus to Geraldine. I moved quickly between them and brushed the bee away. In March 2013 Laurence was tending a beehive in his parent’s garden in Christchurch. He’d been around bees most of his life. One bee spied a gap in Laurence’s protective suit, down by his ankle. One bee, one sting. Within minutes Laurence went into anaphylactic shock and collapsed. Fortunately his wife Viv and mum Jenny, a nurse, found him and gave CPR. For 20 minutes Laurence’s heart didn’t beat. The ambulance arrived and, once at the hospital, Laurence was put into an induced coma. Woken 24 hours later all…

At the moment it seems like just about everyone in the MTB world is talking about ‘plus’ bikes; 27+, 29+, hardtail and dual suspension—they’re definitely a hot topic. But what exactly is a plus bike? In many ways they can be seen a natural expression of the process of ‘bracketing’ as it relates to tyre width; find out what’s too narrow, what’s too wide, then keep bringing those limits towards each other until you find the sweet spot. For many years most of us were told 2.1-2.25 inch tyres running 30-35psi were the way to go, largely because they were light and rolled quickly on smooth trails. Then fat bikes came along with their four to five inch wide balloon treads running 5-10psi. While they offer unbelievable traction and flotation…

Sunsets We apologise to anyone whose photo doesn’t make it into these pages. We usually get a large number of entries and can’t print every submission. You can also check the JetBlack website for extra photo competition entries. Entry details If you think you are pretty handy with a lens, send us a copy of your best photo and you may win a Camelbak Mule valued at $179. The Mule is a perfect partner for all-day epics and was designed with three-hour plus rides in mind. It’s able to carry three litres of fluid and up to 11 litres of gear, so you can load it up for the long haul (or just use it as a lightweight commuter pack). Features include a wide and easy to fill screw-top lid…

TRAIL TROUBLES I’ve been mountain biking for 25 years and involved in building and repairing trails throughout this time. I’ve seen some extraordinary changes, both in the equipment we ride and how the sport has diversified, but of late I’ve been noticing a distinct change to the trails themselves. Our local tracks are beginning to look like race courses after a national level MTB event has been through! I feel the cause can be traced back to the MTB videos that we love to watch. They usually feature a rider with unbelievable skills racing down a seriously desirable track. The action depicts huge roosts of dirt and exploding berms as the rider flies downhill. Young riders then want to emulate this on their local trails, and the lower skillset inevitably…

HOPE FOR ALL With all the different bottom bracket and chainring standards out there these days, it’s good to see a crankset that adapts to suit just about any application—the fact they look pretty good is an added bonus too. Made in the UK by Hope, these cranks use a three-piece arm and spindle design with a removable spider. The spindle is available in various lengths to suit everything from DH to fatbikes as well as the more common sizes. Hope also offers a range of spider formats; 104 PCD single ring, a 64/104 double as well as spiderless direct mount rings ranging from 26 through to 36 tooth. The spindle itself is 30mm in diameter, so you’ll need to purchase a matching bottom bracket (most cranks use a 24mm…

If I asked you how much you thought the sports nutrition market was worth, what would you say? $200,000 or maybe $1,000,000? How about a cool $1.2 billion! Yep, enough to buy a few pro cycling teams with change to spare. New gels come out every month claiming to be ‘the one’ with ground-breaking new research. However, does anyone really know what’s inside our favourite gel and what the concoction is actually doing—what’s necessary and what is not? Well it’s actually not as complicated as you think. With the help of Dr Jacky Malliot from Team BMC, the nutritionist for world champion mountain biker Julien Absalon and Dr Trent Stellingwerf from the Canadian Sport Institute, we’ll break these gels down and take a good look. CARBOHYDRATE Carbohydrate is the largest…

It’s no secret that I’m a fan of everything I’ve ridden from Norco in the last few years. It started when I first rode the 26-inch wheeled Sight, and I’ve been equally impressed by the Sight 650B, and the 120mm travel Fluid, and my personal ride is a Range Carbon. Despite all this love I am not a mindless fanboy; it’s just that Norco have found a winning formula and they’ve stuck to it. We should also put it out there that I am in way an XC racer; my fitness varies greatly with the conflicting demands on my time, and to be honest I just don’t get that much enjoyment out of masochistically flogging myself against a clock; I’m not on Strava, and I have no interest in riding…

Dual suspension bikes have come a long way, offering excellent pedalling efficiency without a huge weight penalty and it did seem that the comparative simplicity of the hardtail was falling by the wayside. But just when we thought the classic hardtail would be relegated to entry level and kids bikes, a few brands decided to reinject their efforts into the hardtail platform. Stiff and light used to be the name of the game but these new generation bikes aim for more. Examples such as the BMC Team Elite, the Trek Procaliber and the latest Focus Raven all employ new-school frame geometry and comfort enhancing frame design with the goal of making hardtails more palatable. F-Si; a bike that aims to combine the raw speed that hardtails are known for with…

