Just like Marcus Lush, photographer Dave Mitchell has decided to follow up last year’s MTB guidebook South with… um… North. It’s full of Dave’s photography (which means there are lots of pictures of his partner) and also his detailed descriptions of 34 of his favourite North Island rides.

New Zealand’s North Island has a wide range of world-class mountain biking tracks and Mountain Biking North is a guide to 34 of the best of these rides. Selected by expert mountain biker and photographer Dave Mitchell, they range from straightforward and easy rides close to our urban areas, through to challenging trips deep into the wilderness.

The informative text and photographs for every trip are integrated with a 3D Bird’s Eye map from innovative Wellington mapping company Geographx, which provides a superb overview of the terrain covered.

Dave Mitchell started mountain biking in 1986 with a group of friends who became the core of the Canterbury Mountain Bike Club. His epic adventures have included a 26-day off-road traverse of the South Island, riding tracks and trails as close to the Main Divide as possible, as well as multi-day trips in many other countries.

Geographx is a Wellington-based cartographic design and mapping company with a reputation for visualising New Zealand’s wild and varied terrain in new and meaningful ways.

You can buy it online from groundeffect.co.nz for $39 or head to your local book store (and probably pay more).

Ben Stiller is a funny guy. Ben Stiller talking about night riding with his MTB buddies is funny as hell too. I just wish I could have seen it all go down.

We’ve tested a few bikes recently that have been sporting Shimano’s new XTR stoppers and we thought it was time we got a set for ourselves, albeit a set of the slightly scaled down (and with a bit more plastic) and more affordable XT ones. After getting out the company credit card (not everything we test is free) on Friday they arrived, along with some of the last Shimano ICE rotors available in New Zealand/Australia. We’ll be dropping our full review on these chaps in the Feb/March issue. In the mean time here’s a couple of photos, Spoke reviewer Leif Roy’s initial reactions are very positive but that’s just after one ride, so we’ll see if that stays the same through summer!

Joining DRD for the 2010 racing campaign will be Tomac Mountain Bikes. As the official frame supplier to DRD, Tomac’s dedication to the sport of mountain biking will help continue to relate the legendary brand’s name with true American racing. Equipped with high quality products (such as the Primer, Vanish, Snyper, Automatic & Cortez), the DRD Tomac team will without doubt be one of the most visible & recognizable teams on the North American circuit.

“I am a big fan of gravity racing, but there are so few programs that we want to be involved in,” said Tomac’s Joel Smith. “Dylan’s team is definitely the exception and we are excited & proud to be a part of it. It’s a great group of talented riders and we expect them to do some damage on the circuit this year.”

The 2010 DRD Tomac team roster includes highly successful & talented athletes such as pro riders Kieran Bennett (NZL), Robin Baloochi (USA), John Keep (USA), and junior rider Brad King (USA).

Kieran Bennett offers a competitive force and riding style which are highly visible on & off the track. As former New Zealand & Oceania Champion, Kieran will undoubtedly be a force to reckon with on the GRT circuit.

Robin Baloochi returns to competitive mountain bike racing after a small hiatus to further his schooling. Robin brings a wealth of knowledge, having been competitive on both the national & world cup circuit. Robin’s success in downhill and 4x will be a great asset to the team!

John Keep & Brad King are two young & extremely talented riders who will benefit from the experience of their teammates. John is a highly regarded downhill racer, having already accomplished his goal of California State champion in his first year as a professional. With great success at a variety of nationally recognized events, Brad will be a contender in the Junior category and make a strong bid for the US National junior downhill team.

“It’s a well balanced team,” stated Dylan Dean. “We have experienced riders, whom I have had the privilege of working with in the past, and a couple of young talents who can be developed in the perfect environment. Our focus will be here in North America, primarily the Pro Gravity Tour, where I am confident that we can perform extremely well. I look forward towards this inaugural season & working with our new sponsors!”

Official team sponsors and supporters will be announced at a later date.

The DRD Tomac team will make it’s official debut at the 2010 Sea Otter Classic, in Monterey, California. For more information on Dean Racing Development, please visit their website at www.dylan-dean.com,

For more information on Tomac Mountain Bikes, please visit their website at www.tomac.com.

