Hannah made this one for the royal festivities, and then it all got too much and the flapping of bunting and glinting of gold (not a surfeit of Pimms) made everyone here at STW have a little lie down. So after a little extra waiting…
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.
Mental Mondays #9 The yes, we know it’s Tuesday, edition
Hannah is our melon twisting architect once again this week. Less cryptic and more general MTB knowledge. Places are the theme this week. Do you now your MTB origins? Quick links Singletrack Crossword #9 Our crosswords and puzzles are for full members only. Join us…
Balls to short travel e-MTBs PLUS Fabien Barel
Benji expresses his thoughts on short travel e-MTBs, Chipps explains how and why 2x gearing seems to be back and Hannah sentences Fabien Barel to a desert island for the rest of his life. Full members listen ad free here Oladance Wearable Stereo is your…
Mental Monday #8 The Super Cryptic Edition
This week our crossword has been designed by reader Chris Lansley and for you cryptic fans it’s a beast of a puzzle. The list of successful completions of last week’s puzzle is the longest yet, but we don’t expect the list to be a long…
Mental Mondays #7 – The MAMIL edition
Hannah is the designer of this week’s tricky prize crossword, despite the fact that she’s spent the last week in Italy at a top secret bike launch. For those about to attempt the this week’s slider puzzle – we salute you. Quick links Singletrack Crossword…
Singletrack Goes ASMR & Keeper Of The Peak heads to his Island
This week Hannah, Mark and Charlie chat about their bank holiday adventures, Hannah tries a bit of ASMR generation with a copy of Singletrack 148 and then sends Chris Maloney AKA Keeper Of The Peak to a desert island. Full members listen ad free here…
Desert Island Disc Brakes – With Nick Craig
There’s a bit of everything thrown in to this week’s episode. We have Mark, Chipps and Amanda trying to make themselves heard over a cacophony of mating geese; an excerpt from Chipps’ interview with Rob Warner that nearly made our bleep machine overheat; and finally…
UCI Bans Lewis Buchanan For OnlyFans Sponsorship
In a video on his youtube channel over the weekend, Pro racer Lewis Buchanan revealed he’d received communication from the UCI informing him that due to his sponsorship deal with the online pay to view content platform he would not be allowed to race in…
Mental Mondays #6
Hannah is the designer of this week’s tricky prize crossword. It’s a pretty cryptic one this week. Mark hates cryptic clues and failed miserably at this one. Amanda however, stormed this in no time at all. My tip is that you need to have a…
Mental Mondays #5 Crossword & Puzzles by Mark
Mark is the designer of this week’s tricky prize crossword. This week’s test is a mixture of random bike related general knowledge with a few cryptic style questions thrown in for good measure. To complete this you are going to need to be up to…
Podcast: The budget and click-bait journalism episode
This week’s podcast covers the demise of Moore Large – distributor and supplier of bike parts to many a bike shop. Mark gets Hannah worked up about government spending priorities, and the lack of focus on Active Travel. Amanda enjoys the politics lesson, then raises…
Mental Mondays #4 Crossword & puzzles by Hannah
Hannah is the designer of this week’s fiendishly tricky crossword and those that know her will not be surprised to discover it’s rather cryptic. The crossword is definitely one for those who spend perhaps too much time on the Forum. Or is it? Somewhere between…
Mental Monday! Singletrack Weekly Crossword #2
Welcome to the first Mental Monday. If you are a full member you will see below three puzzles for you to solve. There’s our tricky Singletrack crossword puzzle designed by a staff member here at STHQ and based on a mixture of bike related general…
Podcast – What’s up with marketing in the bike industry?
Mark, Hannah and Charlie talk about Hannah’s recent holiday incapacitation and how that lead to the discussion that the bike industry could maybe do a better job of selling itself in the media. Also in this week’s episode: Things that caught our eye in the…
It’s not easy being Singletrack. Please help.
Tough Times. These are not easy times for almost everyone right now, and we know this at Singletrack as individuals and as a business. Let me explain, and then ask for your help. Advertising is awful right now. Not just because it’s worth is less that…
Credit where it’s due – Now you can show your appreciation of great forum posts
WTF does that even mean? Undoubtedly you are familiar with the ability on various social platforms to ‘like’ a comment or a post. Well, now you can do just that on our forum. It’s not revolutionary but it means you can now express your appreciation…
Podcast: Taiwan, crap 90’s bikes and Benji makes mudguards great again
This week Hannah leads the way with extra voices from Benji and Mark. We start off with a poor attempt to get Benji to rant about 90’s bikes, which he does in the end. Hannah explains to us why we should be paying attention to…
Can Working On Your Bike Void The Warranty?
We asked a selection of bike companies to comment on whether working on your bike could void the warranty.
