Product Description

Whether you are a recreational cyclist, an XC mountain bike racer, a bicycle road racer or a triathlete, 101 Cycling Workouts is a must-have guide to help take your cycling to a new level. Rejuvenate and refresh your cycling training with a wide variety of workouts you’ve never thought of before. Add challenge to your training by trying new workouts that will develop you into a better and more fit cyclist.
These workouts will add depth to your training by working on all the physiological systems of a complete cycling training program, including endurance, aerobic and anaerobic fitness, strength, speed and power. Additional non-cycling workouts and gym workouts are included to supplement your training on the bike. Use these workouts to train harder, smarter and more efficiently by making the most of your vital training time. Introductory chapters discuss how to use these workouts and how to incorporate them into a structured training plan.

Review

This e-book contains 101 training workouts for road cyclists. It is intended to provide you with a menu of many possible rides and workout options as you plan your training rides and program. There is no reason to be bored or reach a plateau in your training if you use even half of these workouts. Workouts are grouped according to the type of physiological system trained, so you can easily find workouts for the given objective of the day. Remember, every ride or workout should have a purpose: to improve some aspect of your cycling fitness. Each chapter gives you multiple workouts to target each particular physiological system.
This book can also serve as a companion to training plans and other books which offer a training outline but don’t provide specific workouts, or a wide enough variety of workouts. So try a variety of workouts offered in this book. Just remember to ask your physician before beginning a strenuous exercise program. You won’t like all of these workouts, but you will also find some that become favourites. The important thing to remember is to continue to stress your body in new and different ways.
That’s how you will improve, by continually changing up your routine and throwing different workouts at your body. The workouts contained within this book can do that for you.

Verdict

101 Cycling Workouts is essential for your cycling library!
Get one and enjoy!

Rating
Rating: (5/5)

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TASMANIA’S top mountain bikers, including high profile riders Rowena Fry and Ben Mather will compete at the first of 10 events in the Forestry Tasmania Mountain Bike Series, to be held at Turners Beach in Tasmania’s north west on Sunday.

The series will involve five cross country and five downhill events statewide on Sundays between now and the end of February, with the championship finals to be held at the Tolosa Mountain Bike Park in Glenorchy on Saturday and Sunday March 20 and 21.

The events are being run by the Launceston Mountain Bike Club and the Hobart Wheelers and Dirt Devils and are being sponsored by the Forestry Tasmania/Southern Cross Community Assist program.

Launceston Mountain Bike Club President Ian Smith said it was the sixth year the championships had been held.

The series attracts riders aged from 11-70 across 18 categories, catering for beginners through to national contenders including high profile riders like Rowena Fry, Ben Mather and Sid Taberlay when they can fit these events into their hectic racing schedules” he said.

“These events not only help raise the profile and participation in mountain biking in Tasmania, but also provide a pathway for juniors and elite riders to the national series.”

Mr Smith said the two clubs were proud of their reputation for providing high quality events that cater for people from all walks of life, including families, juniors, beginners, women and the elite.

“In the past 12 months the we have worked hard to bring new people to the sport and have achieved a 100 per cent increase in membership,” he said.

“We strive to create a friendly, fun and approachable environment at all of our events to encourage newcomers and beginners to participate.”

Mr Smith said the series had been significantly boosted through $10,000 in sponsorship and naming rights through the Pride of Tasmania category of the Community Assist program.

“Mountain biking is a healthy, fun, accessible and sustainable activity that often takes place in forests managed by Forestry Tasmania,” he said.

“We are excited about developing an even deeper relationship with Forestry Tasmania.

“The sponsorship will go a long way to develop the statewide series.

“We are also thrilled to be given assistance in working with the media to raise the profile of the sport.”

