The crew over at Showers Pass and eVent Waterproof Fabric sent over the Mountain Elite riding jacket for review. This year has been a perfect testing ground for a jacket that is both waterproof and keeps a barrier between me and the cold weather.
As much as we all love watching videos like Seasons, there is something about watching friends rip the local trails on videos that make them that much better. Chad Oliver has been playing with the MTB by 198 GoPro Wide Angle for awhile now and is starting to get creative with multiple camera angles.
You already know which trail I am talking about because everyone in every area of the world has at least one. The weather is poised to be perfect over the weekend. Your local forum is buzzing with suggestions on where to ride and take advantage of everything the great outdoors has to offer.
The JET 9 is our swift, light, race ready full suspension bike. Designed around the same award winning CVA™ suspension system found on the R.I.P. 9, the Jet 9 features 80mm of plush, fully active travel at nearly a pound lighter frame weight from it’s bigger brother. Speed was the main concept for the JET 9, and the geometry is focused on a balance between stability and maneuverability.
The first thing you notice about the Telonix is its aggressive tread. Knobs are not this large and pronounced on most mountain bike tires. Right away I knew that this wouldn’t be the fastest rolling tire on the trail but the gnarliness of the tread fired me up. Telonix’s center knobs consist of two tread shapes: 1 1/8” wide paddle-like blocks and twin spikes placed in an intermittent pattern.
Today…I have done something that I have never done on Mountain Biking by 198. I went back and revised a previous article that was product based. Normally, I would leave the article alone…that was how I felt at the time, so it should have stayed in tact. In this case, my opinion has changed over time due to several business practices and quality issues.
Incredible action shots of mountain bikers are hard to come by. I often find myself just starring at the shots in Bike magazine imagining I am riding in those fantastic locales. You can imagine my excitement when a friend of mine pointed me in the direction of these shots taken by Colin Stewart.
For the past 6 weeks, the southeast United States has seen nothing but grey skies and rain. As you can imagine, this…combined with cold weather…makes for less than ideal mountain biking conditions. Like any avid cyclist…you make due. You ride at night when you can and throw a leg over the road bike when things get too messy.
As many of you already know, Chad Oliver is part of the Mountain Biking by 198 crew and tests out parts from time to time. I went to Chad a couple of weeks ago and gave him a set of Excavator and Telonics tires from Kenda and told him to go rip it up.
So Big Creek is like my home track. You won’t find it on anyone’s Top-50-Must-Ride-Before-You-Die lists. But for nearly 8 miles of totally wooded singletrack and a natural freeride area smack dab in the middle of where like 4+ million people are crowded into? Trust me, it’s got its merits … and TTFs … and rocks … and drops … and rooty gnar.