Winter Mountain Bike Jackets for the UK

So every year I go out and buy a new winter MTB jacket and I never spend more than £50 and every year I find a new flaw in the jacket.

Either

• The seams aren't watertight
• The arms are too tight
• It looks like an acid house reject
• It rubs on the neck
• Water drips down my back and soaks my ass

This year thanks to reading the guide from my mates at WideopenMag to the Best Mountain Bike Waterproof Jackets under £100 I am going to buy this bad boy from Altura.

It's called the Altura Mayhem and should cost more than £35.  Anyone care to place a bet now on what is going to go wrong with this one.  Surely my luck is about to change.

McC

Electric mountain bikes - buyers guides

So I am a man of a certain age, I am not so old that I can't happily ride my bike for hours on end but I am definitely not as fit as I once was.

I regularly get passed on the climbs of my local mountain bike trail by younger chaps, who are rocking all mountain bikes and enduro helmets, only to pass them tangled in the nettles and roots on the way down.

Don't get me wrong I am not quicker than them, it's just that I have fallen off enough times to know better than to go to quick downhill.

Imagine my surprise the other day when I was passed on the climb by someone easily 15 years my senior (I am 40 so you do the maths) and never seen him again on the way down.  

How can this happen, well he was cheating as he was riding an e-mtb?

Obviously I am only joking as I don't see an electric mountain bike as cheating but I never thought they were any good going downhill.

Apparently I was wrong!!

So I am going to have a look at some e-mtb buyers guides and possibly even try and demo a few of them.

So keep your eyes peeled for more posts from me and possibly even watch out for me smoking you up the trail for a change you little enduro brats.

You may call them electric motor bikes but I call them a natural assist for my years of riding bikes with v-brakes and less than 100mm of travel on the front fork.

Eat my Watts!!!

How to build your own mountain bike pump track

It's the dream of every bike rider to have a garden big enough to have your own mountain bike trail in it...or at the very least a pump track.

Only problem is that once you actually have the land how to you build the pump track.

I found a pretty easy guide to building your own pump track but you will need to buy a mini digger and a lot of top soil.

If you actually manage to build one drop us a line and let us know what it looks like.

The art of the bunnyhop

The bunnyhop is one of the most basic but essential mountain bike skills.

Here is how it should be done, amazing:

In contrast here is a particularly nasty example of a bunnyhop FAIL:

But this is something that everyone really needs to see, much more than just a bunnyhop:

To hone your own bunnyhopping skills here is Sam Pilgrimto guide you through the art of the bunnyhop!










Whether or not you can or can't hop - remember, two wheels are better

Sea Otter 2011 - I'm not jealous!!

This is not a rant and I am not jealous but.....I can't believe I didn't get to The Sea Otter Classic this year.  I was given the chance and I was so busy in spreadsheet hell that I missed it.

If you don't know what Sea Otter is then it is not;

(The sea otter (Enhydra lutris) is a marine mammal native to the coasts of the northern and eastern North Pacific Ocean. Adult sea otters typically weigh between 14 and 45 kg (30 to 100 lb), making them the heaviest members of the weasel family, but among the smallest marine mammals. Unlike most marine mammals, the sea otter's primary form of insulation is an exceptionally thick coat of fur, the densest in the animal kingdom. Although it can walk on land, the sea otter lives mostly in the ocean.)


It is in fact;


(Sea Otter Classic is a bicycling and outdoor life sports festival and trade show held on the former Fort Ord in Monterey, California since 1990. The classic is named in honor of the sea otter, an indigenous mammal which flourishes on the neighboringPacific Coast.) ...God I love wikipedia.


Why am I upset at not being able to go, because they do cool shit like this

and this

Can you guess where I was instead, check out this rocking video from my village

I should have remembered...Two Wheels Are Better O--'O

British Downhill Series in the Sun

here is a little vid from the BDS this week.  Nice vid in nice weather and nice promo girl.  I have  to say that her sport knowledge is a little gappy though....WHY NOT!!

Wideopenmag.co.uk: Halo BDS rd2 Moelfre from Wideopen Mag on Vimeo.

Remember Two Wheels are Better 0--'0

OK so it's three wheels but looks like cool fun...

Recently as I was surfing through YouTube to try and find some nice pics of riding spots in sunny Scotland (Yes it is sunny) I happened to type in the phrase Arthur's Seat.

For those not in the know Arthur's seat is a volcanic plug that sits in the heart of Scotland's second largest city and our capital Edinburgh.

 I was looking for this cool video of urban-ish snowboarders and mountain bikers playing in harmony (the mountain biker comes in at 3:32).  This happened in Dec 2010 when we got all that groovy snow.

What I found by accident was this rather cool video from HuffySlider.  Apparently there is an Arthur's Seat in Australia and they also have these really cool bikes.

I want one!!!

Remember two wheels are better..0--'0 (or three in this case)