Forestry Tasmania Mountain Bike Series cross country events will be held on Sundays at:

- Turners Beach in the north west on October 18
- Clarence Mountain Bike Park in Clarence on November 15
- Ben Lomond on November 22
- Hollybank Adventure Forests in the north on December 6
- Kellevie in the south east on December 20

Forestry Tasmania Mountain Bike Series downhill events will also be held on Sundays at:

- Wyena, near Hollybank in the north on October 25
- Tolosa Mountain Bike Park in Glenorchy on November 15
- Hollybank Adventure Forests in the north on December 6
- Wyena on February 28
- Plus a venue and date to be announced

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Product Description
Mastering Mountain Bike Skills is the expert guide for riders who want to step up their game in any venue of the sport.

The advanced, detailed instruction in Mastering Mountain Bike Skills will improve your riding in every style including cross country, free riding, downhill, dirt jumping, mountain cross, and urban terrain.
With top pro mountain biker Brian Lopes as your teacher, you’ll learn how to handle the bike better than ever, in any conditions, across all types of terrain. Key tips and special photo sequences throughout the book add insight to Lopes’ world-class instruction, proven skills, and technical know-how.

Review
Mastering Mountain Bike Skills describes itself as for anyone who wants to ride better, faster, or more confidently. It helps you master the skills to all types of terrain in almost any type of situation: cross country, freeriding, downhill, dirt jumping, bikercross, urban terrain, and even skate parks.

The book is well-organized and the topics flow well. Chapters cover bike selection and setup, balance, position, pedalling, pumping terrain for speed, braking, cornering, wheelies and hops, drops, jumping, speed lines, and racing.

With over 100 colour photos and diagrams of specific maneuvers and adjustments, the authors illustrate the important, yet often overlooked, subtleties of the techniques presented.

The book attempts to detail principles for beginners and experts alike, and overall does a great job.

A glossary would help. Authors and editors often forget that not everyone knows the meaning of the jargon words-such as rail and carve. Even if explained at first usage, a glossary of mountain biking terms would improve the book.

I read this book straight through, but it’s one you’ll want to keep out and refer to often as you ride, develop, and practice skills. There are great tips and tricks for people at all levels of skill and experience.

Verdict
This is one of the best books ever published on acquiring mountain biking skills, and contains great information about mountain biking skills, from one of the most skilled riders who has every lived. If you are a mountain biker, get this book-even if only to look at the pictures.
Get a copy here and enjoy!

Rating
Rating: (4/5)

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Off camber roots can look pretty formidable.But the ability to get over a rooty section with a bit of speed can open up a whole new dimension to the choice of lines available to you, or simply make you faster through a tricky bit.
The trick is to be confident and the following guide will take you through how to hit roots and clear them safely. A confident rider will succeed time and time again – the key is not to hesitate because that is when you can take a flyer.

THE RIGHT APPROACH
Your first task is to get your approach line right. Too tight and the second you hit the roots you’ll be fighting for grip. With an off-camber, a great trick is to try to start low and finish high. So, try to find a grippy part of the trail before the roots to turn against, pushing you upwards though the section and over the roots. If you come in too high, the likelihood is that you’ll spend the next few seconds sliding down the roots.

LOOK, LOOK, LOOK AGAIN

Once you’re on the right line, lookup. The further you can look through the section the better. It can sometimes help to look slightly higher than you know you’ll end up.Remember, you go where you look. Watch some of your mates – the ones who panic and look to where they don’t want to be, will be the ones who end up there.

SPEED IS YOUR FRIEND
You should now be able to quickly scan the section and make a decision on how fast to hit it. If you need to drop some speed, do it before you hit the roots. Any braking on the camber will lose the limited grip you might have had. Some times speed can be your friend. The slower you go the longer you’ll be hanging around on the roots. Experience will help you judge your speed in the future, but to begin with, just remember not to brake too hard.

RELAX (LIKE FRANKIE SAID)
Once you’re on the roots, keep the bike straight and your body relaxed. Let the bike move freely underneath you, like you are hovering over it. If you’re too tense in your arms and legs, you’ll force the bike to slide. Try to imagine your torso as a stable platform that doesn’t move. Instead, your elbows and knees should take all the shocks and keep the bike smoothly on terra firma. Keep your elbows out to maximise how much movement you can get without moving your shoulders.

