chinamtb 08

Yesterday, March 23rd 6 brave riders braved the stormy conditions to ride at the TV tower. Well stormy is a bit of an exaggeration, light showers a warm breeze and muddy trails were the worst yesterday had to offer. Muddy rides are always more fun than in the dry, familiar smooth lines become gloopy slippy ruts, and grippy rocks turn to natural slip and slides. Luckily everyone managed to stay on their bikes this week, although Ash managed to slip while walking up hill (did it bruise?) and Kuni had a huge bruise to show off from last Sunday’s ride when he snapped yet another brake lever.

The Continental Mountain Kings performed well in the mud and on the slippy rocks, they actually felt better in the wet than they do in the dry loose stuff, a good all rounder then! good job Continental. Unfortunately I managed to get a puncture on the downhill. I can’t blame the tyre as its done the same downhill 4 times before with no problems, it was a combination of picking the wrong line at the wrong speed and imagining I was Nicolas Vouilloz riding in the BOS suspension video, which I’m not. The combination of the two resulted in a flat and a very badly buckled Atomlab GI rim (looks like a wheel build is in order!).

Luckily Ash was there to keep us entertained while I undid 8 nuts and bolts which hold my Banshee’s rear wheel in place.

We completed the ride a little slower than usual due to my puncture, but the weather had warmed up and we met up with James, so we decided to ride again. This time through the same rocky section I got the puncture before the Conti’s held there own against my bad line choices, and continued to stay puncture free for the rest of the ride.

The last downhill at the TV tower is a fast pedally one, with great natural berms on each corner ending in a twisty steep chute, not unlike a short toboggan run. The first time round I followed Ken down and was amazed by the similarities and differences we have between our riding, we both chose different routes, but on the first time down we were pretty evenly matched. The second time however Ken really opened up and seemed to pedal all the way to the bottom, there was no way I could keep up! Amazingly fast and amazingly smooth!!

The Continental Mountain Kings continue to impress me, the chunky knobs dug in to the mud well for great grip in the turns and the climbs, and the wide spacing of the tread meant the tyres could shed the dirt quickly and easily.

Overall it was another great ride, with great conditions, great riders and great tyres!

You can read a full review on the Continental Mountain Kings here. 

Bikes will become more expensive. That’s what this year’s Taipei Int’l Cycle Show that closed its doors last Sunday was all about. It’s expected that retail prices for bicycles will rise between 8 and 10% this year. Such price increases are inevitable due to components that have become considerably more expensive. Next to that, there’s also a lot of uncertainty about parts prices which is the result of a lack in raw materials like steel, butyl and rubber.

Currently there’s a shortage in butyl; even so much so that prices for this inner tube base material have gone up 42%! There’s talk about stretched lead times and tube price increases of at least 15%. Prices for tyres are on the whole rising (per manufacturer) between 7 and 15%.

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The new event date for Huangshan MTB Festival has finally been confirmed. CCA and the Huangshan Government have agreed to postpone the event until May 10th.

The travel packages will still look the same 4D3N from Thursday-Sunday, and 3D2N from Friday-Sunday. Same price as before!

Nordicays want to apologize once again for any inconvenience that this last-minute change of date might have caused, and hope that you are all free on this new event day and will show up in Huangshan ready to hit the tracks.

Visit the Nordicways website for more event news and booking details.