Enjoy reading this?
Get similar articles delivered directly to your inbox
It’s been about 18 months since we first wrote about the trail development in Mogo, on NSW’s South Coast. Now at the start of 2023, we have just had word that NSW Forestry Corp has signed off on the Review of Environmental Factors, and the trail-building crews from Rocky Trail Destination and Next Level MTB […]
Grinduro has finally made it to the promised land, bringing the eclectic racing format to Falls Creek from December 2-4, 2022. With two distance options on offer, the team at Falls are aiming to make it more than just a day riding your bike. Related: Flow Destination Hub: Falls Creek Falls Creek kick starts the […]
“I still get goosebumps about the whole bloody thing,” says Cairns local and World Trail Founder Glen Jacobs. “All of these years later, to see our little park in Cairns (Smithfield) still growing and evolving is crazy.” Smithfield put Cairns on the map, playing host to the worlds biggest events, and with Crankworx coming to […]
After a bit of juggling, the Quad Crown MTB stage racing series will kick off on NSW’s Sapphire Coast, from 5-7 August. Following a pair of postponements due to Covid and unrelenting wet weather, the Quaddy team are forging ahead to bring a rad event to southern NSW. Race Director Jason Dover tells Flow it […]
Rotorua has always been a paradise for mountain bikers, and the Whakarewarewa Forest is a bit like the promised land. Riders from around the world have made the pilgrimage to the North Island of New Zealand to ride the forest, which now has north of 200km of singletrack. But in among all of that riding, […]
*This story has been updated with additional details on the Manning Park Mountain Bike Concept Plan prepared by Common Ground Trails. Manning Park is a 110ha urban green space in Perth, a few kilometres south of the Swan River. As so often happens in these green spaces set in suburbia, trails begin to appear, which […]
*Update: Unfortunately with water still leaking out of the ground in South East Queensland, and quite a bit more precipitation on the way the Quad Crown Sunshine Coast has been postponed to 7-9 October. For details on the other Quad Crown stops click here. The Quad Crown MTB Stage Racing Series kicks off with an […]
Among the crocodiles and the cassowaries, Cairns will play host to a Crankworx World Tour stop from October 5-9, 2022. The idea to bring Crankworx to Australia has been bubbling away in the background since just after the World Championships rolled through Cairns in 2017. Matt Hilton from GTR Events — which ran the Cairns […]
A West Coast Odyssey We believe there are few places in the world better to set out on a road trip than the Apple Isle and its criminally underrated West Coast. So, Lucy, Ryan and Chris loaded up their ute with bikes and snacks to provide you with tasting notes on the best trails and […]
Isolated, gnarly and picturesque, the West Coast of Tasmania is wild. Comprised of mostly small communities, until the 1930s, there were no serviceable roads, and the only way in or out was by rail or sea. Make your screen full size – watch this one! When Tasmania was known as Van Dieman’s Land, the West […]
It’s been barely a week since we last caught up, but already we have another freshly baked edition of Flow’s Fresh Produce ready for you to sink your teeth into! Don’t say we never spoil you ok? As we come in at full speed, two-wheel drifting into the new product season, the bike launches and […]
Standing 1,390m above sea level, Mount Canobolas is an extinct volcano near Orange, NSW, with a paved road to the summit and as much a 500m of usable vertical drop — sounds like a no brainer for a mountain bike trail network, right? The potential for something special is precisely why Rodney Farrell has been […]
The Dragon Trail three day stage race is back for 2022, sending riders onto the trails around Derby and St Helens from 17-19 March. This should have been the third edition of the race; however, the first event was scheduled for March 2020, and well, you all know what happened. We caught up with Race […]
The last few years have been difficult for event organisers, but things are beginning to look up, and it is a damn good time to get into mountain bike stage racing here in Australia. With a range of new events popping up for 2022, and some classics returning after the 2020/2021 forced hiatus, there are […]
Mountain bikers first took to Falls Creek in 2013, debuting with two XC trails and two descending trails. Three subsequent development stages have seen the network balloon to 40km, all set against an epic alpine background. The team at Falls have just announced a further 11km, set to open for the 2022/2023 riding season, but […]