SLIDE ON THROUGH
By now you’ll be pretty much at the end of the section. If the surface is wet or the speeds low, a little rear wheel slip might still happen. Don’t panic. Any tension will only increase the likelihood of a crash. Once your front wheel is on the other side, you’re home and dry. Stay relaxed and let the rear wheel do its thing. It’s sure to find grip soon enough and catch up with the rest of you.

TOP TIP
The steeper the camber, the more weight you should shift to your downhill leg.

GREAT SKILLS RESOURCE
A really great resource for learning new skills is Brian Lopes book Mastering Mountain Bike Skills

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Product Description

 In ‘Zinn and the Art of Mountain Bike Maintenance’, Lennard Zinn explains and demonstrates how to completely and properly maintain every component of a mountain bike, including chains, derailleurs, shifters, wheels, brakes, cranks, bottom brackets, pedals, saddles, seatposts, suspension systems, handlebars, stems, headsets, forks, and frames. He describes and rates every repair and counsels the novice bike mechanic how to decide whether or not to take the bike to a bike shop for professional attention. Extensive line drawings show how parts fit together and illustrate the tools required for every type of bike. Completely revised and updated to include the most recent information on state-of-the-art mountain bike components, emergency on-trail repair tricks are also explained.

Review

Whether you have a shiny new mountain bike or one that has been on more than a few trail rides, this book is a must to have in your collection.

Mountain biking is a little different than most sports, you’re usually out in the wilderness, miles away from the nearest phone or road, and putting yourself (and your bike) through a pretty gruelling workout. In ‘Zinn and the Art of Mountain Bike Maintenance’, Lennard Zinn does a great job of making sure that if the bike part of the equation fails, you’ll know what to do. From suggesting what tools you should carry with you, teaching you how to use them, and giving you a quick lesson on how each work, this book covers it all.

The book uses illustrations instead of photos, so it’s easy to tell what’s going on, and it covers all the different types (and eras) of components that you’ll find. Coverage ranges from the basic (changing a flat tire) to the complex (changing your fork or bottom bracket) but is clear throughout.

I highly recommend this to anyone who’s doing serious riding and wants to learn more about how to tune and fix their bike. As your bike grows older and you take longer rides, things WILL break or wear out, and knowing what to do in those cases is well worth the price of the book.

Verdict

Hands down the best bike repair book out there. Make sure you get the latest version so you’ll be up to date on the latest componentry.

Get one and enjoy!

Rating

Rating: (5/5)

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The 2009 Scott 24 Hour was held on the 10th/11th October 2009 at Mt Stromlo in Canberra. Once again the Canberra Off Road Cyclists (CORC) put on a great event for all.

 Solo Mens

The solo men’s winner was 27 year old, Jason English of Port Macquarie finishing 23 laps of the course in 24:21:37. Second place went to first time solo rider John Blakenstein with 22 laps in a time of 23:54:48, taking out third was Steve Fitchett with 22 laps in a time of 24:07:53.

 Solo Womens

In the women’s solo division, Victoria’s Jessica Douglas claimed victory for the second year in a row completing 19 laps in 24:01:35, with Trudy Nicholas completing 18 laps in a time of 23:25:43 to take second place and Jacqui Kennett taking out third place with 18 laps in a time of 24:46:06.

 Well done to all the riders.

 Rubber Down!

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The 2009-2010 National MTB series venues and dates have been confirmed.

• Round 1 – Glenorchy MTB Park, Tasmania – December 12-13 2009
• Round 2 – Shepparton, Victoria – January 23-24 2010
• Round 3 – Thredbo, NSW – February 13-14 2010
• Round 4 – Stromlo Forest Park, ACT – March 13-14 2010

Australian MTB Championships in Adelaide 13-17 January 2010.            

Oceania MTB Championships in New Zealand on March 19-21 2010.

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Let’s turn our attention to your mountain bike’s wheels for this How To.

