Part of my job as “Overlord of The Leftovers” at Singletrack is to bravely search the Kingdom for the finest quality product offers to present to you our glorious Singletrack members. This is by no means an easy task. Yeah sure, for some member offers I simply think “That’s nice,…

Columnist Mildred Locke addresses those who would say ‘stick to bikes, keep politics out of it’ – she thinks bikes are political. Following my last column, there’s another phenomenon I want to delve into. Beneath almost every racism-related post from a cycling brand or publication lurks a noisy minority, outraged…

Sanny takes a journey over to the Dark Side and attempts to leave his preconceptions at the door as he dives headfirst into the world of recumbent eBikes. Was it a match made in Heaven or a descent into niche Hell?

“What in the name of Grabthar’s hammer is that?” I opined to myself as I tried to work out how exactly the twisted unwieldy mass of metal, cabling and electrics that stood before me, akin to some Geiger-esque nightmare, would transform from ugly duckling into graceful swan. I could definitely see a pivot, what looked like handlebars and there was the requisite number of wheels (three) but I was buggered if I could work out how this was going transmogrify into something that could carry me offroad in teutonic comfort. What I was looking at in growing befuddlement was HP Velotechnik’s three wheeled electric recumbent, the Scorpion, configured into what one might call “transport” mode. Ignoring my gut instinct to run away screaming, a bit of careful maneuvering and adjustment soon had me flying along my street at what felt like an indecently fast and gloriously effortless pace.

This, dear reader, was my first experience of the ultra niche-beyond-niche that is the world of off road recumbent e bikes. Despite a fairly inauspicious start, I quickly found myself being drawn into this world of the unusual with the unbridled enthusiasm of a true convert. My mind was racing with the possibilities unfolding before me. Recumbents are, rightly or wrongly, widely regarded as the preserve of the beardy weirdy but with my eyes and mind opened, I was alive to the fun that could be had taking this weird contraption on familiar off road trails. Everything about it should have said “Stay on the road, lads! Don’t go on the moor!” but when was mountain biking ever about being sensible and staid? Sod that, I had a new toy to play on and a plan was hatching.

There’s no denying that Ling Valentine is quite a character. Her vividly-coloured, car-leasing website, LingsCars.com has been described as ‘contract hire’s RyanAir’ and with a small staff and efficient practices, it has propelled her to become the UK’s “biggest individual seller of new cars” – however, all that has changed. In a dramatic move, Ling has given her company to her employees, sold her house and much of her stuff, bought a Surly Long Haul Trucker and is setting off, with her husband Jon, on a round the world cycling trip, dubbed ‘Ling’s Bike Trip’, complete with suitably bold-looking website – here – ‘Ling’s bike trip‘.

So? Lots of people pack a bike and take off for the horizon, what makes us interested in Ling’s story in particular? A number of reasons. There’s certainly the contrast of a successful car-based business owner sacking it off and doing it on a push-bike when presumably she could see the world via a cruise, or driving round in a convertible, or riding a Harley. And there’s the fact that she’s ‘one of us’ and has a forum login and everything. (Mostly for answering back to folks who complain, which shows she’s paying attention…) However, the real reason we interested in Ling’s Bike Trip is the way that she has thrown herself at it with the kind of enthusiasm for bike touring that few of our bearded bikepacking friends have ever mustered. And her ‘Carpe Diem’ approach to doing stuff now, while you still have a chance is inspiring. So, we though that we’d see if she’d be up for answering some questions:

…Spoiler alert: it’s not about you. Mildred Locke examines why cycling brands’ support of the Black Lives Matter movement gets some riders in a flap. With the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, two major conversations have been sweeping through the comments sections of various cycling brands’ and publications’…

Neil Sutton, the designer of the Sonder bike range, shows off his newly built 2021 Sonder Evol boasting electronic shifting and kitchen tune suspension.

For 2021 Sonder has updated the Evol to run on larger 29in wheels while also stretching the frameset out to give the bikes more reach across the range. The bike shown in the photos is Neil Sutton’s personal bike, a build so new that this was his first ride on it.

The Sonder bike designer has spared no expense building up his dream Sonder Evol. Shifting is by SRAM and the wireless AXS drivetrain, the dropper is another AXS unit, chainset a flashy Ti model and even the suspension is the latest kit from Cane Creek.

In the grand scheme of things, my problems are minor. My financial worries are of the ‘balancing what I want to do vs what I need to do’ variety, rather than the ‘food or shelter?’ sort. My personal life is complicated, but I have a partner who loves me. My…

To E-Bike or not to E-bike, that is the question? That’s the question that Gary from Dorset is having to consider as one by one his local riding group has bought them to ride.