It’s been a bit of a whirlwind in Bright, but we managed to catch up with Dirt Art and Elevation Parks Director Simon French to find out more about their role in Mystic and what’s planned for the bike park. Once you’ve decided which bike is right for you, you’ll need to factor in the size. For every sized bike there are frame measurements that are important to evaluate for proper bike fit. Mechanical disc brakes use traditional cables and cable housing that are the same used for the older type of brakes, v-brakes. However, instead of having brake pads that squeeze the rim of the tire to slow you down when you pull the brake lever, the brake pads squeeze a metal rotor mounted to the hub of the wheel. These are easier to install, adjust and replace due to the high availability of cables.
Along with 20+ other leading bike companies, Cannondale is proud to be a part of the e-bike battery recycling program organized by PeopleForBikes and administrated by the not-for-profit Call2Recycle. Your payment of $15 goes to an industrywide fund that ensures batteries from Cannondale e-bikes are recycled at end of life and do not end up in landfills. The correct tyre choice would also help calm the stiff and somewhat unforgiving rear end, it is not as harsh as many aluminium frames but taking the edge genesis bicycles off it with some floaty rubber would help ease take some of the sting out of the trail. The first thing you notice is that the cockpit is comfortable, it just feels right. Not too long and well balanced with none of the ‘too much weight on the wrists’ feeling that sometimes comes on trail hardtails. Genesis are a British brand that have been building decent bikes and a decent reputation so I was looking forward to a chance to see if the positive buzz about the company and their bikes was well earned.
A major advantage these have over mechanicals is that they’re sealed off to outside debris. Set up was simple, the bike did come with a whole bunch of spacers below the stem, after less than 30 seconds on the bike I had these shuffled to get the front as low as possible and it was off to the trails. Genesis bikes became renowned for their use of steel tubing and ethos for function over form. The first Genesis bike was produced under the Ridgeback brand as the Day One model in 2001. The Genesis Tour de Fer, as the name suggests, is a fully equipped long distance all road tourer.
While Mystic has become an extraordinarily popular tourism asset, it’s a pine plantation first, and HPV allows riders the privilege to recreate on the land. In the next couple of years, locals and tourists alike will be starkly reminded of this fact because several of Mystic’s most loved trails will be levelled when the trees are harvested. They also want to ramp up volunteer trail building, as it was the genesis of Mystic. There has always been an appetite for it in Bright, but it has become more difficult with some of the new management models. With the new trails they are planning to build, French says they plan to bring over a couple of specialty trail builders from the Dirt Art team, but they plan to backfill those select few with local staff.
It is also advisable to try on a variety of makes and models to see which is most comfortable and the best road bike helmet for you, as they are often different shapes internally. You may find pressure points on a helmet even if it’s technically the right size for you. Packaged in a sleek-looking design, with lots of colors to choose from, it’s really easy to wear for any style of riding making it all-round the best road bike helmet out there.
Mountain biking is an incredibly popular sport with a lot of subcategories and intricacies, including the types of mountain bikes available. A retention system is used to adjust the fit of the helmet to your specific head size. The best road bike helmets can be operated with a single hand, which is useful for making slight adjustments on the move.
There are strengthening gussets where the down tube and top tube meet the tapered head tube and the seat stays are an old school wishbone style, the lack of a bridge gives ample mud clearance. The wind-cheating silhouette of the Giro Ultimate Aerohead will maximise your performance with its excellent aerodynamic design which also boosts plenty of ventilation with its four Wind Tunnel vents. The XR uses Bell’s Float Fit system, which we found simple to use and is paired with a comfortable strap and magnetic buckle. Combined, they allow for a stable fit that we found added to the helmet’s high level of comfort – as did the great ventilation. The Prevail 3 also uses MIPS AirNode, which integrates the MIPS system, designed to protect against rotational forces during a crash, directly into the helmet padding to reduce weight and improve ventilation. Bridging the gap between road and off-road adventures, the lightweight helmet uses the same Spherical MIPS protection as the Giro Aether, which isn’t the only way this lower price offering challenges its more expensive sibling.