Cover pic: Colin Meagher.
Contents pic: Dan Barham.
7. Editorial
Chipps ponders double chins on children vs the unique joy of hurting yourself with a bike.
8. Broken
Blowing up spectacularly is something that only cyclists and a few long distance runners have in common.
18. Shenandoah 100
Jon Meredith pitches himself heart and soul against a 100 mile hilly bike race on the East Coast of the States. He loses, despite finishing.
26. One! Two! Go! Three!
It’s shockingly easy to fool yourself into doing something foolish. And that’s a good thing, reckons Matt.
28. The Kindness of Strangers
14 hours of walking through streams with your bike in a remote bit of Morocco and now it’s getting dark. Now where can you turn for help?
34. Bonky the Clown
It’s not just Sunday fun-riders that hit the wall. Professional racers bonk too – as entertainly explained by Joe Parkin.
37. Bike Test: 69ers
Three 29in front, 26in rear wheel modern penny-farthings from Carver, Singular and Trek. You need to try one…
46. Minus 40 Meltdown
No matter how prepared you are – riding 135 miles in the blistering cold is not a journey to be taken lightly – or it could be your last.
52. Gallery
Who needs foreign sunshine? Five pages of uplifting images from our very own island.
58. Through the Grinder
Six pages of clothing and components tested in our Pennine playground.
66. Minitest: Pop-Up Seatposts
Seatposts that go down at the push of a switch are the future. Here are three of them from Crank Bros, Gravity Dropper and Pure Racing.
68. Return to Ukraine
Tomasz Debiec takes us back to the gentle pace and huge scenery of the Ukraine – riding the wonderfully named Smooth Polonyna.
76. Blame the Dog
The murder of nuance.
Mike Ferrentino’s regular letter from America.
78. Fitness: Ride without blowing
Matt Hart tells you how to correctly fuel your body to ward off exhaustion and what to do when it all goes wrong.
84. Head to Head:
The carbon question.
Mark looks at two carbon hardtails from Felt and Merida.
87. Grouptest: Disc Brakes
Benji looks at five examples of he new power generation of disc brakes from Avid, Formula, Hope, Magura and Shimano.
94. Because It Hurts More
Why do people race skinny tyred bikes off road when there are mountain bikes? Chipps uncovers the hidden world of cyclocross.
102. Thank You
We know who you are and you know why. So thanks.
104. Long Term Test Bikes
A peek into the staff bike shed reveals a lot of change for 2009.
108. Subscribe
Go here to sign up to subscibe and ensure that you get the magazine delivered and take advantage of all the special subscriber-only offers.
110. Column: Roly Lambert
Our Roly gets himself lost within sight of his house…
112. Competition – Win a spring makeover from 2Pure!
Win £500 worth of gear to spruce yourself and your bike up ready for that spring sunshine.
114. Propaganda
Sale now on! Books and jerseys are on discount for you here.
116. Route Guide: South Wales
Here’s a route guide for the area near Cardiff that you always drive past in your rush to get to Afan. You should slow down and ride…
127. Outro
Christmastime is always good for some off-duty blackmail photos of the team…
This is the “clean” cover that only our lovely Subscribers and bike shop vendors receive 🙂
Comments (7)
Leave Reply
Post Comment
Smooth Polonya? Isn’t that what they feed their ex spys – allegedly?
Sounds great.
Not sure I’ve ever seen the point of the “Long Term Test Bikes” though. It’s not that I don’t like the idea of longer, more demanding tests than time usually allows, it’s just that reading subsequent reports doesn’t seem to add much other than a list of parts that have been swapped out….
Looks like a good issue.
Yeah, looks good. I’ll definitely be getting that one.
Have you posted it out yet, this page has been here a while, Still haven’t got a physical copy here though. Should I pop to tescos and buy one?
Still waiting on my sub copy too!
Minus 40 Meltdown was a great article, thanks. On the subject of Ukraine http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/ukraine.html