Liv’s update to its entry level series ‘Tempt’ range will no doubt appeal to the many new riders that 2020 has spawned. Available in either 29-inch or 27.5-inch wheel sizes, the new Tempt series is billed as the ideal entry level off-road bike for women.…
2020
Canyon Exceed CFR LTD – First Ride Review
When an email dropped into my inbox asking if I’d like to test the new Canyon Exceed CFR, I’ll admit I hesitated before accepting the challenge. The last time I rode a hardtail race machine was exactly a year ago at the 10@Kirroughtree race, and…
Canyon Bikes Goes All-Out With the 2021 Canyon Exceed Hardtail
Featuring bold rainbow decals and ‘unicorn hair’ carbon fibre, the new 2021 Canyon Exceed has been engineered to be one of the lightest mountain bike hardtails on the planet. The Canyon Exceed CFR (Canyon Factory Racing) frame is quoted at an astonishing 835g. And that…
What to expect from a day out at Dyfi Bike Park
Could you ride Dyfi Bike Park? Could your kids? We set out to find out what the new Red trails are like. When Dyfi Bike Park opened it quickly gained a reputation for being a place for only the best of riders. These were Dan…
Bespoked Show 2021 Moves To Harrogate For Its Tenth Year
We’ve just heard from the organisers of Bespoked, the British handmade bicycle show, that it is moving next year’s show to the Harrogate Convention Centre, from its previous home of Bristol for Bespoked 2021. Not surprisinly, this year’s show didn’t happen. Like many spring 2020…
FGF Podcast 511 | Recorder music, hardtail shortages and Hannah’s #vanlife
Hannah is back but she’s not really back. She’s roughing it the back of her van with love of her life Fahzure as she travels around Wales having riding adventures. So, it’s MC Mark once again standing in. This week we get a disturbing aural…
Van Gals VLOG: Dreamy Singletrack in Châtel
By this point, we’re confident you all know who the ‘van gals’ Carly and Emma are. For those that don’t, come join us for a brief recap of the adventures and mishaps the two mountain biking van dwellers have had in recent months. Pizza Powered…
Video: Andi rides with Tommy C Hype on their local
Andi brushes off his eMTB to ride with rising YouTube star Tommy C Hype in his latest video edit. For some, a mid-life-crisis might mean buying a 2 seater sports car but Andi is doing it differently. Instead of a toupee or heading back to…
Fresh Goods Friday: FGF 511 – The Can-we, can’t we? edition
Crazy times on crazier times. We find ourselves here at Singletrack Towers in the midst of local lockdown where we can’t go to someone’s house or garden, but we can go for a bike ride with them. So that’s good. But at the end of…
Merida Big.Trail 600 First Ride Review | All the hardtail you’ll ever need, for just £1500
It’s no secret that the writers at Singletrack love a nice boutique hardtail. The lure of a custom steel frame, painstakingly brazed together by a bloke who looks like he got lost on the way to the Glastonbury Festival in the 1970s in his garden…
New Merida BIG.TRAIL Hardtail Launches With UK In Mind
Wow, it seems to be hardtail season. And when one of the biggest bike companies in the world looks to the UK for inspiration, it’s time to listen… Merida makes no secret that its new BIG.TRAIL hardtail range was designed with UK riders in mind.…
Think global, ride local -A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood – Part 3
Worn down by home schooling, Sanny takes a different tack when it comes to education provision. Words by Sanny. Images by Julia Gould and Sanny. “How long has it been now?” I wonder to myself as I look at another day of home-schooling tasks that…
New ‘99% Accurate’ Wahoo KICKR Trainer Launches
Yes, it must be time to start thinking about those dark nights spent spinning away in front of the screen in the hope of spring fitness. And the new 5th edition of the Wahoo Kickr is aimed at helping you achieve all of those goals.…
Yeti Cycles 2021 – New Colours, New Specs, New Bikes.
As the brand celebrates its 35th anniversary, the Yeti Cycles 2021 range seems to be having a time to take stock and just catch up with everything, after a couple of years of frantic bike launches and revisions. There have been a couple of new…
Video: The Brigade Team let loose in Vallnord
With the possibility of World Cup races on the horizon, The Brigade Team headed to Vallnord for a week of testing. The Brigade Team riders, Alex Marin and Rudy Cabirou seized the opportunity to head to Vallnord, Andorra once lockdown lifted to test out a…
Kona Honzo ESD first ride review: Kona’s classic hardcore hardtail gets an update
On one of the hottest days of the year, Andi takes out one of the hottest new bikes of the year. Here are his first ride impressions of the Kona Honzo ESD. There was a time that all I rode was steel hardtails. Now and…
North American Scrap Lumber Bicycle Symposium | Bike Check
Pushing the boundaries of bicycle technology, taking innovation to the next level, and setting new standards, it's Hannah and Fahzure's lockdown creation. No, it's not a baby, a sourdough loaf, or a pizza oven: it's a bike made from wood. With so many cancellations of…
Classic Ride 132 – Menteith Hills
Pete Scullion takes us on a tour of the endless, accessible fire roads and exciting singletrack on the very edge of the Scottish mountains. Words & Photography Pete Scullion The Trossachs… A sleepy corner of Scotland where the wide open spaces of the lowlands meet…
The New Giant Talon XC Hardtail
“The call of the trail is real.” says Giant’s new enthusiastic press release about its new 2021 Talon hardtail. To be fair, hardtails are great and they’re all very sharply priced. So, let’s take a quick look at the 2021 Giant Talon hardtail run down……
Fresh Goods Friday 510 – Where’d They Go? Where’d Who Go?
