We’ve asked George to take us back through the 2021 DH World Cup, letting us relive the highs and lows, the dramatic finale, and already turning our thoughts to what comes next year. Coming into the 2021 season, the women’s title race was the most…
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Surly Dunoon Dirt Dash or Bramble Bash?
Photography by Markus Stitz “If you sort of straighten one of your legs, push the bike upwards at the same time and immediately apply both brakes, you might be able to put your foot on that rock next to your left arm, using the bike…
The Tarpless Tour | A Celebration of Mountain Biking Friendships
Up and down the country, clusters of riding friends navigate their way round local trails and personal challenges. The bikes help them fall apart, and stick together. Stephan Fowler brings us a tale from one such group. ‘The Tarpless Tour’ is possibly a somewhat confusing…
Back From The Dead – How To Fix A Broken Maxle
Dieter is the kind of bike nerd mechanic that every good bike shop should want. He is endlessly enthusiastic about getting people of all kinds onto bikes of all sorts. He can fix your bike even when the outlook looks bleak. Go for a ride…
How do we improve the domestic XC scene?
Hannah Collingridge has been enjoying some XC racing, but thinks there is room for improvement, and plenty of room for more riders. How can we make it a more attractive experience for all? She’s got some ideas… Images by Joolze Dymond unless credited. Internationally it’s…
Internet Rummagings | Hubs, Brakes and Ti Curiosities
After so much time spent in our Forum, we felt that Tom Howard was well prepared to seek out the furthest niches of the internet. We’ve enlisted him to seek out the curious, the sublime, and the ridiculous. As a rider with something of a…
Behind the Build: Race Track Design with Léandre Alegri
It’s impossible to mishear the noise in the woods. A commotion growing bigger and coming nearer, the sound turns the heads of scattered spectators on its way through the terrain. A figure flashes between the trees, its arrival only preluded by the sharp warning of…
Readers’ Rides: Tom’s Steampunk Deviate Highlander
What are you all riding? This is where we find out! You send us your submissions, and then we cast our judgemental expert lustful eyes over them and bring them to the world to ooh and ahh over. We’re picking the prettiest, the most curious, and the ones with…
Readers’ Rides | Anthony’s Zoceli Naosm 29
What are you all riding? This is where we find out! You send us your submissions, and then we cast our judgemental expert lustful eyes over them and bring them to the world to ooh and ahh over. We’re picking the prettiest, the most curious, and the ones with…
How To Build A Pump Track – The Right Way
We reported a few weeks back on what we thought might just be the worst pump track in the UK – a new creation in Carlisle. In looking into what Carlisle City Council had done and how they might have got things so badly wrong,…
Behind The Build: Progression with Hannah Bergemann
A relentless sun is chasing the shadows back into their hiding. On an arid hillside a crew of people make tiny figures against a massive desert backdrop as they ascend towards patches of builds that will eventually be linked up and used to conquer the…
What Car For Mountain Biking?
Hannah wrangles with the question ‘What car for mountain biking?’… and camping trips, and family holidays, and #mumtaxi… I do not like cars, or driving. I would happily live without a car, but the reality for me is that it makes life very difficult –…
5 Frame Bags For More Than Just Snacks
Amanda has been pootling around town with various frame bag solutions to see what shape and size work best. Here’s a few of the best on test! I have gradually evolved from a rider that doesn’t believe anyone needs a frame bag, to a rider…
Bikestormz: Where mountain bikes meet urban streets
Last weekend saw the Bikestormz rideout take place in London, with in excess of 2,500 young people (and some of their parents) taking part. The rideout started and ended at Southwark park with a 15 mile ride around London city doing stunts and having fun…
Red Bull Hardline 2021: Trackside Gallery
We took a walk down the Redbull Hardline track during race runs to try and catch some of the moments between the big features. Clouds of dust, shale flying, the buzz of the Redbull drone and 28 of the world’s bravest riders. You can’t really…
Chatting Bikes, Hardline and Racing: Kade Edwards Interview
Kade Edwards. There’s a lot to be said about his talents. Only 21, and yet can turn his hand to pretty much every discipline there is. If it’s got two wheels, rest assured he can ride it, and ride it well. With some impressive career…
Readers’ Rides: Javi’s Pässila Ramäkkä
