Past Featured Articles

It all starts innocently as you head to where you store your bike gear. A series of complex rituals is about to begin...

The Recon forks are fanatastic and with the adjustable travel that give plenty of options to adjust to the conditions. With the Shimano Deore XT rear mech and Deore LX Components the bike has a very reliable groupset. The LX hydraulic discs also provide great gobs of stopping power with the extra reassurance of a 203mm (8in) rotor up front. The bigger rotor means better cooling and more reliable power on long descents.

These socks are mid light meaning that they are not as bulky as the older type while retaining some thermal properties. They are mid calf length with a breathable membrane sandwiched between a Marino wool liner and an abrasion resistant outer. They are fully waterproof and can be used for a variety of applications ranging from golf to mtbing. At £22.50 these are not a cheap option for keeping dry. The SealSkinz website is quite informative.

There are a whole bunch of waterproof, cycling specific, jackets to choose from. The numbers and types all claiming to be waterproof and breathable is staggering. The Gore PacLite Jacket is right there at the top of the market and is made from a lightweight type of GoreTex which has the reputation of shifting more water, as perspiration vapour, than any other garment on the planet. GoreTex is at the forefront of waterproof breathable wear being the company to invent this type of fabric.

As we all know sunlight is a powerful source of energy. While sunlight is crucial for many processes on the earth such as heat and production of oxygen through photosynthesis; sunlight can also be damaging to the human body with just a little exposure.

An easy mod to lighten up those wheels, free up some rotational mass. All with out sacrificing any reliability and also no more worries of pinch flats. You will also be able to run lower tire pressures for better traction. In Sedona this is the set up that almost every rider I ride with uses. Most of us use Maxxis 2ply tires usually Minions or Marzzochi tires..........Did I mention it will cost way less than any other tubless set up.

During the early part of 2011, the basement of the house here was a busy scene. A home made bicycle rack and repair stand adorned with shop light, a bike water bottle holder screwed to the side to hold frosty beverages while wrenching away and a new Craftsman roll away tool chest containing bike parts and tools. Also bins of other bike parts crowded another corner of the basement, a work bench topped with an iPod speaker dock and desk lamp and the "old" Trek 820 on the bike trainer. A space heater placed under the home made rack helped warm things up a little during those long dark winter days and nights.

One day, James, a friend of mine here in Cotahuasi, Peru, approached me and asked a favor. He said he was putting on a large mountain bike tour the beginning of May. He had asked for my help in checking out a potential route across the high plain to Charcana, as I was familiar with part of the route. I had done a 16-hour hike across that area with Max, another friend who is a government official working on many projects here. That time he was researching an area on the high plain to use for a vicuña preserve. Vicuña are an endangered wild animal, related to the llama, whose wool is VERY valuable, and hence poaching is a big problem.

I used to have only one bike, a mountain bike. Then I bought a road bike and realized how it could complement my mountain biking and allowed me to ride when the trails were unridable, and then I had two bikes. I then started hearing a lot about how great singlespeeding was, so I thought that I'd like to try that, and then I had three. I soon realized that I didn't want to lock up any of these bikes at work or the bar or the grocery store, so a commuter/grocery bike made four.

So I asked the guy for the tires I was looking for. "You couldn't come in a better moment", he said. Here I've got few GEAX Barro mountain in promotion for less than 100zl (25€). You'd better take them before they are gone. Super light weight, and Kevlar structure on the sides, which would definitely spare me with the ripping issue. I took however the time to read a bit the different GEAX products in the catalog, before I unsheathed the credit card: the GEAX Barro mountain seemed to match ideally my type of activity....