So Day 3 at the Mondraker setup camp saw actual riding on their World Cup spec’d rigs. Jono did work. According to Patrick, Brook did one run in four hours. They are there to get these bikes dialled and that kind of dedication to tweaking setup is what will hopefully see Brook on a few more podiums.

Spoke‘s longest running senior photographer Simeon Patience got a brand new ride in the mail today. Now it’s been a while since any Spoke staff have been rolling on Rocky Mountains, actually Spoke‘s last editor Eleanor still rides a beautiful steel hardtail from the late 90s. Well while everyone seems to be turfing their hardtails for fun bikes, Sim dawg has gone the other way and bought this 2012 29″ Rocky Mountain Vertex 970 RSL and he thinks he’s gonna race it. I reckon we’re going to have follow his progress. More Simeon race updates to follow…

How dope is that cardy?

So Patrick Fallon just banged through a whopper gallery from today’s session at the Marcocchi/Mondraker setup in Queenstown, looks like Spoke senior photographer Sven Martin got on the tools as well today, either that or Brook isn’t mechanically minded at all. Oh in the photos from yesterday the bike wasn’t rocking the Roco shock out the back, but a friendly courier dropped them off today, and a good part of today was dedicated to setting those bad boys up… Anyway here’s some photos of Brook chilling, Sven wrenching, Cesar looking sharp and Jono “Rainman” Church just being the man.

Sven shows Brook how to install cassette

There’s more pics in the full gallery over here

Back when I worked in a skate shop in Wellington I met Jamie and his brother Ben, who were both shredders. Turns out Jamie and I were also at design school together but those damn industrial designers had a building all to themselves so I didn’t hang with him too much. They thought they were better than the rest of us; well in Jamie’s case it turns out he was. Better at pretty much everything. He rides bikes well, skates well, windsurfs well and most of all he designs stuff well. So well that… just check out his website and you’ll see www.jamiemclellan.com

01. Collate
thisiscollate.com
Along with The Fox Is Black (already featured on a previous Inside Outside), Collate is one of my favourite design blogs. A pared back, thoughtfully edited mix of graphic, photography, architecture, product and furniture. Editor Dave Smith has an impeccable eye.

02. Jjjjound
jjjjound.com
I think this site goes forever, which is lucky because I love it. From motorbikes to gangstas to preppy Americana to bicycles to topless women. I have never managed to scroll to the end of the page, and believe me, I have tried.

03. But Does It Float
butdoesitfloat.com
Strange name, weird titles and mesmerising, beautiful art. Like Jjjjound, this one seems to go till infinity too.

04. Nizoapp
nizoapp.com
One of many beautiful sites built by Tim & Matt at Sons & Co. Just scroll down, and then scroll up, and then scroll down, and then scroll up.. don’t know what it does but I want one.

05. Vice Do’s & Don’ts
vice.com/en_au/dos-and-donts
This one’s a guilty pleasure. So many times I’ve picked up a free copy of Vice, laughed in disbelief at the Do’s and Don’ts only to come to the end feeling like I need more. That was before I found Viceland’s online archive.

I’m told the captions are all written by one guy. I hope I never meet him.

PS here’s a bike joke: http://www.vice.com/en_au/vice/dnd/42461
PPS Here”s a sweet ol’ man one: http://www.vice.com/en_au/vice/dnd/3472

So a couple of days ago we dropped a press release letting you know that MS EVil was gone and MS Mondraker had risen in its place, with Brook MacDonald staying on the team. Anyhow Mondraker designer Cesar Rojo and Marzocchi decided that Queenstown was the perfect place to get the new bikes dialled and do some testing and suspension setup. Instead of sending someone from Marzocchi in Italy or the US they decided that Wide Open’s Rainman of suspension Jono Church was the man for the job. So now he’s got three days of testing ahead of him and plenty of tweaking. Spoke contributing photographer Patrick Fallon has been on hand to capture it all and he should be bringing us a few more sneaky photos over the next couple of days. Oh and there’s a full press released below.

Okay so Jono is the Marzocchi tech but by the looks of Patrick's photos they may have roped him into a bit more than that.

...still bleeding...

...while you're at it can you adjust my lever reach...

...oh and maybe you can even put my back wheel in as well... Thanks Jono

Marzocchi is proud to announce our support of the MS Mondraker team for the 2012 season. The team’s DH athletes have been able to climb to the top of the world ranking list and are no strangers to the podiums of UCI World Cups and UCI World Championships. Team MS Mondraker will be riding our DH flagship, the 888 RC3 EVO TITANIUM and Roco RC World Cup rear suspension.

