Mark and Chipps ride bikes, try on sunnys and get all excited about half a bash ring and thixotropic jelly. The bike Mark was riding was this one… It’s the Kona Dawg Deluxe and for 2010 it comes with a few tweaks that have resulted…
Mark Alker
Mark has been riding mountain bikes for over 30 years and co-owns Singletrack, where he's been publisher for 25 years. While his official title might be Managing Director, his actual job description is "whatever needs doing" – from wrangling finances and keeping the lights on to occasionally remembering to ride bikes for fun rather than just work. He's seen the sport evolve from rigid forks to whatever madness the industry dreams up next, and he's still not entirely sure what "gravel" is. When he's not buried in spreadsheets or chasing late invoices, he's probably thinking about his next ride.
Shimano Anti Doping Statement
Watch out dopers! If you get caught Shimano will be round to strip your bike of bits
Road Bike Mayhem
Road bikes at Mountain Mayhem? Surely not!
How far away are they?
After a day of mucho rainio and excellentio trailsio yesterday on the hills above Irun…….imagine technical, rocky Lakeland trails and you’ll have a good idea of the type of riding we were doing, we were glad to waken up to normal service of blue skies…
El Scorchio Notio
Dias Uno in El Bigio Brotherio Housio! Arrived late last night to the rural B and B in an old converted farmhouse to find what seemed like a concerningly large double bed. While I’m in touch with my female side, the thought of Mark spooning…
Working hard in a Basque
Just arrived in Basque Country to stay with www.basquemtb.com. It’s me and Sanny here. Last time we both went on a biking trip together we were in Austria and it rained for most of the trip. It’s raining here. Hmmm. I’m quite tired at the…
Singletrack Reader Week – Video Diary 1
First day on the mountain above Morzine with a selection of the big bikes we took with us. A preview of the upcoming feature in issue 52 - out September 3rd
No Busman’s Holiday Thanks
Once a year I like to get away from it all. And by that I mean I like to have a week away from bikes! Now don;t get me wrong – I love bikes. I’d be in the wrong job if I didn’t, but to…
Lapierre 2010
Mark was invited out to Morzine see the 2010 range of Lapierre bikes. 2010 sees a mixture of simple colour changes and some substantial geometry changes across the more XC oriented bikes.
Singletrack EZ-up Stolen From Dalby Forest
Singletrack pop-Up shelter stolen from Dalby Forest. It's going to be expensive to replace but should be pretty easy to spot.
New Outdoor Bike Festival In The Works
What Tyres For Mountain Mayhem was not the only topic of discussion at last weekend's 24hr enduro. Organsiser Pat Adams gathered together brand managers from across the industry in the Singletrack marquee to begin a discussion process relating to his next big project.
Anodised Goodies Twittered
The guys from Fli Distribution just left our office after showing us a huge bag full of lovely, bright and anodised kit they are distributing far and wide to a bike shop near you. As the morning progressed we Twittered pictures to our Twitter feed…
Win £1000 of Bike Bits!
Win over £1000 of bike components by watching out for one of our special edition 50th anniversary posters in your local bike shop.
Comment on the comments
Is it me or are the people posting comments on our stories getting increasingly more negative and cynical? SRAM launch their 10 speed groupset and within minutes of Dave posting his report from the launch itself the comments are ‘what’s the point?’, ‘it’s all just…
Chicken Dance Extravaganza
Having been to Canada a couple of times to do mountain bike stuff with the help of the tourist boards over there, I’ve ended up on the mailing list of the Alberta Tourist Board. Usually I get press releases about new trails opening at one…
nPower just doubled our electricity bill
nPower have doubled our office electricity bill because we didn't write a letter to them in September to tell them we were switching suppliers in December, even though at the time we were quite happy with the rate we were paying them and didn't actually…
Twitter Ye Not!
Follow us on Twitter and you could win stuff we have lying around the office - This week we've got tyres, multi-tool, lock, pump and a bucket of energy to give away.
Statistics, swearing and those bloody ads again!
Swearing can be funny, stats are great but not when an insurance company gets hold of them to try and prove that cycling is dangerous and ads are here to stay and you need them as much as we do ultimately... No really!
Business as usual
The forum post frequency is returning to its pre Christmas level now, which is reassuring and I reckon a big indication of a return to normal service is the number of posts involving passioned and often irate posts about tiny, insignificant issues. It feels to…
Singletrack Issue 1 Editorial 2
GoFar is pleased to announce the birth of its successor. Well this is a bit of a leap isn’t it? From website to real mag. There’s a sort of inverse logic to all this. Magazines exist, then usually they sprout a token website full of…