Why the double-chainring won’t die
You can fly an Eagle 1×12. Yet some remain committed to 2×11. Why? When you look at kids riding their first proper bike, you probably remember your own. And the one distinguishing feature is that we all start with a single blade mounted to that drive side crankarm. The desire for gears are real and […]
Singletrack Stories: Enabling enduro at altitude
Gauteng apparently lacks descending gradient. But never on weekends. There exists an unusual correlation between architecture and bicycles: both adhering to principles of geometry and flow. The way a cleverly considered building guides unfamiliar visitors along, is mirrored by the way in which your bike links the discoverable features of a tidily built trail.Architects and […]
Singletrack stories: Taming the Tyger
For Patrick Roberts, the theme for most of his 56-years has been building – it’s something he cannot appear to escape from, an unavoidable destiny of sorts. The son of a Kruger game ranger, Patrick qualified as a quantity surveyor and spent years being meticulous about the built environment. In 2011, he decided all the […]
Carbon wheels. Aluminium frame. Or the opposite?
Light. Strong. But there are features of riding carbon wheels that are never really discussed. Let’s have a chat. Life is expectation tempered by reality. Marriage forces a trade of the GTi for CrossPolo. You bought Capco instead of Capitec shares with your bonus five years ago. And then there’s the worst paradox of choice […]
Building D-Spot
We all say we’re going to do it. But Stephen Wiggill sacrificed his garden, so his son could have somewhere to ride. When you are young and don’t know the price of anything, there are projects you just cannot believe are unfeasible for the family backyard. My personal department of private works project was to […]
Greg Minnaar: The definition of legend
Many know his name. Few understand his importance. But we’ll all benefit from the legacy. Marcelo Gutierrez, Jack Moir, Greg Minnaar, Aaron Gwin, and Remi Thirion stand on the podium at UCI DH World Cup in Fort William, Scotland on June 4th, 2017. Photo credit: Bartek Wolinski/Red Bull Content Pool. It is not so much […]
Democratising the dropper seatpost
XCO racing is doing what downhill never could, embracing the dropper seatpost. And the consequences could be significant. In the beginning, there was no XCO or stage racing. It was all downhill, without helmets, on awfully unsophisticated rigid bikes. The Mount Tamalpais Repack race, held during the 1970s near San Francisco, was the first timed […]
The secret ‘cheat’ for muddy stage races
At this year’s sani2c, a very cheap bit of kit could have made everyone a lot more recognisable in their event photos. It’s deeply embarrassing when one is required to unclip, and push one’s single-speed. Especially in Stellenbosch, where you are more likely to be passed by a pro mountain biker than almost anywhere else […]
29er downhill bikes will help us all
The advent of 29er downhill bikes has a resonance way beyond the start gate. Two weeks ago, one of our own did the unconscionable. After much teasing of bits and pieces on social media, the greatest mountain biker South Africa has – and likely ever will – produce did what many considered impossible. He introduced […]
The upgrade we can all afford
One of the best upgrades in MTB racing, is nearly for free. Yet demand remains low. Why? Seventy-five thousand Rand. It’s not a perfect, actuarially verified number, but one with the least disagreement when a price point is fixed to what a new South African mountain bike, with a stage racing number cable-tied to its […]
Is two-six the new Enduro? Meet the mid plus-sized tyre
Consider yourself a fit and committed gravity rider? There is a new tyre size you can not afford to ignore. This Easter long weekend, friends and family inevitably enquired about how your ‘mountain biking’ is going. And bless them, they attempted to appear genuinely interested, by asking the one question all non-riders believe mountain bikers […]
The Epic: An outsider’s perspective
This coming Sunday a great many of us are going to try and tolerate dust, heat, wind, other peoples’ annoying children, and insects, in an effort to watch more than a thousand mountain bikes crank up climbs, and listen as their hubs buzz on the descents, at Meerendal. Announcing the obvious is insulting to one’s […]