Table of contents for No.74 in Spoke

We’ve all heard the age-old saying “the early bird catches the worm.” It applies to many aspects of life, and mountain biking is no exception. It’s easy to ignore that 5am alarm your mates convinced you to set the night before. It’s just sunrise, it happens every day, right? But there is nothing more rewarding for a mountain bike photographer than getting up early and peddling uphill in the dark with a bunch of good people who want to make something happen, and then Mother Nature delivers. Rider : Sarah Rawley Location: Hogs Back Trail, Castle Hill Village, NZ…

My guilty confession from last summer is that I didn’t ride my bike that much. Although the days were long and the options abundant, life was busy and I found my motivation to head out in the heat and ride dusty trails wavering. That all changed one late-summer Sunday afternoon, when after two days of persistent rain, the weather briefly lifted. Having been couped up for so long, I grabbed my bike and ran out the door; I knew the clearance may be short-lived so I needed to make the most of it. What ensued was one of the best rides of the year, just me and the dog revelling in the cool air, the light drizzle and the tacky grip that had replaced the thick layer of slick dust.…

Every breath I exhale is visible, each a silver cloud dissipating into the otherwise funereal blackness of the night. I’m working hard to catch my fellow acolytes as we ride a sinuous path upward through the forest. A procession of lights weaves its way between the trees toward a clearing at the summit–a quiet place, surrounded by forest, yet open to the sky. Above us, the great arc of the milky way crackles. We are observing a rite. An annual event honoured by our forebears for time immemorial. The air is cold, sharp in my throat, for this is the winter solstice, the longest night, and a frost has been forming since not long after the sun set. This night marks the turning point. While the nights that follow may…

Sheila Natusch is an unlikely character at the centre of my favourite bikepacking adventure tale. A childhood on Stewart Island in the 1920s and 30s, where her father was the wildlife ranger, helped cultivate her innate curiosity and led Sheila to a life immersed in the natural world where she found great joy. Possessing a pure spirit, zest for life, and fierce independence, Sheila left the island in her teens to pursue further study on the mainland. She wanted to become a writer or an artist, but when she voiced this desire at school, she was laughed at and told that her only options were to be a teacher or a nurse. Unperturbed by this piece of ‘advice’, she completed study in Dunedin to further her personal interests. While she…

That morning I found myself somewhere between a rock and a hard place, literally. Less than an hour earlier I’d set off to locate a ridgetop dirt trail from Uchisar and on to the Rose Valley near Goreme, in the Cappadocia region of central Anatolia, Turkey. Fearing the worse from the thunderbolts and lightening, I rode all out for the safety of a distant rock formation, a huge sandy-coloured, pointed rock pillar, with an archway and several window-like holes piercing its base. The formation was an ancient Christian cave church, and I was certainly glad to seek sanctuary inside its lightening-proof and storm-sheltered cavern. Within minutes, the scene changed. Lightly fluffed clouds and a piercingly blue sky took over, beating off the dark side, as if my entering the holy…

Almost 12 months previously to the day we began this trip, Sam “Muel” Jones and I were drifting down the Waiau Toa Awa (Clarence River) in a packraft with our bikes strapped to the bow, discussing how long we’d been planning to ride a route out of Muel’s hometown of Springfield, taking in a crossing of Harper Pass, a historic pack track crossing of the Main Divide. So after the buzz of the film made from that bikerafting expedition, we finally started talking some dates, buoyed along by interest from Dylan Gee, a young up and coming Australian filmmaker who was considering a summer of mountain biking and content banking in Aotearoa. The plan was to leave Springfield, ride across the Waimakariri Gorge and climb into the Oxford Forest Park…