We’ll start you off with five points if you got the ‘Top Gun’ reference. We actually know one bike journalist who would begin every single ride with the first ten minutes of Top Gun on the big screen to fire them and their riding crew…
Never Ride Outside Again! Zwift Introduces Futureworks Steering, Supported By Elite Trainers
It’s been a fun week or so for indoor cycling fans. Today, we’ve seen dual announcements from Zwift and Elite to say that both companies are now incorporating steering into online workouts. Zwift steering is already in use on its off road trail in Watopia,…
BMC Two-Stroke Hardtail – Not (Just) For Racing
Today, BMC launches its new hardtail, the BMC Two-Stroke. It’s a 100mm forked hardtail designed for going fast, fast, fast, but it’s not for racing. Or rather, it’s not really designed for XCO, UCI World Cup cross country racing. BMC acknowledges that the best bike…
Schwalbe release 5 new Super casings plus updated Nobby Nic and Big Betty
Schwalbe reintroduces the Big Betty, revamps the Nobby Nic and introduces an entirely new range of Super casings for 2021. The pandemic has made keeping products a secret even more difficult than ever before, so while today is the official release of the new Schwalbe…
Sonder goes hardcore STEEL hardtail with the new Signal ST
Sonder has taken the spritely Signal Ti and given it a real steel flavour with the new Sonder Signal ST. Some months, or was it years back, I tested the Sonder Signal Ti for a feature in Singletrack Magazine (yes, there’s a mag!), I really…
2021 Kona Process X launched alongside updated 153
Kona goes eXtreme with a capital X with the release of the new Kona Process X and Process X DL. Gravity-fuelled rigs aimed at the enduro/freeride crowd. Has freeride made a comeback? Well, new bikes from the likes of Commencal and Kona seems to suggest…
SixSixOne release Radia Goggle range
Protection peddlers, SixSixOne enter the goggle game with the new Radia Goggle for just £39.99. We don’t know if the cycling industry has known all along about this wet summer but there has been no shortage of affordable goggles released this year. Funn entered the…
Tested: Fasst Flexx Suspension Handlebars
David breaks out the digital calipers to test the effectiveness of the Fasst Flexx suspension handlebar. There's something undeniably nineties-sounding about suspension handlebars, especially given that these work with elastomers. Manufacturer Fasst have tested the concept with ATVs and motocross bikes since at least 2011…
Yeti Launches Yeti ARC Production Bikes For Those Without Nine Grand
Recently, Yeti Cycles celebrated its 35th anniversary with the launch of an eyewateringly expensive, commemorative Yeti ARC 35 hardtail, complete with colour-matched components and a pretty top-shelf spec. The bike itself was so far over most people’s price ranges that we didn’t really pay close…
Singletrack Podcast 510 | The Chris Porter EXT Fork & Politics Rant Episode
We’ve missed a week of Podcasts due to summer holidays and the fact that only Hannah really understands how to organise this side of editorial production. However, Mark has managed to roundup Chipps and Andi to talk about the latest developments in the MTB UK…
SR Suntour TriAir 3CR Rear Shock Review
The Suntour TriAir 3CR is an affordable rear shock that promises performance and easy maintenance. So, does it live up to the promise? Perhaps one of the most overlooked parts on many bikes, at least when it comes to upgrades, is the rear shock. We're…
Review: Suntour Durolux R2C2 PCS EQ top-performance on a budget!
