Tabla de contenidos para No.77 en Spoke

Reach! It’s a thing. And it’s more pertinent to your bike-buying decisions now than ever before. It wasn’t that long ago that you couldn’t even find out the reach of any given bike. Now some bike brands are putting it at the top of their geometry chart. What the hell is going on? What is reach? Take a side view picture of your bike. Draw a vertical line up from your bottom bracket centre, then draw a horizontal line back from the top of your head tube centre to where it meets your bottom bracket line. That measurement is your reach. It essentially determines how long your bike is, no matter what angle your seat tube is. A short reach has you riding with your hands closer to your hips…

When I look at top athletes across the sporting spectrum—be it rugby, tennis, golf, or snowboarding—they all have something in common that I’ve seldom seen in mountain biking: they all have a coach. And by a coach, I mean a skills coach, not a strength and conditioning or mental strategy coach. Simply put, a person who helps you get better at the technical stuff—your skillset. If you take the same sports at an amateur level, the coach scenario multiplies and becomes critical to improving. Think of skiers or golfers who take regular lessons to improve, in turn increasing their enjoyment factor. Most sports involve complex full-body movements and co-ordination; having someone to assist you in the process seems very natural. But how many of us have ever had a lesson…

The art of crafting something with your hands has all but gone from modern society. Man has been replaced by faster, more efficient machines. Custom craftsmanship is a dying skill reserved for artisan fairs, boutique furniture stores, and expensive Swiss watches. On a recent trip to Wellington I drove out to Lyall Bay to catch up with Tristan from Wheelworks, a Kiwi company built around that very ethos of craftsmanship, precision, and quality. Gav McCarthy, one of their wheelbuilders, took me through their entire process by building up a set of wheels for me to test drive. They say the devil is in the detail and that was my first impression at Wheelworks. Gav pulled up my order on the computer and helped me pick and create custom coloured decals…

For 17-year-old Nelson mountain biker Finn Richardson, it was a regular Saturday afternoon, waiting for school to end and a summer of riding to begin, when an unlucky crash left him with a broken T5 vertebrae and paralysis from the chest down. Five months on, we take a look at what happened and his recovery so far. I was Finn’s Outdoor Education teacher at school last year. Like many students, lots of classroom activities didn’t interest Finn, but when he got on his bike, he came to life and his personality shone through. “Mountain biking to me is an escape from normal life, and a way to get outside and express myself,” he wrote in a school assignment a few months ago. Finn was really talented on a bike, quietly…

Filling in an arrival card at the end of an international flight is difficult for Anka Martin. It’s the pesky ‘occupation’ question that trips her up. The mountain biking legend must be one of the busiest people in the sport. How do you answer that question when you’re involved with such a wide range of projects? What do you write when you’re unsure of the answer yourself? Anka’s solution, as with many aspects of her life, is to have fun with it: “I always have a giggle and write something totally absurd.” Among other things, Anka is an event co-owner and organiser, ambassador, writer, presenter, and yoga teacher. Look at what goes into just one of her ventures, the women’s-focused guided multi-day bike tour company run under the name Soul…

Riding has always been a great way to clear my head, right from my early years living in Roa, on the edge of the West Coast’s Paparoa Range. By the time I was a teenager I’d moved to Nelson, where I developed a taste for longer singletrack rides through Barron Flat, the Rameka, and the Queen Charlotte. After a decade away, I found something had changed in my adopted hometown at the top of the south. The dust had stirred. Out of the corner of my eye yet another 9-year-old flew past, sending a sweet jump. It wasn’t the Nelson I remembered: where was the jigsaw of fireroads and non-technical singletrack? Trailforks had exploded with awesome gnarly trails all around the city centre, we had gold ranked IMBA status, and…

How old were you when you ditched training wheels? I was 8, and beyond proud of myself as I lapped the neighbourhood using nothing but the physics of rolling wheels, my parents’ encouragement, and a newfound self-belief that I wouldn’t fall over. I was also beyond proud when, 35 years later, during the Year 3/4 primary school mini-triathlon, my son headed straight for a corner on the bike course and executed a cutty so last-second he caused the upper-middle class fathers and mothers of the Southern Lakes district to scatter in terror. At 8, he was riding the Queenstown gondola. No training wheels for him. The thing is, Queenstown is now full of kids like mine: girls and boys dressed like Ninja Turtles and hitting everything in sight. So is…

I’ve always thought the key to a good briefing is to keep everyone engaged, that way they’re more likely to listen to the stuff they need to. We have to have a briefing so why not make it something people look forward to? The Dodzy Memorial Enduro briefings have somehow evolved from that idea. This year I really wanted to chat about Dodzy, how I knew him, and how the event came to be. Turns out after a few big days of admin, the content was a bit hard to bite into. I’m still keen to share the yarn, so imagine a xylophone introduction [Editor: you had to be there] and here goes: Part four, the yarn. We were living in a lodge in the Patagonian region of Aysen in…

In my humble opinion, the industry in which we reside is as chaotic as it is mental. When I started riding bikes seriously, back when the main concern was the Millennium Bug, bikes weren’t all that dissimilar to what they are now. Anyone that ran smaller wheels (usually 24 inch) to accommodate a three inch tyre was ridiculed, yet all of a sudden, we feel it’s perfectly fine to run a tyre much larger than any downhill tread on a trail bike. Way back when, single-crown, long-travel forks were hoping to knock downhill forks off their perch. But no. Single-crown forks fizzled out and triple clamps weathered the storm. But what’s this? Long-travel single-crowns have made a resurgence in the last few years. But how much better than three tubes…

