I remember the first time I rode my favorite trail. Every turn gave me the feeling of Christmas morning opening gifts. Every technical section was thoughtfully designed to challenge and entertain at the same time. “It has it all” I thought silently in my mind, while the wind from the beach traveled through the palm trees, as a prelude of what was soon to come.

It was a great night of wrenching tonight. I got the Hadley Racing hubs back from John at Kovachi Wheels built up on Notubes.com ZTR Flow rims with red nipples. What better bike to review these red hot hubs on than the spanking new Rocky Mountain Slayer SXC 70? With some new Kenda rubber (more on this later…) and a simple parts swap…we are ready to go!

Rocky Mountain Bicycles sent us in a new Slayer SXC 70 for review. This all black Easton aluminum with carbon seat stays mountain bike delivers 153mm of rear travel via a Rocky Mountain LC2R suspension design. Designed to conquer the entire mountain, this 33 lbs. Canadian built monster is ready to take anything that you can throw at it…and I am going to try to do just that.

That’s right! It is winter riding season. Many mountain bikers pack up the bike until spring during this time period, but I am going to challenge you to get out and ride. To help with that challenge, here is an outline on how to use available equipment to make that ride much more enjoyable.

So you are ready to buy your first, second or upgrade mountain bike. You have read all of the industry rags, listened to all of your friends and maybe even read this site in your journey to find your next perfect mountain bike to carry you through singletrack bliss. Once you find your perfect ride, you find a local dealer that carries it…walk in the front door and say “I want that one!”

I just moved into a new work area (she got a new house), so it is time to setup my man hole where all of the bike related activities take place. With multiple bikes making their way in and out of this area for review purposes…and my personal rides…there is a great need for something efficient and useable in the bike racking system arena.

On the University of Mississippi campus (technically), this miles long trail has almost everything for the trail rider, from race-pace riders to weekend warriors, even to first-timers out on their brand new hybrids. Loops can be put together that will take half a day and rarely cover the same ground twice. Expert trail building (trained by IMBA) yields excellent use of topography and fun use of sustainable features.

The 2009 Intense Uzzi now carries the sames design ques as the new 2009 Intense Tracer with curved lines and adjustable suspension travel settings, but that is not all that is new with this redesigned bike out of Intense Cycles.

There are many mountain biking styles out there. While some like to sit and spin, others like to stand and hammer. I have done a lot of looking at how I ride a bike lately in my quest to become a better mountain biker. Through searching through my own mountain biking technique…I have come to several conclusions.