Singletrack Staff Blog

Sometimes riding bikes does feel like work.

Today me and Matt headed up to Coniston in the Lake District to explore the fells there for this issue’s route guide. And what an adventure we had!

We: got sand blasted by hailstones; got slightly lost down a dead end sheeptrack; broke our GPS (thank God for gool ol’ fashioned maps); had our bikes levitate horizontally at our sides during a brief portage session due to insane winds; forced to push down the first few hundred feet of the descent that we’d climbed all day to reach due to insane winds, rode the rest of the descent on egg shells for fear of puncturing in the fading twilight.

Thankfully spirits stayed high (for the most part anyway ;)) and we dug in and got on with the job in hand as the elements conspired against us. The sense of relief/joy/exhilaration/thingy as we finally made it back to the car was brilliant. Managed to get some pretty good pics of the ordeal too.

‘Proper Mountain Biking’ rules OK

It’s always a time of distraction, the week before print deadline. There’s tons of work to do, but it has yet to coalesce into the full-on structured panic of deadline week itself. There’s still a vagueness of what goes where, just how many words are needed for which article and just what was supposed to go into that four page gap that’s just appeared in the flatplan. It’s also the time when stuff appears late for last-minute inclusion in this issue, or early for inclusion into next issue. Add to that the regular distracting dribble of review kit and personal purchases and boxes (like the one that just arrived from www.daveyatescycles.co.uk with a disc-mount Kona conversion for Sim and two (ahem) removed siezed seatpost frames for me… It’s a wonder we get anything done at all…

Just gone through totting up the first batch of voting forms for the 2006 Singletrack Reader Awards. As it stands most of the categories have a clear winner already - but most of these leaders aren’t what I expected/predicted.

The three categories which are currently too close to call are ‘Best UK Trail Centre’, ‘Best Singletrack Feature’ and ‘MTB Personality of the Year’. It was strangely exciting in a Eurovision stylee going through the last few voting forms and watching 1st place change hands over and over again

Closing date for voting is Monday January 15th.

Was hoping to get out for a proper ride today but as it turns out I appear to have broken a rib. I must have bust it during my spectacular over-the-bars chest-slap crash on ByC night ride the other day. So I think it’s best if I stay off the bike for a week or so; it’s particularly slippy-sketchy out there at the mo and the last thing I want to do is crash on it again.

On the plus side, it does mean I have more time to wrestle with writing up this issue’s ‘racy aluminium hardtails’ bike test (Cannondale Caffeine, Commencal Flame, Rivette H4 and Specialized Stumpjumper HT).

Much to the horror of Bert, the office dog, the place is now full of big, black, bouncy Swiss balls. They’re just one aspect of Dave Smith’s ten point programme of torture… Sim’s getting quite good at designing the magazine while kneeling on one. Meanwhile Matt’s girlfriend Tanya appears to lack any sort of internal gyroscope and was pitched off it all over the place…

I’m sure the webcam will prove to be interesting viewing in the next few weeks… Now all I need to do it find the enthusiasm to go out and do some sprinting on the bike…

Trying to write 16 different (and interesting!) reviews of 16 different lights is proving to be rather hard. So I’ve decided to play up the price tag factor a bit more in this group test (as well as describing how good at lighting up the trail they are, obviously).

Thinking back to when I first shopped for decent lights - and thinking about all the “what lights for £XX then?” questions I get asked - I reckon folks’ budgets are a primary concern when shopping for lights.

But how do you compare lights that cost £100 with ones that cost over £800? Do they have to be 8 times ‘better’ to be the ‘better’ light? And can we forgive a light that isn’t very good purely because it doesn’t cost very much?

In the end I find it’s much better to simply credit the reader with a bit of intelligence and they can use my thoughts to work out what’s best for their own needs (and credit card limit). Not sure what I’m babbling on about now. And so to bed

Kona Jake The Snake
Price: £1100
Weight: 22lbs
From: http://www.konaworld.uk.com/

Another day, another long termer and another perspective.

Like Ben I reckon to have most needs covered in the bike department and space in the shed is tight so every bike has to be justified. However, there was a noticeable gap when it came to commuting. Fat tyres and tarmac do not a happy rider make. But - like many mountain bikers I suspect - I just couldn’t bring myself to own a road bike. Luckily, help was at hand. Enter the Jake.

