Table of contents for No 63 in Spoke

Sherpas Cinema director Eric Crosland and I posted up a safe distance away from an exposed waterfall chute as we watched Aggy scout a potential line. As he inched his way closer to the point of no return, the wet volcanic rock surface got the best of him, sending him tomahawking down a near vertical pitch. He yelled and screamed as he flipped head over heels, disappearing around a corner without knowing how the chute would end. Aggy being Aggy, he somehow managed to slow himself down and grab a hold of the razor sharp slope before being spat into darkness. Between a series of painful groans, he let us know that he was okay. Soaked head to toe and covered in lacerations, he billy-goated back out of the death…

It’s spring, the season when, according to the great novelist Margaret Atwood, “at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.” You said it, Margaret. Spring is the cyclist’s dream season: a time for longer days, drier tracks, bike-short tan lines and actually getting sweaty while riding, instead of frostbitten. This is also the time for a pre-summer tidy up. If you’re anything like me, you’ve just hauled your bike out of the garden shed to find it still caked with mud from an ill-advised ride in late June over frost-rotten, boggy tracks. Not a problem. I’ve just completed my ritual spring clean, and I’ve put together a never-fail guide to getting your ride to sparkle like a teen vampire from Twilight and your drivetrain to hum like…

Some would argue that the 90s was the golden age of the mountain bike industry. I know I would. Innovation was around every corner and often necessary because no one really knew what they were doing. Bikes were flimsy, suspension was new and didn’t work, and only the elite knew what disc brakes were. No one questioned the relevance of a new product because the more purple anodised parts you could bolt to your bike, the better. I still maintain it’s the fastest of all anodised colours and my Onza bar ends rock. So what happened? Why do people get so wound-up on forums when a new product comes out, or worse yet, a new wheel size/axle width/frame geometry? As far as I can tell, the industry has a better…

As an avid skier, a trip to Utah has been on my bucket list for years, so to be landing in the searing heat of Salt Lake City in July seemed rather strange. I was there for for Scott Week, a seven day hedonistic gathering of media, industry reps and dealers, to revel in everything that Scott Sports has to offer for the upcoming year. While the European brand was flaunting all its wares, the main buzz was centred around Scott’s new range of Plus bikes. As is the case at a lot of these press junkets, a seething mass of jaded journos sat around in the bar the first night, discussing the bike industry. The general feeling was one of scepticism and frustration––another new standard, really? In fact it…

Based in the quiet outlying suburbs of Melbourne, SRAM’s Australian office is an unassuming place from the outside. Once inside though, it comes to life and reveals itself as every gear geek’s fantasy playground. SRAM has grown into a behemoth within the bike industry since its inception nearly thirty years ago. It all started in 1987 when Stan Day launched the revolutionary Grip Shift to the world. Struggling to come up with a name before the launch date, Stan took his middle name (Ray) and added it to that of his two business partners Sam (Patterson) and Scott (King) and got Scott Ray Sam, which he then acronymised and SRAM was born. The original Grip Shift company has expanded rapidly through the years and now have a plethora of parts…

Who hasn’t been to Morzine? It’s a classic, be it for seasoned racers or weekend warriors. But when is enough enough? When do you call halt on the knee-deep braking bumps and hour-long lift queues? When do the wings get spread, new pastures explored, and the jump over Mont Blanc to the southern alps become an acceptable yearly pilgrimage? The New Zealand/Europe summer/winter divide makes as much sense as beans on toast. The number of Kiwis living a second summer in what is more often than not a sun-bathed Europe is increasing, and the number living on a van-life shoestring budget is also high; who has time to work when you’re in the depths of a double summer? When picking riding locations, enduro bikes and the fitness phenomenon have drastically…

As mountain bikes become more capable and versatile, is the N+1 formula for bike ownwership on the way out, or are there just too many delights not to sample them all? ONE OF MANY Me, I like to sup from the wider cup. Having a lot of bikes on the rack means there’s always something to drag out when you’ve clobbered and neglected the other ones into defective, rusted husks. I have three that I like to rotate between; each suits its own special occasions. They don’t know about one other, and they sniff me distrustingly before they let me mount them. The Mega AM is tall and blonde, with thick flanks for durability. A fuller-figured model, she runs out of puff as we ascend together to the sweaty dimensions,…

Life has been a tiny bit unfair to Alexandra. While money has poured into tourism-heavy towns nearby, thirty kilometres off the tourist route, Alex—as it’s affectionately known locally—has very much retained its blue-collar feel. There are no flashy bike parks or trail centres, and the local riding community is small but active, and has quietly dug itself one of the most extensive trail networks in the country. And I’m sure I’m not the first to say this: the terrain doesn’t lend itself to easy riding. If you’re planning to ride in Alexandra, you need to speak to local legend and guide Phil Oliver. An Auckland escapee, he made Alex home for him and his family some twenty years ago and, along with riding and digging partner Dave Fearnley, has been…