So there is no denying that Bike magazine is the best MTB magazine in the world! It was the first magazine to take MTB photographers seriously and has featured some of the most creative writing ever written about riding on two knobbly wheels. And it’s no secret that early Buzz sections were what prompted me to stop shooting photos of skateboarders and take my camera on bike rides. Anyway… For December Bike has posted the Buzz section (their photo gallery) on Bikemag.com for downloading as desktop wallpapers. You can get yours here. I’m rocking a bit of Iceland at the moment.

Frankly Thursday with Peter Miller

How old are you?
23

Where do you live?
Invercargill

Who makes it possible?
Mum, Dad and Gladestone Cycles.

Wall Ride, Invercargil. Photo Caleb Smith

First bike?
Some random red and yellow BMX. I took the brakes off to make it go faster.

Who’s hot right now?
Girls – Megan Fox
Bikes – Kelly McGarry

What can you not live without?
My bike, cellphone, CDs, girlfriend and good beer.

Massive bar hop, Invercargill. Photo Caleb Smith

When you’re not riding bikes you are?
Plumbing, snowboarding, surfing or on ACC.

What are your favourite five albums?
Refused – The Shape of Punk to Come
AFI – Sing the Sorrow
Sommerset – Say What You Want
Against Me – As the Eternal Cowboy
Reel Big Fish – Our Live Album is Better Than Your Live Album

What are your favourite five video parts?
Darren Berrecloth – Kranked 5
Steve Romaniuk – The Collective
Matt Hunter – The Collective
Roam – The Whistler scene
Devun Walsh – The Resistance (old snowboard vid)

What’s wrong with mountain biking?
Riders having crap attitudes towards other riders. Councils not realising the potential for mountain biking especially  in Invercargill.

What’s right with mountain biking?
People that ride for the fun of it. The Queenstown scene.

Getting comfortable on the big line at the Frew Farm. Photo Caleb Smith

Who do you look up to?
Mat Hoffman, the crazy arse guys at X Games skating and riding the big air ramp, and anyone who’s doing what they want in life.

Ever worn Lycra?
Only under baggies for long XC rides, by itself is just offensive and should never be done by anyone (except hot girls).

What are your vices?
Expensive beers and CDs.

I just got this great e-mail from David Gordon in Hawkes Bay, where they have been night digging on a new trail inspired by Corners in Rotorua. It’s called Cannonball Lector and judging by the photos it looks like a lot of fun.

In a hope to inspire some action around the country we took some pics of the most talked about activity in the Eskdale Forest bike park—night digging.  Seems there aren’t enough hours in the weekend these days and it was getting harder and harder to rally a group of troops up to do work on our brain child—Cannonball Lector. So night digging was born. Tuesday nights every week we hand dig and/or dingo dig our track, usually a bunch of four or five volunteers and a dingo for two or three hours. Working in the dark is surprisingly similar to day digging but with the bonus of cooler temperatures, moist dirt and good times.  Just make sure you plan the track out with markers before it gets pitch black otherwise you could find yourself in the wrong gully!  And buy your lollies in bulk, you’ll need them.  Jet Planes were the best after careful trial and error.

The idea for the track itself was after a session at RotoVegas. Inspired by the track Corners, we set out over a beer and a Breakers meal to design a track that would be flowing and technical, the longest track in the park, plus be kick-ass.  Guns blazing, we set out to ask for permission to build the proposed track.  After the necessary spark tests on our machines to prevent fires, we rendezvoused with Pan Pac head staff at the proposed site and 37 days later we were bureaucratically ready to rumble and into our first dig.  Three solid Sundays later it was disappointingly and surprisingly slow going; even with a team of sometimes ten people and a dingo it was not going how we pictured it. We got to our first milestone though, confident we had pulled off an epic achievement of pure man-made ecstasy of at least 2kms of track—only to find a measly 800m on the bike speedo. Fast forward to today. After yesterday’s night dig and an absurd 500hours of combined labour hours and 50hours of machine time, we are close to linking 3kms of singletrack. Two more night digs and it’ll be done.

Thanks to the HBMTB club and Pan Pac for trusting us between the young seedling pine trees.  Thanks to all the volunteers that have helped put their mark on the track with a spade.  But thanks especially to Rotorua, where the original four guys, Chris Brownlie, Tom Clark, Kirk Smith and myself were inspired by the country’s best singletrack.  Keep up the good work and it’s harder than it looks to build tracks!

Blinky looked fast but something obviously happened and he finished in 11th. With Peaty’s flat, the overall leaderboard has changed a little and  everything is a hell of a lot tighter now, with Minnaar taking the lead from his team mate. Good to see both Justin and Sam still in the top ten!

