Indholdsfortegnelse for January 2018 i Mountain Biking UK

It’s looking like next year is going to be a very special one – Happy New Year! We head into 2018 with plenty to be excited about as MBUKreaches a very significant milestone – we’ll be 30 years young come the summer! More details on a special anniversary issue nearer the time, but in the meantime, keep your eyes peeled on the magazine and mbuk.com throughout the year for a look back at some of our classic moments and some of the key events from mountain biking’s earlier days. As part of our celebrations, we’re looking forward to being part of the much-anticipated Malverns Classic, which returns in 2018 after a 20-year hiatus. It promises to be a diverse weekend festival that’ll have something for all mountain bikers – dual…

Quiet and unassuming but deadly fast on a bike, Scotland’s Mark Scott slipped inside the Enduro World Series top 10 in 2017, making him the UK’s highest-ranked male. Like many other enduroists, Mark started out as a downhill racer, honing his craft in the Scottish MTB hotspot of the Tweed Valley, just down the road from his native Edinburgh. Since making the transition to stage racing, the 24-year-old’s results have followed a steady upward trajectory – 14th in 2015, 12th last year and ninth this year. “It’s taken me a while to get used to the racing, understand what training works best and get my head in the right place. I think that’s what’s made the difference this year,” says Mark. “Being on the Santa Cruz-SRAM team has helped a…

“I MAY ONLY DO THREE RUNS, OR NOT BEABLE TO COUNT HOW MANY I’VE DONE. EITHER WAY, I’VE ALWAYS GOT THE BIGGEST SMILEON MY FACE!” WHEN THE DAYS are at their shortest, the wind is howling and the rain pouring, it can take vast quantities of motivation and some serious soul searching to make the step out into the cold. But assemble the right crew, pick the right moment and choose your trails wisely, and some of the best rides can be had during the wettest, sloppiest and bleakest months of the year. Here’s what inspires top riders from across the country to get out and ride... Katy Curd, DH racer and coach, Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire “My trail bike is my winter go-to bike. Every week I’m out riding…

1 EVOC MTB wheel bags Padded bags for transporting your wheels (or storing your spare set, if you’re posh). £69.95 www.silverfish-uk.com 2 Bopworx wraps, guards and bumpers Reusable widgets to stop your pride and joy getting damaged in transit. Ideal for bike racks. From £14.99 www.bopworx.com 3 Lizard Skins adhesive protection These clear patches will guard against cable rub, ward off knocks and keep your paint pristine. From £7.99 www.2pure.co.uk 4 All Mountain Style honeycomb frame guard PVC stickers that’ll protect your bike and jazz it up too! Pick from camo, animal print and more. From £22.90 www.allmountainstyle.com 5 MarshGuard Slapper Tape A 2.5cm wide, 100cm long roll of mastic tape that’s perfect for protecting chainstays. From €14 + P&P www.marshguard.com 6 dirtlej bike protection Hard-wearing pads that Velcro on…

WINNER! STARLETTER PEER PRESSURE PALAVER There’s a lot to be said for ignoring peer pressure, none more so than when mountain biking. There’s also a lot to be said for listening to your peers for advice and guidance. Sadly, I found this out the hard way, on both counts, on a mountain bike break staying at Centre Parcs. My cousin and I took our bikes with us to enjoy some blasts on the local XC trails to increase our fitness and get away from the wives and kids. What started as a quick trip to the cars ended in a lot of blood and bruising, and that was before we’d even gone off-road. My cousin (a good rider and almost fearless) rode down the concrete slope next to the three…

ROB WEAVER With two decades of riding experience, Rob knows what works and what doesn’t ALEX EVANS Al gives gear a real thrashing but makes sure he’s still in bed by nine o’clock sharp ED THOMSETT Always on the hunt for new technical challenges, Ed gives his gear some serious abuse TOM MARVIN The only thing Tom loves more than his clapped-out VW Caddy is hammering test kit SEB STOTT No slouch on the race track, Seb’s passion for engineering helps him pick products apart BEN CANNELL Ben rides hard and fast, and has a keen eye for the technical details too…

