Ripmo AF - It's Metal!
Gravel Bike Journey - West Coast
When Damian saw that there was a new Santa Cruz Stigmata, he instantly upgraded and took to the West Coast Wilderness trail on an inaugural ride for this freshly configured gravel bike. More frame clearance meant he could set-up with a 650b wheelset and run bigger 2.0 tyres to blur the boundary between trail and gravel.
His wife Catharine went along on the adventure with a Ibis HakkaMX set up with impressive 29er Ibis 700c D30 wheels and some fast rolling gravel tyres. Considering the days were pretty long, Catharine was stoked to have this light, fast moving bike to rip along the West Coast trails. It was a fantastic couple of days on the Coast.
Downhill Dreams - Mid Season Catch up
The last few races of the 2019 UCI Mountain Bike World Cup have seen jumbled time sheets in the junior mens field. Is this proof of mounting pressure on the juniors who at the start of the season were consistently on top? Theres a number of riders including two of our own Hyperformance Hardware Young Gunzs among other kiwi potentials who have been part of the group of riders closing in on established riders through the world cup season. Tuhoto-Ariki Pene and Finn Hawkesby-Brown have also been selected to represent New Zealand at the upcoming UCI World Mountain Bike Championships to be held in Mont Sainte Anne, Canada. They just got back from Europe where they competed in their first world cups of the 2019 season. This was Finns first trip to Europe as a first year junior and Tuhoto’s second trip after much success last year. We caught up with both Finn and Tuhoto this week. With World Championships approaching in the coming weeks read on to gain an insight into their experiences so far this season and preparations for their trip to Canada.
