Pete brings us a selection of climbs (and descents) worth bagging, even if they’re not on a fashionable to-do list of must-do mountains. Words Pete Scullion, photography Pete Scullion and as credited Since the late 1980s, Munro bagging has become a popular pastime, well over…
Singletrack Magazine
All the features, tests, opinions and more that have been published in each issue of the printed magazine dating back to 2001
Before the Party’s Over
Mountain biking is getting old. It might be time to sit down and talk to our elders. Words Hannah, Illustration James Vincent Remember when you were a kid and every birthday counted? Cake, presents, and a party to mark the occasion. If someone asked how…
Issue 156 – Inconvenient Injuries
Very silly injury… Went OTB at about four miles an hour. Not a scratch, got back on the bike, rode ten feet, did the same thing. I was on an overgrown trail that you couldn’t see. I’d ridden it loads… then it rained and got…
Issue 156 – Bhutan: On Royal Trails
Since Bhutan is keen on measuring happiness, it should be no surprise that there is great mountain biking to be found there. The small kingdom of Bhutan, nestled in the Himalayas between India and China, is shrouded in myths. It’s said that entry visas are…
502 Club Roll Of Honour
Special Notice of Appreciation We wouldn’t be here without any of you and you’re all special, but the folks listed here are particularly special. Thank you to everyone who joined the 502 Club and helped us fund our new server. ADELAIDE ANDREWS – ADRIAN ADAMS…
Issue 156 Last Word: Know Your Frenemy
Hannah Discovers the impact of mountain bike injuries on your trails and explores how a favorite trail can turn into a nemesis and the challenges it brings.
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 ‘Giving 110%’ aren’t really related. After all, going another mile sounds easy enough (and it…
International Adventure: Gaze Up To The Breeze Of The Heavens
Pete’s overnight ride idea remains a dream, as the weather gods demand a change of plan. Words & Photography Pete Scullion In stark contrast to the bright white limestone towers of the surrounding giants, Sierra Negra is a slowly crumbling sierra of dark metamorphic rock.…
Behind The Scenes: Getting The Shot
In Association With Calibre Bikes Words: Hannah Photography: Sam Taylor We’re waiting. Harry is up at the top of the hill, just out of sight. I am crouched in the void between the take-off and landing of what is to my eye, a giant step…
Trail Tales: Midges
The midge can bring horror to the most perfect of days, and reduce rational beings to desperate evasive action. If you know, you know. If you think they’re just a bit like mosquitoes but smaller, you really don’t know. Thanks to our Forumites for this…
Bike Check: ICE Trikes Adventure Trike
Accessibility off-road doesn’t need to mean flat or easy, and challenges are not always physical. Vicky goes on a family ride that makes her rethink her understanding of accessible adventures, read the adventure here. Words Vicky Balfour Photography Emmie Collinge Based in Falmouth, Cornwall, UK,…
UK Adventure: Learning Landscapes
Accessibility off-road doesn’t need to mean flat or easy, and challenges are not always physical. Vicky goes on a family ride that makes her rethink her understanding of accessible adventures. Words Vicky Balfour Photography Emmie Collinge After heading north for six hours, we’re making our…
International Adventure: Atmospheric Andes
Amanda heads to the other hemisphere for some good vegetables and vitamin D* *Dust Words Amanda Photography Etienne Schoeman We haven’t even begun the descent to Santiago Airport when I get the first shock to my system. Mount Aconcagua pierces through the clouds and meets…
The Trails Behind The Nationwide In Swindon
Hannah goes in search of a myth and finds a reality that should be on everyone’s doorstep.
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 given them a couple of pages to set out their stall.
The Grinder: Aeroe rack, Repente saddle, Madison glasses, Shimano shoes, Sinter pads, Muc-Off tool, Hyperlocal
Tools and tech for your convenience and comfort. Because suffering is overrated.
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 out of the arena? Robert, Bobby or Bob Seals is obviously all of these things…
The 502 Club: Special Notice of Appreciation
We wouldn’t be here without any of you and you’re all special, but the folks listed here are particularly special. Thank you to everyone who joined the 502 Club and helped us fund our new server.