Mountain bikers have a unique connection with the land. It’s an intimate, sensuous and visceral dependence. Some days, the earth accepts our passage and we’re ripping along in perfect harmony. Other times we’re scolded by it as we test the boundaries of our relationship. Riders in Aotearoa are blessed not just to inhabit a land filled with trails, but a place with a rich culture that is similarly deeply connected to that land, and perhaps nowhere more so than Rotorua, where Maori and mountain bike culture come together and welcome a global community of dirt lovers at Crankworx. As our tyres are our interface with the earth, it seems apt that Maxxis have collaborated with Te Puia and the New Zealand Maori Arts and Crafts Institute to release a limited…

Several hours earlier, we’re turning in early in a gite in Valfrejus, in Savoie, France. Our original plan to stay at the Refuge du Mont Thabor was thwarted by it being fully booked, thus we’ll be starting our ascent from the valley floor rather than halfway up the mountain. We trade pidgin French and English with Vincent, a Parisian financial advisor walking the length of the Alps on his own. Despite the language barrier, our dawn raid party grows from three to four, with one on foot. Leading the charge through the darkness would be Ben Jones and Chris Deverson. Five minutes to 1 am. The alarms screech and we slowly make our way down to breakfast before sidling out into the cool, dark air. Nothing tastes as good as…

There’s something about mountain biking that brings out the rough chat. Otherwise gentle souls, the types of people you would happily introduce to your dear old grandma, suddenly turn into a cross between Deadpool and Jimmy Carr at the trailhead. We’re talking crude, rude, nude, and lewd. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, and I’m certainly not above a bit of ruthless banter myself from time to time. I just find it curious. What is it about strapping on a helmet and kneepads and heading into the hills that brings out that side of people? Maybe it’s all the excitement of barrelling through roots and rocks at break-neck pace, the mix of adrenaline and fear, that brings out the bad language. Or maybe it’s just the freedom of being…

Have you ever had the confronting, worldview-redefining, guilt-and-shame-inducing realisation that you were a) wrong about something, and b) a bigot? I have. Quite recently. It’s a strange feeling. For me it came with the tingling excitement of a new awareness. A sense of wonder at possibilities hitherto never considered. A thrill of latent potential yet to be realised. And best of all, a warm feeling of acceptance and the cessation of a long-held enmity. Those are the good bits. It also brought deep remorse, reproach, no insignificant period of self-reflection, and a super-sized helping of humble pie. Most humiliating of all was the acknowledgement of months of lost opportunity. The catalyst of this great awakening that’s got me writing all this pompous snowflake drivel? 29er wheels. Since their inception I’d…

Budding dog dad Michael Hayward explores the joy and frustration of learning to ride with his bearded lady Rata, an energetic German Wire-haired Pointer puppy. Our little hurricane is still too young to tag along on proper rides; it’s just too tough on a puppy’s developing joints. Though even if she was big enough to come with, she’d be a nightmare out on the trails right now, as she’s yet to master the art of the trail dog. But training has begun. Because no one likes having a large dog dart randomly under their front wheel, we’re trying to train her to run behind a bike, in preparation for the day she’s big enough to take on singletrack. Our preferred spot is the local park, a large open space surrounded…

Joe Nation’s name has graced the pages of many a Spoke magazine in recent years. Joe’s a heck of a rider, and one of those all-round good guys you want to see succeed, so we were all stoked to hear Joe’s big announcement: a factory ride for the 2019 Enduro World Series. This is a big deal for Joe, and positive news for the New Zealand bike community; it’s always great to see our top riders getting opportunities like this. I sat down with Joe for a quick chat. What happened at the end of 2017? After the 2017 season, Bergamont made the call to discontinue all their international race teams. I enjoyed the three years I was able to work with them. How did you deal with that, and…

The world is faster these days; lives are busier and we have more commitments. It happened. We grew up. We have less time to simply play on our bikes, and too often a curveball cuts into that precious time. Less playing and exploring time means it takes longer to improve and get to that next level. But there is a shortcut. You could spend your hard-earned dosh on a fancy new bike, but let’s face it, if you ain’t got the skills then it doesn’t matter what you’re sitting on. Instead, why not invest in yourself and get a lesson? Or “coaching session”, if you’d rather call it that. It was this ‘self-investment to maximise fun times’ philosophy that struck a chord with Jo Guest, keen mountain biker and former…

AFTON VECTAL SHOES crownkiwi.co.nz Afton are very much the new kids on the block in the bike shoe world, but the San Diego based company have hit the scene with a bang. Their modern stylish looks and cutting-edge shank designs have seen them establish a bit of a cult following in a very short time. With current incumbent shoe brand Five Ten’s future looking uncertain, with rumours of them getting the three-stripe treatment from new owner adidas, the playing field is open for the taking, so the time seemed right to lace up a new set of kicks. Afton’s range is as simple as it is stylish: two models of shoe, each in four colourways. The Keegan is their flat pedal shoe and the Vectal their clipless option. For an…