What are you all riding? This is where we find out! You send us your submissions, and then we cast our judgemental expert lustful eyes over them and bring them to the world to ooh and ahh over. We’re picking the prettiest, the most curious, and the ones with…
Bike Check: Bowhead RX – An e-MTB hand cycle
We’ve previously talked to Bowhead Corp founder, Christian Bagg, about the development of his Bowhead Reach bikes – e-assist trikes designed to make even some seriously gnarly mountain bike trails accessible to those who can’t pedal. When we talked to him, he mentioned that he…
Nature Nerds | Summer in the British Uplands
We’ve asked nature enthusiast and Trash Free Trails ambassador, Rosie Holdsworth, to write us a series of pieces highlighting the sights beyond the trail. Out of the wreckage of 2020 has blossomed one small positive in the shape of people getting to know (and care)…
Talking Trail Dogs with Bark and Ride
Trail dogs. Love them or hate them it seems. Some people are indifferent, some think they are a fashion statement. Whatever your feelings, they are here to stay. But what’s the score with training? We had a chat to Karen from Bark and Ride Sports…
Behind The Build: Natural Trail Building With Adam McCoy
In this new illustrated series, Anders Engberg looks at the relationship between trail builders, the earth they work, and their views on riding. First up, we take a trip to Pacific Northwest to talk to trail builder Adam McCoy. Massive conifers stand guard as a…
Rider Gallery and Debrief: #JennRide 2021
The #JennRide is organised by Rich Munro in memory of our late Deputy Editor, Jenn Hill to raise funds for St Gemma’s Hospice. It’s quickly obtained a reputation for being a fun event with a challenging route. Race around s fast as you like, or…
10 Flat Bar Bike Checks: BC Epic 1000
As the riders prepare to set off on their 1000km ride around British Columbia, all eyes are on the weather forecast. Luckily (or unluckily, depending on your perspective) for you, you’ll be dot watching rather than bug swatting or melting in the heat. These ten…
BC Epic Bike Checks: the Ti, the Custom, the Vintage and the Homemade
The BC Epic 1000 is one of those long distance unofficial organised events in the tradition of the Tour Divide or Highland Trail 550. With this year’s Tour Divide disrupted by border closures between the USA and Canada we thought the dot watchers out there might be…
Readers’ Rides | Joe’s Marino ‘Ultimate 40’
What are you all riding? This is where we find out! You send us your submissions, and then we cast our judgemental expert lustful eyes over them and bring them to the world to ooh and ahh over. We’re picking the prettiest, the most curious, and the ones with…
6 Surly Bike Checks – Taking On The BC Epic 1000
The BC Epic 1000 is one of those long distance unofficial organised events in the tradition of the Tour Divide or Highland Trail 550. With this year’s Tour Divide disrupted by border closures between the USA and Canada we thought the dot watchers out there might be…
A Day With Chris Porter – Everything Is Connected, Except Us
Hannah and her partner – a paid up Geometron owner – visited Chris Porter for chat, coffee, a leafy ride, and a whole pile of setting the world to rights. On the hottest day of 2020 I miss the turning for Chris Porter’s Mojo Rising…
Bike Check: 10 Ways To Salsa the BC Epic 1000
The BC Epic 1000 is one of those long distance unofficial organised events in the tradition of the Tour Divide or Highland Trail 550. With this year’s Tour Divide disrupted by border closures between the USA and Canada we thought the dot watchers out there…
Readers’ Rides: Dan’s Banshee Prime
What are you all riding? This is where we find out! You send us your submissions, and then we cast our judgemental expert lustful eyes over them and bring them to the world to ooh and ahh over. We’re picking the prettiest, the most curious, and the ones with…
How Anyone Can Get A Job In The Bike Industry
It’s not so long ago that I was an outsider – I rode bikes, but beyond my local bike shop, Wiggle, and a few brushes with British Cycling, I had no real idea about how things worked. Having spent my working life in the public…
Readers’ Rides | Charlie Kelly’s 1983 Ritchey Annapurna
What are you all riding? This is where we find out! You send us your submissions, and then we cast our judgemental expert lustful eyes over them and bring them to the world to ooh and ahh over. We’re picking the prettiest, the most curious, and the ones with…
Readers’ Rides Bike Check: Shia’s Production Privée Shan GT 935
What are you all riding? This is where we find out! You send us your submissions, and then we cast our judgemental expert lustful eyes over them and bring them to the world to ooh and ahh over. We’re picking the prettiest, the most curious,…
Why You Should Discover The Joy of Singlespeeding
