Issue 139

Description

This issue will be coming to you in early October, and will take your mind off the fading light, encourage you to get back into night riding, and remind you that waterproof socks are your friend. Bikes are great all year round, here’s what will help you remember that (or give you an excuse to just stay indoors and read!)

Editorial

Chipps wonders what the trails are like when he’s not out riding them.

UK Adventure: Tour de Food

The Singletrack Staffers get reacquainted over a group ride where everyone feels at home at some point.

MTB Family Tree: Fffashion

Mountain bike clothing has never made it to the high street in the way surf and skate clothes have. It’s no wonder, really.

International Adventure: Sick on the Silk Road

Markus Stitz needs all the reserves he has to finish the race, only his body’s not for keeping much in.

Singletrack Kitchen: Mean Beans

Charlie brings us a one-pot casserole to come home to in the colder months.

UK Adventure: Going Nowhere

Anna Cipullo proves that bikepacking on your doorstep can be just as challenging – or fun – as a far flung adventure.

MTB Culture: Jamie in Carbonite

Onetime MTB journo Jamie Hibbard gets back on a bike after too long away. Is it really just like riding a bike?

Bike Test: Weight Wee-E-Nies

Andi and Mark test out three bikes from Orbea and Specialized that each takes a different approach to being a ‘lightweight e-bike’.

Classic Ride: Salisbury Plain

Dean Hersey squeezes in a perfect evening ride, golden hour in a green and gold landscape.

Catch My Drift: Stoke

Barney Marsh blends hearsay half-truth in search of the origins of ‘stoke’.

Pete’s Pros: Elliott Heap

Pete catches Nukeproof Chain Reaction’s Elliott Heap on a day off, and hits the tourist trail.

UK Adventure: Military Traces

The landscape around Dunbar reveals traces of military goings-on and puts Sanny in a philosophical mood.

Kit Essentials: Riding Trousers

The Singletrack Teams reviews the long-legged riding gear that’s been keeping their calves covered.

International Adventure: Lost Trails of the Occitan Alps

Holger Meyer moves in where the locals have moved out, and finds a lost network of trails for those that work to reach them.

Last Word

Hannah wonders whether our attitude to full face helmets is due for a rethink.

Issue 139 Cover

What far flung place features on this issue’s cover? Is that the islands of Vancouver? Maybe it’s somewhere in Alaska? Nope, that camera wizard Pete Scullion has been at it again, on his home turf: Scotland.

Additional information