Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2025 i Mountain Biking UK

With the 2025 race season kicking off at Red Bull Hardline Australia, I’ve been excited to see all the new bikes and teams being revealed. For me, the most interesting bit of kit unveiled so far has to be the Atherton gearbox downhill bike, which you can see Charlie Hatton riding on this issue’s cover, and can read about in depth on p30. The tech is advancing every year, the riders are stronger and better prepared than ever (see p38 to find out what it takes to compete at Elite level) and the courses seem to be becoming even gnarlier, all of which makes the racing thrilling to watch. It’s a shame, then, that viewing World Cups has become a very expensive business – see p8 for more on this.…

FREEZE FRAME LOOK AT THE TIME! – IF YOU CAN STILL AFFORD TO… The 2025 downhill race season unofficially began at Red Bull Hardline Australia, with wall-to-wall coverage on social media and Red Bull’s website. Sadly, when the DH World Cups kick off in May, at Bielsko-Biała in Poland, viewing opportunities are going to be a lot more limited and expensive. The same goes for the cross-country and enduro series too. Since the UCI awarded the broadcasting rights to Warner Bros. Discovery in late 2022, racing fans have had to pay to watch live events, either on Discovery+ (£3.99/month), the now-axed GCN+ YouTube channel (£6.99/month) or on Eurosport, bundled into some Sky TV and Virgin Media packages. Now, Eurosport is being folded into the pay-TV channel TNT Sports (£30.99/month) in…

Partnering with engineering company Renishaw, Empire Cycles created the world’s first bike made entirely from 3D-printed titanium alloy in 2013. Their revolutionary MX-6 Evo prototype laid the foundation for what has become one of the most talked-about manufacturing techniques in mountain biking. The two British brands worked together to take the welded, cast and CNC-machined alloy tube design of Empire’s original MX-6 Evo prototype (also unveiled that year, and put into production in 2014) and optimise it for the latest additive manufacturing techniques, resulting in a claimed 33% reduction in weight without any compromises in terms of strength. This wasn’t Empire’s first bike to use innovative manufacturing technologies – their 2007 AP-1 downhill bike was made from cast alloy, instead of the normal welded tubes, while their 2011 MX6 trail…

DT SWISS E 1900 SPLINE £449.98/pair www.freewheel.co.uk Weighing 2,170g a pair and costing £449.98, DT Swiss’s E 1900 wheelset represents an attempt to balance cost, weight and durability. The alloy rim (called the E 532, and also available separately) is sleeve-jointed – ie. the two ends are joined using an internal aluminium insert, which overlaps them and is bonded (glued) in place. DT claim this construction method is as strong as welding without any significant weight penalty, and the rim has been given an ASTM 4 rating (a classification system that runs from 1–5 to denote the severity of terrain a product can handle, with 5 being the most rugged). With a 30mm internal width and 35mm external measurement, the dimensions are pretty standard for a modern MTB rim. These…

A comfortable pair of bib shorts is a must for mountain biking, yet it’s often an overlooked item in the kit cupboard. This garment combines an elasticated bib (the upper, dungaree-like section) with elastane (aka Lycra/spandex) shorts containing a stitched-in ‘chamois’ pad. Bib liners are designed to be worn under a jersey and baggy shorts, while bib shorts are thicker and can also be worn on their own for XC riding and racing. The pad is arguably the most important bit, offering crucial cushioning and relief from saddle pressure and trail vibrations. This significantly improves comfort, so you can ride for longer. A quality chamois (‘shammy’) will also wick sweat away effectively, keeping you cool and dry ‘down there’, reducing the risk of chafing or sores on lengthy rides. Pads…

Rob Warner has had one hell of a career. The first Brit to win a World Cup, he also took three Downhill National Championships victories, beating the likes of Steve Peat. Then he branched out into commentating, earning legendary status for his raucous live-streams with Freecaster, before toning things down and becoming a consummate professional with Red Bull. We sat down with him for an MBUK podcast, beginning with a look back at how it all started… “I ain’t got a qualification to my name,” says Rob. “I worked in a car factory – Dad got me out of school at 16 and I went and worked on a production line doing a wiring harness every two minutes on Rover 800s. I was alright with that for a bit, and…