TESTER SAYS... THE PERFORMANCE OF TECHNICAL SOFTSHELLS IS NOW INCREDIBLY HIGH. BUY THE BEST YOU CAN AFFORD AND YOU WON’T REGRET IT” Fox Attack Pro Fire £210 This is the second jacket on test that uses the excellent new Polartec Alpha breathable insulation (we predict a slew of new coats featuring it next year), but what Fox have done here is consider every detail of what makes a jacket MTB-specific, in terms of fit and cut, and worked those in too. The fabric combination alone is complex – stretch softshell panels are used at the sides and under the arms, with Cordura abrasion-resistant reinforcement on the elbows and lightweight ripstop stretch nylon through the rest of body, all DWR treated. This translates to a wind and water-resistant jacket that’s warm…

Overhead squat Take a broom handle or elastic exercise band and stand with your feet just wider than your shoulders, toes pointing out a little. Raise it overhead, reaching as wide as you need. Take some deep breaths in and exhale slowly. Play with the position of your chest but aim to have it stacked on your hips like a cup on a saucer, then squat down in a controlled manner. Keep your chest upright so your T-shirt logo is facing out. Only squat as deep as you can with the logo up and out. Do 12 reps. Lunge with T-spine rotations You can lunge forward or back, but do it in a controlled manner with your knees in line with your toes and your shins vertical. As you get…

FORKING OUT Q I ride a 2013 Specialized Status I, which I love. It has a coil-sprung X-Fusion Vengeance fork with 170mm (6.7in) of travel, which is OK, but not the best. Having ridden my mate’s bike, which has an air fork with more adjustment, I’m eager to upgrade to something along the same lines. My budget is £700. Any suggestions would be much appreciated. Damon Smith, via email A The Status is a great bike, so we’re not surprised you’re hanging onto it. While the Vengeance is a decent fork, yours is the most basic R model, which has no damping adjustment aside from rebound. The coil spring also means that getting it properly tuned for your weight isn’t as easy as with an air fork. Upgrading it sounds…

PRO-FILE MAX DARKINS JOB MTB route planner CREDENTIALS Max loves travelling up and down the country, searching for the best routes for you to ride, and he’s the man behind www.roughrideguide.co.uk WHERE ARE WE? HOLMBURY ST MARY, SURREY HILLS The Surrey Hills form a 422km2 Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, just south of London. They’re riddled with excellent singletrack through woodland. www.surreyhills.org The Surrey Hills aren’t actually in the North Downs, as is commonly assumed, but are on the Greensands Ridge. This sandstone-based escarpment runs parallel to the North Downs and is covered in pine forest. Where we are today there are three distinct hills – Pitch, Holmbury and Leith – which are home to some of the, if not the, best riding in the South East. And it’s…

Known for building bikes with extremely long and slack geometry, Pole have just released a new frame – the Machine – that’s manufactured entirely in their Finnish homeland. With 160mm of rear travel, they describe it as a “cutting-edge 29in superbike” that’s lighter, stronger and faster than their Evolink 140. That’s not the big news here, though. While most ‘superbikes’ are carbon fibre, Pole have stuck with aluminium, saying it’s more environmentally friendly. But this isn’t just any old alloy frame. All of the tubes and linkages are CNC machined from 7075-T6 billets, and, because the material can’t be welded, Pole use a high-tech bonding process to glue the three sections of the front and the rear triangles together. The machining gives them complete control over the wall thickness throughout…

