Gravel Bike Journey - West Coast

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

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.

Caleb Bottcher - 2019 World Champs Reconnaissance Trip

Our boy Caleb Bottcher just arrived back from a successful trip to the East Coast of North America to compete in several Cross Country events in order to gain valuable UCI Points, kilometers under the belt and experience in similar conditions to those he will be faced with at the 2019 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships held in Mont Sainte Anne 28th August - 1st September. Read on to hear Calebs perspective (in his own words) on the trip and how the trip difference this trip made to before heading away to World Champs in a few weeks.

“The main purpose of the trip was to race the Mont Tremblant and Baie St Paul Canada Cup and Junior World Series rounds, where I placed 17th and 11th. These events helped me to gain valuable UCI points ahead of World Champs. At Baie St Paul I had some great battles throughout the race but it was also annoying to be held up on the last lap which held me back from gaining a top 10 placing.

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After waking at 3am the following morning, we drove for 7 hours to Highland MTB Park (back in the USA) where I placed 3rd in the Open Category. I backed this up the next weekend with another 3rd place in Open Men. An unfortunate crash early in that race cost me a lot of time and required me to chase back through the field without any front suspension!

 The final weekend of the trip was the East Coast Junior MTB Championships. Here I had a really strong performance, riding away from the field and maintaining my intensity to finish with good lap time consistency. After winning the cross country on the Saturday, I managed to nab 15th in the enduro on Sunday; still running the same xc setup on my Blur, including high post hah!

During the month I was able to complete a good volume of training with quality rest being away from the usual stresses. The effectiveness of this training block was proven over the weekend when I smashed my existing records in my power tests! Also, the opportunity to train at Mont St Anne in Canada ahead of the World Championships in August was really exciting and a great confidence booster.”

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No Shoulda, Woulda, or Coulda. The Maverick just does.

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No Shoulda, Woulda, or Coulda. The Maverick just does.

You’re here to get down. You’re here to go fast. Not fast for a girl. Just damn fast. So is the Maverick. Did someone say smile more? No problem. Tell ‘em to look closer as you set your quads on fire churning up the last brutal climb that makes the downhill taste that much sweeter. When you live for that magical space between pleasure and pain, the Maverick is the bike that won’t say no when you say yes.

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