You spend all week at work, Monday to Friday, doing the hours so you’ve got the cash to do the things you want to do when your weekend rolls around. You look at pictures and read about all the trips and adventures you crave. But all that work takes its toll, and by the time the weekend rolls around, you’re stuffed. You have a few cold ones on Friday, a little sleep-in on Saturday, next thing you know, it’s the lawns, the shopping, ‘just gotta fix that guttering’, and “by the way, Susan and the kids are dropping by later for a BBQ”. Suddenly, your alarm clock is going off, it’s Monday morning, you’re rubbing sleep out of your eyes and heading back to work again. What happened? ‘Not again’,…

Kona’s 153 Process platform launched last year to resounding success and the 27.5 bikes were critically acclaimed across the board. However, what many people didn’t realise was that Kona sneaked two models of 29er into the 153 lineup, both in aluminium, and both towards the lower end of the price bracket. Keen to get our impressions on how the Process handled with the big wheels, Kona sent us a 153 AL 29 to check out. A 160mm front, 153mm rear travel 29er with a 66° head tube angle is right up there with the modern assimilation of a long-travel 29er, so we were excited to get this beast out of the box and onto the trails. First impressions while setting it up were that the 153 29 AL was a…

When I lived in Southern California, I knew a guy who would get up at five in the morning to catch the train from the Seventh-day Adventist town of Loma Linda (the post came on Sunday, but not on Saturday) to Tustin, 60 miles away, where he would disembark with his penny farthing (how he got the thing on the train I never knew), then ride a further five miles to the University of California, Irvine where he was a post-doctoral fellow in atmospheric chemistry. The LA Basin in the oughts was a smog-bowl, partly because of its bowl-shape, but largely thanks to the spewing exhausts of seven million gas-hungry vehicles driving around inside the bowl. Anyone studying pollution in that town would get a guilt trip driving a car…

Midday rarely makes for good imagery, but during these shorter days the sun doesn’t even get that high to begin with. I was out getting some photos of Billy on his new Trek, and this one just worked out for us: the harsh shadows hiding the background and making the rider pop, the sun working as a sidelight on the droplets of water as he rips through a puddle, not even touching the ground (check that back wheel!). Lucky he’s wearing camo, to hide all the mud Rider : Billy Meaclem Location: Victoria Park, Christchurch, NZ…

Built in 2006 and 2007 respectively, Peaking Ridge and 629 have become destination trails for a generation of riders from across New Zealand and the world. Fast, flowy and natural, they attract everyone from international downhill racers to bike tourists, all of whom find themselves whooping and hollering on their way down. Simon Bannister and his crew are responsible for the creation of these trails, and they still make time to get out to fix corners and chip out water damage. Peaking was built because locals were tired of riding along Sunshine Ridge and then having to descend via a forestry road. Maps were consulted and a line was cleared. They marked the trail in a storm with branches falling off the trees around them (possibly not the cleverest thing,…

Winter is approaching. The sun is now setting before dinner, breath turns to steam at night, and cars left outside are covered in dew by morning. As temperatures drop, so with them goes the motivation for riding. Trails get muddy. Days get shorter. Excuses come easier. This year, however, will be different. This is the first time the Christchurch Adventure Park will open for winter. What will this mean for riders? The easiest way for me to find out was to approach someone who had been coming to the park since day one: Joe Nation, our local Enduro World Series racer. And when I say day one, I mean day one–I brought Joe with me to the park on opening day. Since then, Joe has been using the Adventure Park…

“After catching your breath at the top of the descent, you swipe your timing chip and drop into your first face-melting run” The shuttle bus is filled with excited chatter as you and the other riders speculate on the day ahead. You’re not sure exactly what you’re in for, but you’ve heard it’s going to be good. Excitement and a hint of nervousness hangs in the air as the bikes are unloaded. Your group pedals off into the hills, stopping from time to time to take in the spectacular mountain views. Looking around, you see rugged peaks in every direction, and feel a long way from the stresses of regular life. By following the course markers you’re guided to the best riding in the area. After catching your breath at…