Last year I took the decision to step down from Elite DH racing to allow more time for video projects and trips away. I’d just signed for DMR Bikes and wanted to go back to where I started off – riding for fun, with friends. I still managed to race alongside my travels, with highlights including wins in my age category at the Crankworx Rotorua Air DH and National Championships, and second at the Megavalanche. Sometimes you need to give yourself a break to realise how much you love something and to keep yourself hungry. Whether you’re a pro or a racer holding down a full-time job, one of the main impacts on riding is injury. I’ve had my share, from overshooting huge jumps in New Zealand to more normal…

NS BIKES FUZZ 1 £4,199.99 Will the Fuzz deliver that pure DH buzz? Polish brand NS are best known for their dirt and street frames, but for the past few years they’ve been steadily refining their trail and downhill ranges too. Their Fuzz DH rig certainly looks the business, with a slack 62.5-degree head angle, a long front centre (which can be tweaked using the supplied reach-adjust headset) and a proven four-bar rear end. The Fuzz 1 is the top-spec model, with a ‘Performance Elite’ series Fox 40 fork and DHX2 shock, SRAM Code brakes and GX DH drivetrain, and NS finishing kit. At 16.93kg (medium) it’s no featherweight, but Sam Pilgrim has proven that it can take some hammer. www.hotlines-uk.com DMR DEATHGRIP RACE EDITION £20 Softer, but still just…

GETTING THERE The Arctic Circle is a 20-hour drive from the south of Norway, so an internal flight is definitely the best option. Scandinavian Airlines (www.flysas.com) operate regular flights between Oslo Gardermoen and Tromsø airports. WHEN TO GO The best months for biking are July to September. It’s possible to ride as early as May, but many of the mountains are still covered in snow. The region has midnight sun from around the end of May until late July and either side of that there’s still very little darkness, so packing an eye mask for sleeping is a good idea. The Northern Lights are visible from September onwards and the chance to see them is pretty special. Weather and temperature can be quite variable, between 10 and 20°C, so pack…

BEN WALKER HEAD TRAIL BUILDER, BIKEPARK CHAMPÉRY-MORGINS I always want to make the trails I build better. At the beginning we had a really small budget so we had to be efficient. We’d identify the biggest problem on a trail and get rid of it, then move on to the next biggest problem, and so on. Generally, flow was the issue. If you can carry speed through sections it improves the flow, even if it’s tricky or technical. If your flow gets screwed, then there’s a problem. Flat corners with braking bumps and no grip prevent flow. A turn with a nice entry and good grip, which is nice and steep, with a perfect radius, makes you feel like a champ – that’s what we want! Efficiencies fascinate me. A…

Giro Blok MTB £69.99 SO GOOD These are the tallest goggles on test and they offer an unobstructed field of view. The fit is comfy and roomy, and the double silicone strip on the strap means you don’t need to crank it up tight to make them stay in place on your lid. Clear and tinted lenses are included. NO GOOD The tall frame fouls some helmets (such as Troy Lee’s A2). Replacement clear lenses cost a hefty £29.99, and we found the tinted version too dark for most UK conditions. They fog up more easily than others here, and the optics aren’t great – we could see the nose guard reflected in the lens. www.zyrofisher.co.uk TSG Presto £69.99 SO GOOD TSG’s tinted lens works great in bright conditions, and…

PRO-FILE MANON CARPENTER JOBPro rider for Radon Bikes CREDENTIALS Hailing from South Wales, Manon grew up riding skateparks with her BMXer dad. Having won both the DH World Cup and DH World Championship titles, she’s an exceptionally talented all-round rider. 01 APPROACH Ride towards the quarter pipe in a neutral position, with arms and legs slightly bent. Spot where you want to turn at the top of the ramp. 02 TAKE-OFF Pump up the quarter to generate momentum. Once at the top, pull up and away from the ramp, pulling on the bar and straightening your legs. 03 TURN Move your weight towards the front of your bike once both wheels are airborne and look back towards the ramp. Turn your bar in line with the landing. 04 LANDING Extend…

