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Contents

9. Editorial Chipps gets a good whiff of the sport.

10. International Travel – French Pyrenees How best to spend a short week in the Pyrenees? Winch and plummet, that’s how!

20. Bike Porn – Bamboo A clever homemade bike that uses bamboo, carbon fibre and - a Hoover?

22. Interview – The riders from Team Colnago Ergon (and Singletrack...) Amy, Gareth and Robin ride for Colnago Ergon. They also ride for us. Ben gives them a quiz.

29. Bike Test – A Question of Integration 140 and 150mm bikes from Bionicon, Cannondale and Trek with suspension integration.

38. Blame the Dog – Mike Ferrentino Mike emerges from his bunker long enough to ramble on about bombing the wrong target. It’s not all his fault apparently. Bikes are great!

40. Through the Grinder Nine pages of mountain bike products dragged through the summer grit.

52. Fish Out of Water – Wheelies Can’t wheelie? Don’t have the ‘wheelie gene’? Neither do we, but we thought we’d try to learn anyway.

58. Column – Phillip Diprose Does shaving your legs mark you out as a ‘true’ cyclist? PhillyD reckons there are plenty more tell-tale signs.

60. Column – Danny Blackburn Taking it seriously? That’s the last thing that Danny wants to do with mountain biking. Quite the opposite.

62. Grouptest – Race Shoes Benji tests a dozen stiff soled shoes that make you walk funny and ride fast.

70. Head to head. Pace 305 vs Whyte 19 Trail Two designed in, and intended for, the UK bikes tested in the UK. Needless to say, they did the job admirably.

75. The Luncheon Lap Can you get a true, testing mountain bike ride in in your lunch hour? Edd Kenny-Herbert reckons you certainly can.

78. Long Term Test Bikes Matt, Chipps, Sim and Dave open their sheds to show what’s new on the Singletrack staff bikes this issue.

82. Grouptest Article – Lightweight camping. The team get truly rained on in order to test the latest in lightweight bivvy and camping gear. Now it’s your turn.

92. Gallery If it’s not sunny at your house, you can look at our gallery and remember that it once was (and still is, somewhere).

100. Column – Faye Stewart Girls go downhill. With much squealing, Faye overcomes the downhill fear. . .

102. Column – Roly Lambert Roly is retiring. Not from writing, but from his unsuccessful career as a solo 24 hour race hero. You mean you’d not noticed?

104. Competition – Win Alpkit stuff! Win over £300 of camping gear from Alpkit. Rugged riders and softies alike can win something to suit them.

106. Yak Attack It’s the tallest race in the world, racing over the world’s highest pass in the Himalayas. We sent Matt Hart off to get high and breathless.

116. Route Guide – Scottish rails and trails Three routes based around the theme of Scottish railway stations, great riding and food. Ideal!

127. Outro Matt appears to have gone through the shrinkeriser. . .

Photographer: Dan Barham Rider: