Amanda brings you the details of her finely tuned indoor training set up. What’s she using and why? I do not enjoy indoor training, but I’m not convinced that anyone does. My reasons for doing it are varied – persistent poor weather, a lack of…
Singletrack Magazine
All the features, tests, opinions and more that have been published in each issue of the printed magazine dating back to 2001
International Adventure: New Kids Sur Le Bloc
For my part, I have moved with my wife Beate to a little place called Fuilla, in the southeastern Pyrénées-Orientales – about as far south as you can get in France. It’s a sleepy village of 450 people at about 600m altitude, sitting in a wide, grassy valley…
Issue 147: Last Word: Feel The Love
Hannah goes head over heels… in a good way. Was it an instant thunderclap of ‘this is it’, or a slow burn realisation that you were happy and you couldn’t imagine life without it? Did love hit you, or creep up on you? The feeling of giggling like…
Issue 146: Editorial – We Are Not Alone
Chipps encourages us to get to know our ride-group neighbours. As a reasonably feeble and glasses-wearing schoolboy, I was never great at ball games and was usually among the last to be picked for school sports teams. Imagine my delight when I later discovered mountain…
Issue 146: UK Adventure – Slymefoot Slide
Is it bikes or biscuits that hold this band of bikepackers together as they trial a new Northumberland route, the Slymefoot Slide? Words Rick Hamilton Photography Pete Scullion Who the heck is Rick Hamilton? Based in Mytholmroyd, Calderdale, Rick is known locally for his poor…
Issue 146: House of Cards
By Tim Wild Every adventure starts somewhere. Tim Wild’s BC trip starts here, with a prologue to the main feature. I’ve been obsessing over the logistics of this British Columbia trip for weeks. It’s complicated. Ten riders need to converge in Squamish, BC, on the…
Issue 146: International Adventure: Bring your ‘eh’ game
Tim Wild heads north for an epic BC trip. Will the stress of the planning pay off? Words Tim Wild Photography Casey Montandon Oh, Canada… I’ve been obsessing over the logistics of this British Columbia trip for weeks. It’s complicated. Ten riders need to converge…
Singletrack Magazine Issue 146: A Flying Start
Hannah thinks she’s discovered why mountain biking is fun: it’s because it started that way. “I didn’t realise you were trying to go fast.” I wasn’t trying to go fast, but I wasn’t intending to be slow either. I was trying to go as fast…
Issue 146: Singletrack World Kitchen: Bacon Jam Recipe
Charlie whips up something that sounds wrong, but tastes right. Especially after a few miles on the bike. Bloody Brilliant Bacon Jam. Words Charlie Photography Amanda Imagine a world where you can take not two, or three, but four great things, and orgy them together…
Issue 146: In Praise of Petrichor
Mountain biking smells aren’t just of damp shoes and disappointment. There’s joy to be found in the company of a good trail nose. Words by Chipps, photography by Mark Do you remember your first off-road ride? Of course you do. Those tend to be burned…
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…
Issue 146: Pete’s Myths: Nesbyen Huldufólk
Pete chases shadows and Manon Carpenter in their search for this Norwegian myth. Words & Photography Pete Scullion Mention Scandinavian myth and legend to anyone, and they’ll no doubt think of trolls and fairies, or maybe even some of the bleaker aspects of Hans Christian…
Issue 146: Last Word: Mountain Biking Soup
If Hannah has you over for tea, don’t eat the soup… Trails are the onions of mountain biking. You can’t make soup without an onion, just as you can’t mountain bike without a trail. Without trails, it’s road riding, or perhaps hippity-hoppity trials. It’s just…
Reel Around The Mountain – A Mont Blanc Adventure
Originally published in Issue 110 of Singletrack World Magazine, let us take you back in time to the kind of adventure you might well find yourself planning from the comfort of your armchair. Words and photography by Joseph Delves Additional photography by Jeremy Valender The…
WTB: Cultivating Success
This story was originally published in Singletrack World, Issue 144. Hannah heads to the birthplace of mountain biking to meet a company that is part of mountain biking’s origin story. Words Hannah Photography Hannah & Fahzure Freeride. California’s coastal redwoods may be known for their…
Singletrack World Issue 145: Editorial
Chipps is in the flow zone… just don’t tell him. Been ‘in the zone’ lately? Have you achieved ‘flow state’? Perhaps you have; perhaps it’s something you’ve only glimpsed once or twice, or it might be something you’ve never heard about. ‘Flow’ is something that…
Issue 145: Red Bull Formation: A Foundation For The Future
Red Bull Formation pushes female freeriders into the mainstream. Words Nicole Formosa Photography Katie Lozancich Katie Holden and I are peering up at an amphitheatre of rust-coloured cliff bands in the Utah desert as she points out the zones where 12 of the best female freeriders in the world will…
Issue 145: Making Mountain Bikers
An exercise in learning to mountain bike reminds Hannah how much we take for granted. Words & Photography Hannah For some, becoming a mountain biker is a gradual process. A sort of metamorphosis where you start with a bike and gradually end up as a…
Issue 145: Precious Cargo: MET Helmets Factory Visit
