Dream Bike Testing

Whoa whoa whoa! Fresh news! Testing of our Six Inch Travel Dream Bikes for next issue has commenced. AMB spent a massive day out on some great trails south of Sydney today on board some of the nicest machinery available from Scott, Specialized, Norco, Trek and Ibis.

What can we tell you so far? Let's just say that what these bikes can do absolutely blew us away. We threw ourselves off some pretty big drops today, slammed some large rocks at high speed and then pedalled the very same bikes back up to the top without a worry. Some of the bikes we tested today come incredibly close to that magical 'do-it-all' ideal. But for now I'm off to pop a couple of Nurofen and hope my knee swelling goes down so I can get amongst it again tomorrow....

Get Your World Champs Edition! On Sale Now!

Finally! Our long-anticipated World Champs edition is on sale. Keep an eye out for it with plenty of glittery gold on board. Gold? Why? Because Gravesy and Buchanan WON! 16 pages of Worlds coverage, with the best shots from the event and some secret squirrel behind the scenes tech news too.

Also inside: Conquer Your Fears! Tips from the pros and the medicos on how to win the battle of the nerves. Plus we go across the world to Canada and the USA to bring you the latest from Norco and Giant. All that and heaps more. Go track yourself down a copy now.

I spy..

What's this?

Sram XX?

oooo!

Next issue, full write up.

I freaking love dirt jumping

Sorry, but I do.

The jumps just 10 mins up the road from my place are in the process of being rebuilt at the moment you see. There have been jumps there for ages, but the kids didn't look after them and the under 12s soccer teams from the oval next door did their best Ronaldo impressions on the landers, chewing them up.

But the council agreed to a fresh start and brought in the bobcat. They dozed the whole lot, dumped an incredible amount of clay/fill, and have dedicated a few more days of bobcat time to rebuild the trails properly.

So far there are only three jumps finished, but it won't be long 'til there are many, many more.

But back to my original declaration; I freaking love dirt jumping. So that's why I took off early from the office this arvo (hey, we busted out some seriously hard yards to get issue 103 finished last week), grabbed my dog and my new NS Suburban dirt jump bike and headed out.

Sure, three jumps mightn't offer a whole lot of variety, but it was so relaxing killing an hour with the dog barking at me, just getting relaxed and flowy in the air again. The sun was dipping, the temp was perfect and I feel like a different man. I do need to clean up my rear brake though - I contaminated the pads when I fitted a new, longer brake line recently (let that be a lesson to me for using dodgy old, non-standard hydraulic fittings) - I took longer to stop than an oil tanker!

Sorry, meaningless ramble over now. I'm going to have a Stella.

Issue 103 on its way

A little sneak peek of the cov for issue 103! We're frothing over this one and we hope you will too - all the sickest shots from the World Champs, an interview with Caroline Buchanan, Norco vs Specialized, 2010 range review from Giant and Norco, Getting into Road Riding.....plus, Conquer Your Fears.

Out in just a couple of weeks time, look for it at your local.

Cheers.

World Champs.

Oh my, we have just come out of the biggest week in Australian mountain bike history. Unbelievable racing and good times. The blog has been a bit quiet of late as we are on deadline for the World Champs commemorative issue, it's out on the stands on September 30. Loaded with amazing photography and behind the scenes interviews with the fastest riders on the planet from all disciplines.

Photographers with names like: Damian Breach, Chris Benny, Krystle Wright, Derek Waterman, Gary Perkin, Travis Deane and Wolfgang Vandershmutt , the pages of the next mag are truly amazing. Just you wait!

A great memorable highlight of our week was cutting a hard and fast lap around Canberra's Sparrow Hill with world number 2 Jose Hermida from Spain/Multivan Merida. That guy is a crackup and rides so quick (surprise surprise), we held onto his wheel for about 15 minutes. The fastest 15 minutes ever.

We tried to meet as many international riders as possible in our wanderings through the pits, and every time we were pleasantly surprised how decent and down to earth the superstars are. This sport really is great to be a part of at times like these. We just got off the phone to Mick Hannah, he is a dead set legend.

Thanks to all who dropped by our stand to say g'day or pick up a showbag with Jordan's rad new T-shirt. And many thanks to those guys who loudly yelled out 'Frodo' or 'Harry Potter!' when we were up on the podium drawing out the prizes, ha, awwwkwarrd!

Who's that on the podium with the pretty ladies?

This sums up the wild fans. The crowd was mental!

What's next? Champery cross country this weekend, and then SCHLADMING! The World Cup Finals are coming up, plug yourselves into Freecaster.tv for live action.