Last Word: Choose Your Own Adventures
Hannah thinks there is much to be said for planning adventures. A friend of mine has just bought a tent. It is a lightweight single-person tent of the type you could definitely carry with you on an overnight – or multi-day – adventure. What is significant about this is…
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, where a father gives his just-off-to-France son a concise set of rules by which to…
Issue 154 International Adventure: The Last Yak Attack
The high altitude race that brought so much to Nepal and to its racers in turn has run its last. Words by Laura Martin The Yak Attack race in Nepal is the highest mountain bike race in the world. Racers climb to the staggering height…
Issue 154 UK Adventure: Chariots of Rust
Subsequent to the sudden death of a childhood friend, and my girlfriend leaving me over the phone during my graduate school finals in Boston, I fell into a major depression. I became as a pebble falling through a body of water. The only question: how…
Issue 154 MTB Culture: Having The Wrong Thing
Necessity is the mother of invention, and stupidity its cousin. We bring you a selection of instances where ‘Having the wrong thing’ (or forgetting the right thing) brought the family together. Don’t chuckle too hard – next time, it might be you. Thanks to our…
Issue 154 Interview: Gladiators… Ready!
It’s perhaps no surprise that one of the new competitors on TV’s Gladiators is a pro mountain biker. Hannah catches up with Privateer Bikes rider Kerry Wilson to find out what makes her tick. Look up Kerry Wilson on Instagram and you might need a…
The Grinder: Zefal Bike Taxi Tow Rope, Continental Argotal, Fox Dropframe helmet, Zipp 1ZERO HiTop Wheels
Is that creak me or the bike? Real-world product reviews from real-world riders.
Issue 154: Tech That Should Have Stuck Around
Benji dons possibly rose-tinted spectacles and brings us the technology that he thinks has fallen undeservedly out of fashion. Inverted forks Kicking things off with a real doozy. What are upside-down forks? Basically, the stanchion is at the bottom and the sliders are at the…
Issue 154 Column: Riding By Numbers
Are you beating the clock or beating yourself up? Vicky struggles to get into a healthy race mindset. Words by Vicky Balfour Trudging along, pushing our bikes up a narrow, muddy sheep track, like extras in a low-budget zombie movie, Sonnie and I are moaning…
Issue 154 Away Day: Farmer Johns MTB Park
Amanda, Benji and Mark go for a trip out to Farmer Johns bike park to see what’s there, what to wear, and which bike to take. Farmer Johns (yes, without the apostrophe) is a downhill-oriented mountain bike park with ever-growing dirt jumps and downhill trails.…
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 worn brake pads and bottom bracket bearings for new ones. And now, your attention turns…
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 that because you’ll get to meet them and discover that they’re just normal, boring folks…
Issue 153: Peaks of the Balkans
Jerome Clementz takes an optimistic ride into the forgotten reaches of the cursed Balkan mountains. Words Jerome Clementz Photography Jérémie Reuiller While it seems that the focus of bikes these days is on each millimetre of travel, degree of frame angle or tyre tread for…
Issue153 Interview: Flying Under The Radar
Joey Gough has been so busy riding her bike that she’s flown under the commercial radar in an industry that’s just catching up. Words & Photography Geoff Waugh Joey Gough is riding the big new line at Twisted Oaks Bike Park in Suffolk. She deals…
The Grinder: Wolf Tooth pedals, DMR cranks, Ceramic Speed SLT bearings, USE bar, Madison bib-trouser, Leatt knee pads
The only lateral stiffness is in our backs; real-world product reviews from real-world riders.
