Norco Bikes looks back at 60 years of bikes, from BMX, to freeride, to downhill racing and everything in between ..read more

RIDE SKILLS: CAN YOU ROLL IT? Rory Bingham, Onward MTB Coaching Time to introduce the roll down. It’s a perfect tool for the job that will leave your riding pals amazed as you effortlessly glide through these features with newfound finesse and control. I promise.   Rolling something with the correct technique is game changing for increasing control, precision and risk management.  For context, lets aim this manoeuvre at intermediate riders to use on slow speed drops/steps/ledges up to 2ft high on your average grade 3/4 tech trail. It’s a very common trail scenario. It ..read more

A backcountry hut somewhere. The sans-paint "Supernot" is developing a nice patina. RAD RIGS Ant Green’s bike formerly known as Supernaut Words and Images Ant Green This is my one-off frame, designed and built by me in 2020. The design took about a year, and the build took two months of evenings and weekends. The frame cost about $3600 in 2020, not including my time. It weighs 17.5 kg with Cush. It goes hard.  I wanted to make bikes ever since I was a kid in the 90s. There was an amazing Diamondback ad in Mountain Bike Action featuring a silhouette of their bike and a bunch o ..read more

RAD RIGS Simon Courtney’s Millimetre Bikes Study #1: Max Relax hardtail Words and Images Simon Courtney What is it?  It’s a 29-inch extra-large-size handmade steel hardtail. A bit of a personal study in relaxed hardtail geometry and steel tube choices. It’s slack but tall in the front, long and low with a steep seat angle, and adjustable out the back. It’s a single-bottle ride kind of bike. You’re seeing it here in bare metal as I wanted to run it fully built up and give it a proper thrash test. Eventually, I’ll paint it before it gets too gnarly and rusts away.  Why th ..read more

RAD RIGS: Nick Giblin’s Balfa MinuteMan This is a new section where we showcase interesting, unusual, rare, esoteric, custom and cool mountain bikes and delve into why and how these rad rigs came to be. We’re taking reader submissions, so if you have an interesting mountain bike to share, please email editor@spokemagazine.com.  What is it and why this bike?  I picked this Balfa MinuteMan up as a complete bike a year or two back in a well-ridden state. I’m interested in bikes I always wanted as a teenager but could never afford at the time and that are hard to find in New Zealan ..read more

RAD RIGS: Nick Giblin’s Balfa MinuteMan This is a new section where we showcase interesting, unusual, rare, esoteric, custom and cool mountain bikes and delve into why and how these rad rigs came to be. We’re taking reader submissions, so if you have an interesting mountain bike to share, please email editor@spokemagazine.com.  What is it and why this bike?  I picked this Balfa MinuteMan up as a complete bike a year or two back in a well-ridden state. I’m interested in bikes I always wanted as a teenager but could never afford at the time and that are hard to find in New Zealan ..read more

Ride Skills: Better body position Words Rory Bingham, Onward Coaching Images Rory Bingham and Blake Pickup For the first instalment of these Ride Skills articles, we’re going to look at how to create a more stable, centred and mobile rider through better body positioning. This will improve your control in trickier sections and, over time, build confidence. What we’ll focus on is creating a more stable, centred and mobile rider through better rider positioning. This will improve the rider’s control to more successfully tackle trickier sections and, over time, build confidence. I ..read more

RAD RIGS: Tim White's Marin Alcatraz This is a new section where we showcase interesting, unusual, rare, esoteric, custom and cool mountain bikes and delve into why and how these rad rigs came to be. We’re taking reader submissions, so if you have an interesting mountain bike to share, please email editor@spokemagazine.com.  What is it?  The Marin Alcatraz is a dirt jump frame kit designed by slopestyle and freerider Matt Jones. More importantly, a local grom down the track told me it was the second-lightest DJ frame on the market. It’s made from some space-age alloy and comes ..read more

RAD RIGS Abbie Bull’s WZRD BCXC Hardtail This is a new section where we showcase interesting, unusual, rare, esoteric, custom and cool mountain bikes and delve into why and how these rad rigs came to be. We got in touch with Abbie after seeing images of her incredible build on social media. We’re taking reader submissions, so if you have an interesting mountain bike to share, please email editor@spokemagazine.com.  What is it?  I didn’t intend to build a custom bike. I’m not a gear freak, I can’t recite the periodic table of componentry, nor did I really know much about geomet ..read more

LOOSE METAL Going sideways fast at the first ever Fourforty Classic   Words: Tim White Images: Tim White, Nick Giblin In the subculture of vintage bikes, enthusiasts have been collecting and restoring these machines for many years, but some take it to the extreme. They are prepared to get loose on their 40-year-old bikes down metal roads at hectic speeds and even race them against others.  The concept behind the Fourforty Classic was to get these old bikes out of the shed and up the hill for racing with like-minded individuals who are ready to risk the gravel gauntlet and bask ..read more