The XC Development Series has just been wound down for this year, with three rounds and three great weekends. With races all around Ireland, the development series was a great way for newbie’s to get involved in mountain biking. Biking.ie offered free Pre-Laps and top prizes of Private 1-2-1 training days at each round! Winners [...]

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Following the extraordinary success of the first round of the Leinster League last weekend, the second round follows hot on its heels in the Cooley mountains.

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Recently arrived is a box of delights from Camelbak.  We are currently testing the contents but we thought you might like a quick look at  some of the goodies.

First up is the bike specific MULE.  With a 100 oz reservoir, riders can comfortably hydrate for 3+ hours on the trail and numerous stash pockets will [...]

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Not cycling related but this put a smile on our faces.  Anyone fancy swimming with whales?

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The first round of the four race Leinster League series kicks off this weekend in Wexford with a new venue and a new organising club Racing 795.  Nestled close to Mount Leinster which saw a bike race of another kind last year, the Tour of Ireland, XC racers will be emulating their road cousins as [...]

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Recently arrived into Spoke towers are two helmets from Italian manufacturer MET, the Kaos UL and the Valeno DIM.

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Our female tester declared this the most versatile outdoor product she has ever used.  What ever your passion be it MTB, trail running, hiking, mountaineering etc. and then slipping down the pub afterwards for a quick drink, this is the garment for you.

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Not content to merely blow us away with the new X-7 group, SRAM have also released details on a new 150mm Rockshox fork.

Like X-7 which brings many of the features from XX at a far more affordable price point, the Sektor brings much of the technology from the top end Revelation fork at a much [...]

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One of the main features of SRAMs groundbreaking XX is the 2×10 speed drivetrain.  Unfortunately the price makes it available to only a very small proportion of the market but that is set to change as SRAMs cheapest groupset, X-7, will now feature it as standard.
With a radical redesign,  SRAM X7 features 2X10 drivetrain, X-Glide [...]

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Gore are more well known for their clothing and more specifically Gore-tex but their product range doesn’t stop with garments.  The unique properties of Gore-tex are suited to other applications too including cable liners.

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Schwalbe is launching new versions of its Rocket Ron and Nobby Nic MTB success models onto the market: both tires are now available also as a 29″ size (57-622, 29 x 2.25). These “twentyniners” have long since attracted attention in the USA due to their solid performance in terms of track holding and rolling resistance [...]

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SRAM XX kicked off the 2010 racing season right where it had ended in 2009: on the podium, with a clean sweep of the first three positions of the XX Maremma Cup powered by SRAM.

Held in beautiful Massa Marittima, Italy, the XX Maremma Cup is a week long racing series which has become a [...]

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The Collective’s three amazing movies - The Collective, Roam and Seasons, showed us how MTB films could and should be made.  Anthill films is a progression of some of the original members and their first film Follow me is out this May featuring some of the top riders in the world.

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Report below thanks to Richie Byrne from EPICMTB:
Last weekend saw the penultimate round of Ireland’s most Successful Cross Country Race Series.
It was dry in Ballyhoura, Co Limerick, dry, sunny and a little bit chilly. A fabulous start to a fabulous race.  I was never expecting as big turnout in Ballyhoura as the previous race in [...]

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WAR have just announced an extra 20 places in both the full event and the sorter WAR-Sport option.  You’ll need to be quick though as there are only 20 of each!
Go to the events website here to register.

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Niall Davis checks in from the XC Developmental series regarding competition winners -
‘The XC Development Race Series is now up to full speed and heading towards the ultimate round in Galway on the 21st of March.

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Nicolas Roche of AG2R continued his rise up the Pelotons ranks with a fantastic third on today’s stage 3 of the Paris-Nice which was shortened to 155kms due to adverse weather.

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The Sinethesis is METs top end road helmet which adorns the heads of the Liquigas team including France Pellizzotti and Ivan Basso and it is now available in team colours.

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Super-distributors Madison recently had their annual trade show at their headquarters in Milton-Keynes and we made the trip to check out the newest products.
DT SWISS

DT Swiss EXM 150

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Back in November we brought you news of the new Garmin OSi maps for Ireland.  At the time the drawback was the way the country was split into four with a line stretching across from Johnny Fox’s marking the end of North-East and start of South-East, an obvious drawback if you utilise the Dublin mountains [...]

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Drury street car park now includes an indoor bike park for 192 bikes in the heart of Dublin, steps from Grafton Street.

Opened in October it hasn’t exactly been widely publicised

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When SRAM introduced XX last year it was the first full groupset that incorporated a 2×10 setup in mountain biking. We ran a 2×9 setup on a carbon hardtail for most of last season and found it spectacular so no winning over was required from us.

SRAM have launched a new website called SRAM2×10.com designed as [...]

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You can now view the February issue of Outsider magazine online here (or click on the image).  Lots of bike features and reviews this issue.

If there is anything you would like to see specifically from a mountain bike point of view between the covers of Outsider email us at info@spoke.ie.  As mountain bike editor we [...]

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2010 sees the return of provincial XC racing leagues to the calendar with the Leinster League set to kick off on the 28th of March in Wexford.  This gives you a few weeks to get up to speed ahead of what will be a busy season.

The Leinster League is comprised of 4 races:

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As part of continuing support of the XC Development race series, Niall Davis from Biking.ie will be taking two groups of five riders out for a Pre-Lap (or part thereof, due to the length of the lap) of the Ballyhoura race circuit on the morning of the race.

The aim of the Pre-Lap is to help [...]

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