LONG TERM RIDES

Hopefully this won’t be Ed’s last long-term report…

The latest on our team bikes – where we’ve ridden, what we’ve changed on them and what we’ve broken this month!

Fired-up by a week of wild riding up in the Cairngorms, Torridon and the Isle of Skye, I came home with the seed of a plan sown in my mind – to try and find the gnarliest (but still fully-ridable) natural trail the UK has to offer. A raw mountain descent that’s technically tough and with the full fear-inducing trifecta – steep, demanding full commitment and with consequences to failure that you’d rather not consider.

Why I’ve voluntarily signed myself up for this I’m not quite sure, but with a location found, a photoshoot date locked in and two other riders with equally low self-preservation instincts agreeing to join me, it’s a bit late to back out now! I’ve seen where we’re going and let’s just say there’s no shortage of contour lines.

To try and ease my apprehension, I’ve been doing what I can to optimise my bike for the terrain. Luckily, I’ve already got SRAM’s super-powerful Code brakes on there and I’ll be fitting new pads and giving them a fresh bleed so they bite hard when I need them most. My Marzocchi Bomber CR coil shock upgrade should come into its own too, and I’ll probably put a bit more air and maybe another Bottomless Token in my RockShox Yari fork so it rides higher in its travel. After deliberating over

tyre choice, I’ve decided to stick with a trusted favourite on the front – Schwalbe’s Magic Mary. Its blocky tread might not be the best for rock slabs, but in the ADDIX Soft compound, the cornering and braking performance is hard to beat. The robust SuperGravity casing should handle the rocks pretty well too.

On the back, I’ve gone for the lower-profile Hans Dampf, to give balanced braking traction on both soft ground and the hard stuff. Opting for the ADDIX Soft compound again here isn’t the most durable choice, but I want all the grip I can get. I’ll be seating both tyres tubelessly with plenty of sealant. Being fairly light on the bike, I’ve never felt the need for puncture-preventative inserts in the past, but I might try and get my hands on some for this ‘adventure’.

Now all that’s left to do is to continue nervously checking the weather forecast and keep my fingers and toes crossed that it won’t rain! Wish me luck guys… www.marinbikes.com

SPEC CHECK

Schwalbe Hans Dampf SuperGravity Evo ADDIX Soft 29x2.35in tyre £58.99 www.schwalbe.com