Tuesday internal office product testings.

Today we curiously test the new Dorado, Truvativ Noir Carbon bars, and the new Hutchinson Cobra tyres.

The forks and handlebar prove to be ultra threatening to get Chris on his knees, whilst the tyre adds to the 'bad ass mean dude' image.

Yes it's raining outside, we've had a few too many coffee's and we are gutted with the ultra limited availability of the Dorado causing restrictions on fitting them to a bike. Ask Ben Cory, he's got some.

What's up?

What's new at AMB? HEAPS.

We are testing and loving the new BMC Trailfox, and the lush Trek Remedy. The hot new Chumba VF2 is underneath Simon Fredericksen from Race Elements, soon to be written up.

Blinding us in the office are 6 new super LED lights to be tested this weekend at the MONT 24, so we'll be flying, until the sun comes up.

Dan Bonello has the new Rockshox BoXXers on his bike and is giving them all his madness, along with a sweet Charge Duster steel hardtail with a Shimano Alfine internal geared rear hub. Sergeant Cynic is also happily razzing around on the new Felt Compulsion and Redemption, keep tuned to the next issue for a full review.

In process is a 4 bike shootout with the latest women's trail bikes. Cannondale Rush Feminine, Specialized Myka FSR, Trek Fuel WSD and the Giant Cypher. Women's specific, and ready to rock.

See you at the MONT 24, please drop by and say hello then laugh at Chris' shaved legs.

Shave The Editor for the Leukaemia Foundation.

Hello everyone,

As some of your may know I’ve been a long time opponent of shaving down. I’m a hairy little man, and I love it. I never quite saw the point of taking a razor to my legs and looking like a woman purely for the sake of doing some skids in the bush. Admittedly I’ve had a bit of a departure from my roots recently and purchased a road bike, but that didn’t mean I was going to go the whole hog and get the wax pot out. Those of you have who have seen the Apr/May issue of AMB may have read that in spite of my occasional roadie ways, I remained steadfast in my refusal to shave my legs. In the Ed’s Letter I even made a solemn promise to all 22,000 of our readers, “I will never, ever, ever shave my legs”.

Well it looks like the time has come to eat my words. No sooner had the issue hit the stands than Shane-o from Velovita got in contact with a great idea – Shave The Editor for the Leukaemia Foundation as part of the World’s Greatest Shave. To make the prospect of deforesting my legs even more humiliating we’ve decided that the Mont 24hr is the ideal venue for the shave – if you’re going to bust out the shaving cream and Gillette Mach 5, why not do it in front of 2,200 other mountain bikers? Not only is it a fantastic opportunity to raise some money for a great cause, but I get to look like an idiot in public too!

If you’d like to sponsor my public shaming and do your bit to support the fantastic work of the Leukaemia Foundation please visit

http://my.imisfriendraising.com.au/personalPage.aspx?registrationID=296456 and dig deep.

It’s time to man up, and look like a woman…in the name of a good cause, of course.

Chris.

Manitou Dorado's

Yes, sitting right in front of me..

Yes, larger than life, prettier than Chris' eyes.

No, you can't have them back yet.

Mt Buller envy

Wow wow wow. Mt Buller Festival was absolutely kick arse.

Put it in your diary for next year, this inaugural event sure will be amongst Australias finest in no time.

Look to the next issue for a full wrap up of the crazy times, epic photos and phenomenal trails.

Buller

The Bike Buller Festival kicks off this weekend for the very first time and AMB will there to check it out! Mick Ross and two of our test crew, Danny B and Big Dog Malone, are all currently in the car making the long journey south. We can't wait to here the tales. Sounds like it'll be a good weekend: 25km cross country race, follwed by a 7km Super D race, followed by partying, then backed up with a 50km cross country race on Sunday! Wicked. Chris is VERY JEALOUS.

Off-Cambrah

There were a lot of reasons why I should not have enjoyed the CORC race I attended on the weekend. I forgot my knee pads, I double flatted in practice, I crashed on my knee and I was either still drunk or very hungover when I arrived to register on the Sunday morning. Despite all this there was still so much to be stoked about - most of all, the track.

This was to be the final race of the CORC series for the 08/09 season and it was Held at Isaacs in the city’s south west. Ben Morrison had been talking up how good the track was going to be since the penultimate round a month ago, and he and his mates had delivered. It was short, really short, the Isaacs 1:04 was what some were calling it, but it was intense. Rocky and off camber, steep and rutted.

The previous night’s rain had helped conditions a lot and really made the track much more rideable. The atmosphere at these races is always super laid back, while still being a professionally run event. Practice is a free-for-all until the time someone yells ‘Elite are up in fifteen’. Each rider gets two timed runs and I’ve no idea how the winner is decided. That is pretty much because no-one cares! It is just a big group of riders doing timed runs in the forest. If you need to know Ben Cory looked pretty tapped all day and probably ended up with the quickest times.

So that is racing in the nation’s capital. It is awesome to be at events like Isaacs and see just how well things can be managed. CORC do such a good job and will welcome any riders into their ranks if they want to come and race. I am not sure if they have a policy that bans females from anything other than spectating, but it is a real shame to not see any women there to keep the male classes honest. Oh yeah, finally Canberra has some awesome junior riders and with such a good riding scene in the city it is no wonder there is so much talent coming out of Cambrah.

