My mountain bikes have suffered a bit as of late, with my Whyte 46 out of action thanks to a knackered rear shock, and the Cove Stiffee seatpin and saddle-less since the departure of its overweight and underused sibling with whom they were shared. The Whyte is set to be replaced with something more 2011 (the Ibis Mojo HD), and the family will shortly be joined by a sprightly young carbon Whyte 19C, but the Cove deserves more than mere dust gathering, so I’ve recently made the effort to return it to trail readiness.

At 6ft2, a 17.5″ mountain bike is never going to pedal particularly fast, but when I first (over)built it up, the Stiffee was a total pig. I have since managed to shed some of the weight, with lighter wheels, tyres, etc. Yesterday I stuck an ageing Flite (a Marco Pantani signature Flite no less) on a new Thompson seatpost, and swapped some lighter bars and stem over, replacing the Hussefelt ones which must be hewn out of mild steel. I’ve still got to swap the Hussefelt cranks and BB, which when replaced with XT should drop things another pound at least. This is all very boring anyway. Who cares about heavy cranks. Zzzzz.

Right. So fitted with the new bits and bobs Alex and I headed out for an exploratory ride from his new place in Crundale, situated at the foot of the North Downs near Wye. The going was moist to say the least, and neither of us were sporting particularly suitable tyres. Still, we managed to piece together a decent enough loop. Mainly low tech XC, but with mud-clogged tyres it sometimes took a bit of effort to stay upright. The Cove wasn’t an enjoyable ride uphill, but at least it could go uphill. Unlike when it made its debut at Coed Llandegla – I ended up in some sort of hypoventilatory exhaustion fit that had the others assuming that I’d prepared for the weekend by preceding it with a five day bourbon and crack marathon. Ahh, but those were the days…

We did manage to find some nice little lines down through the trees though, and also an amusing little quarry. With fading light and an appointment with a fry up, we didn’t linger long. We had planned to push north west into King’s Wood above Godmersham, but in the end we cut through along a bridleway via Chilham and back to Crundale. King’s Wood reputedly sports a few more established trails, so we’ll try that out next time. Hopefully I should be on the carbon speed machine then, and the Cove will hopefully get to return to its favoured habitat – mini DH trails – if I get the nod from Piers. After a few months of riding solely on the road I’m expecting to get brought back down to earth fairly fast…

As well as being the year of La Marmotte (and all the associated training obsession, dieting and component envy) I have decided that 2011 will also be the Year of All Mountain Action.

This has come about for a number of reasons. I have spent the last couple of years meaning to make the pilgrimage to the Alps to ride downhill, but with the launch of the new business my schedule has really been too busy, and committing to dates far in advance is not that easy either.

Also, though the south east is home to plenty of quality singletrack, mini downhill runs, jumps and other challenging trails, it is not the same as riding at high speed over rocks, big rocky drops and all the other challenges that Alpine DH trails present. As such, when presented with such trails, you have two options. Either take it very easy at first, or jump in at the deep end like your 12 year old self would’ve done. I tend to gravitate toward the latter option, and consequently find myself getting injured. For example, my last trip to the DH area at Cannock ended up with me sporting a snapped metacarpel because I refused to not follow the other guys off one of the big drops, even though I hadn’t touched the big bike (now sold, thankfully) in nearly a year. With the training for La Marmotte already underway, I certainly don’t want to find myself in hospital after a last minute and ill-thought-through weekend of downhilling 4 weeks before I’m due to be halfway up the Galibier.

Now, it’s clearly possible to injure oneself on far lesser trails, but for me the bottom line is – if you’re not riding a big bike down big scary trails with a fair degree of frequency then you’re probably far better off concentrating on aspects of riding that are less likely to cause severe trauma if you cock things up. Because cocking things up is what tends to happen if you’re not doing it every weekend.

All Mountain riding is obviously as much of a marketing term as it is an approach to riding, but out of all the disciplines that I’ve practised over about twenty years of riding mountain bikes, the proper mountain action has left the best memories. Climbing up and then hammering down Mt Toubkal in the Moroccan High Atlas, after having ridden the bikes there from Calais. That was in 1997, and I can pretty much remember every day of the trip. The bikes weren’t really up to the job of getting us down the hill as rapidly or with as much style as could be accomplished with something more modern – mine was a fully rigid Marin Indian Fire Trail. And I didn’t actually make it all the way down – I managed to fly over the bars and smash my nose and wrist into a rock, necessitating medical evacuation by mule. But it was jolly good fun up to that point.

A trip to South America in 2004 re-ignited the big mountain love affair. Dave Hemming at ATB Sales persuaded me that the recently released Whyte 46 would be the best bike for the job. The job being riding up and down mountains and volcanos around the Chilean and Argentinean lake district. The Whyte was amazing – light enough to climb a very long way up Volcan Osorno, and then with enough travel and braking power to turn a whole day’s climbing into the fastest descent that I’d ever ridden.

The Whyte (see pictured above, on the left next to Alex, at 5600m in Ladakhi Himalaya) also proved itself on my 2006 trip to India, detailed at length in Fear and Loathing in Ladakh. The bikes covered about 500 miles on and off road, lung bursting ascents and savage descents. The descent of the Sach Pass especially was viciously rocky and steep, and the 46 (which was loaded, as was I) dealt with it with unbelievable poise and balance.

Since then, I’ve used it for everything from pootling in the woods to endurance racing. The iconic Maverick fork which came to define the 46 in its early years were retired some years ago, replaced with a pair of 09 Fox 36 Talas RLCs. The Mavericks were impressively light, but did have a tendency to deviate at speed, particularly under heavy braking. The Fox forks have been much stiffer and more precise when things get fast and steep.

However, the bike is getting old, and I’m looking for a replacement to take to the hills in 2011. There are so many epic rides around the UK that I want to tackle – big days out like the loop on Snowdon that culminates in the descent of the Ranger Path. Also, some of the big rides in the Lakes, the descent of Rossett Gill maybe. And Scotland too – the West Highland Way is quite high up on my list.

The Whyte 46 has been replaced in the Whyte range with the all-carbon 146. An amazing bike by all accounts, and one I hope to try out soon. However, for the duties that I have in mind, I wonder if it might be a little too racy, and not quite butch enough.  A test ride is definitely necessary.  What I think I’m really after is something a bit heavier, a bit tougher. 160mm travel, with the possibility of swapping in a coil shock. I don’t mind pushing a few more pounds uphill as long as the descending prowess is markedly impressive. I’m not after a mini DH bike (much as I would love to try machines like the Transition TR250) – no, the bike has got to be adaptable and pedal-able. Also, as something of a tart, and with a custom English road bike on the way, I’m not really interested in something off-the-peg. This bike has got to be special. As such, my shortlist at this stage is:

Nicolai Helius AM
Ibis Mojo HD
Intense Slopestyle 2
Whyte 146
Transition Covert
Cove G-Spot

I will put some background info together on each of these machines, and add to it when I get a chance to demo them. Incidentally, as far as Whyte are concerned, I am also really keen to try out the 19C. I’ve never ridden a proper XC race bike (well, not since the Indian Fire Trail I took to Morocco, and that ended up getting pinched in London back in the late 90s) and I’m quite keen on the idea of using some XC racing as pre-Marmotte preparation, so hopefully I’ll get to test one sometime as well.