Rubber Cruise

Phew, we've just knocked over a couple of good cruisy days of tyre testing, riding trails around Sydney's Royal National Park, as we put 20 pairs of the latest 2.1" - 2.3" endurance/trail tyres to the test. It's pretty hard to go wrong nowadays, as we found out, there are few truly bad sets of treads out there (a few medicore, sure). Hopefully next issue's huge write up will help a few readers work out which tyres will be best for their riding style.

Tomorrow arvo AMB shuts up shop for the year, we'll be back to work on Jan 4 to put the finishing touches on our Feb issue. In the meantime, we'll keep on updating the blog and do all we can to get some quality riding under our belt (and a few beers and puddings too). I've just bought a new set of forks for my DH bike and had my shock PUSH'd by Dirtworks, so I'll be hitting up some DH action. Mick's stoked to take hold of a new Trek Remedy 8 long term test bike tomorrow too, so he'll be like a kid in a toy shop I'm sure. Jordan will be out on the roadie, putting in the kays to try and burn off the marriage and honeymoon spare tyre! Rumour has it that his new wife told him he "looked pregnant", but we're sure his recent training frenzy will have him back to welterweight status in no time.

Now, go shred those trails people. Show the corners no mercy, take your fingers off the brakes and give yourself a scare. Summer's here, work and school are out, go explore and make the most of it. Yeeehooo!

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!

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.

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.

Wheeeewww!