Pilsner beer, ice hockey, and the former Czechoslovakia: this is what I knew about Slovakia before coming. I came to ride my bike, to search out epic trails, and to get in touch with the local bike culture. It all started with a Google Earth session after someone mentioned the Tatras Mountains; searching the internet, I found Slovakia could be sitting on a trail goldmine. Now I’m standing on the corner with heavy bags, pondering the bus driver’s directions, given while pointing up the hill: “Now you walk.” The driver was right. After half an hour of dragging my luggage, I arrive in Bachledova Dolina, where the local bike rental outfit stands out from the wooden houses and farms with its flags and parasols. The weather forecast doesn’t look good…

The trail bike category is evolving rapidly. Bikes are longer, slacker, and lower than ever. Specialized introduced the most recent Stumpjumper just four years ago, but that period saw some of the most significant innovations in bike geometry since mountain biking began. As a result, the Stumpjumper looked rather conservative amongst its more radical peers, and as a brand with the mission ‘Innovate or Die’, Specialized had to change something. So what’s changed? Well yes, the new Stumpjumper is a little longer, with a 455mm reach on the large frame, and slacker—66 degrees at the head tube—with a 342mm bottom bracket. Meanwhile the chainstays are longer at 432mm, taking the wheelbase out to 1212mm. But this isn’t a bike you can read by the numbers alone. There’s a lot going…

For those of you who did a double take, yes this is an electric mountain bike. It’s actually Spoke’s second e-bike review. Before you turn away in disgust, firstly take a moment to look at this Moustache and admire what a work of art it is; secondly, try to think outside the box and consider the riding and exploration possibilities it presents. I’m not suggesting you rush out and sell your beloved mid-travel 29er enduro sled and turn up to your Saturday ride on one of these, but imagine you were given one to have as a second bike. What you’d find is a whole new world of opportunities–backcountry access, long-distance big-vertical day rides, towing your kids around or simply commuting to work, to name but a few. Moustache is…

The maestros at DT Swiss have once again outdone themselves with the new wider-rimmed version of their XMC 1200 carbon wheelset. Taking them out of the box, you can’t help but admire their stunning good looks. The centre-point of that beauty is the new Spline 240 hubs; with their almost flangeless, low profile look, they don’t appear much bigger than an axle, an effect accentuated by the Centre Lock disc fitting system. They’re also touted as the lightest hubs DT Swiss has ever made. The 240s are laced with 28 Aerolite straight-pull spokes to a 30mm wide (internal) full carbon hookless rim, all finished in a subtle matte black colourway. The 27.5 boost set we were sent weighs in at a spritely 1451g, putting them firmly in the lightweight category,…

As a skier, I frequently find myself at the summit of Mt Hutt looking over the picturesque Canterbury Plains. This was a little different. It’s mid-summer, the chairlifts are spinning for the annual Lions Club open day, and I’ve swapped my powder skis for a downhill bike, my insulated jacket for a tee, and, being on trend, “forgot” my gloves. Damn, it wouldn’t be so sweat-inducing if it was snow instead of rock, but the show must go on. The sensation of railing scree is akin to powder turns: hunt for the soft stuff, drive in, pop out, feel that dopamine hit and repeat. Just don’t fall–it’s razor sharp. Rider : Liam Batt Location: Mt Hutt, NZ…

When it comes to riding a bike, either you have a pack mentality, or you don’t. I don’t. While some people prefer to turn their pedals over with others, to share experiences, to egg each other on, to post happy sweaty group selfies on Instagram, some cyclists prefer to take to the trails solo. If that’s you, I’m here to reassure you, it’s not weird; you are not alone in liking to ride alone. In fact, doing things by yourself is a growing trend. For example, fewer people are getting married every year in New Zealand. According to Statistics New Zealand, the marriage rate in 1992 was 18.3 couples per 1000 eligible people—this was down to 10.9 in 2017. With respect to “I do”, we don’t so much anymore. And…

