Mountain Biking UK

welcome

We try to find out just how the flying Scotsman got so good at riding in the mud – which, let’s face it, is something most of us could do with some help with! Happy new year! Now let’s never talk of 2020 again... Actually, there is one good thing to have come out of what was a pretty rubbish 12 months for many. Last year’s racing felt so chaotic, both in terms of the number of events being cancelled and some of the course conditions when it finally resumed in the autumn, that it’s easy to forget that the UK now has not one but two reigning downhill champions – World Championships gold medallist Reece Wilson and World Cup series winner Matt Walker. What a result! It’s the former we…

out front mbuk

SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS A PRIVATE PLAYGROUND Torridon, in the Northwest Highlands of Scotland, was voted MBUK readers’ best wild ride back in 2019, and it’s an especially magical place in late winter. Snapper Duncan Philpott bagged this epic shot on the Achnashellach descent, on a trip with Scottish enduro racer Ella Connelly. He explains: “We were seeking contrasting weather conditions for a media project on the Cannondale Scalpel SE. The first day was in glorious sunshine, with the rocky singletrack providing a mud-free day in the mountains – a welcome phenomenon at this time of year. As we dodged deer and water bars, the dark slabs and bright gravel mirrored the snowy peaks. “While the other days were a little more ‘Scottish’, the remoteness and off-season emptiness of this beautiful part of the world made…

keep off the grass!

Filmed not far from MBUK’s Bristol HQ and featuring a trio of top UK riders, the fourth episode of Brendan Fairclough’s A Dog’s Life series is an impressive showcase of skill and style – check it out on YouTube if you haven’t already. However, things didn’t exactly go according to plan behind the scenes. Brendog’s concept for the video, BERM2BERM, sounded fairly simple – to build a track where riders could jump from one feature to the next, and from corner to corner, without their wheels ever touching the grass that the jumps and berms were built on. It was born from a similar idea planned for his Deathgrip movie in 2015.When that attempt ended up being a bit of a disaster and never came to fruition, Brendan was determined to…

brendan’s take on take-two

“The goal was to have perfect jumps and berms through an idyllic grass field, but that’s just not how it turned out. It was a huge mess, where we struggled to build in bad weather and had all sorts of other problems. In the end, we left a fun trail that can be used by other people to ride on, learn and enjoy, so that was cool. The Redhill guys were great and their hearts are in the right place, helping riders of all ages progress. It was 50 per cent of what I was hoping for, but we had great fun and got a brilliant edit from our short time filming.While the BERM2BERM idea may be done with, there are more big plans in the pipeline!”…

olly wilkins

What a ride 2020 was. I said to myself that I wasn’t going to talk about it, but I must. To cap the year off, I contracted the dreaded COVID-19! I was lucky enough to get loads of trips in despite the endless travel restrictions, but it finally got me on my last journey of the year. My positive test confirmed what I’d already suspected. Thankfully I got away with a couple of days of feeling feverish and not being able to taste food. My thoughts go out to those who’ve had a much worse time of it than me. Strangely, my girlfriend, who lives with me, somehow managed to avoid catching it. I can’t wait for the world to reopen so I can continue my quest to find the perfect…

mbuk’s month

We don’t think we’ve ever ridden so much over Christmas! It turns out that there are advantages to contact with friends and relatives being limited. Mudguards and waterproofs are so much better these days that riding in the wet is no chore at all (although we still hate having to clean our bikes after every ride!) – and there’s nothing that’s quite as much childish fun as smashing your back wheel into a puddle to soak a mate! Our navigationally-challenged production editor Chris hasn’t got lost for at least two months… …but only because his new long-term bike hasn’t turned up yet. Fingers crossed that the last couple will be here soon. We may have ridden lots, but we’re still working off those “just one more…” pigs-in-blankets, not to mention all that festive booze. Remember…