Innholdsfortegnelse for May-Jun-Jul 2019 i Mountain Biking Australia

..And you know what that means, mountain biking season! Oh, I got carried away there. Apologies. I suppose at this juncture I should introduce myself - my name is James, and I'm the new editor of the best mountain biking magazine going around. Well, you know that, you bought it. But if you didn't, over the next 90-odd pages you're about to find out. Before I go any further, I'd like to extend a few HUGE thankyous to the people who have helped me put this edition together. First of all, to the two former editors, Tim Robson and especially John Hardwick. Both have been a constant source of knowledge and support over the last three months, showing themselves not only to be great editors but wonderful people too. To…

MBA: Hi, Roger. It’s a pleasure to meet you. I suppose we should start at the beginning, tell us about the accident back in 2000? RW: I still remember the date - December 11th, 2000. It was a motorbike accident. Honestly, it was my own fault, being a bit of an idiot with mates. One of them was egging me on to do a mono (wheelie). Stupidly I did, and I completely flipped the bike and it came down on my foot and leg. I was pretty idiotic, I don’t want to try and hide that. The accident pretty much took the foot off there and then - it was just hanging off from the bone by a bit of flesh. There was a doctor in Sydney who operated to…

Learning on pump tracks not only helps you ride pump tracks themselves, but there’s a lot to be gained towards your regular trail riding through practising on these urban training grounds. You'll learn the vital skills of how to maintain speed without pedalling through a combination of technique and body positioning. Cornering skills, looking ahead and general bike handling are all skills you’ll carry over to the trail, as well as maybe picking up some style points and choosing more creative lines as you learn to handle the bike more effectively. General fitness is also a side benefit, as riding even just a few laps at the pump track provides a full-body workout. 1. Getting Started It sounds obvious, but actually requires a bit of thought. First up, you might…

My custom-made hardtail was now old enough to vote, drink at the bar and even have been engaged in marital bliss for a couple of years. She’d served me well - from towing trailers on my 25,000km City2City project around Australia to racing in such far-flung places as East Timor, Mongolia and India. She'd eaten her way across Sicily and ridden single tracks built by elephants in Africa’s Okavango Delta. She'd even been with me when the Algerian police, with their lights flashing and sirens blaring, escorted me presidential-style for two weeks across 1,500km of Africa’s largest country. Plus she rather ignominiously spent a month in the forward storage cabin of an ocean row boat, only to finally reappear from its belly covered in salt. Whilst still in fine fettle,…

Bell have been making sports helmets now for over 50 years, and the name, backed up by that experience, means the brand carries a huge amount of weight in the MTB world… although thankfully not in the helmets themselves! It was while researching for this Trail Test that I also found out that more world champions across many disciplines have worn Bell than another other manufacturer. So they, and the current Bell Spark must be good, right? Let’s find out… “For me?” Designed for trail riders, and coming in at a price point of $119.95, the Spark is a good choice for even the most casual Sunday fire trail rider. The one thing I noticed when I first wiggled the helmet out of its box was how it actually looks…

I’ve always wanted to ride some of the trails in Reefton, but it’s one of those towns in New Zealand you typically pass through on the way to somewhere else. But nearby Kirwans Track in Victoria Forest Park was one that often cropped up in conversation, and it had me intrigued. Reefton is a classic West Coast mining town, steeped in history and offering far more than meets the eye. After a few phone calls and negotiations, I convinced fellow MTB enthusiasts Grant Stirling and Mike Anderson to head out on a road trip from Nelson south to Reefton. Going on a roadie to the West Coast is like going back in time, and rewards visitors with its rich history and dramatic landscape. What’s more, before leaving on the trip,…

