Home

For anyone who rode at the Mountain Mayhem, last Sundays (26th June) British MTB Series race at Margam Park saw familiar conditions. Wet, cold…hot, dry. We arrived on the Saturday with the intention of pre-riding, but day long drizzle washed away all enthusiasm. Sunday saw the temperature rise from 18 to over 30 degs – hot, hot, hot! I went for a bit of a pedal around the course – a combination of hard climbs, muddy chutes and generally pretty tough. Add the sudden heatwave into the mix and it looked set to be pretty damn hard work. Think Mayhem on steroids. In an oven. Or a woollen suit. Or a bear outfit if you’re that way inclined. The Elite race showed just how hard with riders coming past in ones and twos, big gaps in between and...

The The July 2011 'Euro Special' Bike of The Month contest was taken by Sinnerman's 1990 Zinn Z-753. The Zinn will be featured in next month's mbr magazine and Sinnerman will receive a year’s subscription to the magazine. The full result is as follows 1. Sinnerman's 1990 Zinn Z-753 2. Holdi's Colnago Ibex 3= The Duke's 1994 Bigfoot Smokestone 3= Stumpjumper1990's 1994 Empella Team Now taking nominations for the August 2011 BoTM here. Click here for more details and full results The July 2011 Euro Special Bike of The Month top three are as follows 1. Sinnerman's 1990 Zinn Z-753 Click here for full Zinn Z-753 build thread. 2. Holdi's Colnago Ibex 3 equal. The Duke's 1994 Bigfoot Smokestone Click here for full Bigfoot...

This just in from the MTB Hall of Fame (or mtbhof). Sadly it looks like Geoff Apps was over looked once again. Still some very deserving inductees nonetheless. Click here to discuss in the forum. The 2011 inductees are: • Bob Allen, Journalism - whose photographic vision and advocacy have contributed to and continue to add to the collective memory and evolution of mountain biking. • Patrice Drouin & Chantal Lachance, Promotion - two Canadian promoters who have fueled much success and fun into mountain bike racing. • The Laguna Rads, Pioneers - 80 or so individuals who have taken the adventure and camaraderie of mountain biking to a new level, while preserving the original spirit of the sport. • Pete Webber, Advocacy - his...

Just uploaded a few new catalogues to the retrobike archive, one of the largest cycling resources on the web. -Trek Catalogues -Gary Fisher Catalogues -Mountain Cycles Catalogues and Manuals If you have any suitable material to be added please get in touch :D

June was frantic to say the least for RetroBike Riders. Mountain Mayhem being the focal point of the month with 50 RetroBikers taking to the track and 50 more fighting for the loud hailer trackside in the heckling tent. A full aftermath write up of the event can be found here, eleven pages of aftermath goes to show the fun that was had. As far as the National Rides Series goes, we now have the next round details posted. You may already have seen the MacRetro lads advertising their Drumlanrig ride in their signatures, but please sign up here if interested in attending. Click here to read full retrobike rides July 2011 newsletter.

The fourth issue of the rather lovely (and impressively door-stopping) Privateer magazine is about to reach the shops – subscribers have had theirs for a couple of weeks and have been using words like “gorgeous”, “sweet”, “giant peach” and of course “smell” to describe it. Inside you'll find columns from Charlie Kelly, Thomas Frischknecht and Will Longden alongside an array of expansive features from around the world. There's the amazing story of Hope, a day with World Downhill Champion Tracy Moseley, the gently unhinged world of 24 hour soloing and more. Nick Larsen looks at the dark art of marketing and concludes that hype is a force for good. There are glorious pictures, interesting words and stickmen. What more could you need...

It's a year on and due to popular demand (ok, two people but to me that's the height of popularity), the Herefordshire Road Ride returns for 2011. So get your classic steel frames gleaming polished up, shave your legs and don your fluro Bolles for Edition II on Saturday 23rd July 2011. What does it involve, I hear you cry? A stunning, scenic and undulating Sportive style 80 km ride on very quiet country roads with the option of a country pub lunch/stop. There's plenty of climbing but nothing super steep so with a compact and a bit of fitness all should be fine. As a flavour, here's last years Aftermath thread. Where is it happening? The ride will start and finish in Hampton Bishop, just outside of the cathedral city of Hereford...

