With 22 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.)
Roval Traverse Wheels Get Star Ratchet Drive Internals
Roval wheels has just launched its brand new Traverse Alloy wheels – and while it sounds and looks like there’s nothing new, the hubs (literally) at the centre of it...
Fresh Goods Friday 550 – The ‘Month To Midsummer’ Edition
Yes, make sure you’re enjoying every day of the summer so far, you’ve got a month before it all starts fading away. OK, OK, it’s not all bad. We know...
New Reserve 28/XC Wheels: No Weight Limit And No More Santa Cruz
If the ‘Reserve Wheels’ name sounds familiar, it’s because until recently, it’s been associated as Santa Cruz Bikes’ in-house wheel brand. Now, however, with the launch of the new 28/XC...
It’s been a tough old year for everyone. And while BikePark Wales was forced to close last year, it gave the owners a chance to work on the whole place...
Roval Control Carbon Wheels – XC Race Wheels At A Lower Price
Today, Roval is launching its 2021 Control Carbon 6B XD wheels. It features the same, impressive rim from the Control SL wheels we reviewed last year, only now with more...
Fox 2022: Two New Fox 34 forks And Two New Rear Shocks
Fox Racing Shox has completely revamped its line of Fox 34 forks for the coming 2022 model year, with designs that reflect the development of frames and of the all-round...
2021 Trek Session: The High Pivot, Idler Pulley, Fast And Fun Machine
Right, get comfy, we have much to talk about. The new 2021 Trek Session is very different, and yet very familiar. Firstly, do we call it a downhill bike? A...
A first, it would look like there’s nothing new about the ZIPP 3ZERO MOTO wheels. They use the same ‘moto inspired’ single wall, low profile rim profile as the previous...
Podcast: Singletrackworld Turns 20 Years Old! The anecdotes episode
On April 1st, 2001 (no, really…) Singletrack Magazine and its website singletrackworld.com were launched. The website evolved off the back of the original GoFar-MTB mountain bike website, but it was...
Today, Garmin is launching a range of clip-in pedals with built-in power meter sensors. There are Look and SPD SL versions for the road but we’ll (mostly) concentrate on the...
Fresh Goods Friday 541 – The Sunn is shining edition!
While we won’t argue with anyone at all that it’s high time for spring – after all, the flowers are popping and the winter was soooo long and soooo cold,...
Fresh Goods Friday 539 – The Where’d Everybody Go? Edition
It’s a quiet old day in Singletrack (Virtual) Towers today as several staff are off on well-earned days off and the rest of us are head-down and working towards the...
Saracen is back in a big way and its major focus for the moment is the brand new Ariel line. Redesigned from the ground up, while still retaining the multi-link...
Longstanding UK-designed brand, Saracen, has been a little quiet recently. Even before the pandemic, the range had slimmed down and news (apart from of the mighty Madison/Saracen downhill race team)...
Sierra Buttes’ Feel-Good Video Is Inspiring For Trailbuilders Worldwide
If you need a bit of feel-good viewing to keep you going until the weekend, then have a look at Sierra Buttes’ video that it has produced, documenting its campaign...
For years, SRAM had a clipless-pedal-shaped hole in its complete groupset picture, compared to rivals Shimano. With almost* universal acceptance of Shimano’s SPD platform for clipped-in riding, it seemed unlikely...
TweedLove WILL Return In 2021 – With Chain Reaction Cycles As Title Sponsor
We’ve just had word that TweedLove Bike Festival has announced a new headline partnership with Chain Reaction Cycles for their 2021 festival weekend based in the Tweed Valley, Scotland. The...
Trail Centre Break-Ins Test The Willpower Of Shop Staff
It seems that number of recent bike shop break-ins at mountain bike trail centres has had some shop owners on the verge of packing it all in. Most recently, Afan...
This article was first published in Issue 129 of Singletrack Magazine. The first Ibis Ripley, back in 2001 or so, was an alloy softail, a pretty advanced bike for the...
Pipedream’s New SRS48 Fork Has Zero Millimetres of Travel. Or Is It Miles?
Pipedream Cycles has just launched its new 29er fork. In a time when suspension is getting longer and longer, the new Pipedream SRS48 fork has 0mm of plush suspension travel....
There’s a new Ibis Ripley in town. Based on the impressive, carbon (and expensive) 29in wheeled Ripley frame, the Ripley AF offers the same 130mm DW-Link suspension, similar geometry (more...
First published in Singletrack Magazine Issue 134. It’s been a ‘special’ year, for sure, but the sun has continued to come up and bikes have still been ridden. We’ve perhaps...
Singletrack Christmas Countdown – Day 18. Win Pearl Izumi Winter Gear!
Pearl Izumi Winter Protection Kit Price: £725 From: Freewheel Pearl Izumi WXB and D3O pads If you’re after excuses for not riding this winter, then look away now. With this full setup...
Christmas Countdown Day 16 – Win Shimano Winter Boots
Welcome to Day Sixteen of our big Goodbye to 2020, Hello to 2021, Advent/Christmas/New Year Daily Countdown Giveaway. Today, as with every day in our GHACNYDCG, you have two chances...
There are a lot of bike launches going on at the moment, but there’s always room for one from Marin, which, despite its Californian roots, always has the UK in...
2021 Evil Offering – The 150/140mm Hooligan 29er Rad Machine
The 2021 Evil Offering is here – and the marketing blurb says ‘All hail, the Dark Lord of Singletrack’ so we’d better sit up and pay attention, eh? The Offering...
At a time where it seems that everyone’s attention is on bigger wheels and mullet bikes for more aggressive riding, Pivot is proudly sticking behind its burly new Mach 6...