Amanda reckons what you put on your head is worthy of closer examination and makes a visit to MET Helmets. Words Amanda Photography Ulysse Daessle Mountain bikers often have different views on what’s important to get the best from the sport. Frame material, the weight…
Issue 145: Going Off (Grid)
Petor recalls a simpler, damper, mouldier time measured in meals and miles, not hours and minutes. Words & Photography Petor Georgallou Until my MA degree, I didn’t have an email address, because I didn’t really use the internet – I didn’t really see its function.…
Classic Ride 145 – Manx Power
Amanda goes to the Isle of Man for the enduro and stays for the ice cream. Words & Photography Amanda I find myself in a confused state of disorientation, having to wind the script back in my head to what brought me here, in order…
Singletrack World Issue 145: The Science Of Waterproofing
Fresh from a wet weather ride where he appeared to be wetter on the inside than the outside, Sanny sets off to find out what ‘waterproof clothing’ actually means and why it might not work quite the way we expect it to. Words Sanny Photography…
Issue 145: Ben Cruachan and the Cailleach
Pete Scullion’s look into ancient myths and legends takes him to Ben Cruachan – and a search for the Queen of Winter. Words & Photography Pete Scullion Sandwiched between the banks of Loch Awe and the Tyndrum-Oban railway line is a rough roadside car park…
Issue 145 – Singletrack Kitchen: Gloriumptious Dahl
Singletrack’s resident Nigel Slater brings you more tasty things to make and eat trailside, or as a post-ride reward. Words Charlie, Photography Amanda The world is changing. Veganism is a new normal, and the cost of food is getting higher than Keith Moon in platform shoes on a jump bike. So,…
Issue 145 Kit Essentials – Coil Shocks
Mortal Coils! Benji and the crew look at coil shocks and explain why they’re for trail riders and not just for downhillers.
Singletrack World Issue 145: To Infinity and Beyond
A ride trip releases the parenting pressure and brings new perspective to daily life for Anders Engberg. Words & Illustrations: Anders Engberg In a mass of debris, a post-apocalyptic landscape appears. I move between islands of discarded clothes only pausing to investigate the origin of…
Singletrack World Issue 145: Last Word – Take a load off
Adam Batty ponders the importance of the humble bench. From a bench. Words & Photo: Adam Batty A Classic Bench I started to move faster as I approached the bench. Then pretended that was my normal pace, and I was not trying to beat someone…
Issue 144 Bike Test: WTF is a Trail Bike?
Benji and the team set out to stick to the trail, without veering off into the enduro or cross-country.
Issue 144 Editorial : No More Crashing?
On floors, that is… but why not? I’ve been a serial chancer/cheapskate/ ‘economic lifestyle enthusiast’ for years, especially when travelling. I’ve been that guy who phones up someone I met ten years ago, saying ‘Hi! Remember me? No? Well, we met in a hotel bar in…
Issue 144 : Excess baggage
Nils takes an unusual packing list to the mountains for an overnight adventure. Words & photography Nils Amelinckx I fumbled around in the last of the light, the cold breeze having stripped my hands of any dexterity, keeping a watchful eye over the waste bag…
Issue 144: Cannock Chasing Time
Two mountain bike races, same venue, 30 years apart. Words & Photography Geoff Waugh Time, he’s waiting in the wings Take a look at the above photos. I took them both at the same venue – Cannock Chase, the vast expanse of woodland in the…
Issue 144 UK Adventure: Where the Duegars Dwell
What’s short, hairy and lures us to the moors of Northumberland – Pete, or a Duegar? Words & Photography Pete Scullion North of Hadrian’s Wall and south of the Scottish border lies Northumberland, a land that blends the culture of its neighbours with its own,…
Issue 144: Lord of the Granny Rings
Inspired by the works of Tolkien, Sanny leads his merry crew on an adventure through lands that could easily double for Middle Earth. Words & Photography Sanny With book sales well in excess of 150 million and the box office-smashing success of Peter Jackson’s trilogy,…
Issue 144: Zippity Doo-Dah
Zippity Doo-Dah Chipps would like to lead you in praise of the humble cable tie. Words Chipps Photography as credited Every mountain bike guide seems to have two different tool rolls and two different first aid kits. The first kit, marked clearly with ‘Tools’ will…
Issue 144: Searching For A Solution
Dean Hersey chats to the ball of energy that is Claudio Caluori. Words Dean Hersey Photography Red Bull Content Pool, Dan Griffiths, Tyrone Bradley, Dan Milner, Meri Hyoki You don’t have to dig too far into the colossal internet mountain of videos to have come…
Classic Ride 144 – Ludlow and the Clee Hills
Shropshire isn’t all about the Long Mynd. Steve links up some hidden gems. Words & Photography Steve ChapmanIllustration Beate Kubitz If you’ve heard anything about the riding in Shropshire it’s probably been about the Long Mynd. It’s an iconic venue and regularly features in lists…
Issue 144: Singletrack Kitchen Taking The Rough With The Smoothie
I love smoothies. They tick the ‘healthy’ box with minimal effort, skills or fuss. Just lob it all in and whiz it up, and you can say you’ve had your five a day. Literally smoothing over the cracks in my diet.
