In MBUK 291, we feature two of Steve Peat’s Super Bikes – his 1993 Kona Hei Hei and his 2013 Santa Cruz V10 Carbon.  Two bikes 20 years apart, but both revolutionary for their time.

Check out all the shots we couldn’t fit in the mag below. And see the full feature in MBUK 291, on sale 31 May!

Check out the new Fox Rampage Pro Carbon helmet and Shimano Saint chainguide in 360 degree goodness.

Find out more in MBUK 291, on sale 31st May.

Chad Peterson’s Ibis Mojo HD Carbon is the latest bike to win the prestigious MBUK Super Bike crown.

The bike itself is a light, stiff and capable all-rounder – perfect for the fast, steep and technical trails of Laguna, California, which is where Chad spends most of his test rides.

What makes it really special though, is the range of super high-end, prototype Crank Brothers parts that it’s decked out with.

The wheels are prototype Iodine 2 composites, the 7075 aluminium Idodine 2 stem is a prototype too – the production version will be 6061 alu.

The seatpost is an early prototype of the redesigned Kronolog, and the pedals are Crank Brothers’ latest Mallet DH race pedals.

You can read the full Super Bike feature on Chad’s Mojo HD in MBUK 285, on sale on 16 November.

I’ve been lucky enough to ride a hell of a lot of bikes in the nearly 10 years I’ve been at MBUK towers, and it’s pretty rare I sling a leg over a bike that’s unquestionably brilliant.

With my long legs, long arms and fairly short upper body I do struggle finding bikes with the right geometry- but when I rode an XL Trek Remedy Carbon at Moab last year I knew I’d found a winner. With a 70mm stem and a 740mm bar, it’s bang on for me.

After riding mine for nearly a year without changing much, it seems to have gone through a lot of changes in one hit- most recently Easton Carbon Haven wheels, Specialized Eskar tyres, Easton Havoc bars, a Garmin Edge 800 and some Rockshox Revelation XX forks.

You can read more on the wheels in the mag soon, but for now I’ll just say how I did doubt they could make that much difference over the alloy versions, but oh-my-god these things are fast.

Sure, £2K is enough to make a Sultan sweat, but they are phenomenally good wheels. Time will tell on strength, and I don’t plan on treating them well.

I’ve been running a Blacx seat post lately too, which are set to be distributed soon by a certain distributor. It’s magnstic release, neat cable routing and resistance to muck make it a sure fired winner. Watch this space for full details as we get them…

The bars have just been fitted, and with a comfortable 9deg bend and 5mm upsweep they feel good, and despite being very stiff have that shock absorbing property that carbon is famous for. More on these soon- although you might want to know they weigh a scant 240grams, and are rated as Easton’s strongest bars…

Garmin have a fantastic unit here with the Edge 800- the colour touch screen is very bright and easy to use. Intelligently the white screen with black graphic switches automatically when it’s dark out to a black screen with white graphics, so it doesn’t ruin your night vision. It’s a fully laiden bit of kit- look for a full review soon.

Finally, the thing I’ve been loving most is the Revelation XX fork. It’s ultra stiff, and once the dual air spring is dialled in correctly is very plush. It’s also easy to keep the fork at a good ride height, without sacrificing sensitivity- and there’s the added benefit of the hydraulic lock out with force adjustment. It makes a huge difference for out the seat climbing.

With the tapered steerer tube, fore and aft rigidity is ultra stiff- which is really noticeable under braking, especially when it’s rough out.

Pete from Silverfish UK may have forgotten to send us the traditional post office party Cornish pasties but we’ll forgive him as he sent us these instead…

The Carbon T2 is the latest top-of-the-range lid from THE and it looks pretty wild. But in a good way.

The T2 is full of details including hand-laid carbon fibre construction, 17 vents and a removable (washable) liner. You also get a replacement peak and a handy cordura bag to keep her in. We were dubious about the ‘Day of the dead’ graphics but in the flesh they look ace. They’re set to retail at £229.

Also in the box was the new Point 5 lid. The composite model in the range features many of the original and still impressive One model but comes in at a highly tempting £89.99.

We’ll get a review in the mag soon as for you.

We’ve been having a clear out this morning and Jamer found what we reckon could be the smallest pair of riding shorts in the world. Horrendous.

Don’t get me wrong, as editor of Cycling Plus I’m a very lucky man and get to ride some of the latest and greatest road bikes out there and I love it. Yesterday, though, I dusted off my own 2009 Viner Perfecta and took it out for a couple of hours.

Me and my Viner. We're very good friends...

It felt fantastic – yes it’s handles wonderfully, responds instantly to every pedal input etc etc…but it wasn’t that. It was something else that brought a huge smile to my face and warm feeling in my stomach. It was simply the fact that I was out on my bike. Riding. Simple things eh? Go on, go for a ride. Now!

My Dad always says ‘you get what you pay for’ usually just after a bargain I’ve found breaks. I’ve never found  those true either – especially when you’re buying a bike. So, just what can you expect to get as you move up through the road biking budget?

£300

£270 is pretty much the lowest you can go if you want a brand new road bike, with Decathlon offering the Sport 1 model. Spen £350 on the Viking Roma and, like the Sport 1, you’ll get a basic aluminium frame and steel fork combination with an 8-speed Shimano drivetrain, although components come from the Shimano 2300 range instead of the 2200 level kit of the Decathlon for slightly improved shift performance.

On budget bikes the rest of the components like stem and saddle, are compiled from a range of manufacturers in order to meet tight budgetary requirements. While many of these items function well it is worth checking reviews – if you can find them sites like Bikeradar – to weed out possible problem areas.