Since the trail network opened in 2016, Blue Derby has made a name for itself as one of Australia’s premier riding destinations, and hosted the Enduro World Series twice, taking out the Specialized Trail of the Year award following each visit. While there are plenty of trails to keep more experienced riders entertained for days […]
About an hour southeast of Perth lays the town of Dwellingup, and another hour or so down the road is Collie. Both of these towns were founded on the back of resource extraction, and are transitioning from digging up coal and bauxite, to digging trails and epic descents. With hundreds of kilometres of singletrack on […]
The hills around Victoria’s Latrobe Valley are spooky. There are stories of cattle suddenly stampeding as they crest the rise overlooking Lake Narracan, and tales of strange sounds and rhythmic thumping coming from the ground beneath your feet. There’s lore of an ethereal stockman roaming these hills searching for his herd, and before white settlers […]
According to World Trail founder Glen Jacobs, the hills around Høgevarde ski resort have more mountain lakes and waterfalls than anywhere on earth. World Trail has made the trip to Scandinavia to embark on the construction of what, on completion, will be the biggest trail network in Norway. “When we look at Les Gets and […]
Waking up in a hospital outside of Prague, Harriet Burbidge-Smith had crashed at a Red Bull Revelations four-cross event. Layed up and severely injured, she was hungry. “I still have no memory of the crash or about 24-hours before or after, but I lacerated my liver and had a pretty severe concussion. I spent about […]
Just twenty minutes from Ballarat sits the sleepy little town of Creswick, where chef Paul Williams has just spent the night prepping delicious pastries that are headed for the display case in his French bakery, Le Péché Gourmand. Situated on the main drag, Williams’ patisserie is about 400m from Hammond Park, the trailhead for the […]
“Meet me at Birdie Beach at 5:30,” the text message said. Birdie Beach is over an hour away from Mick’s Flow HQ; it will be a long day. Mick spends a day with Jack Moir. An early start and an odd venue to meet up with professional mountain biker, but Jack Moir isn’t your typical […]
Christophe Stevens was born in Belgium, first coming to Australia in 2004 to race the Crocodile Trophy, which he would win in 2006. “I grew up in the country, and about eight or nine years ago, we moved back to Australia. We ended up in the suburbs, so I started looking for something in the […]
Just one year after the tremendous disappointment of cancelling the inaugural Dragon Trail MTB due to the Covid19 pandemic, 300+ eager riders lined up in just east of Derby, ready to take on three days of racing in Tasmania’s North East. The team’s determination at Geocentric Outdoors paid off, and the race got underway, in […]
For three decades, the Sea Otter Classic has come to represent the season opener for the bike industry in North America. Held in April every year, it’s right about when racing, both on and off-road, kicks off for the season, and typically plays host to some of the biggest product launches on the calendar. Plus, […]
Wil reviews the Trek Supercaliber Back in the 90s, every mountain bike designer was doing their level best to produce a full suspension bike that was as wildly different as possible from everything else. Granted, a lot of those designs also looked like they were doodled by a three year old. Nevertheless, innovation was rife […]
30 years ago, someone thought it might be a bright idea to take a mountain bike up the Thredbo chairlift and ride down the enormous mountain. And as it turned out, not such a bad idea at all, and the beginning of brake-melting history. In this three-part series and videos, we reflect on three decades […]
Wil Reviews the 2021 Canyon Exceed Being the year of new XC bike releases, Canyon has busted down the door of the spandex-party with a complete overhaul of its thoroughbred race whippet; the Exceed. Sitting alongside the fully-suspended Lux (a bike we know very well, having spent a load of time on it last summer), […]
Designed to excel at the very pointiest end of the sport, the Trek Supercaliber is a premium, 100% unfiltered, unapologetic, pure-bred XC race machine. The Supercaliber was first announced to the world last year, stunning many with its striking carbon chassis, integrated IsoStrut suspension design and impossibly thin seatstays. In a market where many full […]
Trek’s Project One program is a way to customise a Trek build with options of spec and paint. And they’ve just added a few amazing options into the mix we think they are pretty wild, perhaps too wild, or just the right amount of wild? The official word from Trek’s press release here: Trek announced […]
