Innholdsfortegnelse for Feb-Mar-Apr 18 i Mountain Biking Australia

Hi there, I’ve come on board at a pretty interesting time, I reckon! I’ve been a mountain biker for… wow… nearly 30 years, I guess? I got my first bike in 1988, so there you go. No wonder the beard’s so… distinguished… So I’ve seen a lot come and go over that time. Suspension, then dual suspension, then proper dual suspension… I was even around for the start of the blackwall tyre thing. Still not a fan, either… skinwalls rule! Ahem… Now, though, the sport is in a very different place. There’s a saying I pinched from a skier; when I started riding, you’d wave to other people with mountain bikes on their car, there were so few of us. It’s always had a collegiate, friendly atmosphere, but sheer weight…

SERVICE BLUES I recently bought a new dual suspension bike from an online dealer, who delivered the bike to me mostly built in a box. All I had to do was to install the handlebars and pedals, put the front wheel on and it was ready to go. After four or five rides, though, the gears are starting to skip, especially on the bigger rear cogs. I haven’t crashed or let the bike fall over, so it’s not misuse. The company I bought the bike from is in Sydney, and I am in country NSW, so sending it back is not really an option. Can I simply take it into a local bike shop? Will they service a bike that I didn’t buy from them? Or can I do it…

When I was a lot younger, I remember seeing a troupe of skaters rampaging down the road outside the bike shop I was working at, leaping curbs and traffic islands like they weren’t there. It was absolutely astonishing, given the equipment and abilities of the day. Later on I discovered that the skaters were using bolt-on half-bindings – known as Ollie Horns – to basically side-step the arduous task of actually lifting the board with their feet (an ollie, in skater parlance) and go straight into the fun stuff, like grinding curbs and tweaking jumps. I tried them for a while, and it instantly lifted my skating to the level I’d wanted it to be at… but it was a hollow victory in so many ways. I could finally do…

RATINGS VALUE 6 FUNCTION 8 LOOKS 8 OVERALL 7.3/10 Canadian company OneUp burst onto the component scene about three years ago with its wildly popular 40t and 42t conversion kits for ten-speed drivetrains, and has kicked on since with a variety of innovative, well-thought-out bits to add to your bike. It recently added flat pedals to its roster in both alloy and composite construction, promising a big platform, loads of grip and – importantly in this age of low bottom brackets – a thin profile for more ground clearance. As a bloke with large-ish feet – steady on! – I’ve been looking for a larger-platform flat pedal to see if I can kick a lifetime of clipped-in trail riding, and I’ve used OneUp stuff with success for a couple of years now. It’s largely…

Humbling, perhaps that was the best way to describe the moment, or even more accurately the whole experience of riding in the remote corners of the 'Green Triangle' of Laos - the far-flung top-right hand corner, where the Chinese, Burmese and Laos borders converge. At first I though she was a young girl; but after a few minutes of exchanging grins I realised that this shoeless and pint-sized girl was actually much older than she looked. I’d set up the camera remotes on a mountain trail, just above a broken suspension bridge. The aim was to grab some last minute extra images for this story. Halfway up the short but steep dirt trail and she’d put down her huge backpack like basket, which was full of firewood and strange looking…

RATINGS IN THE STAND 7/10 ON THE TRAIL 8/10 OVERALL 7.5/10 If you’re a relative newcomer to the sport Whyte Bicycles might be a fresh dot on your radar, but the UK-based company has a long history of building durable and fun bikes able to withstand what we would often consider appalling English riding conditions. With 27.5 inch wheels and 130mm of rear wheel travel, the T130 is the shortest travel bike in Whyte’s current range and, with some much burlier big brothers further up the tree, aims to tick multiple boxes as a stellar trail all-rounder. On test we have Whyte’s entry point to the platform, the T130 SR. Aimed squarely at those seeking their first ‘proper’ trail bike, the full aluminium SR retails for $3990. It’s an extremely competitive section of…

Remember those days where you’d run out the door at sunrise on your trusty Repco 15 speed, looking for adventure? You’d roll home at dusk, knees bleeding, eating a bag of mixed lollies, fall asleep and repeat it all in the morning. Young, unbreakable and a little stupid. Then your 20s came, you partied and forgot to ride your bike. In your 30s commitments abounded and weekends were consumed with school concerts, junior sports and closing your eyes on the couch whenever possible. In your 40s, though, you rediscovered your groove and started to get back on the trails, suddenly realising for the first time in 20 years that wheelies are hard. But come 50, your body literally starts trying to break itself down. Ageing is really code for ‘you…

