The plan was relatively simple. It went something like this; Step 1: Finish jobs in early August Step 2: Trade in car and buy sweet camper van Step 3: Book Chunnel ticket Step 4: Spend two months travelling Europe while eating lots of food, drinking lots of coffee, beer and wine,…

In my hand is a torque wrench. Nothing unusual in that. They aren’t exactly rare in the bike industry. This one, however, is more than a little bit special. The small digital gauge on the shaft is the only real giveaway. Well that and my genial host for the visit,…

No self-respecting Inspiring Women interview series could be complete without featuring the motivational force that is The Adventure Syndicate. In fact, given the founding principle of the Syndicate is to ‘inspire, encourage and enable’, there’s a good argument for the whole series to be about its work. The Syndicate’s four…

Given the unrelenting daily churn from the bike industry’s marketing hype machine, you could be forgiven for thinking that mountain bikes have always had suspension. Our more ‘mature’ readers will know that this simply isn’t true. The wonderful leisure activity of mountain biking did actually start out on fully rigid…

Is it just us or do all mountain bikers pine for the love of a good hardtail come the winter months? Being able to thrash it out on a sloppy hillside, or careen down a boulder-filled trail without a care in the world, safe in the knowledge that after months…

Words Adele Mitchell Photography Paul Mitchell ‘Who are all those men?’ It’s a Friday morning in the Surrey Hills – a time of the week when we usually have the trails pretty much to ourselves – and I’m with my ride buddy Rachel (no, not that Rachel). We’ve paused at…

Recently I wrote about how most of the UK’s outdoor access laws favour users who don’t happen to be mountain bikers. Sadly, that’s just part of the picture. There are deep-set cultural biases at work too. Collectively I’d term these “YSBH”, or You Shouldn’t Be Here, and I’d argue that…

Scott Belshaw is the UK sales manager for iconic Canadian brand Kona Bikes.  Based in the North West, not too far from Singletrack HQ, Scott swung by last week to collect a test bike and we spotted his personal bike of choice lurking in the back of his Monaco plated…