With bushfires causing damage and closures to large parts of the Victorian High Country, they’re well and truly open for business, and it’s time to #RollOnBack and support the regions that need us. Here is the official word from Ride High Country: Victoria’s High Country has long been known by cyclists as one of the […]
Welcome to the latest edition of Flow’s Fresh Produce! Not visited before? If this is your first time joining us, all you need to do is sit back and relax, because we’re here as your personal one-stop-wrap-up-shop of all things new and exciting in the wonderful world of mountain bikes! As we power on through […]
The new Marzocchi Bomber Z2 isn’t here to bamboozle you with high-speed this, and low-speed that. Keeping things simple, the Bomber Z2 is designed to offer solid, honest performance and ease of adjustability, while still being loaded with the latest 2020 tech. But is the Z2 just a cheaper Fox fork? Or something altogether different? […]
Derby is the place on everyone’s minds when it comes to travelling to ride, of course, it is it’s amazing. The super-sweet trails don’t need any introduction, but it has always tended to be a little vague when it comes to ‘other things’ to do. Now the little Tasmanian town of Derby seems to have […]
Our trip to Falls Creek coincided with Ignition Festival, a celebration of everything we love about riding bikes; trails, group rides, food, music, beer and great vibes. Join Ben and Jonah for a trip through some of Falls Creek’s trails, and you tell us if this doesn’t look like a good time! Directions to Falls […]
Planning a trip to Derby late last year we were faced with a tough call to make, what bike should we take for someone who’s never been there before? The Fjord Lord, our friend from Terrengsykkel, Norway’s best mountain bike magazine was visiting, and he’s a great photographer and keen adventurer, but he was bike-less […]
A fantastic $450,000 grant will go to the Hunter Mountain Bike Association (HMBA) from the State Government’s Stronger Country Communities Fund. Awaba Mountain Bike Park is part of N.S.W. Forestry Corporation owned land and HMBA holds an occupation permit to conduct club events & make Trails available to both members & the general public. Upcoming […]
The Port to Port MTB stage race is one of the best events of the year, rolling its way through the gorgeous Hunter Valley and Lake Macquarie region before winding up in Newcastle – we love it. This year, we jumped out from behind the cameras to race it! To tackle the job of four […]
The number of riders swelled today, with loads of savvy locals joining the action, as the course sampled many of the best trails in Newcastle region. This stage has evolved into something really cool; it’s not just Glenrock network that’s the standout, but there’s loads of brilliant, twisting singletrack in the Redhead and Whitebridge region […]
Today was the big one; 60km long, over 1200m of climbing, coming at you after you’ve already put two days of hard racing into your legs. Despite those somewhat confronting numbers, it’s also a superb stage, thanks in part to the awesome Awaba MTB Park which accounts for most of the first 20km of the […]
$10 million for the Thredbo Valley Trail Now this is exciting stuff. NSW Deputy Premiere John Barilaro has just announced a whopping $10 millions dollars has been allocated for the completion of the iconic Thredbo Valley Trail. Yeeha! Watch the video here. This funding will see the grand vision of a continuous trail from the […]
We spent Five Rad Days in Rotorua catching all the action of Crankworx, shredding mind-blowing trails and going Full-Kiwi-Adventure-Mode! Day 1 Day 1 in paradise was spent shuttling the trails of the Whakarewarewa forest, zip-lining through the canopy and we wrapped it all up with a mountain bike trivia night. Day 2 After kicking off […]
There’s always a silver lining. Even in the biggest, nastiest rain cloud, like the ones that dumped down on Rotorua yesterday. The upshot of the Slopestyle being postponed yesterday, was that it mean we had a MASSIVE final day here at Crankworx, with both the downhill and Slopestyle taking place. It couldn’t have been more […]
Our third day in mountain bike paradise began with another trip to the Redwoods, this time with a guided ride from the team at Mountain Bike Rotorua, to make sure we didn’t miss any tasty bits. With a belly full of Roto loam, it was back out to Skyline, to join the frothing masses for […]
We’ve been a part of Port to Port MTB since it began and has been a thrill to see this race grow and evolve every year to become the east coast’s premier stage race. With new event owners, Ironman, at the helm, 2018 sees the biggest jump yet for the race. They’ve taken on board feedback […]