The 2011 KLEIN meets KLEIN event (Kleintreffen) was once again a great success with 58 bikes and 35 participants. The event organiser Matthias has kindly sent over a link to their photo galleries - a must for all Klein fans. Full details in the forum :D

The June 2011 Photo of The Month (PoTM) contest was won by Hollister's 'It's Summer'. Now taking nominations for the July contest entitled 'Blue Sky Biking' here. Click here to see Hollister's shot in all it's glory 1. Hollister's 'It's Summer'

The The June 2011 Bike of The Month contest was taken jointly by chowi's 1992 Gilles Berthoud & JustKev's Yeti C-26. Both take a subscription to MBR Magazine. The full results is as follows 1. = chowi's 1992 Gilles Berthoud 1. = JustKev's Yeti C-26 3. wadsy's 1997 Kona Hei Hei Now taking nominations for the July 2011 'Euro Special' BoTM here. Click here for more details and full results The June 2011 Bike of The Month top three are as follows 1. = chowi's 1992 Gilles Berthoud Click here for full build thread. 1. = JustKev's Yeti C-26 Click here for full build thread. 3. wadsy's 1997 Kona Hei Hei Click here for full build thread.

Geoffrey Cleland Apps, the UK mountain bike pioneer has been once again nominated for the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame - hopefully this year he will be voted in and a glaring omission corrected. Mr Apps was riding bicycles off road in the mid 60s and his unique take on the 'mountain bike' pre dates the Marin County pioneers by several years. If you don't know about Geoff Apps I suggest you read up about him and his bicycles here on retrobike, here on wikipedia or here and here in the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame. Graham Wallace, long time Apps aficionado has made the nomination once again. What can you do? Simple. Click here to register for the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame and vote for Geoff Apps! I know votes are closing soon so please be...

The June 2011 road Bike of The Month contest was taken by yo-Nate-y's 1981 Chris Chance Criterium. The full result is as follows 1. yo-Nate-y's 1981 Chris Chance Criterium 2. Mark34's 1989 TVT Lemond 3. RooKilo's 1985 Roy Cottingham Chronometro Now taking nominations for the July 2011 rBoTM contest. Click here for more details and full results The June 2011 road Bike of The Month top three are as follows 1. yo-Nate-y's 1981 Chris Chance Criterium Click here for full 1981 Chris Chance Criterium build thread 2. Mark34's 1989 TVT Lemond Click here for full TVT Lemond build thread. 3. RooKilo's 1985 Roy Cottingham Chronometro Click here for full 1985 Roy Cottingham Chronometro build thread.

Another excellent year at Mountain Mayhem for Retrobike. Big thanks to Bikefood for their excellent support once again. 48 riders and plenty of hangers on meant we had one of the biggest camps on site. Hope other riders enjoyed the 'encouragement' via the megaphone, 5 hour bear based DJ set and light show as they came past Retrobike HQ. The Friday night team presentation, BBQ and International Two Man Jenga tournament was also a classic. Think we might even have done some riding at some point too. Retrobike Mountain Mayhem aftermath thread now up, full report to follow soon (ish).

Selling out… Rather than the usual “goodbye” or “see you” for some reason I can’t help saying “keep it real” or “don’t sell out”. Hopefully I will stop it soon, but no doubt will move on to something equally annoying. Anyway, it started me thinking that it is actually a nice thing to do and while I don’t mean anything by it, maybe I should be taking my own candid advice. So, seeing as I race for Retrobike, I have the dilemma of riding old skool, whilst when it comes down to it, actually wanting to win. Perhaps this concept isn’t completely incompatible, but it could take some doing. So, to come clean right from the start and seeing as this is meant to be a race report, I do have a history of competing in quite a lot of mtb from...

On 11th and 12th June 2011, BespokedBristol hosted the inaugural UK Handmade Bicycle Show, with a nod to the well established North American Handmade Bike Show. Obviously the bikes featured would be handmade in the UK. On the evening of the 10th, The Guvnor and I, living the dream, went along to check it out. A few highlights included: -Milk Bikes -Lee Cooper Cycles / Alex Hatfield Concepts -Tokyo Fixed -Freshtripe -Brian Rourke -Feather -Enigma Full report and pictures of Bespoked Bristol 2011 can be found in the forum.

Traditionally Mountain Mayhem is Retrobike's biggest and best event of the year. This year will be no different! The weekend's schedule is now finalised. So whether you're racing solo or just coming along to hang out and heckle there will be something for you. Click here for full schedule. Highlights include • The Retrobike Concours Show • BBQ • Giant Jenga • Flea Market • DJ Bernard • Trackside heckle tent • Some racing (perhaps). See you at MM :D

The latest Coolwall vote has been declared! Cannondale is COOL. Big aluminium tubes and headshocks are judged to be cool by the retrobike users :D Next up on the vote is the Girvin Flexstem. Is the suspension stem which provided an inch of suspension travel via an elastomer cool? As ever you decide!