Life has never been so confusing for us mountain bikers. You need a frickin’ Physics degree to make any sense of current trends. But sit back and relax; the therodfather® will sort it out for you. I didn’t get to be a biking guru by following mass opinion. I went out and tried new stuff, and now I’m the leading expert on tyre and rim widths. Let’s look at rims first: wider is better. The wider your bead width, the less your tyre will deform sideways, therefore you can run lower pressures to obtain more grip by having more tyre touching the dirt. I’ve been running 40mm internal rims on my 29er, and with a 2.35 tyre I have been able to get away with as low as 14psi under…

In years to come it will be remembered in much the same way that the Sex Pistols’ 4th June 1976 gig is remembered. Hundreds, if not thousands, will claim to have been there but only the lucky 50 who made the pilgrimage to the Canterbury high country over Easter weekend 2018 will be able to claim true “I was there” bragging rights. Jamie Nicoll’s Nomadic Weekend Away conjured up images of spitting camels and steaming yurts filled with Mongolian warriors, but the reality was so much more. Camped out for the long weekend in the increasingly desirable mountain bike mecca that is the Craigieburn Trails network, Jamie and his band of merry men, women and children toasted marshmallows, cooked curry, drank beer, watched movies and spent some time riding bikes,…

“In preparation for this year’s Enduro World Series, British shredders Katy Winton and Bex Baraona spent their off-seasons in Christchurch and Nelson respectively” While Queenstown has long been a favourite spot for downhill racers to spend the off-season, the enduro crowd is also starting to see the appeal of a New Zealand summer. In preparation for this year’s Enduro World Series, British shredders Katy Winton and Bex Baraona spent their off-seasons in Christchurch and Nelson respectively, making the most of the big trails and good weather. Katy is an established name on the EWS circuit and has been climbing the rankings every year, the 24-year-old sitting third overall after the first three rounds of the 2018 season. Born in Edinburgh, Katy is Scottish through and through, and now calls the…

Welcome to Queenstown, New Zealand, where a group of radical ladies has been quietly undermining the stereotype of ‘riding like a girl’ by breaking down boundaries and sharing the stoke with ladies on bikes since forever. This unique mountain bike haven is a perpetual paradigm shift in the world of two wheels, presenting one of New Zealand’s rowdiest riding destinations. Specific reasons why are difficult to nail down, but from best estimations, it seems to be a mix of off-season-summer-enthusiasm, the Peter Pan-like temperament of the locals, and ease of access to arguably some of the sickest and most challenging trails. In such a special place, it then makes sense to learn that Queenstown is harbouring one badass gang of women who shred. Called the Dirt Town Queens, this is…

Just when I thought 27.5 was dead and mid-travel 29ers were the dog’s bollocks, along comes this ridiculously well priced carbon Spectral 140mm 27.5 (150mm fork) trail bike which just fell into my lap for a long-term test. I’m really struggling to define the perfect trail bike these days, what with lazy head angles and long reaches trying to throw spanners all over the place. And now we have new fork offsets to wrap our brains around. No, you’re not alone, my head has been hurting too. Well, this bike here has given me a lot of clarity. Why? Because it’s very average. It has none of the super trendy geo figures yet it’s one of the most fun bikes I have ever ridden. Let’s have a quick look at…

The boys in blue have a new set of 4-piston stoppers in their lineup for 2018. The BR-M8020’s (another gem of a name from those Japanese tricksters) are a fresh addition to the Deore XT range and are targeted at aggressive trail or enduro riders, as well as the burgeoning e-bike market, as a burlier more powerful version of their existing 2-pot XT brakes. The main difference between the new 4-piston and the current XT brakes is the brake calliper itself, which is obviously significantly larger to incorporate the extra two pistons. The 2-pot XT’s use a pair of large (22mm) opposing pistons to push the pads against the rotor, whereas the new 4’s use a dual pair of 17mm leading edge and 15mm trailing edge pistons to give that…