Don’t be fooled by the quaint rolling hills of the South Downs; this chalk spine is no pushover when it comes to racking up the miles.
Downtown Petersfield on a Wednesday night. Kicking our heels waiting for Italian cheese on toast to come out of La Piazzetta’s oven, Rafi and I spot two bikes leant against the pub opposite, tied up like dogs outside a bookies. As usual, the opportunity to sniff around someone else’s bike proves too strong, and we wander over. A 1997 Scott Endorphin and a 2016 Cannondale Slate gravel bike with drop bars and a Lefty suspension fork make an odd pairing, but the geometry is probably reasonably similar despite the 20-year gap. The bike’s owners come out of the pub, eyeing us with suspicion before quickly realising we are ‘one of them’. We chat about their bikes and where they’ve been riding this evening before leaving them to claim our pizzas.
“Are we riding where they’ve been?” asks Rafi, the implication being that trails suitable for a cyclo-cross bike and a hard tail from the dawn of V-brakes won’t set our adrenaline glands flowing aboard long-travel trail bikes.
The South Downs has been a sanctuary for mountain bikers in the South East for as long as people have been riding off-road. This band of hills might lack the ultimate altitude of other riding hotspots, but with all else around them relatively flat, they have a grandeur of their own — a green and white swell of chalk and closely cropped grass.
Running from Winchester to Eastbourne, the 100-mile length of the South Downs is criss-crossed with trails ancient and modern and is where you’ll find Neolithic flint mines butting up against science parks — cutting-edge technology has always been big business in these parts.
Bu hikaye Mountain Bike Rider dergisinin October 2017 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye Mountain Bike Rider dergisinin October 2017 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
Best places to ride with your kids
Five top venues to keep the nippers entertained this summer
CANNONDALE MOTERRA NEO CARBON 2
It’s got more suspension tunes than a Hitchcock movie, but will this Moterra thrill us or chill us?
100% GLENDALE GLASSES
When it comes to eyewear, having a large lens not only offers a lot more protection from trail splatter, it puts the frames further out from your field of view, allowing you to focus on the terrain in front of you. The Glendale is absolutely vast, and actually has a lens size akin to a full downhill goggle, so you literally can’t see the top or sides of the frame.
DMR STAGE 2 MTB RAIL SADDLE
DMR's new Stage 2 MTB Rail is one of those new/old products. The shape and construction are identical to the existing Oi Oi saddle, but the company has wrapped it in a new skin and added some harder-wearing reinforcement to the edges. It's also toned down the lairy graphics; this saddle only comes in plain black.
STRAIGHT TORQUING - GUY KESTEVEN
Has tech taken the hard work and fun out of mountain biking, or should we embrace evolution and roll with it?
STORM FORCE
Manon Carpenter may have retired from downhill competition, but her new role as a trail advocate is achieving results far beyond the race track
SWEAT AND SLATE
We ride 140 miles through Snowdonia on Cycling UK's newest and gnarliest long-distance trail
HEAD SPACE
New guidance reveals how to spot concussion, and how best to treat it
LATE SUMMER LOVIN'
Classic UK holiday hotspots that really shine when the crowds have gone
HOT STUFF
WHAT WE'RE EXCITED ABOUT THIS MONTH