The Suntour Durolux R2C2 PCS EQ is awarded a Singletrack Recommended Award for providing quality suspension and performance at a budget price. Suntour’s continued development of its rowdy 36mm enduro fork has paid off with Andi thoroughly recommencing this budget bouncer. When I started to…
Fresh Goods Friday 511: This Is Summer Edition
Yep, it looks like today is summer! With sucky weather for the last month up here in Singletrack Land, today is the day when the mercury is set to top 27C (and 80F). Proper hot! And then we’re back to clouds and sub-room temperature temps…
Shimano’s ME7 And ME5 Trail Shoes Get Full Revamp For 2021
Shimano’s ME7 and ME5 shoes are popular sights on the trails, start lines and after-ride cafés around the place, so for 2021 Shimano decided not to change too much, but to tweak both the ME7 and ME5 shoes to give a bit more grip and…
541mm Reach! Bird Introduces its first carbon bike the Aether 9C
We thought that headline would grab your attention! The Bird Aether 9C is a carbon do it all bike with 130mm travel and plenty of reach! Like many many of our high-tech materials and cool inventions, carbon fibre isn’t a new material and was in…
New EXT ERA Fork Is Big, Stiff, Clever, 29in-only… And £1590
After much teasing back in the spring, EXT has finally announced its enduro suspension fork. There was great speculation about what it might be, how it would be sprung, travel, crowns and so on. And, today we can reveal most of the details for you…
Rider owned Crossworx Cycles releases Zero 29 hardtail
German-made Crossworx Cycles Zero 29 hardtail promises playful handling and downhill prowess. What’s made in Germany, comes in a bunch of Chipps approved colours and isn’t too long, low or slack? Well if you had read the title you would know it’s the Crossworx Cycles…
Specialized Status First Look | All new, all mountain, affordable trail bike
Today we can, finally, tell you about the new Specialized Status – a bike we’ve had under us for the past two months. Since the ‘launch’ campaign for this bike has been going on since May you may in fact already be familiar with this…
Crank Brothers Stamp 2 & 3 Pedal Competition Winners
A few weeks ago we introduced you to the new Crank Brothers Stamp pedal range and asked you a simple question to check you were paying attention. If you missed the chance to win the pedals you can still find out all about them here.…
Charlie’s Business Trip To A Brewery
I recently took a short motorcycle ride from Singletrack Towers, over the Pennines, to the rather pleasant Lancashire (No, Charlie, they don’t like that kind of thing up here) er, Cumbria town of Kirkby Lonsdale. It rained most of the way, the roads were greasy,…
Think global, ride local – A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood – Part 2
Having reached peak lockdown beans on toast capacity (seemingly every night on the bounce does not constitute a balanced diet!), Sanny goes in search of a gastronomic treat. Like pretty much everyone, life has been a bit on the topsy turvy side for a while.…
Video: Van Gals – Tour of the van
Emma and Carly – the ‘Van Gals’ – are two of our newest contributors, but they’ve quickly gained quite a fan club among our readers. If you read their stories without laughing, we really can’t help you. We’re pretty sure you’ll be delighted to know…
10 Mistakes We Made When We Started Mountain Biking
Antony brings us some tips for new mountain bikers (and perhaps old hands too) that he thinks will help add fun to your off road rides. We’ve all been there. Some of us still are there. Riding bicycles off road isn’t the easiest sport to…
Garmin Down! Ransomware Attack Blamed, Riders Unable To Ride
Tens of thousands of cyclists are dealing with the traumatic experience of not being able to prove they’ve ridden their bikes as Garmin’s Connect servers go down. The server outage means that rides can’t be uploaded to Garmin’s Connect servers and the usual auto synchronisation…
2 Bikes, 3000 Midges, 1 Puzzle | Fresh Goods Friday 510
Fact: 3000 midges makes a meal for a bat. This means that on Tuesday night there was enough food in Todmorden to feed every bat on earth (this is also a fact, but we have no evidence aside from Amanda’s legs). Does everyone have that…
Pedal Through | A first backcountry adventure
Pedal Through tells the story of novice riders pushing themselves out into unfamiliar territory, and discovering a world that has previously been beyond their reach. This video by Analise Cleopatra might just spur a few of you into action and trying something new. It’s beautiful…
Masks of Singletrack | Here’s how the staff are helping curb the spread of COVID19
This is a public service broadcast! Masks are now required to be worn in shops, on buses and trains and in the commission of bank robberies. Here at Singletrack we are taking that responsibility seriously – in fact we’ve been following a masks in the…
Corona Coaster | From Crankworx to Cornwall with Tom Isted
In this episode of Live To Ride we travelled to Cornwall on the south east coast of Britain to find out how Tom Isted, a regular on the FMB series has been dealing with a summer at home. Between his private training compound and Woody’s…
Orbea Alma | Superlight hardtails from £799!
The latest Orbea Alma hardtail offers impressive race ready weights at a price to suit every pocket. Orbea gets 1/3 of its revenue through its XC bikes, so it should be no surprise that they’ve put some effort in to modernising their XC hardtail, the…
Video: 2021 Commencal Meta AM 29 Team First Look
Check out our video first look of the 2021 Commencal Meta AM 29 Team! A bike so rare that even pre-orders are running low on stock! For 2021 Commencal gave its full-suspension line-up a major overhaul. The Meta TR, Clash and Meta AM all received…
You’re Grounded! Singletrack Deadline Coffee
Lockdown makes me feel somewhat like being a teenager who has been grounded by their parents. Yeah sure I am no longer a teenager, but I still have a bike and skateboard, and I was told not to leave the house by an old man…