Issue 144 Kit Essentials – 4-Pot Brakes
Benji and the team test out the best 4-pot disc brakes to stop you in your tracks. Formula, Hayes, Hope, Magura, Shimano, SRAM and TRP in the mix. Words Benji & the team photography Amanda Brakes are the most important thing on your mountain bike.…
Issue 144 Building for the Builders
Who makes all of those pieces that make a bike more than a pile of tubes? We meet the people who make the bits for the people who make the bikes. Words by Hannah and Fahzure Freeride, Pictures by Hannah Many of us never give…
Pace RC295 AXS Ultimate review
The Pace RC295 then. Full carbon. 135mm rear travel dual linkage. 140-150mm fork. Full 29in or mullet thang with an offset shock bushing.
Specialized Stumpjumper Evo Alloy Comp review
The Specialized Stumpjumper Evo Alloy gets all the cool things that the carbon Stumpjumper has had for a few seasons now.
Issue 144 Last Word – Eudaimonic
Could there be a way to extend the benefits of a ride? Words Hannah PHOTOGRAPHY Amanda
Issue 143 Editorial: Local Secrets
Chipps wants to show you all of his favourite trails. Well, nearly all. We all know that there are no secrets any more. Every mountain has been discovered, every field, stream and hillside catalogued, and every vaguely wiggly forest track named and KOMed. It seems…
Issue 143: A New Year’s Assault on Ventoux
When your traditional New Year’s ski-tour to a mountain hut won’t work because of the weather, then doing it on mountain bikes is arguably a better choice. Words & Photography Richard Bord I’ve lived in Annecy, France, for many winters now and I like spending…
Issue 143 Bonus Content! Classic Ride Fuel – Flapjack Recipe
Since Barney made such a fuss over Rick’s flapjack (OOOAAAH), we asked Rick to share the recipe, so you can have your own chorus of angels on your next ride (OOOAAAH). If you haven’t read the Classic Ride from issue 143 yet, make that ‘step…
Classic Ride 143 – Scar House Loop, Nidderdale
A truly Classic day out with big views, plenty of miles, and legendary Scotch eggs. Words & Photography Barney Marsh The Yorkshire Dales have been, of course, extensively covered in the Singletrack Worlds of yore, but Nidderdale has largely been left off the list. Sure,…
Issue 143 UK Adventure: Ghost Riders
Has Taunton’s bloody history left a chill in the air, or is it just the sweat cooling on Pete’s neck? Words & Photography Pete Scullion “If ghosts do exist, why are they all centuries old? Why are there no ghosts from 2013 moaning about the…
Issue 143 International Adventure: Where The Wind Blows
An eager Hannah heads to one of her dream destinations, only to discover it’s not like she imagined at all. Words Hannah Photography Hannah and Snorri Thor Tryggvason Iceland Air’s safety announcement features very little of the usual plane stuff. Instead, there is an improbably…
Issue 143 Interview: Guy Kesteven
If he can tell how a bike will ride just by pushing it, why does he keep riding and testing? Words & Photography Chipps Whether you know Guy Kesteven through the thousands of bike and product tests he’s written over the last 25 years, his over-exaggerated ‘bike journo’ riding style, or…
Issue 143 Kitchen: Charlie’s New Wave Hipster Starters
Just as mountain bikes keep evolving, so does food. There was a time when a prawn cocktail would impress people with its juicy shellfish piled high on lettuce with a nice tangy Marie Rosé sauce, and now it seems … well… somewhat ‘canti’.
Singletrack Issue 143 Bike Test: Party At The Back
Have we swallowed the marketing hook, line and sinker, or is there something to the mullet trend?