Winterberg 2010 part 2/3

The Rockshox Slopestyle in Winterberg had plenty to offer, whether you are into tricks or freeride, this place had it all. Good place to push some limits, and see locals do stuff we usually only see in bike movies.

Go crazy here, make your own line, and grab some air:

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Plenty of sizes to choose from:

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Some of the locals here where rippers! Check it out:
Besides doing 360's, and tuck no handers, this guy did this huge step-up onto the box, then dropped it nicely afterwards:

This dude took the biggest drop in the slopestyle section, he was the only guy we saw doing it, props for that:

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Fredde nose dived on one of the bigger drops (I guess it was like 3-4 meters), and slammed head-first into the ground, I was standing with my camera nearby, and saw it all unfold. Sick ,sick, crash! My first thought; thank god he was wearing his Leatt Brace - The first thing Fredde said when the dust settled was: "Thank god I was wearing my Leatt Brace!!" : ) Anyway, besides some minor scratches on the helmet, and a broken visor, he walked it off, and we went on with our day. Now go get that brace, it fucking saves your ass:

Next up, roadgap:

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Winterberg 2010 part 1/3

I went to Winterberg this weekend, well actually, we where 5 guys taking the trip. Now Winterberg isnt just another bikepark in Germany, its actually critically acclaimed as the best bikepark in Germany. So we went out to find out if it really is.
So is it? Well Ive been to a few bikeparks these last two years, and this is by far, the best place ive ridden!

I shot some pics here, and thats all dandy and all, the bad news is that I only covered like 5% of whats to offer here, and I didn't even shoot a single pic of the DH trail, or the fourcross - both offered some of the best moments here. Kinda sad about that, but im sure that ill return here next year and make up for it. Ok, nuff' rambling, lets get it on:

Ive come addictively accustomed to see my feet dangle like this, the 2010 season has been so friggin awesome : )

Junior, on one of the many drops scattered over the bikepark:
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The Continental track was massive fun, tables, doubles, a bit northshore, cross jumps, corner jumps and shit load of berms. But the best part; its a real skill booster:
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Fredde inside a berm:

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The continental track was the single most giving track for me regarding skill development, I rode it like a retard the first day (no offence to retards), but ended up riding it pretty fast, and clearing most tables. What a fun track.

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But none developed at such rate as Thomas. This guy came here somewhat green, and left with a bag of skills, and added speed.

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Stick around for part 2

Fall AM riding

The weather has been awesome lately, and that resulted in a lot of riding, mostly local trails. Its been a blast : )

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Been putting an effort into testing the coil characteristics in different situations and riding styles - even been riding some xc. Expect a blog entry regarding this later this month.

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Really like this pic, even tho' the rider got his head cut off:

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This October is going to be crazy.

Review : Specialized Chunder SX and Specialized Chunder Control

Ah the Specialized Chunder. The quiet living underdog of AM tires, finally gets a very well deserved moment of attention. It took ages to test this tire(s). Thing is, I really got impressed by this tire, and just kept dragging it through spots and tracks in-country and beyond. And let me drop the bomb right away; This tire outperforms the Maxxis Highroller. Yearh, one of the worlds most popular DH/FR tires got its ass kicked. Enough of the praises, lets get down to performance:

Chunder Control:

Well the Chunder Control is a near replica of (in terms of thread pattern) of my otherwise all-time favorite AM tire; the Maxxis High-Roller 2.3. But the Chunder Control adds a few things into the mix; First of; its HUGE, the 2.3" is as big as a Maxxis 2.5". Secondly, the knob-hight is about 20% higher than that of the Maxxis tire - that shows performance wise in the corners at high speeds and on the descends. The side pattern is huge and ultra aggressive, and the center knobs are ramped up to give as little rolling resistance as possible - just like the High Roller.

The performance is second to none in the turns, the huge side logs bite into the dirt when pushed, and keeps you railed on the trail. This really shines through in loose conditions. When things get wet or muddy this tire still performs, but to extract true mud performance, you'd be better off with a mud-specific tire. That said, this tire holds line in rockgardens, roots, even slips from wet roots quickly gets caught - thanks to the aggressive side pattern.

I see this tire as an all-year tire, for the AM or FR rider that wants the very best. So if you want an easy rolling tire, that offers insane grip in the corners, and has mistake swallowing capabilities - then go get this tire, ignore the high weight (it will pay off), and install this amazing tire, that definitely sits high on the "best for All Mountain" throne.

(I do want to note that the tire is way over its claimed weight, and Specialized should perhaps give their scale a good service check.)

Size:2.3" (Single Ply)
Tested on: Front
Claimed weight: 855 gram
Actual weight: 927 gram
Score: 6/6

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The green line indicates the pattern the tire actually rolls on, the red shows where the tire engages when cornering. This makes a very easy rolling tire in the strait line, with furiously biting in the corners:

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Chunder SX:

This is my remark and thought for the "SX" version of the Chunder tire. The size and handling is pretty much the same as the Control version - so I wont repeat myself. The SX version is dual ply, and therefor more heavy, but also more stiff, less flexy and "cuts" better through challenging rockgardens.

