Moerengi Track, Whirinaki.

Wooooooo yea, we were privileged to ride the newly opened Moerengi Track just out of Rotorua. This ride was a true adventure, hours of hours of amazing ancient forests and enormous old growth trees, passing tall waterfalls and crystal clear drinkable streams.

Here Mick leads Pat Campbell and Chris Jiffwood blindly down sections of an 8km full speed descent. Stoked!

Taupo, NZ. Check it.

On our trip to Rotorua, we took a day to ride a few sweet trails around Lake Taupo. Check out this video of a trail named W2k. Holy crap, how good does it look! Watch Micks rear wheel and the amazing lack of traction from a bad tyre selection choice. Funny stuff.

Rotorua reflections.

Sure, we've been back from Rotorua for many weeks but we cannot stop watching the footage. And I bumped into some mates on the trail the other day, they asked if I'd been to Rotorua, 15 minutes later after glowing accounts they were super motivated and if they could have booked flights then and there they would have.

Check out this tasty clip from right up high in the Whakarewarewa Forest. Aaaaggghhh, perfect singletrack!

Hardtail testing/razzing.

Whew, Ourimbah must have been the hottest place on earth to test out seven new hardtails under $1500 from; Norco, Specialized, Avanti, Marin, GT, Malvern Star and Orbea.
You sure get a lot of great handling bikes for the dough these days. And it's unreal to razz around on a hardtail every now and then, keeps you on the ball!

Enjoy this little video clip of Chris the high paced flamer blasting the bliss, groomed Ourimbah trails aboard the confident Norco Storm, with Mick following on the spritely Avanti Barracuda. The cicada's were evidently loving the show, cheering and peeing all over us. Ahhhh, summer. Ahhhh so hot!

Get a Rize outta this.

Mick gets cruisy on board the new Rize 120, around the killer trails just north of Forster.

What's Happening?

Well and truly into the mania of the silly season now, so it has been a few days since we've had a moment to post. So what's happening? HEAPS.

AMB's trip to the Forster region was unreal - the place is so mellow, it really felt a world away from the Christmas chaos of Sydney at this time of year. It's even an easy drive for Sydney-siders too, all dual carriage way from start to finish, there in three hours max. And the trails....? Oh yes, they've got some good ones! We'll have a full report in the mag soon, but for now we'll just say these trails are on par with some of the funnest singletrack we've ridden anywhere. Over 40km of the good stuff.

We're about to kick off a few days of testing for our next shootout too; this time around we're going to find the best hardtail under $1500. With seven bikes on test the competition will be hot to see who takes the crown in this highly competitive and vitally important market segment. Seriously, the amount of bike you get for under $1500 is ridiculous now, 2010 sees value return in a big way.

Speaking of rubber (or not), a mountain of fresh new tyres have appeared in the AMB offices over the last week as we get set to log some kays over Chrissy and deliver our verdicts on 24 of the best trail tyres on the market. All the old favourites are there, along with some fancy new lightweight treads from the likes of Onza and Stans No Tubes. Can't wait to see how they perform. It'll all be in our Feb issue so stay tuned.

Ok, coffee time - there are features to write today.

- Cheers,
Chris.

Off on an adventure.

With deadline just a couple of hours away, we're looking forward to busting out of the office tomorrow. We're off on a secret north coast adventure! Where to?

Well it rhymes with Grate Steaks. And there's a town there will a name that sounds just like a nasty beer we Australians export all over the world....Any guesses?

Should be a good - we'll be taking photographic wizard Chris Benny along with us, so the snaps'll be fantastic. In the meantime, here's a nice summer evening photo. Oh, and congratulations Jordan! The LoColemotive was married on the weekend to his beautiful wife Jasmina! Great times.

Deadline mania!

Hey, check out the spy photo of the next issue.

It's deadline today, for the 'Places That Rock' January issue on sale Dec 23. It's hot.

Rides near your capital city

Four 4" cross country race bike shootout: Giant Anthem X1, Scott Spark 30, Specialized Epic Comp, Trek Top Fuel 8

Kona Stab Deluxe
Carver Killer B
Norco Faze SL

Mountain Biking in Borneo
Getting your partner into riding
How to jump 360s
How to stay svelte during the silly season

And loads more. It's hotter than hot.

Wheeeewww!

Happy AMB Xmas

What a great way to spend a hot Sunday arvo! The AMB crew, friends and family took it easy today, with a cruisy lap round The Dam (with a mid lap beer stop) backed up with a seriously good BBQ. Doesn't get much better! Chris Benny set the fastest time around the picnic site hot lap track, closely followed by Drew 'The Helmet' Hamilton on board his new test bike. Awesome. Thanks to everyone who came along, and thanks to my mum for the delicious choccy cake! Cheers. - Chris.

Keep an eye open...

