With 23 years as Editor of Singletrack World Magazine, Chipps is the longest-running mountain bike magazine editor in the world. He started in the bike trade in 1990 and became a full time mountain bike journalist at the start of 1994. Over the last 30 years as a bike writer and photographer, he has seen mountain bike culture flourish, strengthen and diversify and bike technology go from rigid steel frames to fully suspended carbon fibre (and sometimes back to rigid steel as well.)
Editors’ Choice 2024: Hammerhead Karoo 3 GPS Unit
Could the new Hammerhead Karoo 3 rival the latest from Garmin and Wahoo? Chipps certainly thinks so. Chipps: “I had the previous Karoo 2 unit for 18 months and this...
Issue 157: MTB Culture – Rain Stops Play
Chipps looks at the increasing influence the changing climate and other pressures are having on off-road events. As the climate changes, it is bringing more unpredictable weather with it. We’re…
Issue 157 Last Word – Catastrophe!157
After a dozen years of incident-free mountain biking, luck ran out for my wife in October and she found her foot pointing sideways after an innocuous slide-out into a gravel…
Danny MacAskill and Chris Ball among 2024 Hall of Fame nominations
Today, the International Mountain Bike Hall of Fame, located in the Marin Museum of Bicycling in Marin County, California, announced its 2024 inductees. This year is the 36th anniversary of...
Welsh Cycling Industry Unites Against Welsh Trail Centre Closures
Over 90 separate Welsh cycling organisations have today co-signed a letter to Welsh Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs, Huw Irranca-Davies MS, concerning the...
Issue 156 Editorial – A curated taste
Chipps gets to put together a menu of rides. Does he start bold? Or subtle and build to a crescendo? I had some riders in the village this week. Not friends or friends of friends…
Issue 156 – Beyond Benidorm
WORDS & PHOTOGRAPHY CHIPPS One blazing sun, two very different worlds on Spain’s Costa Blanca. As I look around at the hotel breakfast buffet, there are two distinctly different groups…
Is NRW About To Close Coed Y Brenin?
According to several reports we have seen, it’s looking very likely that in the short term, several trail centres, including Coed y Brenin and Nant yr Arian will be forced...
Eurobike 2024 – Chipps went so you didn’t have to
Chipps gives the Singletrackworld members his personal takeaways from the massive 2024 Eurobike Show, held recently in Frankfurt. I reckon it’s coming up on 30 years since my first Eurobike...
Issue 155 Editorial: Going The Extra Mile
Chipps urges you to put in that extra 10% today and you’ll get 30% back tomorrow. It’s like a fitness/friendship pyramid scheme… In some respects, ‘Going the extra mile’ and…
Debate: Is It Even Mountain Biking?
As part of a new head-to-head debate series, Hannah and Chipps agree to disagree on what constitutes ‘mountain biking’ and, by extension, on what should appear in this magazine. We’ve…
Rob Fisk. Stand down, Merlinman
Long, long, longtime friend of Singletrackworld, Rob \'Merlinman\' Fisk passed away earlier today. We\'re so glad we got to share time with him.
Obituary: Greg Fuquay by Chipps
Another massive influence on my life has left us. I’ve just found out that Greg Fuquay passed away this weekend. Greg was a bike frame builder, based near Ipswich, when...
Bob Seals: Devil, do-gooder or daydreamer?
Spiritual eco-warrior? Half-naked singlespeed pioneer? Genius machinist who brought you the Cool Tool and Klean Kanteen? Or someone who offended a race organiser so badly they forklifted his team truck…
Are Welsh Trails Up For Sale By NRW?
Local mountain bikers and councillors around Coed y Brenin are concerned that Natural Resource Wales (NRW) is planning on selling off the Coed y Brenin visitor centre and its miles...
Singletrack World Issue 154 Editorial: Let’s Get Lendy
“Neither a borrower nor a lender be, For loan oft loses both itself and friend, And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.” And so goes the oft-quoted advice in Hamlet,…
Issue 154 Last Word: Schrödinger’s Stans Monsters
Chipps gets existential in his tyre swapping. Perhaps those new tyres you had on backorder have finally come in, or you’re simply putting in that pre-summer maintenance where you swap…
Issue 153 Editorial: Always Meet Your Heroes
Chipps encourages you to seek out and praise your heroes. However, they might not be the people you first think of. Doesn’t the saying go ‘Never meet your heroes’? Is…
Patrick Adams – The Big Man Has Left Us
We’re truly sorry to have to tell you that Patrick Adams, that legend of the mountain bike scene, passed away last night, Feb 11th 2024 leaving the whole cycling world with...
Issue 153 Tech Head: When It’s All Your Own Fault
A custom-built bike is a dream for many, but how hard is it to choose (and then live with) your exact, perfect machine? Words As told to Chipps Photography Credited…
9Point8 Slack-R Headset Review
What if you want a slacker head angle, but your bike won\'t accept slackset-style headset cups? Enter the 9Point8 Slack-R!
Issue 152 Editorial: I went into Publishing and all I got was this awesome magazine
Words: Chipps Thirty years ago, at the start of January 1994, I walked into the Future Publishing offices in Bath to begin as technical editor for the recently launched MTB…
Singletrack Issue 151 Editorial: Especially average? Or averagely special?
Words: Chipps Does anyone ever aspire to be average? Surely, statistically, most of us must be average at most things? Look around, though, and all talk is about the fastest,…
Singletrack Issue 151: Ydyn ni bron yna?
Chipps wonders what happened to the Welsh Government’s promises for a more accessible outdoors for all. Words Chipps Photography Amanda *Ydyn ni bron yna? = Are we almost there? A...
Fresh Goods Friday 666 – The Number of the Wee Beastie
Welcome to Fresh Goods Friday, number six hundred and sixty six! There’s obviously only one tune that can start off this instalment – so make sure your office speakers are...
Singletrack World Issue 150 Editorial
It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to issue 150 of Singletrack World Magazine. Whether you’re a new reader in print or online (or both), or an old hand…
Issue 150: Chipps’ Summer Ridewear
Chipps gives his top kit tips for those summer weeks (or foreign trips) where the temperatures hit ‘scorchio’ and beyond. I’ve had a long-running debate with American (mostly Californian and Coloradan) bike, clothing and shoe…
Fresh Goods Friday 665 – The foreign food edition
Iiiiiit’s FRIDAY! And no matter how often it rolls around and how predictable it is, you’re never quite sure that it’ll actually arrive until it does, all casual Friday-style and...
Fresh Goods Friday 661 – The Hard Lining Edition
It\'s Red Bull Hardline weekend! And it\'s looking like it might be a terrifyingly wet one. Good luck to all the racers giving it their best.
Chipps with Everything: 2023 Eurobike Highlights
Chipps brings you a curated tour of the eye-catching highlights of this pivotal European trade show. There\'s more to this story But it\'s a member-only story Join us to unlock…