Issue 153 Classic Ride: Surrey Thrills
Despite Hurtwood being one of the UK’s busiest riding spots, its trail network relies heavily on the continued goodwill of landowners and volunteers. Adele takes a ride to find out more. Words Adele Mitchell Photography Paul Mitchell The Hurtwood in the heart of the Surrey…
Issue 153 Bikepacking: Spend Time Not Money
Amanda and Rhys spend their summer holiday discovering that cheap really can be cheerful. Words Amanda Photography Rhys Wainwright & Amanda In summer 2022 we crammed two enduro bikes and two gravel bikes into our VW T5 and headed for the Alps. For just over…
Issue 153 MTB Culture: Minority Rapport
What is it about women’s rides that is proving so attractive? Fi Spotswood has been trying to find out. Words Fi Spotswood Photography Credited I’m ashamed to admit that when I was younger I rarely questioned where all the women were. The races I did,…
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 For some people, commissioning and speccing a custom-built bike is a fantasy indulgence, for others,…
Issue 153 UK Adventure: Britain’s Lost Rainforests
It’s not just the Amazon rainforest that’s at risk. Here in the UK, our own temperate rainforests are vanishing too. Words & Photography Pete Scullion I know what you’re thinking. Britain… Rainforest… What on earth is this guy on about? Much can be gleaned, however,…
Issue 153 Last Word: Weights and Measures
Hannah proposes a new system of measurement, putting quality over quantity. Miles covered and feet gained seem to me an inadequate measure of mountain biking. Kilometres and metres likewise. Hours and minutes are useful, to a point – but what takes you an hour might take…
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 Pro magazine. My deputy editor Richard Howatt showed me around the basement office we shared…
Issue 152 UK Adventure: South Glen Shiel Ridge
James Vincent rides possibly the best descent of his life in the North West Scottish Highlands. But is it worth the steep price of admission? Words & Photography James Vincent A pleasant surprise greets Luke and I as we crest the first summit and Munro…
Issue 152 International Adventure: There’s more to Europe Than Mountains
Hannah explores the hillsides of Tuscany, where European mountain bikers are busy having their holidays without you. Words by Hannah, pictures by Hannah or as credited. In my mind’s eye, Tuscany is where middle-class families go for summer holidays in villas. Parents in crisp white…
Issue 152: Salmon Fishing in the… Feshie
Pete gets his feet wet in a search for that iconic Scottish image: the leaping salmon. Words & Photography Pete Scullion Returning from overseas to find most of Scotland underwater, including my home village of Aberfoyle, I wondered whether the falling waters would be the…
Issue 152 International Adventure: Icy Trails And Fairy Tales
Martin Bissig makes the most of a week in surprisingly snow-dusted Cappadocia. Words & Photography Martin Bissig Unexpectedly caught in a snowstorm on a biking trip in Turkey, I found the transformed landscapes so captivating that it turned our adventure into an impromptu photo shoot.…
Issue 152 Classic Ride: Riding the Dyfi
The Climachx trail in the Dyfi Valley offers a day out for those looking for an alternative to the Athertons’ neighbouring descents.
Issue 152 International Adventure: Choosing The Right Path
Jonathan Kambskarð-Bennett took on unseasonable Moroccan weather and unfriendly dogs in order to get a glimpse of the vast Sahara Desert on his bike. It wasn’t a simple journey. Words & photography Jonathan Kambskarð-Bennett Morocco was supposed to be straightforward. A leisurely bike ride across…
Issue 152 Last Word: Start Something
Hannah says just get started. It doesn’t matter where you finish.
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, the biggest, the raddest, with occasional glances towards the terrible for balance. You’ll never really…
Singletrack Issue 151: Borneo Singletrack
Steve helped plant the mountain biking seed in Borneo a decade ago. Visiting again for the first time, he wondered if it had taken root and flourished. Words Steve Chapman Photography Steve Chapman and Maria Clayfield Many moons ago an opportunity came up for me…
Singletrack Issue 151: A Clarion Call
Hannah examines the rise of a new type of cycling club: the collective. Words Hannah photography as credited Some of the earliest cycling clubs were formed by people with a shared philosophy who wanted to cycle together. Way back in 1894, the first Clarion club…
Singletrack Issue 151 Classic Ride: Pendle Pootle
The STW team ride in the shadow of Lancashire’s Pendle Hill, site of many a 17th century witch trial. However, they didn’t find any witches; just mellow trails and tasty café treats. For us here at Singletrack World, anything in and around Calderdale feels like…