Our Pit Stop pages typically deliver advice on how to maintain you own bike and keep it singing. This time we’ve dedicated the pages to someone who may well fix your bike for you; Ryan Lennox from Spearman Cycles in Wollongong and his latest creation—a super light Giant Reign. As a mechanic who spends every day surrounded by bikes and bike gear, we thought it’d be interesting to check out his latest build. Unlike the bikes ridden by pro racers, Ryno’s component choices aren’t dictated by sponsorship deals and he gets to ride whatever he wants, no matter how quirky the selection. The goal was to build a 160mm travel enduro bike that was light enough to pedal comfortably up the Illawarra escarpment, yet bomb back down as fast as…

FORK INVERSION Inspired by your excellent article ‘Slider Service’ (Aug/Sept/Oct 2015) and dismayed at the price quoted for the job at my LBS, I bought the seal kit, oil and searched my workshop for substitute tools. Then, recalling the trauma from botching the same job on a Marzocchi some years ago, took a deep breath. It turned out that the handle from an Exacto knife was an exact fit (pun intended) over the Fox rebound adjuster shaft— this protected the delicate bits whilst tapping the inner rods free. A length of 40mm PVC spa pipe served as my seal driver. Only issue I found with the new flangeless seals is that it’s possible to drive them in too far. So rather than use a spanner and possibly turn an error…

The Aussie bush; we love to ride in it. But the south west of WA is a little different. Cut off by deserts on two sides and wild seas on the other, it has evolved to feel different to anywhere else. Out of 34 global biod iversity hotspots listed by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), they only recognise one in Australia—the SW corner of WA. The locals, affectionately known as ‘sand gropers’, have no shortage of riding options. There’s a round a dozen focal points scattered throughout the region, each with its own unique feel, and thanks to good trail design the sand groping is kept to a minimum. Heading south from Perth is easy; hop on the freeway and it’ll take you straight out of town. You won’t hit…

Spank have been pumping out some impressive looking kit over the last few years, and things such as their OohBah rim profile clearly show that they’re not afraid to think outside the box when it comes to working with aluminium. Applying that same lateral thinking to the humble aluminium handlebar has resulted in what Spank call ‘Vibrocore’; an aluminium bar filled with vibration damping foam. The problem with traditional alloy handlebars is that they’re generally so stiff that they transmit high-frequency vibration to the rider’s hands, resulting in hand and wrist fatigue, or even numbness. Previously you’d have to spring for a carbon handlebar to get decent vibration damping, and although carbon bars are also lighter, the price can be prohibitive for many riders. The aim with Vibrocore is to…

Tyres are something that we tend to take for granted. They’re not as shiny and exciting as a fancy anodised component or carbon trinket but they play a critical role in determining the ride quality of your bike. Rudimentary as they may appear, there’s an elaborate and labour intensive build process behind every tyre; we dropped into the Kenda factory in Taiwan to see firsthand what is involved. Kenda mightn’t be the best known when it comes to MTB tyres but they are huge and produce for a number of ‘big name’ tyre brands. The facility that we visited is dedicated to making tyres for bicycles and motorbikes as well as all types of inner tubes (there are even bigger factories that handle the automotive and truck tyres). HANDS ON…

It’s less than 12 months since we last review the Orbea Occam. Why review the same platform again? Well it’s still pitched at the ‘trail’ market but the new Occam has changed so completely that it bears little resemblance to the bike we tested before. Where the older bike had 105mm of rear wheel travel the new Occam is offered in two variants; the trail version (Occam TR) has 120mm of travel and 29 inch wheels, while the all-mountain (Occam AM) is a 140mm bike with 27.5 wheels. Both the suspension and geometry has been redesigned too, so this bike clearly warrants a re-take. We landed the Occam TR M30 to test; retailing for $5,199 it is the base level carbon version of this 120mm travel 29er. It shares the…

STEFAN NANTZ Stefan loves to tinker and tweak, and that’s what Readers’ Rides is all about. He bought this Radon Slide 130 29er whilst living in Germany. The matte black finish remains the same but just about everything else has now changed. For starters Stefan dropped 500g of weight from each wheel by building some Sixpack Racing hubs into Spank Oozy AL26 rims with DT Swiss spokes and wrapping them in Schwalbe Rocket Ron EVO Lite Skin tyres. From there he continued the red theme with the bars, seatpost collar, headset top cap and various accessories. While the wheels and tyres are light, that was the only area where weight savings were a consideration—Stefan doesn’t feel it’s worth the expense or effort elsewhere. Having moved to Australia, his local is…