If you are riding really hard and aggressive, and want to go dual ply, then this is pretty much the perfect tire - like in 6/6 perfect. This is however an all mountain blog, and this tire is just a tad too heavy to score a perfect score here. (Ive given this some thought, and I think its the right thing to do - if im all for keeping the integrity of this blog.)

Size:2.3" (Dual Ply)
Tested on: Front
Claimed weight: 1000 gram
Actual weight: 1060 gram
Score: 5/6

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Harz 2010 - Trip 4 - part 3/3

Braunlage Bikepark. The newest bikepark in Harz - Germany. There is no doubt that this park is trying to establish itself as THE bikepark of the Harz, and goes head-on against such established bikeparks such as Hahnenklee Bikepark, that I visited the day before.
Ok, lets get it on, I bought a all-day ticked, and used my next 7 hours (!) to find out if there is more into this park than hype.This bikepark is HUGE, it has 4 main lines, DH, DH-Race, FR, and an "easy" Singletrack descend. Besides that there was a norhshore section, and a dirtjump section.

Want wall-rides? Go crazy:

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This place had loads of rocks and roots, a pleasent variation compared to the all-roots trails I had the day before. Oh, btw, want road-gaps? Go ahead, its even quite "beginner" friendly:

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Each of the main trails where divided into 3 (UP, MID, LOW section of the mountain) so that the riders could take a break before tackling the next section, the lines where very long(3000 - 4400m+), and I dont hesitate to say that they where 3 times longer than the ones we saw in Hahnenklee the day before. 

Some of the drops here where BIG:

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I wouldn't hesitate to estimate the drop on the far right to be at 4 meters, the transitions where fine, albeit a bit gnarly:

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Finally some rockgardens! The locals where battling this section, and for good reason, it was a very difficult section to ride fast:

You could easily interleave the different lines eg.; start with the FR line, ride into the DH, and end it all with the Northshore. I had alot of fun on the northshore section:

Small jumps and tables where present all over:

A small new section of the DH track opened up the very same day I was in the park. It featured 2 long berms (connected switch-back style), and a drop. The quality of this section was higher of what I otherwise saw here, so im confident that this park has a bright future if they keep up the standard. One looong berm:

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So was it all good? Nope, as this is a new park, some short commings where present. The upper sections of the mountain where less polished than the lower sections - particularly the FR line needed some more flow in the top, and some better transitions from some of the drops. Some lines still suffered from not being "bedded" in yet. However the lower sections of the mountain where some of the best in terms of speed and flow, some of it was just amazing fun and could be ridden pretty fast. I had a blast here, and its not the last time I visit this place.

Harz 2010 - Trip 4 - part 2/3

Second day went to the Hahnenklee Bikepark, the weather was cloudy, and the trails where a bit muddy and wet, well that just adds to the challenge.

Lars doing the northshore section:

Some local dude posing for the camera:

Bikesetup for these days was a bit different from last time I had my trip to the Harz. Most notably is the FOX DHX coil shock, also installed a new rear wheel tire, the Kenda Excavator to be more specific, it can only be better than that piece of shit performance I got out of the Schwalbe Fat Albert in wet conditions. To top it off I installed Maxxis FR tubes to steer me away from snakebites:

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After beating up the park for the 5.th time, I really started to see its short commings (dont get me wrong, its a blast, particullary if youre a handfull guys dicking around the trails in a cat'n'mouse run), but this place is small, doesnt have any big drops or jumps, lacks a proper amount of features, hosts no rockgardens, pretty much no berms, and is short - but much more obvious, is the lack of flow. Its all a case of: "Lets make X, and Y, and lets connect those two points with... err, something!" no real though has been put into this park. Its a good beginner-bikepark, but not more than that. 

I dicided to reorient and head out to see something else, different and new. I went to Braunlage Bikepark, the newest bikepark in Harz, its just a little more than a year old, and allready strives to be the bikepark to visit when going to Harz - could this bikepark have something Hahnenklee didnt? Stick around for part 3 to find out.

Harz 2010 - Trip 4 - part 1/3

Packed my stuff and headed south to the german mountains in Harz for some bikepark riding, and some AM challenges. We where 9 men strong for 3 entire days, the bike-span was wast, from sub 9 kg hardtails, to post 17kg DH bikes, reflecting different missions. My ambition was to try out some new stuff, and to get some more challenge compared to our last trip. I got my wish fulfilled.

But before that we assembled a small team and went for an AM ride to a place we have been to before, but as a small bonus, we ended this trip with a very cool DH section down a mountain.

Oh, do I enjoy the rockgardens:

Lars:

Kim:

Next up was the bikepark.