The Jake the Snake offers the best compromise for what I’m after; extra riding time, fast on the road, versatile enough for muddy diversions, and not strictly speaking a “dark side” bike. It’s going to be interesting to have a new perspective on well known trails. The initial outing on my local loop was, erm, ‘interesting’.

Out of the box, the colour hits you first and foremost. It’s bright, very bright. But I’m happy that I may get some extra protection and lessen the threat of “sorry mate, I didn’t see you”.

Kit-wise it’s impeccable; Shimano 105 shifters, derailleurs and rear hub, Easton Carbon forks and finishing kit. The only things I’ve changed are the saddle to an SDG Bel Air and a pair of Shimano 540 pedals.

I’m looking forward to getting some miles in, reclaiming commuting time for something more worthwhile, getting fitter and I may even dip a toe into the lactic hell that is ‘Cross racing. I mean, how hard can it be?

Focus Black Hills 2007
Price: £399.99
Weight: 28lbs
From: www.wiggle.co.uk

I’m taking a slightly different tack with the idea of a Long Termer. Thing is, I’m fortunate enough to be in the position where I ride lots of expensive, cutting edge bikes week in week out with Singletrack so I thought I’d check out what’s happening with entry level bikes these days. The sort of inexpensive-but-decent bike that may be of more interest to your work colleagues, friends, Significant Other etc. I’m interested to find out if a £800 bike is twice as ‘good’ as a £400 one.

I make no apologies for getting a mail order bike over the internet; a lot of first time ‘proper bike’ buyers will do exactly the same thing due to a combination of price, free time and fear of LBS showrooms and salespeople.

Like a real life first timer I did a lot of shopping around before deciding on my choice. I did try and find a rigid forked bike (for less money) but there just weren’t any around really. I also had to choose between having crap forks and crap disc brakes or forks that looked okay and decent v-brakes - not that tricky a choice really.

Out of the box everything seems to work fine except the brakes rubbed the rims a bit as they weren’t tensioned properly but after a few seconds of screwdrivering they were sorted (although a newcomer might not be able to work that out without assistance). The frame has some impressive detailing to it: bi-axial down tube, triangulated stays, good mud clearance, disc mount etc.

There’s no horrendously bad bits bolted to it either by the looks of things. And it’s good to see a decent set of tyres on an entry level bike for once (Schwalbe 2.25 Racing Ralphs). I can’t see anything that shouldn’t perform perfectly adequately for quite a while - although it’s going to be interesting to see how long the forks behave adequately I guess.

On Wednesday Cy from Cotic popped by the office to say hello and to show us a couple of new things and left two bikes lighter.

One of the bikes is a top secret prototype that looks lots of fun, but we’ll tell you more about that at a later date. The other bike is a RoadRat which will be my long term test bike. As of next week I’ll be within commuting distance of the office and rather than just sticking slicks on a mountain bike I thought trying something a bit more specialised might be an idea.

The RoadRat is a bit more versatlie than your typical hybrid commuter though. Singlespeed - fine, gears - just as fine, discs - yup, canti’s - aha, mudguards - sure, racks - you got it, skinny slicks - go for it, knobbly tyres - 1.8’s seem to fit, so yeah. See what I mean, it can do just about anything you ask of it. Or that’s what I’m hoping. I aim to try out every perceivable combination of add-ons and extras to see just what it is up to.

So this is the starting configuration: singlespeed, flat bars, slicks and V-brakes.

A very ‘right’ looking bike I’m sure you’ll agree and at £255 for the frame and forks it’s not even silly expensive.

I’ve got a feeling it’s going to be fun…

The Tod Beer Festival ride was well attended as usual and short enough that everyone got to the beer fest in plenty of time for a few pints of Ginger Marble or, appropriately Whernside Ale. Appropriately because tomorrow (Sunday) many folks from this parish will be racing the Three Peaks Cyclocross http://www.3peakscyclocross.org.uk/
But before that, I have to get all of my chunks of the magazine written and edited, and sub the rest of the magazine. That’s because on Monday I’m off to Interbike first thing… Woohoo. Lots of work, but should be fun. The magazine so far is looking great - it’s our photo special too.