We chose to try out the Claud Butler Criterium as on paper it offers the best frame within this price bracket, with vibration damping curved seat stays a real bonus. Unfortunately the 7-speed Shimano gears are downgraded in order to squeeze the higher spec frame in on the £319.99 budget.

Claud Butler Criterium is a decent starter choice

A tall head tube means that the bars offer a high, distance friendly position and help inspire confidence in riders not used to aggressive ‘racy’ positions. As a result the Criterium feels smooth and stable most of the time, but when cornering at speed the rearward weight distribution and reasonably flexible wheels does mean that it suffers from noticeable understeer.

Press hard on the pedals and the combination of flexible chainstays and heavy 30mm deep alloy rims make progress feel slow. Pedal gently, though, and the lack of frame stiffness is not an issue. In that respect it represents a reasonable entry point for riders looking to make an inexpensive start on the road,  however improvers might out grow the Criteriums softly-softly character as their fitness improves.

Shifting gears with the centrally mounted levers does require moving your hands away from the brakes and releasing your grip on the bars which isn’t idea. Although gear shifts are faultless once the gear is selected, we feel not having the simultaneous access to both gears and brakes provided by integrated gear and brake levers (STIs)  is too large a price to pay for the better frame of the Criterium.

It’s easy to be snobby about £300 bikes but although the Criterium is a bit weighty at 11.6Kg it’s still fun to ride. However  if you want to test your mettle with harder efforts then it isn’t quite up to the task.

Now, for dedicated roadies it’s easy to be a little sniffy about electric bikes. Why on earth do we need a battery and a motor when we’ve got legs and lungs? (And, to be honest, in the recent past electric bikes haven’t exactly been objects of desire.) But with many big brands adding presentable e-bikes to their ranges, new companies making bikes that don’t look like mobility aids and high street giants like Halfords going electric, powered pedalling is on the up.

Ruben’s electric bike is pretty special – it’s a one off Storck Raddar Multiroad Carbon painted up in the colours of his Williams-Cosworth FW32. The road bike afficionados amongst you will, of course,  know German brand Storck because of it’s high end superbikes. And the Raddar is a high end e-bike –  it weighs less than 18kg, has a carbon fibre frame, advanced gear shift electronics,  hydraulic disc brakes and is powered by 250W sport specification Swiss-made electric motor.

Rubens Barrichello gets an electric shock!

The standard Raddar will be on sale in the UK soon and it will join an ever increasing number of e-bikes – including the bespoke electric bikes from GoCycle,  Ebco Eagle and A2B Metro. Huge companies including Trek are also going electric – the American giant has its Ride+ range which are essentially ordinary urban bikes with a power pack and motor. Giant too is powering it’s bikes with the Twist range. And my wife can’t speak highly enough of the power boost she gets when riding a Halfords Urban Mover Mounatin Bike up Bath’s steep hills. You can even power buy a powered sportive ride – although that might be considered cheating – by investing in a Cytronex powered Cannondale Supersix.

Ruben's Raddar in it's Williams-Cosworth colours

Finally remember the silly rumours about Fabian Cancellara and his ‘powered’ rides at this year’s Spring Classics? You could always fit a Gruber Assist motor for the ultimate in discreet power. It certainly looks as if electric bikes are on the up – there’s even a British Electric Bicycle Association – and if they’re good enough for a bloke with 11 GP wins to his names they’re good enough for us!

Look out for a test of the latest e-bikes in an upcoming issue of Cycling Plus.

Gee Atherton (Commencal) took his second win of the season in Champery at the weekend to pull to within 13 points of Greg Minnaar (Santa Cruz Syndicate), who finished second.

The rain, which had turned the steep 1500 metre course into a slippery mud slide during qualifying, finally backed off for race day, but the damage had been done and, in some ways, the drying conditions made things worse. As the thick mud began to dry, it clung to bikes and turned to the consistency of peanut butter, doubling the weight of bikes and slowing forward momentum to a crawl.

“It was really tough,” said Atherton. “You know, some races you really enjoy, and others it’s a battle the whole time. This I was just fighting the whole way, the run was hard work; it was like a battle from top to bottom. It was a matter of just finding that line, hanging it out and having it pinned, and not pushing too hard and crashing. I guess I was right on that line and right on the limit the whole time. I was half crashing all the way down the hill, just holding on, and luckily I got it dialed.”

Minnaar had similar comments: “It was like Scalelectrix [model electric cars], it was one big rut the whole way down, so you just had to balance well and ride the rut as best you could.”

Only six riders occupied the Hot Seat during the race, starting with the first rider on the course, Ben Cathro, who held the lead for nearly a third of the field before being unseated by Ruaridh Cunningham (Chain Reaction/Intense). Cunningham knocked an impressive 16-plus seconds off of Cathro’s time, and was in the Hot Seat for 20 riders before his teammate Chris Kovarik bumped him by mere four-hundredths of a second.

“I’m pretty stoked to put that time in on that track,” said Atherton. “I knew Greg had the Hot Seat, and I knew I had my work cut out, and that it was going to be hard to knock him off. It is my second win of the season and I am over the moon right now.”

Minnaar continues to lead the World Cup standings with 830 points but, due to his poor qualifier and Atherton’s win and second place in qualifying, the British rider is only 13 points back with two races to go.

“I’m holding onto the [World Cup] lead by the skin of my teeth at this point,” commented Minnaar, “and with two to go, it’s not much of a gap. Gee and I will have to fight it out right to the end.”

For more race reports and results, go to Cyclingnews.com

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