Justin hammering it through the rock garden

So I received a copy of Clay Porter’s new film The Tipping Point in the mail yesterday and watched it last night in 32″ of LCD beauty. And I have to say it doesn’t disappoint. It’s a doco but this time without the running commentary Clay’s used on his last couple of outings; well planned and edited interviews provide the film’s narrative. Unlike Between the Tape, The Tipping Point does require a bit of knowledge of the World Cup downhill scene; interviewees and riders aren’t consistently credited, but by watching the whole film and paying attention you’ll figure out who most people are.

The film has a clear storyline which opens with Sam Hill concerned that he has a target painted on his back, and he’s right on the mark. Minnaar, Peaty, Atherton, Leov and pretty much anyone else interviewed in the film make it clear that the sole aim for the season is to stop Hill from winning the ’08 overall. The riding footage is top notch.  Clay has effortlessly captured the speed and technicality of both the riders and the track they are riding.

Clay seems to be everywhere. The behind-the-scenes footage with the Athertons and the Yeti Team, as well as the candid interviews with the riders, really gives an insight to us mortals as to what happens on the World Cup circuit.

The individual sections as usual are amazing. Matti Lehikoinen and Aaron Gwin’s parts really shine, but Justin Leov and Sam Blenkinsop still get solid parts that show some fresh New Zealand trails and definitely get a bunch of Clay-love. As an added bonus Greg Leov AKA Gregnum/Magnum gets some solid camera time.

Gregnum PI and Clay Porter filming in Blenheim

I’ve said it a thousand times before, if you’re into racing then anything from Clay is a must-own, but more than ever I’d say that if you have any interest in mountain biking, be it XC, All Mountain or DH, then I’d highly recommend watching this film…

Pre-Order The Tipping Point here. It should be shipping early next week.

“We’re rapt to have an athlete of Nicola’s ability riding Avanti,” says Avanti’s Amanda Till. “Avanti hardtails have proven their performance in the Southern Hemisphere and we’re looking forward to her results in the Worlds in September and beyond.  She’s an on-form athlete with a whole lot more potential—a perfect match for the Avanti Competitor Team she’ll be riding.”

And like the Avanti Team Competitor she’ll be riding, Leary’s progress as an athlete has also been rapid. Only entering her first race in 2007, she has rocketed through the ranks of New Zealand mountain biking. Not only the 2009 New Zealand #2 in both XC and Marathon MTB, she is also the current NZ XTERRA off-road triathlon champion. With a diverse and busy race schedule Leary has also taken on sponsorship with DT Swiss (forks and wheels) and Kenda (tyres and tubes) to ensure a total performance package.

“We’ve combined these leading brands and technologies together to give Nicola the ideal performance package,” says DT Swiss/Kenda Spokesman Tom Sullivan. “It’s a great win-win scenario. We’re really excited to have such a dynamic rider on board.”

The future for Leary? In the short term the focus is on quality performances at the 2009 MTB World Championship (Canberra) and XTERRA World Championship (Maui) respectively. But they are just stepping stones to higher ambition. “I’m just trying to be the best athlete I can be. My big goal is the Olympics, so for now I’m chasing international experience and competition to develop to my full potential. And have a lot of fun, competing in cool races along the way.”

Avanti Bikes

Nic and Cabins Bog

That’s right, Jono finally got his stuff together and organised a winter Super D series. There are some cool tracks and twists planned for the series and we will be posting all the info you need up here on the Spoke website. For the uninitiated don’t be afraid, these aren’t hardcore downhill races, if anything Super D can best be described as Technical-XC-Downhill. So don’t be afraid about turning up on your Blur XC (just bring an allen key cos you may want to lower the seat a tiny bit) but you will have more fun on a six inch bike like a Nomad.

Sam Blenkinsop had a blistering run at Fort William, finishing third at the fourth round of the DH World Cup yesterday. Greg Minnaar took the win with Sam Hill in second. Things didn’t go too well for Justin Leov though, a bent crank in qualifying saw a 20th start position and a finish just outside of the top ten in 11th. Justin still sits in sixth overall with Sam B knocking at his heels in ninth.

Sam Blenkinsop pinning it down to the finish line!

Justin Leov held the hot seat for a while but was knocked off by ex-Yeti teammate Aaron Gwin