Electric Dreams I just invested a Merida E160 -900 e-bike, for many of the same reasons you point out in your recent newsletter. I own a YETI SB66 Carbon that I still ride, and also train on a Colnago road bike when time permits. I will still ride these when I am riding with friends, but when I want to go out and have fun, the e-bike thing seemed the way to go. I suffer from lower back pain regularly when I ride the mountain bike that makes things less enjoyable than it should be at times. I suspect the e-bike craze will take off in the coming years as now they technologically usable off road and evolving rapidly. Good to hear you are going to cover some e-MTB reviews.…

Nestled in a tiny village about an hour and a half from Tasmania’s capital, Hobart, the tiny – and I mean tiny – town of Maydena feels like it’s a million miles and a thousand years away from anywhere. Overlooking the Derwent Valley, it’s impossibly green and lush, with a backdrop of mist-shrouded ancient mountain ranges standing vigil over unspoiled woodlands as far as the eye can see. Once home to tree loggers and ore miners, Maydena, like so many small towns that relied on transient industry for survival, gradually slipped into obscurity. The work dried up, its only school closed down and people moved away, with barely 250 residents staying behind. Today, though, Maydena is waking up. And it can thank mountain biking for its new-found resurgence. Park Life…

The eerie, mournful wail of bagpipes that wafts over the still dawn of Bundanoon is especially poignant today. For the last 13 years, riders have congregated in this tiny NSW town tucked away in the southern highlands to pit themselves against the Highland Fling… but after today, there will not be another. It’s a sign of the times. The Fling joins a number of other big races to bow out in 2017, victims of falling numbers and rising costs… and perhaps to their own success. The Fling was a test of legs and lungs, and organiser Huw Kingston never made any bones about it. “You’ll get wet, I expect,” is Huw’s pragmatic answer to competitors who phoned in the week before a race, concerned about an unfavourable long range forecast.…

RATINGS VALUE 7 FUNCTION 9 LOOKS 8 OVERALL 8/10 One of the things that annoys the living crap out of me on our local trails is the sheer number of discarded water bottles scattered to the four winds. Here’s a tip – you don’t need to buy bottled water in Australia. Mexico? Sure. Here? Not necessary. So when IXS’s kit showed up claiming to be made from recycled bottles, I was all ears. And legs and butt, as it were. The Sever 6.1s (dopey name, but whatever) is a mid-weight trail short that sells without a liner, but with plenty of add-ons. The material in question is essentially made from ground-up plastic PET bottles that’s shredded, sorted into colours and extruded to create a material that looks a lot like wool. It’s then spun…

Mountain biking may be a comparatively new sport, but it’s already had a major impact on the long-established road market. Let’s look at how mountain bike technology is making the modern road bike more versatile and (whisper it) fun! I may be accused of typecasting, but I’m going to put it out there and say that roadies are a conservative bunch. Sure they’ve embraced composite construction on their skinny-tyred contraptions, but road bikes haven’t changed a lot in the past two or three decades. On the other hand, mountain bike design rarely stands still. In the past couple of decades we’ve seen suspension systems evolve beyond belief; tubeless tyres, dropper posts, frame geometry and wheel size options have exploded and axle standards continue to breed like rabbits on Viagra. The…

RATINGS IN THE STAND 8/10 ON THE TRAIL 7.5/10 OVERALL 7.75/10 FROM relative obscurity a handful of years back, Indonesian-based Polygon has come charging through the pack to become a definite player in the mountain bike scene. Recently I tested the top-spec carbon Xquarone EX9 and, despite coming from a less well-known brand and its premium price tag, I consider it one of the best, if not the best bike I’ve ridden to date. The Xquarone was a ground-up new design, and the same could almost be said about the Siskiu T8 on test. Okay, so the name isn’t new - I rode and reviewed the Siskiu D8 two years ago - but apart from the name, the T8 shares virtually nothing in common with its namesake. Where the earlier Siskiu D rolled…

