Australian Mountain Bike Issue 202

RIDERS SIAN A’HERN & REMY MEIER-SMITH PHOTOGRAPHER MATT ROUSU When it was announced in 2022 that the Cannonball Australian Open DH would be hosting the Australian National Downhill Championships for 2023, everyone knew it was going to be a huge day on the hill. Sian A’Hern (below) had a triumphant return to the top step, soon after the announcement she would be riding for the YT Mob. Expect more top steps this year for Sian. She had a tough year in 2022 recovering from injury – but she looks to be back in the drivers seat. And while it was Remy’s older brother Luke who won the title, Remy laid down lightning fast times – a sure sign that he isn’t going to have any issue making the jump from Junior to…

Given the rate of change that mountain biking has seen since inception, it is easy to forget how young the sport is. While playing around on bikes in the dirt is far older than mountain biking, the development of mountain bikes and how we ride them has seen the most changes since the late 1980s. And more change is coming – but what will it be exactly? In this issue Hayden Wright was lucky enough to ride one of the Trinity mountain bikes. A bike that has been designed and built with versatility in mind for gravity riders. It’s a bike that will let riders swap from enduro to downhill, and from a gearbox drivetrain to a regular drivetrain. And who knows – maybe an eMTB system in the future? I…

RIDERS SIAN A’HERN & REMY MEIER-SMITH PHOTOGRAPHER MATT ROUSU When it was announced in 2022 that the Cannonball Australian Open DH would be hosting the Australian National Downhill Championships for 2023, everyone knew it was going to be a huge day on the hill. Sian A’Hern (below) had a triumphant return to the top step, soon after the announcement she would be riding for the YT Mob. Expect more top steps this year for Sian. She had a tough year in 2022 recovering from injury – but she looks to be back in the drivers seat. And while it was Remy’s older brother Luke who won the title, Remy laid down lightning fast times – a sure sign that he isn’t going to have any issue making the jump from…

For the last handful of years, Cannonball Festival was the end-of-year party for mountain bikers. After Covid, we’ve seen this week of racing move to the start of the year. But that hasn’t prevented it from drawing nearly 1000 riders from around the country to compete and celebrate all things gravity. For this glorious week in February, the alpine village of Thredbo is teeming with beaming smiles, loud music, cold beers, and at the end of it all – a few broken bodies. It kicked things off with the notoriously pedally Osprey All Mountain Assault on the lower All Mountain track. The real lung-burner of the event, riders were keen to stretch the legs and get the arguably hardest day of racing out of the way. Enduro World Cup (EDR) hitter…

Five days, three locations, 100km and 6000m of vertical. The Trans Tasmania is no quick hit enduro race! The Australian multi-day enduro was on again in 2023 after the inaugural year in 2022, heading to the gravity mecca of Maydena Bike Park to get things going. Riders are thrown straight into the deep end with some of Australia’s steepest trails before heading across to Queenstown for some antigrip, then finally finishing up in Derby, the place that put Tasmanian Enduro racing on the world map. Trans Tasmania is totally unique to the Australian Enduro scene, and a big part of that is the location in Tasmania. There is nowhere in Australia where you can find 5 days worth of unbelievable descending, and still have to choose which tracks to include and…

HIT THE DIRT WITH ROCKY TRAIL ENTERTAINMENT IN 2023 You’ve been living under an event rock if you haven’t heard of Rocky Trail Entertainment by now. This crew of incredibly dedicated mountain bikers have been running some of the most cherished events in the country, all under the banner of good times and healthy competition. There are three pillars under the RTE umbrella: the cross-country orientated Shimano MTB Grand Prix, the hugely popular Fox Superflow, and the school-aged focused Rocky Trail Academy. They will also be continuing several non-series events this year including the AMB 100 and JatBlack 24hr along with the Willo marathon that took place in early March. No matter what kind of bike you have, from cross-country rig to dirt jumper, everyone will find a home amongst the…