Reviews

Warm-up… Following on from our recent pre-Christmas review of the Dawes Academy 20, we are stepping up to the next level with a look at the 24” wheeled Orbea Team MX with the help of 10 year older aspiring XC racer Cameron Bowles. Originating from Northern Spain, this brand aren’t well...

Warm-up… A few weeks back, a bike box landed at the gateway to Castel de UKXCNews.com that was a little smaller than usual... What lay inside this little (actually, not really that much smaller) box was the 2015 Dawes Academy 20 MTB; part of the Dawes 'premium' range of kids bikes aimed at the...

We got our eager mitts on a few samples of the new Gel and Bar flavours from Natural treat pedlars, Mule Bar. With winter training now on most riders agenda, we let Mike Moore from Paleo Racing give these new flavours the winter training test... Would these tasty treats ease the pain of those long,...

Review: NUUN Active Hydration Tab Finding the perfect nutritional balance for racing and training can be a never ending maze of mind blowing choices. The internet is full of scientific studies that hope to sway you one way or the other, a hive of fantastic and meticulously researched information...

We must apologise for the interruption to the Sunday Race Bike Focus schedule, brought about by our recent obsession with the WEMBO 24hr World Championships. Hopefully Ben Price's Whyte 29C will more than make up for it. (Photos Joolze Dymond) The 2014 TORQ Performance Mountain Bike Teams...

New tech and racing go hand in hand. In the same vein, cost-cutting and keeping those credit card bills at bay also plays a very important part in most privateers plans. So when it comes to new technologies and racing advancements, it's often prudent to find a work-around and to make best use of...

Continuing the WEMBO build-up, this weekend's Race Bike Focus takes a look at the race-only machine of Team JMC's Jason Miles. Expect to see this in some serious action if you're up at WEMBO best weekend! Jason: "I’m a bit of a tart when it comes to my Niner Air9 Carbon. I try to keep it for...

Another edition of Sunday morning Race Bike Focus, and this time UKXCNews is pleased to showcase Rachel Sokal's Specialized Epic Marathon. Linking in neatly to our build-up to the WEMBO 24hr World Championships, Rachel is the current UK National 24hr Champion, and will be hoping to make an...

Second in our series of 'Sunday morning with your coffee' features on discipline / rider specific race bikes is Scott Cornish's Niner Jet 9 RDO. Read on as Scott takes us on a tour of his bike! "The array of tech we get to chose from these days to make riding smoother, faster and more fun is...

Here at UKXCNews.com we have to confess to being unapologetic bike geeks, and appreciate that it's often those personal, specific touches in terms of equipment and components that make a particular bike 'just right' for a rider and their particular discipline. Even when riders have the same basic...

Although the phrase "what tyres for...." seems to be a standing joke in the MTB world, the fact is that some tyres are definitely designed with a certain set of conditions in mind. UKXCNews has been testing some 29er Rubena Zefyros tyres, and found them to be a prime example of this. Rubena tyres...

Race Tested: KTM Ultra 1964 (2015) Jon Marshall Can you race a bike costing under a Grand...? With top end mountain bikes costing up to £7000 these days you’d think that £1000 wouldn’t get you much in terms of a Cross-Country race bike, well let me introduce you to the KTM Ultra 1964 -...