February is the most depressing month of the year. It’s still raining and January’s new year enthusiasm has faded away. So wouldn’t it be nice to have to something to look forward to?
A riding break in the Scottish Highlands, for example!

MBUK have teamed up with Progression Bikes and the Atholl Arms Hotel in Dunkeld to offer one lucky reader (and a friend) the chance to win a two-night stay in the Highlands with a day’s guided mountain biking. Bike hire is included, as is breakfast and dinner.

Like the sound of this? To be in with a chance of winning this prize, just answer this question:

In which town in Scotland are the Atholl Arms and Progression Bikes located?
A) Glasgow
B) Dunkeld
C) Edinburgh

To enter, text MBKSCOT, then a space, then your answer (A, B or C) to 87474, or enter online at www.futurecomps.co.uk/MBK287SCOT.

The prize can be taken up until 30 October 2013 and you have until 12 March 2013 to enter.

Small print: There will be one winner. Competition opens on 8 February 2013. Closing date is 12 March 2013. Prize must be taken by 30 October 2013. Accommodation is subject to availability. For full MBUK terms and conditions, see http://www.futurenet.com/futureonline/competitionrules.asp. Prize includes two nights’ accommodation with dinner, bed and breakfast for two people at the Atholl Arms Hotel, Dunkeld and one day’s guiding riding tour and bike hire with Progression Bikes. Transport to Dunkeld and other food and drinks are not included.

Style comes in many forms. It may be the latest heart-stopping super car to roll out of the hallowed gates of Maranello or simply a chunky piece of plastic sat daintily on the wrist of the object of your affections. One form it never really materialises in though is aboard a carbon fibre hardtail, two-wheels off the ground, in the rain.

Thankfully, British Cycling’s Olympic Development Program riders Kenta Gallagher, Annie Last and Grant Ferguson dispelled this myth amidst the precipitation and Mordor-like grey of Lee Quarry when Ric went to visit them.

You can read the full article in MBUK 272 which is on sale 14th December but in the mean time, click ‘play’ below and enjoy a recalibration of just how stylishly you thought an XC race bike could be ridden.

I got to interview Dave a few weeks for our Pulse section’s Industry Insider (MBUK 271 in shops now) and got an insight into just how much work he pours into his designs. One of the coolest parts of what I do is getting to talk to the people who’ve designed bikes that I love. Having owned (well, ‘had custody of’) a Pivot Mach 5, Iron Horse Sunday and my current Pivot Mach 5.7, it’s fair to say that I’m a big fan of the dw-link.

Unfortunately, we don’t have loads of room in the tight confines of the Industry Insider ‘box’ so I thought I’d put the fill transcription of our chat up here for all you Weagle fans to have a ganders at. Enjoy and if you get a chance to ride one of his bikes – do it, you won’t be disappointed.

MBUK:  Name and job title?

DW: Dave Weagle, no job title!

What does the average working day involve for you?

DW: Ususally up and working before 7AM, many days I start off with SportsCenter for a few minutes while I get dressed, then it’s coffee and e-mail for as long as it takes. Hopefully by mid-morning I’m working on some actual projects. Major projects could include anything from data acquisition or shock dyno work, to developing new geometry or kinematics for bicycle partners, or working on fabrication of my linkage motocross suspension prototypes.  After lunch I’m typically back to projects, then test riding on the trails, mostly ride evaluation and damper tuning, I do all of the damper tuning for all of my partner bikes, from XC to DH, so it’s a time consuming part of what I do. Then more time in the office chair until it’s time for dinner.  Sometimes I hit round 3 as well, but after a solid 10-12 hour day 6 days a week, well… Rest is not the worst thing. Of course the best workdays are like the ones I had last Friday and Saturday, where I spent the 2 days testing dampers for DH bikes up on the mountain. There’s nothing wrong with that!

DW-Link must have (and must still be) massive for you – what has been the highlight for you personally of it? All the World Cup and World Champs wins must be huge?

DW: Absolutely, dw-link is still a huge part of what I do, and I couldn’t be happier with the group of partners that I work with today. The World Cup and World Championship wins were really great, and I enjoyed travelling the world, meeting so many new friends and just taking it all in, but for me the best part of it all has really been hearing from everyday riders how the products I’ve brought to market have improved their lives. It is always incredibly rewarding to hear a rider talk about how they tested this product and that, and that their actual impression of the product on the trail is what pushed them to choose one over another, that’s awesome. I love that the application of math and physics can improve the quality of life.

