Today the past meets the present, from which the future is introduced. Dan White of Cube Bikes UK raced here from the mid nineties, from hardtails, through the early days of full suspension and into the intoxicating period when the pro’s started pushing 150mm travel down these woods. All through the period when little Richard beat big bother Rob Warner to national glory, or when Peaty got it sideways yet still took the national title – the year when Mike Rose (now editor) opened the back of his camera when there was still film inside yet managed to capture the opening spread on these pages. Dan White has tasted this hill under many skies and through many seasons and circumstances.
Today he will deliver one of Cube’s founders, Michael Prell, and Product Manager Frank Greifzu to this quiet Shropshire hill. He will have picked them up from the airport. Dan’s job is to communicate the company thinking, the 2014 line up of bikes.
One of Dan’s favourite stories is when Billy (our ex–web editor) described his favourite bike, the 2013 Stereo 27.5, last season. Billy likened the advent of many wheel sizes to being a balloon seller – it goes something along the lines of, “I got a job as a balloon seller, but when I got down to my last balloon nobody knew if I was a balloon seller or not”! Whatever, poor interpretations of a past story aside, Dan and the Cube team have brought three bikes, ultimately all to sell. For those gathered today they have to sell and to study a range of balloons. Having one balloon is easy.
The Stereo was a huge bike last year. Cube Bikes had forged a path where others feared to tread in creating a 27.5” (650B) lightweight 160mm bike. It seemed the rest of the bike industry was either asleep or had either failed to realise that nearly every rider wanted sub 30lbs with fast wheels and a great component set. Whether to salivate over or to score wins, the bike was hugely important. A benchmark even. The team had not only worked out there would be demand for such bikes given the lift off in the Enduro World Series but they had identified the angular needs of the bigger wheels and how to accommodate longer travel in an aggressive chassis. More than this, it was light. Progress had been made.
For 2014 the Stereo has a change of identity, returning to 140mm travel. Here in Hopton it arrived in 2013 spec and 29” wheels. If ever there was a place for the bigger wheels it could be here. Yet even though Dave Pearce (he of Pearce Cycles and the ‘Midlands Super Series’ fame) has created a stunning loop which is every bit the ‘bent out of shape circular’ as any trail centre… it also doesn’t have the imported stone, the loose marble surfaces. It’s still benched–out, cut into the hillside, like many of the UK’s venues but crucially its subsurface has excellent binding qualities. Unlike the coarser soils of south Wales that get quickly sieved out with higher rainfall and possibly higher numbers of riders, Hopton is standing the test of time – its super compacted sheltered surfaces are taking the hammer well. Maybe it also has something to do with the lack of a café, the ubiquitous visitor centre with its latte’s, race tops and bacon butties.
Hopton could be a location for mountainbike’s cherry pickers, one for the connoisseur. There were certainly lots of mid–travellers (140–160mm bikes) camped up on a mid week visit sampling its many lines of attack. Yet even if some riders here have 140mm travel and others have 160mm, it doesn’t really matter, they all seem to ride in gangs and they are not here to sell bikes, only to chase their mates.
Sandy Plenty runs a bike shop (The Trailhead in Shrewsbury). He too has savoured Hopton in all directions for two decades. He hits the first series of corners for Andy Lloyd the photographer showing his experience of the soil and the arc of this particular left–hander. As a shop owner he’s in the difficult position of having not only many brands but also many wheel sizes to choose from. Sandy seems a staunch DH/enduro man not so keen to lean fully into 29” but realising that they very much a have a place. We recall World Cup DH champ Aaron Gwin starting the year so well on a 29” at Sea Otter, the need for great bikes irrespective of wheel size… and the power of marketing.
For Dirt’s tea boy (Ali Todd) it could be the end of a year of Dirt hell, he’s about to embark on four years of history at St Andrews. Even though he’s fanning the hideous amount of flies from Lloyd’s lens he’s buzzing with excitement at the prospect of inflicting his hard lessons learned (we hope) onto the green freshers – except they may have been riding 29 too. Mixing drinks and mixing bikes, both a curse. He and the shooter love the Stereo, it rolls through the Hopton radicle environment so much better than the smaller wheel, which although better than 26” still gets sucked into a battle. The Stereo is balanced at speed, has better poise, less fidget for the fades and climbs, berms and roots. Yet 29, even for companies like Cube, still have them cast into a cross country underworld. Long stems, narrow bars anchoring a rider into a less than optimum position, locking them into battle with where climbing is the first point of attack. A 35mm stem to enable a rider to apply the correct tyre pressure, 1×11 for silent glide and 750mm bars to lever the big old wheels is a place many still fear to tread. Time on bike, but more importantly the rider’s ability to identify the need for different timing continue to hold 29 back too. The Stereo is special in that it offers long travel in a balanced 140/140 package. It’s certainly one which will go on the 2014 Dirt 100 first edit.
Dan arrives with the food, a bag of bread with some ham and bacon. We tuck into a discussion on pricing, spec, wheel size and how much quicker and well rounded today’s 140–160mm bikes are. We sit on the first right–hander of the classic downhill off the top of the mound where light meets dark, where riders have to adjust between the forgiving world of grass and heather and enter the cauldron of Hopton root.
The Fritzz is a favourite in our discussions. It replaces the Stereo, but only in terms of identity. It’s a 160mm travel, ‘straight down the middle’ bike and is available in many specifications, frame materials, brands of suspension and colour. It’s the bike everyone wants to ride, not only because it’s straight down the middle but it’s also at the very core of where moutainbiking’s heart is currently… that being enduro.
The Fritzz is weighted neither too much towards lightweight trail or heavier downhill duties. It balances an angular line that tilts both up and down. Yet it does the dirty work well. But riders are fed up of hearing “but it’s a long travel bike that pedals well” – if it is 160mm its primary business is going to be in grim territory, not the oiled and shaver–smooth grinding hill climbing. The Fritzz can live with all day rides but if it’s for ultimate all–round then the Fritzz SLT Super HPC, at a shade over five grand, is the bike that might just tackle the Lapierre Spicy head on. Everyone needs flagships to aspire to or to ride.
On the side of the woods Michael has been manning the base, the mini–press camp. Product manager Frank has sampled the soul of what UK trail/enduro riding is all about, Sandy and Dan, as both shop owner and account manager, have got involved in the shoot. This is not about wining and dining journos in the Alps riding inappropriate 140mm bikes, this is not about going to Sedona for yet more red rock dizziness. This is real terrain on which these bikes will spend most of their working lives.
After getting the dirty work finished up, including swapping stems, cleaning bikes, packing vans, Michael and Frank go through the 2014 range of bikes. Affable, always smiling, they care, and have a detailed knowledge of each and every part of every bike. Yet it’s a complex balance of knowing the needs of diverse rider skill from different countries with varying mindsets and environments in which these bikes will spend their time.
Dan White meanwhile is administering some medication after a bad tangle with Hopton rootage. A reminder that past classics are still as testing as ever, the hill has been given an all–mountain/enduro makeover to enable us to have more time on bike with its cunning lines of altitude gain. It’s a pocket of action sustaining a largely local need, it carries a full pint without tipping over the edge, a place in balance with all the credentials for a great ride. It’s a peaceful place, it’s been fashioned from a very different mindset to the commerciality of this country’s recent past. What bikes we ride in the future nobody knows, but we all must respect the native tree population. They rule the hill after all.