The good folk at Osiris in New Zealand have given us a few pairs of BMX shredder Ryan Nyquist’s Pro Model shoe to give away. Osiris have gotten on the MTB bandwagon and have put together a pretty banging team of riders, and this is one of their BMX pro models (as yet there are no MTB pro models). To win the shoes you just have to place a comment below with the name of one member of the Osiris MTB team, and don’t forget to leave your shoe size. Sorry people from overseas, this one is only open to New Zealand readers, I’ll draw the winner randomly next Friday.

Oh I was gonna do the comp on Facebook, but those guys have been shutting down company Facebook pages left right and centre. Turns out it’s against Facebook terms and conditions to let users 1) upload photos as a form of comp entry, 2)comment on a photo as a form of comp entry and 3) to like you as a form of comp entry. We like the Spoke Facebook page and we’d like to keep it; maybe if we were a big airline we could say f*** it…

KRD have had e*thirteen for a while but we haven’t seen a whole bunch from the Hive collab apart from the cranks. But the Chub hubs are here now and they are pretty damn different. There are three models. The TRS (above) is the trail version, it features a carbon hub with extra large alloy flanges. The large flanges mean shorter spokes as well as a more triangular angle which equals a stronger wheel with less wind up (quicker acceleration). The TRS front hub weighs 175 grams, rear 12mm weighs 352 grams and the rear QR weighs 360 grams. A set will run you $990.

Then there’s the LG1 which is the DH version. The front hub is still 20mm and like the TRS hubs, they are a carbon and alloy mix, but they are fatter and stronger than the TRS front hubs. The rear hubs come in 150mm and 157mm widths, with the 157mm featuring no dish at all. This combined with the massive flanges again makes for a ludicrously strong wheel. The LG1 front hub weighs 215 grams (both 15mm and 20mm) and the rear 12mm weighs 385 grams. A set will run you $1090.

Finally there’s the all-alloy XCX version, 9mm QR at the back, 15mm up front. It still features oversized flanges, but there’s no carbon here buddy. I’ll have weights and prices for all these on Monday… The XCX front hub weighs 166 grams (both 15mm and 20mm) and the rear QR weighs 316 grams. A set will run you $650.

Now I’ve been waiting for these bad boys for a while. Yup, that is a 2.5″ tubeless compatible Weirwolf II 29er tyre! At Spoke we’ve had quite a bit of time on the 26″ Weirwolf IIs over the last couple of years and I personally have been waiting anxiously for this tyre. Its insanely low tread profile and super grippy dual compound is just the business. Oh, I didn’t let Mark leave with it and I’ll be setting it up on the Tallboy when my leg is right.

The same shipment that brought us the 2.5 Weirwolf also held a bunch of these tubeless (TCS) Nano 2.1″ tyres as well.

Both of those bad boys add to the the 29″ tyres that KRD already had, like the 2.2″ Kevlar beaded Bronson, which I’ve been running on and off for the last year and absolutely love!

And rounding out the four tyres Mark had with him is the 2.3″ Exiwolf, a bit of a mix between an XC tyre with trail tyre bite.

Now a while ago KRD picked up X-Fusion but these are the first products I’ve actually seen so far. The AL rear shock on the left is pretty standard and features a lock out while the RCX on the right has four stages of platform dampening. Price wise they are super competitive and a pretty cheap way to upgrade that old shock on yer’ shreddy. Prices on Monday…

Now Lezyne have been bringing the heat consistently for a while now and again this is the first time we’d actually seen their new LED lights in the flesh, and I have to say I’m impressed. I didn’t actually realise they were as small as they are, the two top models both feature their own LiIon battery that charges internally via a USB port on the bottom. You can see from the photo above that the battery isn’t that much bigger than a standard AA battery. The battery on the Super Drive will give you 450 Lumens for an hour and a half.

The Lezyne LED light lineup is, from left to right, the 150 lumen Mini Drive, the 300 lumen Power Drive and the 450 lumen Super Drive.