Preview: Kenda Excavator 2.35"

So fall is slowly creeping up on us, and I figured Idd do some rear-tire testing for the conditions to come. I got put-off with my Schwalbe Fat Albert tire, so it can only get better from here - I hope.

This is the Kenda Excavator 2.35" one of the newer offerings from the Kenda family. It saw introduction in 2008, and was hailed and promoted as a moddable tire, as well as a (Kenda) Nevegal variant -but with more grip.

Sofar its proven itself to be a great workhorse, the grip is deffinately there on rocks and roots, and on soft soil as well. There is a above avarage rolling resistance, but I hope it pays off on the trail. Braking is good and predictable. The side walls seem a bit thin, that concerns me as ive had my problems with Kenda sidewalls in the past, lets hope these will do the job better.

The plan is to test this tire during the fall, and as much into the winter as possible. And youll get the concluding review right here on All Mountain Next.

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September AM riding

Been on quite a few rides recently, ive had so much fun this month on my favorite trails. It struck me the other day; as a rider progresses, so should the trail. Got a jump thats getting too easy? Tear it down, rebuild it, and make it bigger, more difficult or faster. Innovate, and challenge yourself, do stuff you didnt think about 3 months ago, its amazing how that can evolve your riding skills. Ok, thats just me thinking out load, here are some pics:

To make a true step-up jump is more challenging than we initially visualized. It takes alot of testing, and alot of fine tuning. And there she is, the prototype, behind me:

We realized that alot of speed is needed to make it satifying big, so thats beeing tweeked - in the best way possible. Landing area is seen where the red bike stands on the far right. Christian takes a test-shot:

Got myself on a coil now (FOX DHX 4.0 2010), man its great for aggressive riding! So damn progressive in the end stroke - its like im on a 200mm bike now when doing bigger hits ; ) More on the (TF-Tuned) coil later on:

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A bit fun on the coil:

The bigger coil test is right around the corner, stick around.

The Weight Shaving Game part 1/2

When I came back from my trip to Poland and Slovakia I realized that it was time to shave some weight of the bike, as its gotten fat and heavy ; ) There is always that balance issue, as to keeping the bike strong and reliable, but at the same time trying to reduce some weight. I really dont buy into the hardcore weight weenie obsession - it doesn't spawn good mountain bikers - I do however sometimes see an opportunity to shed some grams. I wont go into ridicules compromises, e.g. im currently using a heavy 930g front tire - and its staying right where it is. So all im going to say is; Im doing this for the fun of it, and I wont castrate my bike for the sake of grams. Allright; lets begin:

This is my bike setup for when I was in Poland and Slovakia. Alot of the stuff on the bike was heavy-duty - for the sake of performance. Here it was specced with a freeride tube from Maxxis (300g) on the rear wheel, the Specialized Chunder SX dual-ply front tire (1050g), and the ISX-6 rear shock (480g) - among other things.

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And the weight is 14.03kg (30.87 lb) :
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So I swapped out some obvious things to make the bike lighter, but still keeping it strong and reliable. Changed the heavy tube, with a normal one, installed a single-ply Specialized Chunder tire (same size, but at 930g), put on the AFR-shock - its actually a good performing AM/trail shock at 280g, changed the XT cranks to RaceFace SIXC, put on a XT cassette and a Kmc chain. 

Ok, a bit lighter now at 13.36kg (29.26 lb):

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There is still alot opportunities to further reduce weight. Ive got some pretty damn heavy wheels (2200g), a heavy stem, bar and rotors. Ill look into these things in part 2 - at some point. For now its all good. 

Review: BBG Bashguard 2010

I previously mentioned that Keith Bontrager once said: Light, Strong, Cheap - pick two. Well now I know that you dont have to settle with the two.

Light - this is one of the lightest bashguards on the market today, very few even comes close.

Strong - Ive been beating this guard all I could, it still holds up. BBG claims its "indestructible", I would perhaps not put all my money on that claim, but it does show and tell that they believe in this product.

Cheap - Yearh, its pretty damn cheap.

So is it all good? Well pretty much, but I do want to mention a single thing. When bashing this guard up, I sometimes broke the bolts holding the bashguard itself. Its as if the bashguard doesnt translates the impact forces away from the impact itself, and therefor absorbs all the power into the bolts, therefor breaking them. this happened 3-4 times, during 7 months of testing.

The good:
-Light
-Strong
-Cheap

The bad:
-Doesn't spread the impact forces out well.

Score: 5/6

Light, very light. This is the 32t version:

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Its taken a little beating, but holds up just fine:

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The Sand Pics - Now in Hi-Res

Instead of flooding the blog with these pics, I decided to make this small gallery-post. The pics where shot by Thomas, and are just amazing, I tried to crop them to make them a bit more interesting, I hope you enjoy, and remember to enlarge:

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