The best time to give your bike a little TLC is probably the time that you least want to do it… but trust us. If you can give your rig just five minutes of your time – okay, maybe ten – after you get back from your ride but before you put it away, it’ll reward you with a longer service life. And besides, it’ll be ready to rock and roll for the next trail date when you are! Going over the bike quickly straight after a ride also means that you’re less likely to forget that one little thing – a saddle tilt, maybe, or a handlebar straighten – that was bugging you, and will immediately bug you again on the next ride because you forgot to sort it…

About eighteen months ago (April 2016, to be exact), Rock Shox pulled the covers off a pair of new rear shocks… and took the lead on a whole new way to think about how a rear shock fits inside a frame. It was dubbed Metric, but confusingly has very little to do with the difference between inches and millimetres. So what gives? First, a little background. A rear shock (or spring and damper unit, if you like) is traditionally measured in two ways; the distance between the middle of its top and bottom mounting points (eye to eye) and the amount of movement the shock shaft moves (stroke). Those numbers determine whether a particular shock will fit on your bike (leaving aside damping curves and the like for the second).…

A STORM surge, whipped up in The Bay of Bengal a week earlier, empties its deadly contents on the Himalayan region in central Nepal. When Cyclone Hudud had done its work, 40 people hiking over Thorung La Pass, one of the world’s highest, will never go home again. Exactly one month later, I’m pushing a bike and a backpack full of camera gear over the same pass. Still heavily packed with snow and ice, it’s hard work. Really hard work. Too hard, in fact. I can easily see how such a tragedy unfolded up here in this thin, frigid air. On November 15, I leave the tea house at Thorung Phedi. I could have spent the night 500m higher but fearing altitude sickness I stay lower and decide to push…

It could be said that Thredbo has taken 20 years to become an overnight success with mountain bikers. The resort with Australia’s highest mountain has been hosting races since the 1990s, but it’s only put the foot down on trail development over the last three years – and it only added bike-carrying capacity to its chairlifts in 2016. It’s timed it well, though. As mass participation races fall off rider’s radars, new events are popping up to replace them, and one of them is the Cannonball Festival. The festival is run privately via by Thredbo’s own mountain bike park, and is now in its fifth year. It has arguably Australia’s richest prize purse for any mountain bike discipline race up for grabs, too, with $70,000 of prizes on offer this…

We’re big fans of Scottish rider Danny Macaskill, who spends his life redefining the line between impossible and amazing on both trials and trail bikes. One of the elemental parts of his bike is his flat pedals, and it’s crucial that he not only have incredible grip, but energy absorption from his choice of shoe. You might not make the connection back to your own experience, but put it this way… you could play golf in sneakers, but your game will improve if you wear spiked shoes for better grip. The same applies to mountain biking. Sure, Vans or Converse flat-bottomed sneakers will do a great job – but they won’t do as good a job as something that’s designed for the job. Danny has had a long affiliation with…

RATINGS VALUE 6 FUNCTION 8 LOOKS 8 OVERALL 7.3/10 SPECIFICATIONS When your climbing ability on a bike leans well south of where it should be, every advantage helps; a wheelset with six pawls and a mighty 120 engagement points is just what the doctor ordered. Industry 9 (aka I9) is well known and equally highly regarded for its (in)famously loud but super-effective Torch hubs. Tackling a recent build project – a rare steel-frame 2011 Rocky Mountain Blizzard LT (Long Travel) 26-inch hardtail – I wanted to ensure this rig was more than capable in the areas that mattered most, and for this rider that meant both wheel toughness (a steel hardtail and 105kg of rider ain’t a light load) and as much climbing assistance as possible, were a must, which led…

RATINGS IN THE STAND 7/10 ON THE TRAIL 8/10 OVERALL 7.5/10 IT’S often said that Canadians share a lot of traits with Aussies; they’re humble and laid back, they’re reasonably partial to a beer, and they aren’t afraid of hard work. Maybe that’s why we respond so well to Norco’s wide and widening range of mid- to high-end trail bikes? The British Columbian brand has been around for more than 50 years now, and it’s remained true to its original ideal of getting more people on bikes. The team who design their bikes are riders through and through, which is a great asset when it come to building up more affordable bikes, in particular. The Sight sits above the more trail-orientated Optic and beneath the bigger-mountain, longer travel Range, and it’s been tweaked,…