There’s a grimy buzzer on the wall for mortuary access; “Press Once and Wait”. When the magnet snaps off and the door unstiffens, you can walk around for a good while before you see anyone. Eventually you’re asked to change into your armour against the dead: scrubs and gumboots, mask and apron. They can still hurt you, they say. Consider that there are reasons they’re on the slab and there are reasons you aren’t. It’s been raining for weeks now. I’m up on the hillside out of frustration. I’m nervous, I don’t trust myself. I feel disconnected from the bike. It slips violently out from beneath me and I’m already covered in mud and needles. The skin on my calf has opened up and I’m bleeding colour gently into my…

Easy Rider in Åre, Sweden is one of the longest machine-built trails in the world. It is five kilometres of berms, rollers and jumps, pretty all-time. You access the trail via a tram ride up to Mount Åreskutan and the whole trail winds down through the alpine with massive slick rocks around. It’s a spectacular trail and a must-do while visiting Åre, Scandinavia’s premier bike destination. I got the chance to capture the true essence of this trail when my friend Janne Nordmaling, who happens to be one of the lift operators, suggested he could stop the tram right above the trail. A few hours later Janne Tjärnström and Tobias Liljeroth were on the ground and Nordmaling made sure the tram was in the perfect position above this rad section.…

As a top-notch journo working for New Zealand’s leading bike mag, I jetset around the world riding the best destinations, drinking the tastiest craft beer, and boy does it takes its toll. Often I get a bit carried away with the Dom Pérignon in first class, sometimes I even have to trolley my own luggage to the stretch limo, and once I even had to assemble my bike myself when I got to the condo. I got thinking about how to fly with a bike efficiently and at minimum cost, so I took a holiday with the lads and paid for it myself. OMG! What a shock! Did you know you can only have one bag at no more than 23kg, and that carry-on luggage is maxed at 7kg and…

“I can’t believe you’re riding that piece of shit.” Those were the first words to leave my mouth when I met Andrew Durno, aka legendary bassist Tall Beast from one of New Zealand’s biggest rock bands of the 90s, Head Like a Hole. At 6 foot 6 inches, Tall, as I still call him, had just arrived at my bike cave circa 1994 on The Terrace in Wellington on a rigid 21” Milazo Crazy Horse that he’d just bought from Mike The Hippy. The Horse was one of the first New Zealand mountain bikes to be sold in shops here, and it really was a piece of shit. Its current equivalent can be found in any Warehouse store nationwide. Tall tells me now that I really hurt his feelings, as…

The growth of social media over the last ten years has brought with it an increase in the psychological problem of FOMO, or fear of missing out, a constant feeling that others are having rewarding experiences while we aren’t. Speaking for myself, nothing induces a deluge of regret more effectively than checking Instagram at the end of the day and seeing what the rest of the world has been up to. There are those among us who appear, at least in their online incarnation, to live a charmed life: hills to be surveyed on maps and explored; twisted, mossy, lichen-covered trees to be encountered; landscapes that fail to fit in a camera’s panorama mode; secret stashes of singletrack that weave through backcountry ranges cushioned by pillows of cornflake leaves. Many…

Husband, father, artist, teacher, not to mention mountain biker; Eugene Kara has many roles in life. But the one he fits best may be that of communicator. He occupies a unique position where worlds intersect, and has taken responsibility for translating their issues for a positive outcome. In his day job, he’s busy in New Zealand’s pre-eminent centre of Mãori culture, the Mãori Arts and Crafts Institute attached to Te Puia. It’s a place where visitors get a dramatic insight into Mãori life and creative expression—and the Rotorua region’s thermal attractions—in one location. As a contemporary artist working primarily in bronze sculpture, Eugene is introducing the form to people working in traditional Mãori wood carving. Eugene has developed a unit that works in the international contemporary art world. Commissions to…

I have a photo stuck in an old album. It was taken fifteen years ago, when people still had photo albums, and it’s of a bike with a lift ticket dangling from the brake cables. The year was 2000, and I’d been riding at Cardrona Alpine Resort, something I’d only previously done on skis, and which I must have found pretty exceptional since I memorialised it on celluloid. The only things I remember from that day are clinging to my bike like crazy as I rode up the chair—back then you just hauled your bike onto your lap, placed your saddle over the armrest like a grappling hook, hung on, and hoped—and the realisation that what feels like a gentle slope to a skier is bloody steep on wheels. A…

It was foggy when Daniel and I landed. We met Joe, our guide and driver for the next two weeks, and we were feeling almost at home looking at the landscape and houses. We noted, however, a cycling track next to the main road; in fact, this track traverses the whole country. Students, at least those working in the cycle industry, traditionally ride this road before starting their first job. So began our visit to Seoul. We were well-rested after the long trip thanks to the upgrade we got from the airline, much to our surprise. At the end of the day Hannes joined us at the hotel after another long flight with a transit stop in the Emirates. Unfortunately, his bike did not arrive but he was lucky enough…

Sven Martin is a colourful character. He’s usually running around in some remote, gorgeous mountain location with multiple cameras dangling around his neck, probably covered in mud, hauling a camera bag that I can’t even lift (I kid you not), shouting at riders which lines to take or how to do a better, bigger whip, or to re-do something. This picture wouldn’t be complete without him sipping on a beer with a few extras stashed in his pants pockets. He is a whirlwind of excitement, passionate beyond belief, and socially and personally connected to most of the riders, racers and the entire mountain bike industry. He lives and breathes the stuff, and it shows. His hard work, passion and dedication to this sport has earned him the title of one…

