I picked up my new Whyte 19CS last week and have only just got around to taking some photographs of what is undeniably a beautiful bicycle. I’ve not had a super light hardtail for years. The last such racy machine I owned (a Marin Indian Fire Trail) got pinched in London at the end of a very tough year that included riding it across France, Spain and half of Morocco, and then some DH racing when I got back. This was 1998 by the way – turning up to a DH race on a fully rigid aluminium hardtail being considered fairly laughable but not completely insane as it probably would be these days. I came second to last (I think), beaten only by a Frenchman with a pink lycra covered helmet and a huge saddlebag. Anyway, I digress…

The Whyte 19CS is the midrange model in the Whyte carbon HT lineup. I was originally keen to go for the uber-spec XX Works version, but the CS ended up seeming the best option, offering as it does a pretty awesome specification at a more sensible price. Gearing is SRAM X0, brakes are Hayes Stroker Carbon, and contact components are FSA SL-K with a Fizik saddle and seatpost.

I want to use the 19 for fast trail riding and racing. Probably with an emphasis on the former, but we shall see. As such, I’ve already made some changes to the spec. Gone are the 100mm SL-K stem and straight bars – instead I’ve swapped in a 80mm stem and SL-K riser bars. I’m not used to a really racy bars over the front wheel setup, and for trail riding I think the bike will handle better with a wider, shorter reach.

I bought a beautiful pair of Point One Racing Podium flat pedals for the bike – I’m a flat pedal man through and through. However, it’s a thoroughbred race machine and I thought it about time I gave clipless pedals another go, so on went a pair of Crank Bros Eggbeaters. They certainly look nice – whether they end up getting relegated to another bike will depend on my ability to stay attached when required and to detach myself when things go wrong.

As far as the gearing is concerned, I am very tempted to swap the two chainrings for one. Probably a 36 or a 38. On my existing bike I probably spend 95% of the time in the middle ring, and I think the sweet spot for general riding as this bike is currently set up is somewhere in between the chainrings. I can see the front shifter flicking backward and forth unnecessarily. Plus moving to a 1×10 system will drop a fair bit of weight in the process.

The bike came fitted with Conti Race King 2.0 tyres which while being an obvious and high quality choice for a carbon rocket of this caliber are not best suited to the British winter. These have since been swapped over to Panaracer Trailraker 2.1s – not a tyre I’m familiar with, but a well-respected mud performer by all accounts. I’m actually not really used to narrow tyres full stop, so I think it’ll take me a while to get used to the smaller carcass feel. Incidentally, the maiden voyage on the 19 ended up with me pulling half a dozen thorns out of the back tyre, most of which had penetrated the tube as well. Not really the fault of the tyre though – after going off course we ended up pushing along the side of a just trimmed hawthorn hedge bordering a farmer’s field, and all the bikes suffered from multiple punctures afterwards.

The Fulcrum Red Metal 3s look like decent enough wheels, but there’re not super light, so I have been debating getting another pair for race duties. Not sure what yet though – maybe Stans ZTR Crests on Hope Pro III hubs. Or something in carbon? The bike has definite potential for a super light build though – the 19C XX Works is reputedly around 19lb, and I reckon mine (minus chainring, shifter, front mech, with light wheels, tyres, light cassette, etc) should be in the same ballpark. 18lb would be something nice to aim for.

I’ll try to get some action pics up soon, plus some comments on how it rides.

Whyte
Point One Racing
Crank Brothers
Panaracer
No Tubes
Hope Technology

There is an obscene amount of money spent on bicycles, bicycle equipment, training aids, clothing and other related paraphernalia every year, and while most of it probably proves at least pleasurable to the splasher outer, it almost certainly doesn’t make them a better cyclist. As touched upon in a previous post, there are very few cycling experiences more popular that hammering past a fully paid up member of MAMIL.CC on one’s old boneshaker. Similarly, a trail centre day out on an ageing fully rigid mountain bike (perhaps a Pace R200, replete with bendy, purple anodised cantis and a Girvin Flexstem) spent systematically overtaking Lapierre Zestys and their podgy owners would be just magic.

Yes, fancy kit is nice, but riding your bike better is nicer, and that’s what we all should be working on. Well, except Chris Akrigg and Mark Cavendish who are getting on just fine as they are.

There are various elements involved in such a plan. The first is bike fit. I’ve been riding around on road bikes for 15 years and I don’t think I’ve ever been sitting in exactly the right place. Well, until last Wednesday…

Adrian Timmis runs Cadence Sport from his house in Barton-under-Needwood. Adrian (pictured below) has pretty much done everything in cycling – finished the Tour, ridden the Olympics, road, track, cyclocross and mountain biking, all at national level. A pretty impressive CV I think you’ll agree. His bike fit service is very popular by all accounts, and very reasonable value. For £100 you get a pair of custom footbeds and a big enough chunk of Adrian’s time to ensure that you and your bike end up in a mutually efficient and comfortable position.

