Table of contents for No.71 in Spoke

There are many people who choose to put their bikes away during the colder months, however Alex Kingsley is not one of them. Alex shares the opinion that the forest comes alive as the temperature drops. The soil is grippier, the smell of the pines is pleasurably sweet, and the crisp air gives your lungs a boost of excitement. The winter also brings a lower arc of the sun, which creates beautiful ribbons of light through the pines and makes you appreciate the forest’s beauty from a whole new perspective. Here’s to year-round riding! Rider: Alex Kingsley Location: Wanaka, NZ…

Rotorua has had a fresh new jump line put in, replacing the old one after the trees were cut down for harvesting. It’s great for Rotorua to get this updated track; it’s something we’ve needed in the forest. Louis and I went to shoot on it as soon as it was open, and this evening was one of those short moments of magic light where everything comes together to get the shot. Hopefully there will be plenty more evenings like this before the new trees grow too tall and we can’t see the view again. Rider: Louis Hamilton Location: Rotorua, NZ…

One of the things I’ve always envied about professional racers is their pit crews, the team of expert mechanics and suspension techs who whip their bikes off them at the bottom of each run to tweak, fiddle and adjust in the ongoing quest for the perfect setup. This was until recently, when I found myself in this exact position in Wanaka’s Sticky Forest with my own four-man pit team. I was there with the team from Fox suspension, who were taking us through their new Fox Factory Tuning programme (FFT). It was a hands-on practical exercise, and after a setup check and warm up lap my pit crew got busy replacing my fork’s damper cartridge. On the tools, I had Eamonn and Damon from Fox, and Al and Jamie from…

Scotts Saddle is a spectacular place. Halfway up the Mt Hutt Ski Area access road, it offers stunning alpine vistas and gorgeous views out over the Canterbury Plains. Mt Hutt is part of the lifeblood of nearby Methven. The rural township, nestled at the base of the Southern Alps, has a permanent population of about 1600. During winter, this more than triples as a horde of powderhounds call it home for about 14 weeks while the skifield is running. But for more than quarter of a century, the hill has provided for adrenaline junkies of a different kind. That’s how long local mountain bikers have worked on Mt Hutt Bike Park, which has grown from a humble beginning to become a key part of the local community. Today, over 30…

Intrinsic motivation is the “why”. It’s the reason we brave the elements. It’s also the justification for those purchases and upgrades we sometimes can’t afford and don’t really need, but make anyway to ensure we make the most of our time when we’re in our element. This motivation is relevant not only to mountain biking; it applies to a range of adventure sports and activities. It’s a motivation that can also get in the way, so strong it makes us forget to slow down and connect with our environment. From the early nineties, my world revolved around surfing. All I ever wanted to do was surf, and that’s exactly what I did, forever searching for perfect forecasts that would create the perfect waves and those epiphany moments that, whether shared…

The dream became real when we first saw the vertical slabs of magnesian limestone towering over verdant Italian valleys. I flashed back to when I was little and watching the Giro, or Tour of Italy, on TV, with those unique grey-coloured mountains in the foreground. The Dolomites were especially hard because they had a different shape; they were much steeper than the Alps, making the riders suffer more than usual. To me, they always looked like they’d be way more fun on a mountain bike: the flora, the fauna, the singletrack, it was all what I imagined heaven would look like. This was what we were ready to explore. The Dolomites are littered with hiking trails screaming to be explored by bike. Rich in history, some of the trails date…

Staring out the window as we drive north on the Hume Highway from Melbourne, in every direction all I can see is the flat, arid countryside that seems stereotypical of the Australian interior. The boredom of this relentlessly straight highway is alleviated slightly by thoughts of, ‘where the hell are we going to find a ski resort in the middle of the desert?’ We’re heading to Falls Creek, a small alpine resort town in North East Victoria, revered as one of Australia’s top winter destinations, but it’s early February, twenty-eight degrees outside and our rental car is packed full of bikes. About three hours into the drive, we suddenly glimpse the foothills of the Alpine National Park and slowly, as we gain altitude, the landscape changes from dusty wasteland to…

Matt and I were blindly exploring a network of fire trails between Falls Creek and Bogong in Victoria. We were seemingly in the middle of nowhere when we came across one trail that was lined with a high concrete retaining wall. Matt pulled over and I knew straight away what he was thinkingwallride. After a few sketchy attempts in a couple of different spots, we found this one which had a perfect run-in. Matt sent it huge first go, we got the shot and, yes, he did manage to ride this out, just. Rider: Matt Berry Location: Bogong, Australia…