Get used to seeing OnlyFans sponsor more aspects of our sport
Downhill and enduro racer Lewis Buchanan raised a few eyebrows with his announcement that he was adding OnlyFans – better known for its porn channels – to his sponsor list. Our publisher, Mark, looks at whether we should be so surprised. OnlyFans.com attracted 333 million…
MegaSack Draw LIVE: 6pm NYE
Tune in at 6pm on New year’s Eve to see if you are this year’s lucky winner of the Singletrack MegaSack. How it works Veterans of our annual MegaSack competitions will have already made sure they have entered every one of the 17 previous daily…
Podcast: Wild Cycling and Middle Aged Rampage
Mark has been to Utah to check out something he still can’t tell us about. It was his first time there – did he have any fun? Chipps and Hannah join the conversation to discuss whether mountain biking needs a rebrand or has an image…
Classic Ride 146: Porlock Pleasures
Chipps ventures just that little bit further west than normal and discovers peace, quiet and trails from the sea and all the way deep into the hills. Words & Photography Chipps Many people make the journey south and west to Somerset’s fantastic Quantock Hills, but…
Pete Scullion, Canyon KIS & the art of taking pictures: Podcast
In this week’s podcast, Hannah, Mark and Benji are joined by award winning freelance photographer Pete Scullion to talk about the highlights of the week, including the new KIS system from Canyon. Watch out for a great Singletrack membership offer in there. ps. There’s a…
Singletrack Membership Price Increase – A Heads Up
As I mentioned in this article, we are under a great deal of financial pressure due to the rate of inflation driving up costs across the board. Also, the cost of living crisis we are all facing is not conducive to increased spending on things…
Podcast: Rampage thoughts, Hannah’s love of Bespoked and some ASMR beer opening sounds
Another week, another episode of four of the Singletrack team sitting around their laptops talking about the big issues of the week. With only a very passing reference to politics this could well be your aural refuge for the next hour. Give it a listen…
Podcast: British Cycling WTF? Flex Stem Returns And Trashmob Academy
Join Mark, Amanda, Chipps and Sanny as they talk about the issues of the week. What does Mark think about the British Cycling/Shell sponsorship bombshell? What piece of suspension tech from the late 80’s seems to be making a comeback? Why does Amanda need so…
British Cycling ‘Strongly Recommends’ No One Rides Their Bike During The Queen’s Funeral
UPDATE 13/09/22 17:17pm: British Cycling have now removed the recommendation that no one rides their bike during the funeral from their official advice. Monday the 19th has been set as the date of the Queen’s funeral and subsequently an impromptu bank holiday. Arrangements are being…
Is it safe? Answer our reader survey questions
We’ve created a page here where we have created a collection of simple survey style questions. Unlike normal surveys this one gives you the results every time you submit an answer. You can generally only answer each question once, no matter where it appears on…
Pro Racer Rab Wardell Dies In His Sleep at 37
We have little more information at this stage but according to our sources Rab died in his sleep on the 22nd August. Yesterday Rab was featured on BBC Scotland discussing his achievements including his win in the senior category at the Scottish MTB XC Championships…
Cost of living crisis and Singletrack – An appeal
We are under some pressure and we thought you should know about it now before it gets worse and things get harder. The cost of living crisis is affecting everyone and the cost of doing business here at Singletrack is not immune. Postage costs and…
The Singletrack Podcast – everyone in disagreement, then?
Hannah, Benji and Mark sit down for a chat about the news you may have missed and the news that got them thinking. Benji likes Strava, Hannah is pretty sure she doesn’t. Is racers being cautious about injuries a new and emerging trend? Expect diversions,…
Talking About: How Far Can Your Ebike Go?