My own position had been the result of various adjustments over time, and whilst sometimes an element of it felt better, it was never quite right. Most friends who have had fittings done have ended up with their saddles much higher than before. My saddle was actually about 25mm too high, and too far forward on a zero layback post. As such, my legs were overextending, I wasn’t getting much help from either glutes or calves, and generally I wasn’t doing myself a lot of favours. Over a couple of hours Adrian adjusted cleat position, cleat float, saddle height, saddle setback, stem length, bar angle and hood position. By the end of it, I was in a better position power-wise, with much less pressure on my wrists and generally a lot more comfortable. I wish I’d done something similar years ago, and I would recommend his services to anyone. I would also go so far as to say that the purchase of a fancy new bike would be a total waste of money until you know for sure what position you need to be in. If I’d based my English on my old position and then found all this out later I’d probably go beserk…

As far as mountain biking is concerned, I am going to experiment with a slightly less extreme but similar seat position on my Whyte 19, and then tweak it from there. I think for a more trail / AM position on a full-suspension bike there are other things that come into play, especially a stable position for descending, so I will probably work on the setup for that bike as and when.

However, what I am going to get some help with is my technique. There are countless mountain bikers (myself included) who are convinced that they know what they’re doing, and are happy to attack rough rocky and root-infested trails at high speed without a care in the world. It sometimes works, but usually in spite of technique rather than because of it. However, when I see someone who is gifted with truly impressive technical skills, a little voice starts telling me that maybe it’s time to seek out some instruction. The two things that I tried to work on last year were jumping and fast flat cornering, and I think I will revisit them this year.

As far as jumping is concerned, I most recently put my money where my mouth is and called in the help of Tom Dowie (pictured above). Tom is a 4X racer and rider most frequently to be found at Chicksands. I spent a day up there last July for a session of private coaching. Chicksands is a fantastic venue, and there are plenty of jumps, drops and trails which make it ideal for learning and progressing new techniques. My own jumping ability was largely the result of the application of various experimental techniques that, over the years, have caused lots of crashes, a few broken bones and, very infrequently, the intended result. A common problem of mine is basically a catalogue of bad technique – approach fast, brake too late, absorb rather than pump the run-in, pull up jerkily on take off, and then land in the worst possible place. Often hooked up on the front side of the landing.

Tom’s instruction rapidly erased such behaviour, instead concentrating on a controlled run in, with a pump to gather momentum, followed by a smooth controlled take off (with no yanking on the bars), a balanced position in the air and then a soft landing. The particular jump he chose was also being ridden from time to time by a couple of blokes on DH bikes – at first my efforts looked pretty pathetic in comparison – but after an hour or so I was flying ever further and by the end of the day me and my lil’ hardtail weren’t giving anything away. The application of the technique learned on that jump was a little trickier to master in the context of a more complicated situation – the 4x course for example, or a loose off-camber bend just before the take off. But I did take away a lot of useful stuff that I want to build on this year. Tom – I will be back for more!

I remember seeing a rider at some local trails last summer who effortlessly pumped the terrain on a flowy section of singletrack, achieving an amazing turn of speed without pedalling. It’s skills like these, along with a re-evaluation of cornering technique that I also want to work on in 2011. Astounding Adventures offer various skills courses in the Surrey Hills which I think I’m going to try out. Also, I am hoping to venture further north for some instruction from Ed Oxley @ Great Rock (pic below, courtesy of Henry Iddon) – guardian of the most impressive beard in mountain biking. Ed has a reputation as one of the most patient and thoughtful mountain bike skills guru in the business, and also organises coaching sessions with all round bike legend Nigel Page.

If these guys can’t get me riding a little faster and harder and steeper and flying higher and further with a bit more style then there’s no hope for me at all…

(Of course, coaching for road riding is another big subject, and one that I will probably return to before long. As Tom Copeland pointed out on his blog the other day, most road riders who make a point of spending cash on fancy frames and components to shed weight and increase stiffness (either on the bike or when they’re admiring it locked away in their garage) would be far better off spending a fraction of that amount on a coach who would help them lose weight, get fitter and massively increase their SYKE (sic). I do think this is a route worth taking, especially if you have some specific goals. Personally, I have a number of things I want to achieve on the bikes this year, and they’re not exactly run-of-the-mill – how about enduro mountain biking, short distance time trialling and L’Eroica (pictured below)? Anyone up for the Eroica by the way? Furthermore, I’ve also managed to train (for the first time in my life) in a pretty dedicated and organised fashion for the last 6 months, and it would be nice to see how this year works out, so that the comparison with a coached year in the future might make more sense.)

Chris Akrigg
Cadence Sport
Tom Dowie
Chicksands
Astounding Adventures
Ed Oxley @ Great Rock
Henry Iddon
Tom Copeland
L’Eroica

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.