Off to print we go

Deadline time. Can't wait to get this issue out to you all - it's is a killer edition of AMB. Jordan Cole has stepped it up once again. Without a doubt this is the slickest looking mag in the universe. Big call we know - but if anybody challenges us, Jordan will arm wrestle them into oblivion...yep, all the way into oblivion. Here's a few happy snaps of the chaos at AMB HQ:

Does Chris look stressed enough for you?

Bad posture, Chris, stop slouching.Putting the finishing touches to the Tech: Convert your bike to Tubeless pages.

Still in the office at 9: 30? You've earned a beer, Jordan! Luckily our multitool test in the Apr/May issue has furnished us with plenty of tools, most of which fortunately come equipped with a bottle opener! Yum.

Feel the burn

Sheeesh, these deadlines seem to roll round awful quick! Feels like we just put the Mountain Bike Guide to bed and yet we're already staring down the barrel of another 'files to printer' moment. Luckily the A-Team are onto it.

Wanna little sneak preview of what you'll find in your news agent in just a few weeks?

Well....ok. It's a bit of a gravity themed issue my friends - with our new National Champ, Mick Hannah ruling the school on the cover. Inside you'll find a our report on the National Champs, an in-depth interview with our cover boy, two cool Super-D events you must race, a whole whack of great swag tested, five downhill bikes going head-to-head....pheww, it's gonna be awesome.

Out in just over two weeks. Tell us, friends, are you loving the new AMB as much as we are?

Danny B on Thredbo

Here's what our newest member of the test team, Danny B, had to say about his weekend at Thredbo:

Downhill Bikes and Ski Lifts

The people that call themselves the AMB test team got away to sunny Thredbo this past weekend for a seriously fun couple of days testing some of the hottest new DH rigs on the market. Here’s what went down.

The journey for most of us began late on thursday afternoon. My Volvo 240 estate made it through to our accommodation at the Lantern Appartments, with out a worry. So reliable. the rest of the crew trickled in closer to midnight having used a considerably smaller amount of gas than the Volvo. Everyone was pretty beat so it was pretty much straight to bed.

Friday Morning we awoke to what is arguably the best view in Thredbo. With our huge deck looking straight at the ski hill and Thredbo’s famous DH run. Breakfast, bike set up then an elbow to elbow razz through the steep winding streets and we were ready to shreddy.

The day pretty much consisted of banging out a few laps on a bike before handing it over and taking another one out for a test. It was awesome having big Jordy Cole (Art Designer AMB) riding with us. JC is no stranger to mountain bikes, but it was his first time on a DH bike and he was killing it while racking up quite an impressive tally of crashes.

The line up of bikes we had to choose from was pretty epic and it is great to see some of the frame manufacturers and suspension companies help push our sport. However some really do have some catching up to do.

My biggest regret of the day had to be not witnessing Jordy send his unmanned Big Hit straight at Mick Ross and the Rocky Mountain. While neither of the lads were hurt the Rocky Mountain was in need of half a dozen new spokes.

Saturday began a little slower for everyone. Some were hungover, some were just tired and beaten up and one of the crew had slept in his car. Why he made this choice in life is a mystery to all of us. After the bikes had been made new again we headed to the top to get some photos of the bikes. A big thanks to Damian Breach for his efforts on the weekend. He always manages to make the bikes and riders look fantastic, unfortunately for Pat Campbell the camera truly does add ten pounds.

Once the photos were all done, or once Damian was sick of lugging his 40lb camera bag around, we were just able to punch out as many top to bottom laps as our body would allow. I even got to mess around with the magazine’s new Free Lap timing system. Something seemed to be faulty with it though as my times were a long way slower than I had counted in my head.

So that is how our rigorous DH shootout was done. Pretty simple really when all I had to do was show up and ride, yet somehow page after glossy page magically appears in the form of a full 5 bike review. Look out for the Full Test in the April/May issue of AMB. Finally a huge thank you has to go to Jill at the Lantern for out accommodation and to Jane at South East MTB co. for looking after us all the whole time we were in Thredbo.

Danny Minichello

It feels like Autumn is here.

Well, I guess summer can't last forever. A blustery and chilly morning in Sydney today tells us one thing here at AMB...it's time to go night riding. As dusk creeps closer and closer to work hours the helmet lights are becoming a bit of a must-have for the local trails. The cooler months also mean a return to all the big endurance racing; the BMC Mountain to the Beach is already underway, the Mont 24hr is coming up, the Sydney 24hr has been and gone, the BMC and Dirt Works 100km races are almost here too, plus the fantastic Bike Buller Festival is only a few weekends away! Phew, we're going to have some sore legs!

A quick thank you to all the crew at Thredbo too - the folks from South East Mountain Bike Co looked after us in fine style while we were in town testing bikes last weekend. A few of the fellas were even lucky enough to get to ride at Tathra on the way home. This beautiful little coastal gem of a town has some 40km of mind blowing singletrack that has been cut it over the past few years. By all accounts it's worth making the journey, the guys were buzzing.

Above is a shot of the action from Thredbo - our main man Damian Breach is a wizard with a lense, check out more of his stuff http://www.damianbreach.com/

As we promised in the previous post, there was carnage! Jordan's first downhilling experience was certainly a baptism of fire! The big man of design went down hard on a few occassions but that didn't stop him from shredding the hill like nobody's business. The bikes were all top-notch, we felt very lucky to have the opportunity to ride such wicked machines.

Over and out.