Many moons ago, in a far-off bogan paradise, I would regularly pass by a huge billboard that loudly proclaimed, “Jesus is the Answer.” Every day I wondered, often for hours on end when I should’ve really been concentrating on my job, ‘what exactly is the question?’ For pretty much anything happening in my life at any given time, the answer is invariably ‘mountain biking’ (or road, but I wouldn’t dare bring that up here… again). The questions are myriad and constant, and most of you reading this will probably identify with some, but not all. Keen to dress in some questionable fashions? Want an excuse to drink beer? Mountain biking is the answer. But the questions I keep getting asked by my subconscious are more along the lines of, ‘Want…

Motivation is a strange thing. First of all, it usually goes hand in hand with a catalyst. You know, a situation that stokes an internal fire and says “ditch the excuses and get shit done”. It’s a wild notion that can be spurred by any experience; a chance conversation, strong visual, a gesture, music… you name it. It can be as blatant as a billboard or as subtle as a smile. It’s what we call inspiration. As a kid, I was all about the creative visuals. My motivation was, and still is, imagery. I can’t get enough of it. From telling a story in a single frame, to exposing the aesthetics of a blinking moment through motion. A camera is a tool, allowing us to play with time. With the…

She’s elusive and cheeky, only showing glimpses of her true nature the further in you find yourself. And for further in, think of an hour’s climb up. The Whistler trail systems are easily accessed by those who are looking for them, and outside of the bike park they require a mind set on adventure. Beautiful, extreme and just a pedal away, the established network can provide a great ride while allowing for exploration into Whistler’s wilderness. With a history almost thirty years in the making, the trails spanning the Whistler valley have evolved alongside the modern day bicycle. As technology advanced, so did the trailbuilding, leading to the new-age trails feeding the current trend of earning your turns. HISTORY With the mountains set before them, rogue builders went in search…

I once voiced aloud in my open-plan workplace that I could “barely hear myself think for all the biological clocks ticking”––what a dipshit––and the irony doesn’t escape my balding noggin as I slide into my fifth decade. Winding the clock back. We’d all like to do it. Back to when we were fitter or faster, younger and braver. Let’s try for 20 years––and take my father John and me. Different beasts back then, certainly a lot fitter and by a decent measure lighter. John was at the sharp end of a new sport called ‘adventure racing’ and I was frothing at the bit, preparing to head overseas to race the World Cup circuit. Back then, what would we have made of the event we were about to now do in…

Think of Wellington and you’ll likely conjure a mixture of coffee, the Beehive, suits and ‘arty’ people, houses perched precariously on green hills, all bound together with a healthy dose of gale force winds. Unless you’re a local, mountain biking probably doesn’t feature. That will hopefully change with a new concerted effort to show Wellingtonians, New Zealanders, and those further afield that the city offers a legitimately good and unique riding experience. In 2014, Wellington City Council (WCC) decided to direct greater resources and attention to mountain biking, and founded the Mountain Bike Economic Growth Initiative, an impressively-titled project looking at the benefits which could flow from developing Wellington as a mountain bike destination, and allocated money towards marketing it as such. A coalition of local business people has also…

One of the big draws for our initial move to New Zealand was, of course, the mountain biking. Not your usual stock-standard trails, but the lure of a vast amount of backcountry riding and overnight hut-to-hut adventure possibilities. This was something that fascinated me and that I was excited to explore and discover. The Heaphy Track was the talk of the mountain biking community as we arrived in New Zealand; DOC was opening the track up to mountain bikers once again for a three-year trial period to see if bikers and hikers could work together and co-exist. I immediately booked two huts for the opening weekend in May 2012 and started researching how to tackle this overnight biking business. After many post-ride pub discussions on how to best prepare oneself…

ROYAL STORM SHORTS royalracing.com Riding in rain and mud isn’t one of my favourite things, until I’m actually doing it. Then it can be great fun, except for the clean-up later, the damage to bike and trails, and the gritty-sandpaper-arse effect. That’s where a good waterproof short comes in. The Storm would be a great short for riding in dry conditions, but its ability to repel water and worse puts it in the awesome short basket. At first I thought they might be a bit too stiff in their construction, with the 10,000MVP fabric rated pretty highly on the dryness scale. But the fabric is built in three layers and a 4-way stretch material does just that, providing enough give to allow full movement on the bike and not hanging…

As the now former PM of Australia Tony Abbott infamously said, “sometimes... shit happens.” While we’d never be so insensitive or moronic to use the term to describe the death of a soldier, we have to invoke it in this case. The rider carving a line down a Queenstown scree slope in Stefan Haworth’s epic Projector shot from last issue was in fact Kelly McGarry and not Conor Macfarlane as stated. When there’s that much awesome in one shot, you know it’ll likely be one or the other of our Rampage contenders. And if any shit is going to happen there, we know it’s going to be the good shit.…