So a few spokemagazine.com readers have given me a little grief regarding the lack of original posts since… well, since Christmas. I don’t have a bunch of excuses, but we have just come off a pretty heavy deadline trying to get an issue of both Spoke and Manual out the door to the printers. But my latest lack of posts is due to something entirely different, an AXE. Yup, I was outside chopping wood when part of my log splitter broke off and went shooting into my leg with the speed of a bullet. It decided it would head 52mm into my leg and lodge itself next to my thigh bone. After three days in hospital, 13 stitches and a 12cm cut on my leg, I’m back. And our regular programming should resume shortly, that’s more Frankly Thursdays, Inside Outsides and when Sven gets his shit together, maybe some Signing in with Svens. We have plans for a few more regular features including wallpapers and more photos, so check back regularly. Oh and we have a few cool giveaways lined up too…

Here I was keeping quiet about SRAM’s new derailleur when they go and post shots on their own Facebook page so I figure I may as well drop a snapshot or two. Thing is I may have played with it and I may just know how it works. All I can say right now is it’s pretty damn awesome, I mean Jon’s bike made no noise, it might just have Shadow Plus people coming back to SRAM (or switching for the first time). SRAM and Jon did their best to hide it but black vivid only goes so far…

If you had some crazy CSI de-pixle software you might be able to figure out what’s new from the riding shot of Jon (oh, he can ride), but I figure that’s not going to happen. The stuff that I got to see was pretty dope but then there was all the hidden stuff like revised rear shock internals and new knobs on forks, but Jon wouldn’t go into any details on that product.

We did get an up close look at Reverb Stealth. You’ll only be able to get these on Scotts and Treks for now, but they are sooooo tidy it’s not funny…

When we get the all clear you can be sure you’ll be the first to see the other new things. Promise…

So I’ve been travelling the last few days with no Internet access so have been sitting on a few updates. Jon Bokrantz brought us that cool little clip about the Outside Sports pump track a few days ago and here he introduces the start of his new JonTV web series.

“A video series with the single purpose of creating joy for people riding bikes, by portraying races, events and sheer mountain biking, my goal is to put a smile on your face and make you pumped on riding. Light hearted and heaps of fun, simply a lot like mountain biking itself!

After a massively successful first summer of public service in Scandinavia, Jon Television is back for another action packed season from the paradise that is New Zealand. The second episode features Maxime Bruneau, a Frenchie who has returned for his second season in Queenstown. We hit up Fernhill Loop, Wynyard and PLÄP – trails that showcase the variety of riding in Queenstown as well as Max’s preferred type of shredding. There’s also a guest appearance from none other than Mr. McGazza himself!”

Enjoy!

Pictures by: Anne Myrte Joon
www.annemyrtejoon.com

Hey Guys, above is a little taste of Christmas cheer for all our loyal subscribers, contributors and anyone who has helped us, we couldn’t do it without your support! Yours truly, MANUAL & SPOKE magazines.

ABD have recently signed the 26” wheel slayer Lewis Jones. Based in Raglan, New Zealand, Lewis is recognised for his bag of tricks and flow that has quickly taken him to international level competitions both here and overseas.

Lewis will be competing and riding on a Derelikt 3 and will be a key component in the future development of the brand’s frames and components. Lewis took delivery of his bike less than four weeks weeks ago and loved it from day one. “It’s one of the easiest bikes to jump and trick that I’ve had the pleasure of riding and the fact that it’s Kiwi designed, tested and engineered is awesome”.

On a recent shoot in a top secret location Lewis proved his worth and the potential of his new Derelikt, with many of his fellow team members getting off their bikes just to watch Lewis throw down.

ABD are looking forward to working with Lewis over the upcoming seasons to help him reach his full potential as a rider. ABD’s product manager said, “to have someone of Lewis’s quality and potential join our riding team is great recognition of the bike and the brand and we are stoked to have him on board and to support him as he goes after international glory.”

Watch out for Lewis and ABD over the coming months; both of them are really going places.

It’s been a huge year for Teva after unveiling the new Links MTB shoe. Designed by freeride legend Jeff Lenosky, these are the most functional and best looking MTB shoe on the market and have had loose lips sinking ships all over the world.

A few months ago we thought it was only prudent to send a couple of pairs to local New Zealand legend Kelly McGarry for testing and approval just to make sure that they would stand up to some proper freeride bashing by a Kiwi. The feedback we got was that they are most definitely “sweet as”. Which, if you’re not familiar with Kiwi slang, translates into a three thumbs-up endorsement (we’re not big on down-under hyperbole).

From there it was only a matter of putting two and two together and when we approached Kelly to make things a wee bit more formal it was a no brainer for him.

“I’m stoked to be on board with Teva for 2012. The shoes are rad and work really well when I’m on my bike. I’m also excited about some of the new products they have in the pipeline for next year!”

We’re stoked too. Kelly is a living embodiment of our “Living Better Stories” motto, with an energy and enthusiasm for getting out and amongst it that would make Bear Grylls need a lie down.