While Rob’s a mountain biker at heart and never happier than when he’s sliding down a Welsh hillside, he’s more than happy to put the miles in on the road or gravel bike, too. A degree in sports technology and decades of riding experience all help to give Rob a thorough understanding of what’s needed to create a great bike or product. After many years competing on the UK national circuit (including a year attempting to race UCI DH World Cups), Rob realised his know-how and passion for bike setup, tech and writing clearly outweighed his racing ability. He cut his teeth racing cross-country mountain bikes in the early 90s before finding his feet in downhill. Rob’s expansive knowledge of bikes comes courtesy of his passion for racing. In 2010 he joined the team full-time and has been keeping a close eye on all things test-related ever since. Rob first graced the pages of MBUK back in 2001 when working as a freelance writer and went on to start testing bikes for the title in 2007. Rob manages all of the testing here at BikeRadar and across our magazines, Mountain Biking UK and Cycling Plus. Rob Weaver is BikeRadar's technical editor-in-chief. Alex is also a regular on the BikeRadar YouTube channel and BikeRadar podcast. Alex is also a dedicated eMTB rider, and still dabbles in racing of a sort, doing his best to top the Strava leaderboard on the steepest, gnarliest and twistiest trails the Tweed Valley has to offer – just for fun, of course. He’s one of BikeRadar’s lead testers and knows how to push bikes and products to the limit, searching out the equipment that represents the best value for money. Since working for MBUK, Alex’s focus has moved to bike tech. Alex then moved back to the UK and put his vast knowledge of mountain biking to good use by landing a job working for MBUK magazine as features editor. Hitting those famous tracks day in, day out for eight years, he broke more bikes than he can remember. Alex moved to Morzine in the French Alps at 19 to pursue a career as a bike bum and clocked up an enormous amount of riding. He started racing downhill at the tender age of 11 before going on to compete across Europe. When I say cross-country riding, that included pedalling along singletrack, ripping turns in the woods and even heading to the dirt jumps (which, confusingly, we referred to as ‘the trails’).Īlex Evans is BikeRadar’s senior mountain bike technical editor. I had a downhill bike for racing and a jump bike with a long enough seatpost and gears that I could use it for cross-country riding. When I was growing up and racing downhill, things were simple. The same can be said for an all-out cross-country rig.īetween these two category extremes, though, how we define a bike is a little more complex and open to interpretation. It’s neat and tidy, and I can see the appeal.īut placing these theoretical constraints on bikes can be confusing and maybe even limiting.ĭon’t get me wrong, there’s a reason we call a downhill bike a downhill bike – it’s designed for one job and one job only. Create categories and slot each bike into the most applicable one. Pigeon-holing things can make life far simpler. After all, how was I supposed to enjoy the multiple pleasures of cycling’s different disciplines (even back then) on the limited number of bikes a Saturday job salary could afford? Yet I wasn’t the only person pushing the limits of what bikes were able to do.ĭowncountry bikes are seriously capable, and can handle a wide range of terrain types. My desecration of bike genres was driven through necessity rather than desire. My downhill bike took me on missions over field, mountain and doubletrack, amassing more miles than its gravity-focused form really should have allowed. My jump bike would not only frequent the local skate park and dirt jumps, but also be cycled uncomfortably to the shops. Just like tech editor-in-chief Rob Weaver’s stable (more on that below), my road bike clunked grumpily down gravel tracks and my beloved Giant Trance XC bike was pushed to within an inch of its life on terrain way too gnarly for its intended purpose. Indulge me for one second as I pop on my rose-tinted glasses to reminisce about a time gone by.Ī more youthful and enthusiastic Alex was lucky enough to own four bikes. Although this type of riding was called ‘cross-country’, we all rode different types of bike.
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