RATINGS IN THE STAND 8/10 ON THE TRAIL 8/10 OVER ALL 8/10 Without a doubt, the biggest Achilles heel for the current generation of electric mountain bikes is the fact that on average they weigh about six or seven kilograms more than their pedal-powered equivalent, and this weight manifests itself in ways that can affect the riding experience. For example, storing a larger, more awkward bike can be a problem in tighter apartments and garages, while slinging more than 22 kilos of awkwardly shaped object onto the roof of a taller car is made infinitely more difficult with that extra mass. So what’s the answer? Less weight, obviously. German company Focus, the brainchild of multiple cyclocross world champion Mike Kluge, reckons it might have come across the solution. To quickly…

NEW IN TOWN Q: Hi there. I'm writing because my wife and I are moving to Sydney from South Africa. We're both keen riders and it’s on our priority list to find out about mountain biking in Aus. Just wondering general things like - how popular is the sport in Australia and, more specifically, Sydney? We tend to ride marathon/cross country and we were planning on doing Sani2Sea and Wine2Whales this year in South Africa. I see there are similar events in Australia (Reef2Reef, Cape2Cape, Port2Port) and then more extreme events like Crocodile Trophy. R2R, C2C and P2P are all around the 50km mark with 500-700m of elevation and then Croc Trophy over a 100km with 2500m elevation. Nothing in between? I see a few trails in and around Sydney…

Launched in 2012, the Rocky Trail Fox Superflow series is based on the highly popular US and European enduro races. However, over the past seven years, event organisers Rocky Trail Entertainment have adapted the format to suit the specific characteristics of Australian conditions. The Fox Superflow events, staged across NSW and the ACT, have grown rapidly and the company is proud to have developed such a popular series. What makes the series so special and how can you, your mates and your family get involved? Let’s find out. Rider Experience The first round of the series took place on March 31st in Thredbo and over 400 riders hit the trails for the event, reaching Rocky Trail’s capacity. In total in 2018, almost 1,000 individual riders took part across the Fox…

It’s getting on for 10 months since we took our first look at the new 9100 series XTR (ASO 2018). The process of bringing these new parts to the market hasn't been straightforward, and Shimano suffered a number of setbacks along the way. Some parts, such as the unique Scylence rear hub and optional 11-speed cassette, have been delayed indefinitely. Most issues have revolved around the move from prototype stage to full-scale production, but new cranks were delayed by a fire that struck their surface treatment factory. It’s certainly been a rocky road. With all these issues now consigned to the past, we’ve been able to spend some proper trail-time on a full production-ready M9100 drivetrain. XTR Recap As it’s been a while since it was announced, let’s take a…

Sometimes a new product drops into the marketplace through the force of will of the people behind the concept, and so it is with the Pedaling Innovations' flat pedals. The Catalyst pedal is the brainchild of James Wilson, a US-based strength and conditioning coach who’s ridden since the turn of the century. He’s a vigorous defender of the notion that larger flat pedals improve pedalling power by supporting both ends of your foot arch while also improving efficiency due to the mid-foot placement over the axle, aiding both stability and comfort. Right away, you can see the idea behind the stability and comfort claim of the pedals. These things are simply the largest flat pedals I have ever laid eyes on. They dwarf every other style of flat pedal I've…

RATINGS IN THE STAND 8/10 ON THE TRAIL 7/10 OVER ALL 7.5/10 New bike models are typically released with a boatload of hype, schmick video edits of pro riders tearing up the trails and a coordinated media launch. With this the media is swooned at some dreamy alpine venue where they get to ride a highend carbon model, dripping with the best gear available - it’s all geared to ensure the best possible write-ups. The launch of the new Norco Fluid FS was a little different. Sure, there was a brief 'shred-it' from Jill Kintner but for the most-part the release was a pretty low-key affair. While the Fluid is more of an update than a entirely new model, it’s so different to its predecessor that it may as well…

RATINGS IN THE STAND 8/10 ON THE TRAIL 8/10 OVER ALL 8/10 Think of Norco and images of the brand’s 55-year history immediately spring to mind - the British Columbia HQ, big-mountain free-ride heritage, history of innovation (it was the first North American brand to introduce a MTB with front suspension – the Rampage, in 1991), and tough bikes that offer plenty of big-trail bang for your buck are all synonymous with the Canadian brand. The past five years have seen Norco release a raft of high-performing MTBs at the usual competitive price points, with the brand following the usual changes in geometry trends, wheel sizes and drivetrain tech. So, with the MTB world’s expansion encompassing electronically-powered bikes, the market’s growing confidence in the technology and its many benefits for…

