Shredding the Best Mountain Biking Trails in NZ

So you’ve conquered Europe’s bike parks, and everything Stateside has shut down for the ski season. All you want to do is shred, but the hills are alive with the sound of piste-bashers.

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If you’re in need of some serious R&R, (ride and recuperation) but all your mates are out hunting powder, then it’s high time you considered a soil-searching trip to the Southwest Pacific to sample the best mountain biking trails in NZ (New Zealand)  and all the islands have to offer.

The ‘land of the long white cloud’ offers a mountainous South Island and a volcanic North Island, with hours of saddle time to be had on both.

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Mountain Biking Shoes: Teva Links Mid Reviewed

Teva are well known for their robust trekking sandals. I have had the same pair of Teva Hurricane’s since 2002, and despite wearing them every summer and on plenty of holidays, they are still in good condition.

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But this post is not about sandals: Teva make a full range of footwear, including this recently launched pair designed for mountain biking.

So, let’s see just how they match up when on the bike and in the rough.

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Review of HBH MTB shoes and Bikehut pedals

Having mountain biked since I was a kid the thought of attaching my feet to the pedals has always seemed alien to me. But enough of my friends have tried it, and liked it, that I thought it was about time I gave it a go.

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Comments such as ‘once you have tried it you will never go back’ enticed me into acquiring the Bikehut high performance dual sided SPD pedals and HBH MTB shoes.

This is Halfords’ own brand of SPD (Shimano Pedal Dynamics), which look and work in a similar way to their more expensive cousins.

Getting the HBH pedals and shoes set up

On arrival the HBH MTB shoes were a good fit and very comfy. I was impressed with the armour around the toes; if my trainers had provided this over the last few years it would have saved me quite a bit of pain and black toenails. Also, the pedals and cleats on the shoes were very easy to fit and adjust.

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Euro Bike Tours: France and Spain

After what can only be described, at best, as a patchy summer, the nights are once again rolling in. It’s traditionally the time to put away the pannier bags and forget all about cycling holidays and Euro bike tours for another year.

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Unless, that is, you start to think a little further afield into Southern Europe. The dismal UK weather might make touring only for the diehards, but in France and Spain the milder conditions means euro bike tours are very much still in full swing.

There are several reasons why, over the last twenty years, so many Brits have swapped pound for euro, upped sticks and took bike tours abroad – here are just a few:

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MTB Touring: Where cycling and camping combine

As more and more people are drawn to mountain biking, more and more cyclists are off MTB touring, looking for that perfect harmony between biking and camping.

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Mountain bikes (MTB’s) have taken camping to a whole new level by being able to cover more distance and carry more gear in an adventure that is truly over the top.

MTB touring is an exciting way to escape the summertime crowds on mountain trails or engage in a full-expedition over a few weeks. Either way, your camping holiday should be planned wisely. Here are just a few points to keep in mind before you get on the bike and set out on the trail:

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MTB Challenge: Land’s End to John o’Groats

Land’s End to John o’Groats is popular for road cyclists. But it’s an MTB challenge to far for most riders…At more than 1,000 miles (‘,600 km) it will test your endurance and dogged determination to face the changeable British weather. Now try it off-road….

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As part of the Explore! Bipolar ‘Highs & Lows’ ride, Ashley Toft will be leading a bunch of riders through a 3-week challenge starting on 31 May 2012 – and it’s all to raise awareness of bipolar disorder.

Starting in Cornwall’s Land’s End, the route mirrors the condition’s highs and lows with riders cycling as much of the route off-road as possible.

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Mountain biking clothing: Does it improve your ride?

I started mountain biking this summer and until recently was going out in a pair of sport shorts and a normal t-shirt.

MTB Gear halfords

Most of the guys I ride with have all the gear, and in comparison I felt a little like a kid that forgot his gym kit and was being made to do sport in clothes from the lost property box.

So is MTB clothing just about fitting in and looking cool? or does the correct gear improve your ride?

To test this, I went crazy on the Halfords website taking advantage of the ‘buy one, get one half price’ on all cycle clothing. I kitted myself up without breaking the bank and my thoughts are below:

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New Bikes: Buying a Mountain Bike

Back in May, I decided to replace my barely road worthy ‘mountain’ bike with a bike that can handle proper off-road riding. I hadn’t ridden off-road since I was a kid, which was well before mountain bikes had disk brakes or suspension so I went into this very green.  These are the main things I considered:

Budget

Everyone has a different amount to spend; my magic number was £400 max. I knew the bike would get plenty of riding on the road to cycle to work, but having not ventured into the rough stuff for nearly 2 decades, I couldn’t justify spending more in case the off road riding never happened.

Suspension

When I last rode bumpy trails, suspension consisted of standing up to avoid a sore bottom! Now with the choice of full-suspension (front and rear), hard tail (just front suspension) or no suspension, I could choose to avoid the sore bottom but had a sore head trying to decide what to go for.

In the end, it came down to what I could afford: I wanted some suspension, but I could only afford a bottom of the range full-suspension bike, which would be very heavy – so as I would be doing plenty of hill climbing, I went for a hard tail.

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SunnyCam Video Glasses Review: Mountain Biking

It is not often that I keep an eye out for the postman, however when the SunnyCam video glasses were expected I was camped out on the doorstep in anticipation. The excitement was thanks to a piece of gadgetry that puts a 3MP 30 frames per second video camera into a pair of sunglasses! Perfect if you have James Bond fantasies, but much more fun if you want to record madcap adventure sports videos!

Many good products fail on their looks – not something SunnyCam was going to let happen. Even from the Apple-like quality packaging, they’d clearly put the effort in, and yes I’m keeping the box!

The glasses look good, and although not the coolest sunglasses you have ever seen, the fact that they discretely contain the video camera, battery, 4GB internal memory, space for a microSD card, a USB slot, and controls all in a pair of glasses is pure genius. Most of the clever stuff is in the arms of the specs, with a 3-hour battery on one side, and the memory and controls on the other. It makes them a little bulky, but considering what they contain I feel they have done a great job.

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