Tell us a bit about how long Split Pivot was in development for?

DW: The Split Pivot design has been in development since the mid 2000’s. It was a pretty constant workload over the years going from designs to patents, to prototypes, to new partners, to production bikes. For sure there is a lot of work involved. I probably could have worked harder on bringing bikes to market in 2008 and 2009 when I was concentrating on e*thirteen, but it’s really taken off in the last couple of years since then. The Devinci and BH Split Pivot bikes have been really well received by the riding public and have proven themselves as formidable weapons on the World Cup DH and XC circuits as well, so I am excited about the future. With Morewood showing product at Eurobike and the BH and Devinci product lines expanding, there is some cool stuff happening. I’m especially excited about the Devinci Atlas 29er with its 428mm long chainstay length. It’s one of the first 29ers I’ve ridden that with a more classical mountain bike geometry and it’s something I’m hoping to implement on many more bikes.

What and where do you currently ride yourself?

DW: Most of my XC riding and testing is done here on the trails of Martha’s Vineyard, an island off the south coast of Massachusetts ,USA. I have about a 20 mile loop that I do right out of my yard here, and it’s littered with square edged rooty bumps on the trails. There aren’t many long sustained climbs, pretty much you are pedaling constantly. It’s a fantastic place to test trail bikes.  My second “office” is Highland Mountain in New Hampshire. It’s a great place to test bikes and people there are very cool about not taking pictures etc… of the prototype bikes and parts that I usually sport. I love it up there. I just got back and I can’t wait to go again! Bikes, well, basically everything that I had a hand in I have at least one here, plus more than a few that I had nothing to do with, just to keep tabs on where the rest of the industry is.

Can you tell us what you’re currently working on or is it masked in secrecy?

DW: hahahaa, Believe me, there are so many things that I would like to talk about but I can’t. The ones that I can talk about are, hmmmm… The last year has been a real push with building a completely new shop. It’s a state of the art facility complete with energy efficient geothermal heating, a very sophisticated computer controlled shock dyno, separate auto and bike work areas, a fabrication area, and a full suspension rebuild area (bicycle and moto). I am pretty excited about it. Morewood, the Sukuma 150mm travel bike is moving well, I’ll be testing with some new BOS air shocks on the bike soon, and the FOX and Rockshox tunes are already totally dialed. Also the new 170mmm Morewood Split Pivot should be here any day as well. I’m testing a new Turner DHR with some radical geometry; we will see how it goes. I don’t see it becoming production but you have to push the boundaries to learn. All new dw-link and Split Pivot websites are on the way, that is so time consuming, and I really have to say I don’t love working on the content side of things but it’s a necessity I guess! They will be a really great portal for dw-link, Split Pivot and Delta system riders to find setup info for their bikes. Also, my moto suspension project Orion should be launching next year, no specific timetable though, when it’s ready it’s ready!

We’ve got a whole host of features dedicated to winter riding, to give you the skills, gear and motivation you need to keep in the saddle throughout the cold season.

Including…

• How to ride through rain, mud, wind, ice and snow
• Essential gear, food and warm-ups for every ride
• Why winter riding rules! By the riders who live it!

Plus there’s a massive winter jackets grouptest, a round-up of six of the best riding glasses, a wild riding adventure in Knoydart, Scotland and a free DMR beanie hat to keep you warm between rides!

MBUK 271 is on sale tomorrow. Keep in touch with the team on Facebook, via Twitter or on the forum.

All the skills you need for winter riding

Our 20 best tips for winter

Alright folks, how are we? Thought I’d check in and give you a quick update on how things are going with ‘Team Mega’.

Jamer had a spot of self-diagnosed illness last week and has this week disappeared to a European mountain range to throw himself down hills on a glorified ironing board so it’s been left to me and Rob to cane in Joe from Flat Out Fit‘s personal training plans…

So what have I learned? Well, I’m pretty good at ‘the plank’, doing sit-ups around an excitable ten month-old puppy is a futile exercise and the Pyramid of Pain is one of the most unpleasant things that you can do on a bike…

If you’ve got a spare twelve minutes at lunch you should try it;

Sprint for ten seconds, recover for 50.