With an XC racing past, the pace to race DH World Cups, and an unquestioned ability to send it huge at events like Red Bull Rampage, Conor Macfarlane’s unique approach to the trails in the Portes du Soleil is always interesting to watch. He’s comfortable riding the gnarly Pleney Bike Park singletrack, tackling alpine cols on the trail bike and throwing steezy T-Bogs on the new Vink Line. It’s a pleasure to see him “taking it easy” as he prepares for Loosefest. He’s been staying with us here at BikeMorzine for years now and it’s amazing to see his riding progress. Style like this, however, is nothing short of timeless. Riders: Conor Macfarlane Location: Morzine, France…

We all started somewhere, sometime. Jeff Evans, a regular cycle commuter in Auckland, has kicked off his mountain bike career a little later than most, having recently decided to swap his on-road tyres for a set of knobblies with an eye to participating in the 2021 World Masters Games in Japan. Drop-offs, bailouts and shin strikes… for anyone comfortable riding smooth, rhythmical cycle paths and urban roads, finding your feet on a mountain bike can be a bit of a challenge. I know this to be true, because as I write this I’m precisely three rides into the transition from temperate commuter into a shredding, all or nothing mountain biker. Inspired by footage from The Pioneer seven-day stage race (where a fair percentage of participants are sporting decent salt and…

There aren’t many rides I’d do that require more travelling time than ride time. If you live in Marlborough, though, this isn’t a problem, as one of the most supreme mountain bike loops in the country is on your doorstep: Whites Bay. This two-hour loop is a 25-minute drive from Blenheim (or half an hour from the Picton ferry terminal) and starts from the DOC camping ground at Whites Bay. The campground is an amazing spot to serve as a base for a weekend of adventure, with a good toilet and post-ride showering facilities. Or, if you’re more of a one-with-nature type, you can just take a dip in the sea—although the beach drops steeply into Cook Strait and is pretty much freezing year-round. A good descent is worth working…

Kim Hurst is a bit of a legend, in several areas of life. She appears five times on the official list of the top 20 fastest rides at the Karapoti Classic. She just won the Australian National CX Series. She was named 2017 Administrator of the Year at the Cycling NZ Awards. Oh, and in her day job, she’s a doctor. Spoke regular Jono Baddiley caught up with Kim to find out how she came to be here. Kim Hurst started riding with her brother as a five-year-old. “We were the little groms that built trails out in the forest and went out blatting on bikes together. We grew up riding bikes more and more, and when I was 12 we moved to Wales and lived in a tiny village…

Commonwealth Games gold medallist and former U23 World Champ Anton Cooper had a bit of a rough one in 2016, enduring a year dogged by illness, and watching New Zealand’s one Olympic quota spot for the men’s mountain bike race in Rio go to Sam Gaze. It was, in Anton’s own words, “a shocker”. No more. Anton’s back. He may not have secured the placing he wanted at the World Champs in Canberra, but the first half of 2017 saw him take the New Zealand National title in elite XC at Cardrona and win the Oceania Champs, despite crashing and getting his chain tangled with his cassette. Then the 23-year-old headed off to Europe, where he became the second New Zealand male ever to secure a cross-country World Cup podium,…

They say dreams are free, although I’m not sure anyone who says that has actually chased a dream. Often this is not in fact the case, and it definitely wasn’t in this instance. Still, monetarily it was an absolute steal, thanks to the time invested, which was huge. Anyone who has access to the interweb and has ever hit a jump on a bike has heard of or seen videos shot at Dream Track. It’s been around for roughly 12 years. The original Dream Track jumps were built by Queenstown local Nathan Greenwood for the movie New World Disorder V – Disorderly Conduct in 2005. For many years, those four jumps were ahead of their time. A handful of highly-skilled riders or those with extra large kahunas made the pilgrimage…

Like you, I have never been to the moon, nor to Mars. But I have been to the Trona Pinnacles, the Earthbound site in the high Mojave Desert of southeastern California that many describe as being “other-worldly” and “moonlike.” The first time, for me, was back in 2000-01 when I lived in the area for ten months and first rode fat tyres across the vast, stark desert landscape that is home to hundreds of tufas, brittle spires, some more than a hundred feet tall, standing guard over a surrounding dry lake basin. Back then, I even had the opportunity, and took it, to pedal around the protected area where a piece of the set for the Planet of the Apes movie sat for weeks. Fast forward to 2017, and I…

The dog is running beside me, but he’s not mine. He belongs to a friend who asked me to mind him for a few weeks. I was hesitant; I’m not a dog person. I grew up with a series of cats, most of whom got run over—we lived on a busy road—or ran away, but that was okay, because I wasn’t really bothered which cat lived with us, I just liked having them around; they were the furry hearts of our household, keeping me company through my awkward pre-adolescence, and demanding nothing more than the occasional feed and a pat on the head. Dogs were foreign. I saw them as animals that couldn’t be trusted to do much other than drool, bark all night, sniff butts and attack toddlers. I…

