Over the past year, members of the Singletrack team have ridden awesome trails all over the world, on some of the most awesome bikes, and we’ve tested the most awesome kit while wearing the most awesome gear – all just for you. What an awful job. But in this veritable tidal wave of delight and glee, what stood out to our testers? What was the cream of the crop? Which places, bikes, gear and clothing put pep in our pedalling and added steam to our shreddies?
Read More Editors’ Choice Features Here
So here’s Barney’s picks from 2015-
Focus SAM C Team
From: Focus, focus-bikes.com // Price: £4999.00
The SAM, if I’m honest, probably isn’t the sort of bike I ought to be raving about. For most of the riding I do, I should be talking about a 120–140mm bike with delusions of grandeur, perhaps. Something which gets a little air, but spends more of its time on the ground. But, but the SAM is FUN… It’s a 160mm monsterbike, hewn from purest carbon, with a 160mm Pike at one end and a Monarch Plus at the other.
I only got to ride it for an afternoon, on one of the most preposterously gnarly trails I’ve ever ridden, in Ruhpolding in Germany. Following a cable car ride up to the top of the mountain, there ensued several miles of incredibly technical, rooty, slippery switchbacks, stepdowns, off-camber corners and deadly drops, with plenty of exposure to keep things spicy. The first half of the trail is slow speed, wooded, enclosed and very, very techy; the last half a little more open, fast and flowing – but with some seriously technical features thrown in…
…and the SAM took it all totally in its stride. Swallowed the technical stuff, flew on the faster stuff. Air was not the prime consideration, but on occasion, it was attained nevertheless. 65° head angle, and 75° seat angle, long reach; all the right noises for a modern bike – but the great thing is that Focus has remembered to bring the fun. It felt poppy, lively, and other words which don’t normally go alongside 160mm obstacle swallowers like this. An ace piece of kit; I’m looking forward to a much, much closer look.
Cane Creek DB Inline
I really wasn’t expecting all that much when I swapped out my venerable Fox Float shock for the DB Inline. I wasn’t unhappy with the Fox at all – it has performed admirably, and I was thoroughly used to its quirks and foibles.
But goodness me, I was in for a shock (pun intended). Set-up of the DB Inline was convoluted. With so many variables to play around with, it was never going to be an easy task to set this up to my liking, and it took several rides to dial the shock in to where I wanted it. And what a difference it makes.
To be honest, they way I’ve got it set up now, it probably bobs a little more than the Fox it replaced when it’s open, but the Climb Switch sorts that out. And if I wasn’t satisfied, there are so, so many tweaks I could make.
My bike (a Tallboy LT) sits a tad further down in the travel that it used to, and the suspension is so much more supple than it ever was with the old shock. It deals with stutter bumps more effectively, and even on such jumps and drops as I ride it never feels out of sorts. It honestly gave my venerable LT a new lease of life. I’ve heard reports of some older Inlines having issues, but I’m delighted to report that I’ve had nothing but flawless performance from our test one for over six months of hard use. It’s transformed the bike.
Scott Stego Helmet
Helmets are such subjective things, not least because everyone’s head is a different shape. That being said, manufacturers have made great strides recently towards the holy grail of helmet-dom universal fit. The Scott Stego is, in my opinion, immensely good-looking, and it’s hugely comfortable.
The MIPS system serves to diminish any rotational forces which might attempt to interrupt any of the particularly squidgy bits of brain you might be keen on keeping, and there’s loads of coverage front and back.
This is not an enduro helmet though – at least, there is no goggle clip at the back, and the visor doesn’t offer goggle stowing room – but for comfort it’s right up there for me, and these are small concessions to make. It’s blessed with plenty of vents, which are well designed to keep air flowing freely about your head, and I’m almost sure it’s made me even more attractive on the bike.
Zona Zero, Aragon
AÃnsa is a small town just south of the Pyrenees, in Aragon in Spain. Scattered in the same region are a great many deserted villages, abandoned in the ’60s as a poor economy and underinvestment hit hard. But recently AÃnsa has reinvented itself as the centre of a mountain bike park: Zona Zero. And what a place it is…
Spread over the adjacent countryside like an enormous cobweb is over 1,000 miles of trails, 40% of them singletrack, along which erstwhile villagers used to go from village to village, settlement to settlement. Some of these trails are close to a thousand years old. None of them seem to have been modified overmuch to ride bikes on, and all of the ones I have ridden are totally fantastic.
I visited AÃnsa for an Orbea press launch, and to be honest I wasn’t sure what to expect. What I got was long doubletrack climbs, shuttles up to the top of gorgeous mountain passes, long descents through glorious scenery. Fast and flowing sections are abruptly linked with extremely technical bits. And it’s all topped off with some extraordinary rock formations and other-worldly vistas. It’s fantastic.
Zona Zero markets itself as an ‘enduro’ mountain bike park and it’s easy to see why; indeed it hosted a round of the 2015 Enduro World Series (trails from which I memorably rode in a colossal thunderstorm). There are a few ‘easy’ trails marked on Zona Zero’s website, but there are many, many more which are much more testing – this isn’t an ideal place for beginners. But if you want a challenge, and to ride some of the finest trails on earth, Zona Zero is a must.
Just ordered one of those scott stego helmets in the green/black colourscheme after reading good reviews of it, matches my scott genius as well which is nice in a “Ha-Ha!…look at that wannabe gnar enduro rider” sort of way.