Sprint for 20 seconds, recover for 40.

Sprint for 30 seconds, recover for 30. The swearing starts under the breath.

Sprint for 40 seconds, recover for 20. Swearing still under the breath, some grimmacing.

Sprint for 50 seconds, recover for 10. Swearing turns blasthemic, looking to the sky for forgiveness starts.

Sprint for 60 seconds straight. Run out of room, put a big old corner in, get chased by a staffy, swearing now deemed offensive by Franky Boyle.

The fun doesn’t stop there though, oh no, you then REPEAT the above but in reverse order.

Go on… Try it… I dare you!

A five hour drive after a boozey weekend in Edinburgh along with cramming all the little things that typically litter a Monday into a Monday afternoon was a bit of a head-bender. Still though, just like entering the Queens Street branch of a certain well-known chain of casinos at 3am on Saturday night, this was going to be a gamble…

Shooting a feature on riding some of the UK’s rockiest trails, in the first week of Feb, in the rainiest place in Briatin, on a bike that hadn’t arrived yet was all adding up to some Nurofen-worrying head-scratching.

But, with a few frenetic phone calls, some urgent bombing-around and a quick trip to M+S the Vito Sport was loaded up and we were ready to go. We even managed to sequester Charge Bikes’ Neil Arnold to come along too.

After several toilet stops to indulge the south west’s smallest bladder (that’s you, James) we made it to our Penrith B+B before hitting the local for some pies and pints. We also hooked up with the only outstanding member of our team, MTBskils.eu‘s Clive Forth.

The talk over dinner, as usual, focused around bikes, bike magazines, bike companies and well, bikes… Snapper Seb Rogers managed to wangle it round to Volkswagen vans for a bit and Clive and I did touch on 1980′s rally cars but the theme definitely stayed with all things two-wheeled for the majority.

Up early the next morning, we hit the road for the quick blip over to our base-camp in Patterdale.

I won’t go into too much detail on where and what we rode (you can read that in MBUK 262, on sale 9th March. Plug.) but suffice to say it was epic. I’ve never ridden anything like it.

We’d both definitely recommend a visit, particularly if you’re planning a foreign jaunt this year. As I said though, more next month…

Whilst I’m here though – everyone got the new copy of the mag yet? Well, it went on sale today and not only do you get my second ever front cover (worth the cover price alone. To my Mum.) but also a load of good stuff including us ragging it at Aston Hill, Doddy taking on Morocco and our essential guide to thrashing the Alps on a shoe-string. Oh yeah, and a rather snazzy chainstay protector too…

Have you ever tried something on in a flash clothes shop thinking “This is a bit of a gamble…”?

You dander across the shop with aforementioned item in your hand, locate the hard to find changing rooms and get one of those big plastic tags from the most trendily-dressed yet bored sixteen year-old muppet in Britain. Nervously you head to the changing rooms.

There’s a tingle of excitement as you pull on the new t-shirt/shirt/jeans/quilted jacket thing which seem to be all the rage these days. Then you look at yourself in the brightly-lit full-length mirror and it hits you – this new, fashionable and apparently cool thing is not meant for you.

This deflated sense of ‘almost’ (although told in an admittedly long-winded and slightly camp analogy) is how I feel about flat DH bars.

I’ve been contimplating trying a set for a while now and when my new Morewood Izimu DH bike arrived fitted with a pair of Spank Spike 777 Evo flat bars, it seemed like fate had stepped in and said “Go on Ric, give it a crack.”

I’d had a few car-park roll arounds and the bike along with the bars felt spot-on. The front-end felt ultra-low but having spent a year riding an Iron Horse Sunday, I liked that. Getting over the front is one of the secrets to going fast in corners and I very much enjoy going fast in corners – this should do the job rightly.

Strangely though, I threw my leg over the bike at the top of the Forest of Dean’s Ski Run and something had changed, my face did a weird thing. It’s the sane ‘weird thing’ it does on first seeing yourself in the changing room mirror – a sort of deflated rumple of concern.