Dunedin is certainly not renowned for its consistently sunny climate; quite the opposite in fact. In what seems like never-ending cold, short days of the southern winter, when we do get rare pockets of evening sunshine, we make the most of it. Karetai Track is one of the many hidden gems dotted along the scenic Otago Peninsula, and it’s only a short ride from the city— there’s just enough time for a lap before sunset. Riders: Robert Havill & Donovan Isted Location: Karetai Track, Dunedin…

You know who you are. Twenty minutes into any downtime, and your feet are pedalling in place like a cat paddle-pawing the couch cushions. You can’t sit still. Your answer to the question “Should I be mountain biking right now?” is always “Yes.” You’re not happy unless you finish every weekend, and every vacation, ten times as buggered as you were on the last day you worked. For you, riding is relaxing. According to the Cambridge Dictionary—and they should know—“vacation” is defined as “a time when someone does not go to work or school but is free to do what they want, such as travel or relax”. The word possibly comes from the Latin “vacare”, meaning “to be unoccupied” or “to be idle”. But of course, for many of us,…

Yes, you do—then you’ll look and ride like a pro. Fat chance of that. Let’s back the truck up a bit. Coil is the original suspension platform for bicycles. Solid, reliable, heavy, non-adjustable … gee, you can see why there was a push to get good air shocks onto bikes. Most off-road (and on-road) vehicles have coils. The benefits are a lesser bump force to get them moving, a linear spring rate (it requires no extra force as it moves through its travel), and they rarely fail. In the real world, this means great small bump capability, lots of travel all of the time, and the shock doesn’t blow up. This is why they use coil shocks in bigger vehicles that get hammered and where passenger/load weight is variable but…

I’ve been to a few Crankworx events now. In fact, I’ve been to all the stops on the Crankworx World Tour: Rotorua, Les Gets, Innsbruck and Whistler. If one stands out above the rest, it has to be Whistler, the original. This year marks the fourteenth that Crankworx has returned to Whistler, and if anything, it looks as if it’s just gathering steam. For those of you not familiar with the concept of Crankworx, it’s described as “the defining celebration of world class mountain biking”, and is generally a week-long event offering something for everyone regardless of riding style. If you’ve been to, or seen, a Crankworx event, then you know there’s a lot going on. A normal Crankworx stop will include a range of disciplines; there’s usually some form…

What’s the best way to test a helmet? Is it by going over the bars and headbutting the ground at 35km/h? Nope. The best way to test a helmet is by flying to Whistler and riding trails with Bryn Atkinson. That’s how you test a helmet. Crash testing helmets is important, don’t get me wrong. However, I assume and have wholehearted confidence that the good people at Bell Bike Helmets have done this for me. Real-world helmet testing is a serious business: machines that simulate impacts, strict material construction, real-time usage cases, stuff like that. But I wasn’t about to test whether these helmets would protect me in a crash. I’m 99% sure they would, and anyway, I hate crashing. I was there to see how they work for me,…

For such a small country population-wise, New Zealand is disproportionately represented on the world downhill scene. Why is this? Is it something in the water? Our penchant for Weet-Bix? Or maybe there are folks out there that genuinely want to see our young riders get the best possible opportunities for success on the international stage. Let’s focus on that last one. We know there’s a lot of quick Kiwi kids out there, but not many get a chance to prove themselves on the World Cup circuit. For a lucky few, there’s a possibility. Thanks to the Cycling New Zealand MTB National Performance Hub, the cream of the under-19 crop was selected to take on the world in Europe earlier this year. For starters, what exactly is the MTB National Performance…

I feel like I’ve done 20 minutes in a mosh pit. With every lurch of our Jeep over another boulder in the road, my shoulder crunches against the car’s bodywork. I brace myself for impact, but it does little to save me from the beating. I know I’ll emerge from the experience bruised, but on a high—just like staggering out of any punk gig. Nine people and six bikes are squeezed into today’s mosh pit (a six-seater Mahindra Jeep) for the punishing ride up a mountain called Meesapulimala, or “the leopard’s whiskers”, the second-highest peak in India south of the Himalayas. Our Jeep’s lumbering pace is not much quicker than pedalling, but I can’t turn down a 1200-metre uplift that puts us within striking distance of a summit only a…

“Make it longer, slacker and lower” has been the catchcry from product managers to design teams across the bike industry for the last couple of years. And that’s exactly what the Cannondale team in Hartford, Connecticut have done with the new Jekyll. This bike is unashamedly #soenduro. It even looks fast in its fetching yellow and racing green paint job. Cannondale have set out to create something that Jerome Clementz can win on, and claim that this new bike is “ready to race”. Let’s take a look. Very much on-trend, the head angle has slackened out to 65° and the reach has grown to 470mm on this Large-sized frame. Out the back, the chainstays have been reduced to 420mm, pulling the rear wheel in tight under the rider. The seat…