It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to issue 150 of Singletrack World Magazine. Whether you’re a new reader in print or online (or both), or an old hand who’s been around since our first issue back in 2001, I’d like to thank you all for your support over the years.
Obviously this is a huge landmark for an independent magazine that was originally launched on a shoestring budget into a turbulent world of publishing. I’d like to say that we had this moment in mind when we launched the mag, but we had no such vision and were only ever looking forward far enough to work out what was going to be in the next issue and to worry about paying the printer’s bill.
We’re a lot more organised these days and, although the print bill is a perpetual worry, we have a lot more stability thanks to the massive support we get from our readers, combined with our lovely advertisers and commercial partners. Add to that some disciplined folks in the office who strive to keep the lights on, the bills paid and the hamster wheel of the internet turning and we’re doing OK.
There have been massive changes since those early days – from the bikes we ride to the way we receive our news and entertainment and how we interact with the world around us.
Bikes are more reliable, safer to ride and, yet, still as exciting as they’ve always been. Where and how we ride has changed hugely. Back in 2001, the UK’s first trail centre at Coed y Brenin was barely five years old, most of us were running V-brakes and stopping every half hour because of a puncture. We were navigating by paper maps, or a reliable tip-off from a local.
No scoffing from the younger ones at the back now. Those slack/steep angles, wide bars and teeny stems on your bikes are a more recent invention than you might think. Going back even a decade, bikes still weren’t the ‘modern’ shape that we’re used to. One 2013 review of the Whyte 901 hardtail talked about its “seriously slack” 66.5° head angle and “ape-hanger” 750mm bars. Apparently “66.5 degrees is full-on full sus downhill territory”.
In the time our magazine has been going, water bottles have gone out of fashion and come back again, neon clothing and 3DV Purple components have gone away (or are they back again?), and clip-in pedals have celebrated their 25th anniversary while fighting for dominance with flat pedals (luckily toe straps haven’t been seen since, apart from to secure a bottle into a loose-fitting cage).
What hasn’t changed, though, is that thrill of the ride – that ‘did you see that?’ accidental two-wheel drift into a corner, those ‘Star Wars speeder bike’ summer singletrack blasts and those shared quiet moments of reflection around the trig point as the sun dips behind the hills. You can experience those sensations on just about any bike, of any colour, regardless of which tyres and pedals you’re running.
Mountain biking (and this magazine) has never been about the bike. A great bike can improve your enjoyment of a ride, or make a tough ride marginally easier, but it still needs to be ridden, to be pedalled, steered and finessed to get the most out of it.
There’s a story about 1950s music star Chet Atkins where someone said: “Man, that guitar sure sounds great!” Chet put the guitar down on a chair and asked “OK, how does it sound now?”
Our mountain bikes won’t ride themselves and, without the rider, they’re not going anywhere, let alone fast, slow or stylishly. But mountain biking isn’t something you just ‘do’. For most of us, mountain biking is who we are. It governs how we spend our spare time (and our spare cash!) and in many cases governs who our friends are, where we holiday and even where we live. You don’t ‘do’ mountain biking. You simply ‘are’ a mountain biker.
And, back in 2001, that’s who we set out to write a magazine for: those people who lived for sunny Sunday all-dayers and dark Tuesday night rides, whatever the weather. The people who take a couple of bikes along with them when shopping for a van; the people whose house-hunting list has ‘garage or secure shed’ very near the top.
You’re in sympathetic company here. We’re all just along for the ride, wherever it takes us…