To be fair, in the corners, the flat bars felt ok. The right width and plenty of room (as you’d expect) to get right over it. On the way out though on the pedals I just couldn’t get used to them. My hands felt like they were on the floor and under braking I had more than a couple ‘I’m going over the front here’ weight transfer moments.

I wasn’t too upset – the gamble may not have paid off but the Izimu as a whole felt superb. With the softer (400×3.25) of my new springs from Mojo fitted the angles were spot on, it pedalled well and carried speed well over the roots.

Just like dejectedly handing the fashion faux-pas back to the muppet I was disapointed with the bars. At the same time though, there was that sense of ‘stick to what you know and do it well’. Some new bars are on their way… Stay tuned.

Tomorrow is bike test photo-shoot day for myself, Jamer and young Jake. A day spent blipping through sections trying to keep your tongue in your mouth for legendary snapper Steve Behr.

I won’t lie to you though, I have a bit of an alterior motive tomorrow. You see after my hectic weekend of shed-fettling/Hoegaarden drinking, tomorrow will be my first proper razz out on my new Morewood Izimu DH bike.

The only thing that’s needed swapping since it arrived last week is the slightly tiddily 300×3.25 rear spring. At a scrawny yet heavy-boned 6ft 1″, that’s a bit on the light side for me. Thankfully though, when it comes to Fox suspension fixes there’s a Bat-phone-like number that’ll sort you out quicker than, well… Batman – Mojo.

After a quick chat with Tim and Chris I now have two spring options to have a play with – a 400×3.25 and a meatier 450×3.25.

One of my aims at the start of this year was to run my bikes a bit firmer so I’ll have a play tomorrow and let you know how I get on.

This is the less glamorous side of bike journalism – hovelling in the back of a Van being gently buffeted by the wind as a muddy puddle forms underneath me dripping from my shorts.

The tuna bap I’m eating has some how morphed into one soft brown ball and water is dripping from my visor. January is always a chore, not only has the warm glow of Christmas well and truly evaporated but it always seems somehow wetter and colder.

Snapper Steve Behr, Jake and myself are attempting to shoot the next issues bike test in some woods near Bath and the weather is horrendous. Honestly, if Noah was about he’d be rounding up giraffes!  As ever though, there are no excuses – we need the shots and have to come back with the very best that we can get.

Right, back to it then… Time to swap some pedals and get a bit wetter!

This week marks the end of the road for myself and my Giant Glory long-term bike. The nice men from Giant UK have been on and she is being recalled to base.

It’s been an eventful year aboard the Glory and it’s fair to say that it’s been a great long-term bike. After breaking my arm first riding the thing for issue 246 things got off to a less than brilliant start. That said though, I knew I liked it – if I’m honest, more than I had expected to.

The stand-out moment of the year for the Glory though was definitely our trip to Malaga. Pete Drew from Silverfish and myself headed out there to sample the delights of the new Rocky Mountain Slayer, slow-cooked ribs and the joys of drinking beers and generally being loutish in a communal swimming pool. The Glory came with though for two days worth of feature shooting (see issue 258) which really cemented our relationship.

I guess it sort of jades your view a bit when you get to ride some of your years best tracks/trails aboard a certain bike but even after destroying a chainring, my ribs and a finger – the Glory was amazing in Malaga.

The tracks were long, brutal and both technical yet flat-out in equal measures. I’d just had the bike back from Mojo who had shortened the rear shock by 5mm which had slackened the head-angle out nicely and the 2011 Fox 40′s up front were an education in plushness.

Other mods which made the Giant a pleasure to own were the bombproof Hope Pro 2 wheelset,Renthal Fatbars and the Continental Der Baron tyres.

The wheels were one of the first products to get tested and as soon as they were on the Glory that was it – a years worth of riding and abuse later and they’re still just as smooth and straight as ever. The bars were a classic case of  ‘yep, they’re for me’ – it’s all personal preference of course but the Fatbars just feel ‘right’ to me. Finally, I’ve only been running the Continental’s for a month but already I’m in love with them. They just hold on like nothing else I’ve ridden, watch out for a full review soon once they’ve done the office rounds.

All in then, the Glory has been a superb long-term bike. A stable test-bench and consistent performer it rarely let me down and was always up for ‘just one more run’.

Well done Giant Glory – you did both of us proud.