REINVENTING THE SEAT TUBE The new Orbea Alma sports a unique pentagonal rear end designed to absorb energy-sapping trail vibrations Orbea have changed things up on their Alma cross-country bike for 2025, giving it an eye-catching rear end that incorporates their new ‘X-Fader’ compliance technology. The seat tube is now heavily kinked and joins the down tube several centimetres ahead of the bottom bracket shell, turning the rear ‘triangle’ into more of an irregular pentagon. According to the Basque brand, this design allows the seat tube to flex, so that it can absorb energy-sapping vibrations and impacts, and also increases vertical compliance in the rear end, helping to provide an even more ‘connected’ trail feel while damping small chatter. As on the previous Alma, the top tube is flattened and…

£149 www.endurasport.com This jacket is designed to be a warm midlayer for winter use. The fleecy Polartec fabric features a grid pattern, which is designed to keep the chill at bay, but also to boost breathability and wick away sweat when you start working hard. In key areas, Endura have covered the Polartec fleece with stretch-woven panels to help keep the wind out and ward off light rain. This is further aided by a dropped rear hem and asymmetric cuffs. There are two zipped hand pockets, discreetly squirrelled away, plus a larger chest pocket, which provide useful storage. If things get really chilly, the hood is designed to fit under your helmet, although there’s enough stretch for it to go over, if you prefer. Endura offer the jacket in six…

TECH Q&A Our test team answer your mechanical queries EFFECTIVE TUBELESS RIM TAPE APPLICATION How do I make sure my tubeless tape is properly sealing the rim so that air doesn’t leak? Johnny, via email The aim with tubeless tape is to make an airtight seal so that the air in your tyre remains in there. Unfortunately, sticking it down is more of an art than a science. First, make sure the rim is clean and free of contaminants, using disc brake cleaner or isopropyl alcohol. Next, select the right width tape. It should be broad enough to cover the whole rim bed, including the well. When installing the tape, it’s crucial that you apply enough tension to keep it tight, but also pressure, so it adheres to the rim…

“We’d been planning a 21m canyon gap jump in the Black Hills (Terres Noires), in southern France – a lunar-like area with loose and shaley trails. It was a high-consequence jump that needed a lot of building time, but we had just a three-day window, and some troubles with another line we were shooting meant we only had the last day to work on and film the gap. It was a little sketchy, but doable. “I had a feeling something wasn’t right, but chose to ignore it – maybe the previous days’ work had taken too much of my energy. I hit the jump and came down hard. There was a lot of blood and I was unconscious for a little while. That must be the biggest hit I’ve ever…

1 SPESH MAY BE BIG, BUT THEY’RE NO FACELESS CORP “Absolutely not. You know, Mike Sinyard [founder and chairman] goes to the office still every single day, and he’s in his 70s. He’s still involved in all of the meetings. He did some riding on the launch for the Stumpjumper 15, and he was shredding too! A lot of people have been at Specialized a really long time and they’re still so passionate about it. It’s definitely not people sitting behind a computer popping out bikes!” 2 PRODUCT LAUNCHES ARE THE BEST “Being involved in the launches and that side of it is really exciting. We know what’s coming way in advance, but when it gets to the point where you see the prototypes, it’s amazing, and then it evolves…

“We’ve taken the bike that Charlie [Hatton] won the [2023] World Championships on and said, ‘No! We’re gonna get rid of that and do something completely different. You’ve got to trust us’.” No doubt there were some furrowed brows at Atherton Bikes’ headquarters when lead engineer Rob Gow announced the plan to develop a pioneering new downhill platform, complete with a Pinion gearbox and a Gates Carbon Drive belt instead of a chain. It wasn’t the first time a belt-driven bike had been on the table. In fact, the idea had been discussed in 2018, in co-founder Dan Atherton’s caravan. But with Zerode and Gamux now fielding gearbox World Cup bikes, in August 2024, the brand began seriously pursuing the project. Just five intensive months of development and testing later,…

In 2023, police in England and Wales received more than 64,000 reports of bike theft. “Any bike can be stolen if a thief is brazen, has the right tools and enough time,” says Richard Cantle, founder of Stolen Ride (www.stolenride.co.uk). “There’s also the risk of a thief stealing parts of the bike, rather than the whole thing.” Yet one recent survey found that only 35% of us take active steps to adequately protect our bikes from being nicked in the first place. We’ve put together this guide to give you a chance against the thieves, and to let you know what to do if your bike is stolen. 1 USE D-LOCKS OUTSIDE… “Never use a thin chain or cable lock – they’re too easy to snip,” one former bike thief…