If you have dotwatched the latest edition of the Highland Trail 550 like me, you’ll have noticed that Liam Glen, the winner in 3:10:55 (days:hours:minutes) has done this amazing feat on a rigid singlespeed bike. Liam is no stranger to singlespeeding or the Highland Trail.…
Readers’ Rides Bike Check: James’ BTR Ranger
What are you all riding? This is where we find out! You send us your submissions, and then we cast our judgemental expert lustful eyes over them and bring them to the world to ooh and ahh over. We’re picking the prettiest, the most curious,…
Readers’ Rides Bike Check: Andy’s Geometron G1
There are so many great New Bike Day threads on the Forum – often the result of other lengthy ‘What Bike?’ threads – that we thought we’d create the opportunity to bring some of them to the front page for a bit of extra love…
Gallery: In Celebration of The Group Ride
After a long spell, group rides are back in much of the country. In celebration of the joy that is the group ride, with its giggles, its slithers, its mechanicals and its chat, we asked you to send us your photos from this week’s return…
10 Bikes of the Highland Trail 550
It’s the first event we’ve seen in a while and all those long distance riders must surely have the pent up energy of a spaniel that needs a wee. The Highland Trail 550, 550 miles in length with over 16000m of climbing, kicks off this…
Binners Has Axle To Grind After Ordeal
Demonstrating that age and experience are no guard against stupidity, Singletrackworld.com near-legend status Forum regular, Adam ‘Binners’ Rawlinson has had what some might describe as the most testing week and a bit of his life. His ordeal started as he prepared to head for a…
Riding DJ Brandt’s X Games Canyon Gap
For most of us, stumbling across a canyon gap would be something to be avoided, probably with plenty of dragging of the brakes, a careful keeping back from all edges by at least three metres, and a good dose of definitely not looking down. For…
Interview: Rocksled Suspension – doing things differently
There are few things that please me more than spotting a curious bike being built by someone and getting to ask them about it. Unlike some that I’ve seen, this creation from Rocksled Suspension doesn’t strike me as beautiful, or as a piece of technically…
Zen And The Art of Buying Bike Parts
We now live in very challenging times for buying bike parts and accessories, and indeed bikes. Covid has kicked production in the plums, lockdown has turbocharged demand, Brexit has made bike part shopping in euroland more complicated, and some idiot crashed a boat on a…
Bike Check: Kingdom G 600 Belt Driven Custom Titanium Hardtail
Graham Stock of Sixth Element hasn’t matched his bike to his Porsche – instead he’s had himself a rather nice custom titanium hardtail built, and of course added his own company wheels. I suspect a few ears pricked up at the mention of ‘titanium’. Now…
Podcast: Bowhead Corp – making bikes for life
A life changing spinal injury is one of those things that we really hope never happens to us – but as mountain bikers we know it’s a risk. When it happens, as well as all the obvious and potentially major health, work and accessibility implications,…
How Does The Female Hormone Cycle Affect Cycling Performance? Part 1
Hormones, the ‘chemical messengers’ that tell our bodies what to do and when to do it, aren’t optional. We can’t turn them off, at most we can try to balance them with the use of more hormones. But can we use them to our advantage…
Interview: Making The Earthbound FS Bamboo High Pivot Bike
Building bikes with bamboo isn’t new, but this is a particularly lovely example of what you can do with a little time, patience and a whole heap of skill. Having spotted Earthbound Bikes on Instagram, we had a chat with maker Jason O’Nions about the…
10 Reasons your bike will cost you more this year
It seems like there’s been a lot of bad news about price rises on bikes and components recently, so we thought we’d look at what’s driving it – and whether it’ll change any time soon. 1. High demand 2020 saw half the world go out…
Editor’s Choice Awards 2020 – Hannah and Ross pick their favourites
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 not been to as many far-flung places (even in the UK) as usual, but that’s…
Editor’s Choice Awards 2020 – Mark’s Picks
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 not been to as many far-flung places (even in the UK) as usual, but that’s…
Editor’s Choice Awards 2020 – Chipps’ Pick
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 not been to as many far-flung places (even in the UK) as usual, but that’s…
Editor’s Choice Awards 2020 – Andi’s Pick
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 not been to as many far-flung places (even in the UK) as usual, but that’s…
Editor’s Choice Awards 2020 – Amanda’s Pick
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 not been to as many far-flung places (even in the UK) as usual, but that’s not necessarily been a bad thing and,…