PRO-FILE TOM CARDY JOBProfessional mountain biker CREDENTIALS Essex boy Tom has been making the transition from amateur to pro over the past year, riding on the Action Sports Tour and winning his fair share of competitions. HAND TWIST This is the most important part of the tabletop. If you don’t twist your hand around the grip, your wrist won’t bend backwards and it’ll be impossible to click the table fully. Really wrap your hand around the bar so that you can push it towards your armpit. USE YOUR KNEE Push your knee down really hard onto the top tube to force the bike over into the tabletop position. I’ve seen people trying to learn tabletops with their knees sticking out, and it makes the trick 10 times harder and looks…

1 Ensure your bike is clean and clamp it in a workstand. Remove the air valve dust cap from the non-drive side of the fork (anticlockwise) and put it somewhere safe. Connect a shock pump to the valve to measure the pressure in the air spring. Note this down. 2 Remove the pump and press a small ball-ended Allen key (or similar) into the valve to release all the air from the fork. 3 Use a 27mm socket and wrench to remove the air spring top cap. Ensure the socket is pressed firmly onto the top cap as you turn it (anticlockwise), holding the fork with the other hand. If volume spacers are already fitted, they’ll be clipped into the top cap. 4 For a more progressive spring rate (harder to bottom out), add…

The Leeds Urban Bike Park is a one-of-a-kind project that brings trail centre facilities to the heart of a city. Aimed at riders of all ages and abilities, it boasts a BMX track, pump track and dirt jump line, plus blue and red-graded XC trails through the woods with jump and rock sections. There’s also a cafe, bike shop and education workshop, plus plans to extend the XC trails – expected to be finished by April – and build a skills zone with progressive jump lines and drop-offs. Redeveloping the Middleton Park golf course into an MTB paradise has been no easy feat, but Jeremy Hayes, the man behind the project, has wanted to develop a venue of this scale for years. “I don’t expect the park to be everyone’s…

1 EAT MORE! Yep, that’s right – eat more food! On one condition, though – that you ride more, too. Rather than taking the car, bus or train to work or school, hop on the bike. If you’re riding more, you’ll need more calories to keep your body fuelled. This doesn’t give you carte blanche to eat as much cake as possible, but next time you go for seconds you shouldn’t feel quite so guilty. Now, where’s the nearest burger joint? 2 DODGE THE GYM! Don’t bother signing up for that annual membership – we both know you’ll have stopped going by the end of January. The gym is great for specific exercises or if you’re following a strict fitness plan, but you can mimic pumping iron while out on…

Jacob Gibbins is a British photographer and all-round ‘media squid’ who follows the Enduro World Series around the globe and has worked with some of the biggest names in mountain biking. Affectionately known as ‘Milky’ because of his blond hair and pasty complexion, he grew up in Devon riding deep, dark wooded trails and hitting the jumps with his mates. From the age of 14, he started to enjoy photographing riding almost as much as doing it, and would race downhill in the Youth category, then grab his camera to shoot the pros once his run was done. That snowballed into a full-time career, as one half of Bristol-based Aspect Media. “THE PLACE IS A TREASURE TROVE OF AMAZING TRAILS AND LANDSCAPES, GOLDEN SUNSETS AND GOOD TIMES” 1 MADEIRA RIDGELINE…

“IT’S EASY TO HAVE A ‘WHY ME?’ THOUGHT PROCESS, BUT I’D RATHER THINK, ‘WHY NOT?’ I MADE A MISTAKE AND NOW LIFE IS DIFFERENT BUT NO LESS FUN” In his younger years, Tommy Wilkinson was something of a wildman. At national-level downhill races he made quite a reputation for himself with his riding style, speed and execution. He was an all-or-nothing character. Then, in 2013, when he was in his mid-20s, everything changed. We met up with Tommy at Ae Forest, the location of one of his first DH races back in 2001, to chew the fat and find out how he’s adjusted to living in his new body. “I had a really silly bike crash with big consequences. I landed a jump in a bad shape and went straight…

