You are currently browsing the archives for the 'Features' category.
The Cut crew visits LA Hospital
For sometimes obvious reasons, freeride and downhill mountain bikers sometimes get the reputation as being party animals who care more about themselves than anyone else.
That’s why it’s nice to hear some riders are trying to change that opinion by doing something nice to make the lives of other people better.
Cannondale’s team riders known as The Cut headed to the Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles Monday where they visited with the kids and put on a riding demonstration. Read the rest of this entry »
No Comments »
5 October »
Features »
Guitar Ted
The 29 inch wheeled bike segment may be typified by the single speed hard tail right now, but if a few forward thinking individuals get their way, that won’t be what you think of in the future. There is a growing movement in the 29″er mountain biking world and it is a gravity fed one.
A Quick history of 29′er DH/FR
Early on the 29″er bicycle met with much resistance and one of the most vociferous groups was the All mountain/ Freeride crowd. They were quite sure that the larger wheel size would never see action on their trails due to the “inherent” lack of strength and the total lack of suitable equipment to ride with. It’s now looking as if these obstacles are being swept aside and that a new era in mountain biking might just be around the corner.
Strong words? Perhaps you haven’t heard of Lenz Cycles, a company out of Colorado steeped in downhill and freeride tradition. Company head, Devin Lenz took up the challenge to build a durable, workable 29″er trail bike early on and created the Leviathan. In the beginning, it was only a three inch travel frame, which matched most closely with the forks available at the time. Now with the addition of four inch travel White Brothers forks to the 29″er arsenal, Lenz has stepped up and produced the Behemoth, a five inch travel frame and increased the travel on his Lenz Leviathans to four inches. Read the rest of this entry »
5 Comments »
The advent of the 29 inch wheeled mountain bike has brought about a heated debate the likes of which hasn’t been seen since the dawn of front suspension forks in the early ’90s. This debate is now being taken up over at cyclingnews.com, where two mountain bikes with identical specs were prepared, with the only differences being the wheel sizes and the frame-specific considerations needed to fit each to a frame and fork.
This versus that: a flawed premise
Something strikes me as being quite strange about this whole endeavor, that being the differences between the two types of bikes. They are not just any old differences, but probably the most important ones about any bicycle.
In fact, I would go so far as to say that since the differences are so radical, the comparison is ludicrous. I have ridden both style of bikes; 29 and 26 inch, and I can say that they are different enough that you have to ride each in a different way. If you do not, the full potential of both is lost. They are different tools for different jobs.
The premise that one or the other is best, as the test is formatted for, is a misguided effort. Rather than that, they should endeavor to find out which wheel format works best on certain types of terrain, something that would be far more useful than a blanket “this versus that” which-one-is-best kind of angle. Read the rest of this entry »
6 Comments »
11 May »
Features »
Adrian
If you want to experience some of the best trail riding anywhere in the world then the Andalucía Mountains in southern Spain should be put at or near the top of your list. On a couple of occasions over the past few years, I’ve travelled to southern Spain to ride with a tour company called Ciclo Montana Espana. The main reason I’ve gone back to this company is because they’re well organised and they get the job — a great biking trip — done by giving their clients an experience that is pretty hard to top.
There are more than twenty peaks taller than 3,000 meters above sea level in the Andalucía Mountain range, which makes it the second highest mountain range in Europe after the Alps. The two highest peaks in the area are the Mulhacén (3,482m), closely followed by the Pico del Veleta (3,396m). On a clear day these mountains can be seen from as far away as Africa. They are big and beautiful and, as far as I am concerned, there is no better way to see them than from the saddle of a mountain bike. Read the rest of this entry »
6 Comments »
Last week I finished off a series of entries about the 2005 version of the Trans Iowa endurance event. I’m devoting this week to a recap of this year’s event — Trans Iowa V2 — which took place on the last weekend in April.
Whenever you “set the table” for your guests, you always hope that they like what you have prepared, and there are plenty of anxious moments before everyone arrives. For Trans Iowa V2, I was no different; in fact, I don’t think I slept a wink the night before the event. I suppose the other main worry I had as one of the race promoters was that someone would get injured or, even worse, die. Of course, injuries are always a possibility that people putting on races have to live with but it’s still not a comfortable thing to grapple with. Happily, I can report that nothing beyond sore muscles and shattered egos resulted from this years event!
We planned Trans Iowa V2 for the weekend of 29-30 April, and those days were marked by rain, mud, and gritty performances by several of the racers. The event, which started in the early morning hours in Hawarden, Iowa, began with a slight drizzle coming down and high hopes that the riders would reach the finishing town of Decorah, Iowa. Of course, everyone’s best laid plans were no match for the soaking rain that started a day and a half before the start of the event. Read the rest of this entry »
No Comments »
In last week’s entry, I described some of the pitfalls and successes that we had in getting the first Trans Iowa event off the ground. This week I’m writing about how the event actually went down.
One of the first things that became apparent was that Jeff and I didn’t have enough help. Even though I tried not to show it, the enormity and seriousness of the task at hand was brought home to me when I looked into the faces of all the racers at the check in. We ran the pre-race meeting without a hitch and then it was start time. Read the rest of this entry »
2 Comments »
In my last installment on the Trans Iowa endurance event, I touched on my quest for a decent map and how gravel roads are not very well documented in Iowa. This week I’ll discuss the significance of that and tell of some of the successes that we got out of the event. Read the rest of this entry »
No Comments »
In my most recent installment on The Biking Hub, I described how the idea for the Trans Iowa endurance event was hatched. This week, I’m giving you a behind the scenes look at how the route was laid out and planned.
Since the total time that passed between the basic idea for the event and the opening of registration was about two weeks, I did not have much time me to devise a route! And my job became even harder when I had to figure out what to do a whole state full of gravel and dirt back roads… Read the rest of this entry »
2 Comments »
There are new endurance races popping up all over the country these days. The typical 24 hour events have been joined by ultra-marathon, point to point excursions, and other types of suffering as well.
Some of you may have asked yourselves, ‘What causes someone to start one of these events?’ While I can not answer for every event out there, I can tell you about one of them. You see, I help promote one of these little gems. The event is named Trans Iowa and I am going to share with you the story of how it got started. My hope is that perhaps some of you will be inspired to try putting on your own event or, at the very least, you can see from a event organizer’s perspective about what it looks like on the “other side of the fence”. Read the rest of this entry »
1 Comment »
We came, we rode, we smiled.
It somehow seemed appropriate that our final trip of the year to Ray’s Indoor Mountain Bike Park, located in Cleveland, there was wind, cold temperatures, and plenty of rain. It is, after all, because of the nasty winter climate that made Ray Petro decide to open an 80,000 square foot North Shore-style playground in an old warehouse in West Cleveland, Ohio.
For the past two years I have been organizing bus trips from St. Catharines, Ontario down to this one-of-a-kind riding centre, located about four hours away. While the logistics of running this type of trip are pretty crazy, the end result is 40 or 50 guys and girls taking a full-size coach bus down the I-90 through New York, Pennsylvania, and into Ohio.
I’ve never been able to enjoy the party atmosphere that is the bus because I drive a 24-foot truck packed with tens of thousands of dollars worth of bikes but I figure if I’m the one organizing the trip, I only trust myself to be responsible for everyone’s rides on the way to and from Cleveland.
When we arrive at the park, we ride for a good six hours before heading home and, by the time we’re done, everyone is completely exhausted and smiling from ear to ear from the experience. Read the rest of this entry »
5 Comments »