Mark and Hannah sit down to chat about the reasons why ‘How far can your ebike go?’ has no simple answer. Video not displaying? Try our Youtube Channel Having discussed all that, we then got to wondering in the office – as batteries get smaller…
We’d like our Instagram account back please
If you follow us on the socials you may already be wondering why we’ve been very quiet on Instagram recently. The reason is simple – on the 15th February a hacker managed to gain access, lock us out completely and then demand a ransom. It…
2022 ABSA Cape Epic Grand Finale – Watch LIVE
7th Stage: Stellenbosch – Val de Vie. Distance: 68 km. Climbing: 2000 m After 8 days of limit-testing racing, there is a return to the good life, for those who can complete Stage 7. The Grand Finale takes teams to Val de Vie, the Valley…
2022 ABSA Cape Epic Stage 6 – Watch LIVE
6th Stage: Stellenbosch – Stellenbosch. Distance: 76 km. Climbing: 2700 m Boasting more singletrack per kilometre of racing than in any other 2022 Absa Cape Epic stage, Stage 6 is one for the mountain biking purists, as it explores the famed Banhoek, Idas Valley, StellenboschTrail…
2022 ABSA Cape Epic Stage 5 – Watch LIVE
5th Stage: Greyton – Stellenbosch. Distance: 115 km. Climbing: 2400 m Rusty Gate is, unquestionably, among The Race That Measures All’s most revered climbs. Usually, theassault on it features a pre-amble, a warm-up; but not so in 2022. Leaving Elandskloof, it’s Rusty Gatefrom the starting…
2022 ABSA Cape Epic Stage 4 – Watch LIVE
4th Stage: Greyton – Greyton. Distance: 82 km. Climbing: 1650m The second day on the trails of Greyton wastes no time in introducing the teams to the region’sspectacular trails. A district road start provides a quick warm-up before the dual tracks into the mountains above…
2022 Absa Cape Epic Stage 3 – WATCH LIVE
3rd Stage: Greyton – Greyton. Distance: 101 km. Climbing: 2250 m In 2022, the Absa Cape Epic explores the trails of Greyton like never before. It begins with a day backloaded with singletrack; thus, the opening kilometres of Stage 3 are characterised by the other…
60 bike companies pledge to increase sustainable packaging use
Confederation of the European Bicycle Industry (CONEBI) and Cycling Industries Europe (CIE) have launched an industry-wide commitment to reduce plastic packaging and eliminate unnecessary packaging from the supply chain. 60 companies have today announced, via a joint CONEBI and CIE press release, to improve their…
2022 Absa Cape Epic Stage 2 – LIVE
2nd Stage: Lourensford Wine Estate – Greyton. Distance: 123 km. Climbing: 2350m Stage 2 of the 2022 Absa Cape Epic heads due east, taking the teams on an African Odyssey from the luxury of Lourensford Wine Estate into the heart of the hinterland. The route…
2022 Absa Cape Epic Stage 1 – LIVE
1st Stage: Lourensford Wine Estate – Lourensford Wine Estate. Distance: 92 km. Climbing: 2850m The first marathon stage of the 2022 Absa Cape Epic leaves nowhere to hide. Scaling King’s Climb is the first order of the day. A brutally long and steep ascent from…
2022 Absa Cape Epic Prologue Stage – LIVE
Stage: Prologue: Lourensford Wine Estate Distance: 24 km. Climbing: 700m After eight years the Absa Cape Epic, that claims to be the toughest MTB race in the world, returns to Lourensford Wine Estate. We have live coverage of each stage right here on Singletrackworld.com In…
Forum Sentiment Analysis: The mood of the ‘nation’ in 1 graph
The Singletrack Forum is really quite a thing to study. In the last 14 years its accrued more than 10 million posts generated by more than 120k registered users (In 2021 we averaged 1.5 million visitors per month). In that time every topic and reply…
Singletrack MegaSack 2021 LIVE DRAW – Watch it here
Join Mark at 7pm on New Year’s Eve, live from his front room for the grand prize draw of the year. If you have entered (and got the question right) any of our daily draws then your ticket is already in the MegaSack and you…
Orbea Rise MT M10 – Editors’ Choice Awards 2021
The Singletrack Staffers pick the standout products and locations from their riding year. This article was originally published in Singletrack Magazine Issue 140. The year has felt a little like approaching that nemesis feature on the trail: you roll up to it full of optimism,…
Bike Park Wales – Editors’ Choice Awards 2021
The Singletrack Staffers pick the standout products and locations from their riding year. This article was originally published in Singletrack Magazine Issue 140. The year has felt a little like approaching that nemesis feature on the trail: you roll up to it full of optimism,…
Singletrack MegaSack Countdown 2021 Day 20 – Lezyne Bundle
Into another week with an awesome prize that could be yours in the next 24 hours. Lezyne Bundle – Grip Drive HV M Black hand pump, Digital mini shock drive shock pump, Tubeless CO2 blaster & 2 x cartridges, Ratchet drive multitool, Classic Brass Bell,…
Singletrack MegaSack Countdown Day 14 – Deity Bar & Stem Combo
It’s day 14 and we are still not quite half way through the prize list. Today we have some cockpit gubbins for you to look at and learn about from top cockpit gubbins people at Deity Components. Price: Stem £94.99, Bar £144.95, Headset cap £19.99…
Last Chance To Vote! Singletrack Reader Awards 2021 In Association With Kona
Voting closes on 1st November! Make sure you vote for those you want to win before then! The time has come for you to cast your votes in this year’s Reader Awards. What happens next and who wins is down to you. REMEMBER! You must…
5 Pro Bike Checks from Red Bull Rampage 2021
What tyres for… back flipping off a cliff, hitting the lilypad, then heading straight into a sui? Our man on the ground at the Red Bull Rampage practice days, Fahzure Freeride, talks suspension settings, contact points, and brake set up with five Rampage hopefuls. The…
Fresh Goods Friday 571 – The ‘Quick! It’s briefly sunny outside’ issue
It’s all got a bit ping-tastic up here, so some of us are diving outside and enjoying a bike ride while we can, others have their fingers crossed for half term holiday plans, and others are gazing longingly out the window at the forbidden world.…