Maydena Bike Park’s opening weekend went off; we were there with bells on, we rode the trails, tested out the whole operation (including the bike patrol and medics). We rode their bikes, drank their beer, swam in the river, and got a proper feel for what this place is all about. Oh, Tasmania, you’re spoiling […]
499 entries (preferable to 500 in the world of singlespeeding) entertaining over 2000 spectators spread around a twin loop course featuring mainly well-established, old-school trails in the Whakarewarewa Forest network. There were over 100,000 video views and tens of thousands of photo views on the event Facebook and Instagram (@sswc2017) pages within 48 hours of […]
“Have some fun, maybe help a mate.” That’s the theme of the 2017 Singlespeed Mountain Bike World Championships on November 18 in Rotorua. “Our events, including New Zealand, Anzac and the World Championships in 2010, are loud and colourful with extravagant costumes and this year will be no different,” says Gary Sullivan, president of the […]
You can read our race recap and all the Aussie’s results, here. The full highlights video is well worth watching too, which can be found here. Sam Hill – Prototype Carbon Nukeproof Mega Jared Graves – Specialized Enduro Josh Carlson – Giant Reign Chris Panozzo – Santa Cruz High Tower LT James Hall – Pivot Switchblade […]
Whistler EWS in one minute! Just like in Aspen, Perth’s Sam Hill started strongest and took the win in stage one which began from the ‘Top of the World’, arguably the toughest stage of the series so far. His 18 second lead over Whistler local Jesse Melamed was brought back to just 2 seconds after […]
Hill’s win at Aspen’s round six saw him take the series lead from Frenchman Adrien Dailly and the steep and technical Whistler trails should favour the Aussie too. A couple of tough rounds this season saw Jared Graves further down the ladder than expected, however, his 3rd from Aspen has bumped him into the top […]
After a consistent season of top 5 finishes including a 2nd at Ireland’s Round 4, Australia’s Sam Hill came to Millau just 20 points behind number 1 ranked Greg Callaghan. Hill had yet another strong race, especially on day two. After a 5th place in Stage 6, the three-time downhill world champ was a favourite for the shortest stage of […]
As we’ve learned over the past few weeks, however, first impressions aren’t everything, but we certainly have done a lot of laughing whilst riding this thing, it’s a whole lot of fun! Ahead of our review, here is a little preview of this very unique bike. Oh, and does anyone know what a Chupacabra actually […]
As we’ve learned over the past few weeks, however, first impressions aren’t everything, but we certainly have done a lot of laughing whilst riding this thing, it’s a whole lot of fun! Ahead of our review, here is a little preview of this very unique bike. Oh, and does anyone know what a Chupacabra actually […]
The 22nd Crocodile Trophy finished after eight days of racing through its home in Tropical North Queensland in Port Douglas. The legendary event started last Saturday in Cairns with a lap race at the Smithfield MTB Park and continued onto the Atherton Tablelands on Sunday. It was the climb onto the Atherton Tablelands and the […]
Despite snow still in the forecast this week and record winter visitation, Falls Creek focus has turned to spring and summer activities. https://flowmountainbike.com/features/must-ride-the-dirty-dozen-falls-creek/ https://flowmountainbike.com/features/must-ride-high-voltage-falls-creek-victoria/ https://flowmountainbike.com/features/must-ride-falls-creek-victoria/ Over the last 4 years, Falls Creek has been developing single track mountain bike trails. On Saturday, 19th November the trails are set to double with stage 4 official opening […]
Inducted into the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame in 2006, The Durango born and bred legend Travis Brown has helped Trek maintain its place as one of the best mountain bikes you can own. We recently had a great opportunity shoot the wind, ride sweet trails and spot kangaroos with one of the sport’s historic […]
Travis was Trek’s first professional mountain bike athlete, signing on the Trek VW Racing Team way back in 1993. In 2005 he may have retired from full time racing, but his responsibilities shifted into turning his incredibly valuable experience into a way of helping develop product. So, Travis, what’s keeping you busy at Trek these […]
After the success of the inaugural McKayos in 2015, it will be back bigger and better on Sat, 24th September 2016. The unique mass start mountain bike Gravity Enduro event, similar to the Megavalanche style event held in many European resorts, attracted 75 riders in 2016. Marketing & Communications Manager, Jo Prothero says ‘we are […]