The widespread use of disc brakes and the addition of suspension (both front and rear) have made it far more difficult to detect wheel problems.

Rim brakes let you know immediately if your wheel goes out of true, because the rim will make contact with one of the brake pads without the brake being applied . That is sure to get your attention. This doesn’t happen with disc brakes. The rear wheel on a bike with disc brakes now has to wobble all the way to a chainstay or seatstay before a rider is going to hear that something is wrong.

The front wheel would have to reach a fork slider! In either case, it is more likely that you would feel the wobble through the saddle before it got so bad that it hit a stay or slider.

Your suspension masks wheel problems, too. A hardtail rider will feel a flat spot in a rim immediately. A rider isolated by three or four inches of suspension might not feel this . So, don’t blow off this ten-minute wheel check that you should perform a few times a month.

 SPIN THE WHEEL

Clamp your bike to a bike stand, hang it from a tree branch or flip it upside down (our last choice because you can damage or scratch the bike’s saddle, grips , levers or shifters). You need to be able to spin the wheels.

 WRITE IT OFF

If your rim has a big ding in it (usually from impacting a rock ), no amount of adjusting spoke tension is going to correct the situation. You will need to have a new rim laced up or go for a new wheel.

 WOBBLE CHECK

If you are building wheels from scratch, you will need a wheel truing stand. The rest of us can get by with a pencil and a steady hand. Position the pencil on the fork slider (or seat stay) and point the tip towards the rim. Don’t use a screwdriver, because it can scratch your rim if it makes contact. Spin the wheel and watch to see if the rim moves towards or away from the tip of the pencil. If the rim wiggles more than a few millimetres, you should true it. There are books written about wheel truing, and we are guilty of oversimplifying this process, but if the wheel is only slightly out of true, you should be able to true it with a spoke wrench and a little common sense.

CHECK SPOKE TENSION

If the wobble is minor, squeeze the spokes in the area of the wobble. The spokes on the left and right side of the rim won’t have the exact same tension , but there should be a consistency on both sides. Is there a loose spoke? Does a spoke feel overly tight? That could be the cause of your wobble.

 LUBE IT

Put a drop of lubricant on the spoke nipples you plan to adjust. In fact, a drop of lubricant on all your spoke nipples once a month is a good habit to get into. This will keep them from seizing to the spokes. A seized spoke nipple will trick you into thinking you are tightening a spoke, when in reality, all you are doing is twisting the spoke.

 SPOKE IT

Wheel spokes lace through the wheel’s hub and are secured into the rim by spoke nipples (some wheels are the opposite of this). The spokes pull from the left and right side of the rim. You can eliminate slight wobbles by pulling the rim in the opposite direction of the wobble and snugging the spoke nipples of the spokes that will do the pulling. Make sure the spoke wrench fits tightly on the nipple you want to tighten or loosen. It is best to make a number of 1/8th turns to correct the wobble, rather than one big turn. A little turn does a lot of rim moving. Make your adjustments , place the pencil back in position and give the wheel another spin. Check to see if the wobble is getting smaller.

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Needing to ride steep switchbacks on your mountain bike is an increasingly common occurrence on our trails.

Dictated by the steep terrain they’re built on, switchbacks often seem pretty intimidating obstacles, with narrow exits and precipitous drops on one side. Although it’s not usually too difficult to negotiate them slowly, carrying speed and staying in balance is often a real challenge. A lack of rider confidence is often the biggest mistake. So, these five steps will show you a few simple tips to use next time you’re tackling one head-on.

 THE APPROACH

This is the part you really want to get right. Keep your head up and have a look at the trail ahead. In our sequence, you can see the right hand turn looks quite far away. But by spotting it from a few metres back, you should be able to get yourself over to the outside of the trail, ready for the corner. This is the opposite side to what you might think! Most of your braking should be done now.

 GETTING HIGH

Now that you are on the outside, you can start your switchback. To get up the bank easily, think of it as an off camber section. It’s always easier to go up rather than along an off-camber, and by starting on the outside of the trail, you’re in the perfect place to look left and head straight up. If the bank is steep, drop your outside (downhill) foot to get more pressure on the edge of the lyres.