It was madness. My wife and I were putting the final touches to the 3rd Edition of the Western Australian MTB Guide Book and in the back of the guide there was a list of pump track locations. In 2011, for the 1st Edition, it was a pretty limited compilation, and despite being somewhat extended, the same was the case for the 2nd Edition in 2015. The 3rd Edition had a pretty tight printer deadline, but despite that, I started the process of updating the pump track list for a third time in an attempt to make it as comprehensive and up-to-date as possible. I got in touch with my contact in the relevant government department. "We don’t know where all the pump tracks are," he told me. Then I…

They may not be the loudest brand on the stage, but British component and bike builders Hope Technologies are without doubt one of the strongest and most unique performers in the mountain bike world. After years of focus on parts, they've now ventured into the complete bike market. Hope has been around for 30 years now, emerging from a strong Lancashire engineering background. Founded by Ian Weatherill and the sadly departed Simon Sharp, Hope was built on solid, no frills but innovative and quality engineering. From a family garage to the eponymous Hope Mill factory, they forged their way into the new MTB marketplace. I called in for butties & brews (sandwiches and tea if you're not from these parts) at their former mill in Barnoldswick, Lancashire. The town is…

Marzocchi, the Italian suspension powerhouse went through unprecedented times of financial hardship to the point where no-one actually knew if they would ever be seen in the world of modern mountain biking again. In 2015, Tenneco, the parent company of Marzocchi, announced it would close its doors. It was only six months later that the Marzocchi brand was acquired by Fox Racing. During the transition, there was a lot of speculation about what the outcome of this would mean, and in the grand scheme of things, it’s still early days, with only two forks, one shock & one dropper seat post being made available so far underneath the Big M banner. So what of the new 2019 Bomber CR coil? Well, without delving into a lengthy and potentially heated discussion…

It had been a hell of a climb, and doing it under the heat of the brain-frying afternoon sun hadn’t helped. Stinging eyes viewed the last rise through salt-stained sunnies and, when I finally reached the top, I collapsed onto the grass under the welcome shade of a snow gum. Eyes closed, my mind drifted off… The year is 2030. Personal responsibility is long gone. Orwell didn't know the half of it when he wrote 1984. Adventure was a concept talked about by an earlier generation, read about in yellowing copies of old magazines with titles such as Mountain Biking Australia and Freewheel. ‘Free’ was a word lost to the past. Nothing was free these days, either in cost or choice. Despite this, and despite a world dominated by chair-based…

Crashing and mountain biking go hand in hand. Everybody does it from time to time; it’s part of the learning process and you don’t gain new skills without testing your limits from time to time. Most of the time you'll dust yourself off after a roll in the dirt. Maybe you'll have a bruise or scrape but they heal soon enough. If you're unlucky, the bike will cop some damage and they don't heal, not without making your wallet lighter first anyway! It happened to me recently when I loaned my bike to a young family member for their first proper singletrack ride. Full of confidence but light on skill, my precious steed was flung down the trail numerous times. Once the ordeal was over, I inspected my baby and…

First up, a quick re-cap on what e-MTBs are and aren’t. Most commercial offerings from the big manufacturers are pedal assist bikes, meaning that for the motor to engage and propel you forwards, you must pedal. This means that you don’t have a throttle and you do actually have to put in some effort (albeit sometimes not very much) to give you a boost. Legally, their assisted speed is capped at 25km/h, which is plenty enough juice for out on the trails. Obviously you can go faster than 25km/h, but that has to be under your own steam or downhill. Here in the Hunter household, we have just invested in a new addition to the toy cupboard - a Specialized Turbo Levo. We did procrastinate a fair bit about this…