HOW WE TEST THE KIT Starts with a detailed product check in the workshop. We strip and rebuild, checking for any problems. Next we hit the trails… hard! We test in real riding conditions for the complete picture. And finally we re-test with another tester. WHY OUR TESTS ARE THE BEST! Our test team is made up of the most respected bike and kit testers in the world. We have unrivalled knowledge and experience, and spend a vast amount of time making sure we get it right. We tell you the truth and aren’t influenced by PR or advertisers. ABOUT OUR TEST TEAM Our Technical Editor in Chief, Rob Weaver, gets new products in as soon as they’re available and coordinates all the testing through our vastly experienced band of…

ED’S SANTA CRUZ NOMAD S ALUMINIUM £4,299 Longer frame, longer travel but smaller wheels for Ed’s new ride When our Tech Ed in Chief, Rob, came back from a day testing the new Nomad and said he wished he’d ordered one as his own longterm test bike, I knew I was in for a treat! The fully redesigned Santa Cruz is longer, lower and slacker than before, and with 170mm of travel it’s like a pedalling-friendly downhill bike – so it should suit me down to the ground. After a year on 29in wheels, I’ve decided to swap back to 650b hoops for 2018. Not because 29ers aren’t good – they’re flat out – but because I like the manoeuvrability and rad factor of smaller wheels. I’ve become accustomed to…

Softshells get their name from the fabric, which is softer than that of a traditional waterproof, making them rather like a combination of jersey and jacket. Usually, softshell fabric isn’t waterproof, but it is windproof and, depending on the quality, will have some degree of water resistance. As you head up the price range you’ll find softshells that are almost as good as waterproofs, making them a good compromise if you only want to buy one jacket. Softshell fabrics vary in how effectively they breathe and wick moisture, so on heavier styles look for pit zips or vents to help air flow when you heat up. Gore Windstopper has long been the gold standard when it comes to balancing weather protection with breathability, but this year we’ve seen the emergence…

PRO-FILE CHRIS KILMURRAY JOBCoach at Point1 Athletic Development CREDENTIALS After racing national and World Cup level downhill from a young age, Chris now coaches riders including Tahnée Seagrave and Greg Callaghan. 01 ENTRY The best point of entry is usually one that allows you to square off the roots (hit them at 90 degrees). This can change if there are features to deal with on landing, because your entry direction will usually dictate your exit direction. Choose your line with flow in mind. If you’re riding a trail blind, scan for features that indicate if the drop is ridable or rollable. Approach it in the attack position. 02 WHEELS DOWN Roots on landing? Follow the same principle as with entry – aim to ride the squarest line possible over them.…

1 Handlebar height Bar height is easy to adjust and has a huge effect on your bike’s handling. Higher bars boost confidence on steep terrain and make it easier to manual. Lower bars quicken changes of direction and help keep the front wheel weighted in turns. It’s all about personal preference, terrain and riding style. 2 How to adjust it Simply remove your headset top cap (turn the bolt anticlockwise), loosen the stem’s steerer clamp bolts (anticlockwise) and slide the stem, and any spacers above it, off the fork steerer. Swap spacers from above the stem to below it to raise your bar height, and vice versa. Refit the stem. 3 Swapping bars If you can’t get your bar high enough (the steerer may have been cut too short) or…

If you’re looking for your best ever year of riding, you need to think about more than just whipping your bike and the gear you use into shape. You’ll get loads more benefit to your time on the bike with a few simple exercises and routines to help shift some pounds and focus your strength on the areas where it matters most. That all goes towards helping you increase the fitness benefits you’re naturally getting from riding your bike more! The sooner you get started, the better you’ll feel when the weather and light improves come spring. Plus, your mates will watch in disbelief as you speed off down the trails leaving them for dust! STRENGTHEN YOUR TORSO ‘Core’ strength is about more than just your abdominal muscles. These three…