This bike was stolen in Wagga Wagga on Monday. If some low life tries to sell it to you, kick 'em in the shins, take the bike from them and then get in contact with us to collect your $200 reward.

Rotorua....

Rotorua is sweet. In our Feb/Mar issue we'll tell you why.

Dropping in amongst the big trees. Photo: Derek Morrison.

Kona Stab Deluxe testing.

The new Kona Stab Deluxe is a whole lot of dowhnhilling good times for the coin, with a lighter frame, and a lower front end the 2010 model kicks arse.
There is a full writeup in the next mag, meanwhile check it out making light work of Oxford Falls, NSW.

Rotorua, Whakarewarewa Forest, ooooooo my.

Check out this clip, it's one of many and that's the cause of the delay. More to come!

This particular trail is a classic Rotorua gem, led by Gaz from NZO (in blue, typically one or two corners ahead within a few metres.. fast) into corner after corner after corner...

We're Back!

Wow, just back in from Rotorua this afternoon... Sorry, we didn't have a spare moment to upload videos, photos or even shoot through any updates - we crammed in at least a month's worth of insanity into five solid days!

There will be plenty of good stuff up in the next couple of days, but in the meantime let us just say one thing:
YOU MUST GO.
Rotorua completely blew us away. In fact, it honestly redefined for us exactly how incredible mountain biking can be. The quality, quantity, accessibility and variety of trails - coupled with some of the friendliest and most helpful locals - makes this place a true gem. Direct flights from Sydney start from December 12. You'd be crazy not to book one, or as they say "be rude not to".

Wow..........

Friday arvo countdown..

It's 4.19pm on the Friday before we leave for Rotorua, New Zealand. Holy crap.. Almost there!

Stay tuned to this blog, we will hopefully get time between partying and shredding to upload some Vholdr footage. We will have two cameras over there to capture the flow we've all heard of and plenty of Chris' crashes. Soooo pumped right now, it's finally starting to sink in. Please don't hate us!

Cranking The Hive Fifteen.G's

These sweet new cranks from The Hive have been very well recieved. We will have a product test in the upcoming January issue. Until then check out www.dirtworks.com.au for more.(Yes i forgot my socks that day, and no i don't recommend it.)

Wednesday arvo team runch.

Team AMB bails from the concrete jungle, making the most of the awesome daylight savings. Jordan absolutley ruled that day, Rotorua here we come!

2010 Rockshox Revelation.

Check out the action of these slick sliders.

We took the fork down a particularly technical, steep and rocky trail. It loved it.

Get behind a new pump track

To all Sydney riders:

Willoughby City Council are currently seeking expressions of support for the proposed development of a new pump track in the Northbridge area. In order for this proposal to get off the ground it is vital that riders who'd like to see this facility go ahead get typing and fire off an email stating that "I support the proposed development of a new pump track facility on Sailors Bay Rd, Northbridge".

Send your expressions of support to:
Adam.Cole@Willoughby.nsw.gov.au

Cheers - Chris.

Sweet pump track!

Testing the good stuff!

What's under the wrecking crew at the moment?

SRAM XX
Rockshox Revelation Team
The Hive cranks
Maxxis Aspen tyres
Oakley Jawbone sunglasses
PRO Atherton Series components
Yeti ASR 7 (wooo!)
Merida One20
Felt Q80
And more..

And some more damn exciting news? We are heading over to Rotorua NZ in mid November for a week long shred fest and tour of the trails we keep hearing about. Chris visited the area a few years back, so he's more pumped than anyone right now, sounds rad.

Scott 24

Team AMB didn't race the Scott 24 this year, as the group viking Southwood got married (gross). We traded the sweet trails and monumental racing for the dance floor and dress-ups in the Hunter Valley. Congratulations you romantic maniac!

So Damian Breach was there for us to capture the thoughts and faces of the 12 riders doing a solo 24 hour for the first time.

"The Scott 24 hour was run and won over the weekend and around 200 mad mountain bike racers pushed the limits and raced solo. It was probably the biggest solo field in the history of the Scott and AMB was there to get you an interesting perspective on their 24 hours of pain, fun, smiles and joy. Stay tuned for the next issue of AMB to see how 12 ordinary people did an extraordinary thing" -Damian.

Goodness from last week

A few sneak previews of the great images captured by Damian Breach during last week's testing. Damian also carried out a little project during the shoot - every hour he'd take a shot of whatever he was up to to document the day in the life of a photographer. Check it out on Damian's site, www.damianbreach.com

Wet

Goddamn. Sydney has been hit by a weather front that looks set to keep the trails sodden for a few days at least. If you're thinking about heading out there REMEMBER; after you come back in, take your seatpost out and turn your bike upside down. Guaranteed, you'll get some water draining out, water that would otherwise collect on your bottom bracket bearings... ok?