JIMMER’S NUKEPROOF REACTOR 290 EXPERT ALLOY £3,100

Our long-serving art ed has inally lipped his chip…

With an XC bias to my current riding, I’ve ditched the knee pads, slipped on some stiff-soled shoes and embraced the hills. I’m seeing my local trails in a whole new light, with the lockdown having forced me to fight the urge to ride the more technical trails, and instead focus on exploring new routes and rediscovering old ones. This has also meant that I’ve been riding a lot of my local routes in reverse, to turn some of the gnarly descents into challenging climbs. Blasting through sunny meadows has been

a great lockdown tonic and all this XC riding has paid dividends, because I’m feeling pretty damn fit. Luckily, the Nukeproof has been a surprisingly willing partner.

Since I last rode the Forest of Dean (remember riding trail centres?), I’d left the Reactor’s geometry flip-chip in Rail mode. On descents, this left it feeling readier to attack, faster and more planted – more fun, in other words. I still found I could nail all the climbs, but while the short, sharp stuff wasn’t too bad, every time I pointed the bike up a long, steep grind I wondered why I was having to push myself so hard.

So I flipped it back to Trail mode, and everything changed. It’s pretty crazy how much steepening a bike’s head and seat angles by half a degree can affect its ride! The climbs now feel so much easier and the difference when descending is negligible, because I’m taking it easy anyway. I also thought for a moment about fitting some lower-profile, faster tyres, but I love the current combo so I ditched that idea. www.hotlines-uk.com