 LEAD FROM THE FRONT

Your front wheel will lead the way. A great tip at this point is to allow your front wheel to go higher or wider than the back. On steep switchbacks, your back wheel may not even leave the main line, but as long as the front is wide you’ll be able to get around even the tightest of bends. Speed can also dictate this part. If you’re coming in really slow, there won’t be enough speed to get your whole bike onto the high line. So just let the front go for it and relax.

 GETTING GRIPPY

Once your front wheel is sufficiently wide, look down into the corner, let go of the brakes and start transferring your weight on to the other leg. In this case, the weight goes from the right leg to the left. As the bike starts to accelerate off the bank, put more weight onto your outside pedal (don’t brake!) to keep the grip coming. You’ll probably find that the steeper and tighter the corner is, the further down your outside foot is.

LOOK TO THE FINISH

With the boost in speed you’ll have, keep looking to the exit. The exit is the point where things often go wrong. Don’t worry about the drop off the edge of the trail. Instead, focus your attention on where you want to end up. Just by looking where you want to go, and not over the edge, you’ll probably find that your confidence to stay off the brakes and keep all that speed you just made wi1l grow.

 TOP TIP

Practice steep switchbacks with firmer suspension up front to build your confidence.

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We know how it is, you’ve had a long, hard day at school, or the office, and all you want to do is get out and ride away the stress. We know you put in a long day, so let’s keep this one simple. We are going to run through your mountain bike’s drivetrain to make sure it’s ready.

 SPIN IT

Clamp your bike to a bike stand, hook it to a low-hanging branch or flip it upside down. (A last resort, because it is difficult to shift the bike in this position, if you have air in your hydraulic brakes the bubbles might go where they will diminish braking performance, and finally, you’re going to scrape your grips or shifters and saddle.) You want to be able to spin the cranks and have the chain and rear wheel rotate easily.

We are also assuming that you have correctly adjusted your derailleurs and the bike was shifting properly on your last ride.

Clean up the chain, chainrings and cassette using a toilet brush (gets in the nooks and crannies better than anything actually made for the job).

EYEBALL TRUING

Imagine looking down the drivetrain like you would look down the iron sights of a shotgun. The rear sight is where the chain leaves the cassette and the front sight is where the chainring picks up the chain. Run the bike through all its gears while sighting down the drivetrain in this manner. You are watching for wobbles or chain jumping.

 REAR CLEAR

If the chain is doing a little dance off the cassette, don’t rush out and buy a new cassette. First, take a thin screwdriver and clean out anything that might be packed in between the cogs. Nine-speed cassettes are notorious for being thrown off track by fairly small amounts of dirt or foliage.

 SNUG IT UP

It is unlikely that your cogs are loose, because you would have heard a jangling sound while riding. If they are loose, you need to snug the cassette lockring with a lockring tool. Pull the wheel off. Slip the lockring tool into the lockring and snug it up.

 WOBBLY RINGS

If there is a wobble where the chain contacts the chainring, check the mounting hardware to make sure it is all tight. If everything is tight and it still wobbles, there is a good chance that the rock you pegged (or riding with the hardware loose) bent the chainring (90 percent of the time it will be your big ring). If it is bent enough that you see it wobble or that it rubs on a perfectly adjusted derailleur, the chainring needs to be replaced.

 CHAIN WEAR

Measure a one-foot length of your chain, placing an inch mark of the tape measure in the middle of one rivet. Look at the corresponding rivet 12 links away. On a new chain, this rivet will line up exactly with the six- inch mark. With a worn chain, the rivet will be past the inch mark. If the rivet is less than 1/16-inch past the mark, you should replace the chain.

 FINAL TIP

If you do replace any component, don’t immediately head out for a long ride. Do a short test ride, including a significant hill, to make sure that the new parts are compatible with the old parts. You’ll know if there is a problem if the chain skips under maximum efforts.

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