“Grinduro is a ridiculous event. Nothing about it makes sense. Thanks for blowing it... I’ll be back..."

Adam Craig

When you read something like this the day before you set out for a race, how should you feel? This 'ridiculous event' was exactly where I was heading... not exactly confidence building. 

There has been an explosion in the popularity of gravel riding. Once existing on the fringes with gruelling events like the Dirty Kanza 100 and the Rouge Roubaix, gravel has now become its own and developed well beyond the days of riders modifying their 'cross machines or mountain bikes. And gravel events are no different. Grinduro has been a product of this hype and caught the mixed surface, drop bar, wide tyre fever. Combining the format of enduro mountain biking but on a course suited to this new breed of go anywhere bikes... the race is only a small percentage of the course. The rest is a trip around a spectacular route.

For the first time, Grinduro has stepped out of its birthplace and taken to the Isle of Arran off the west coast of Scotland. The event provided the perfect stage for the HUNT Team to test out different wheel combinations, gain insight into wheel technology in this emerging category and put the wheels through some seriously muddy conditions. 

While race reports provide great information and insight into the race, I am sure there are many, many more out there telling a very similar story... so here you are, the "Doodle Do's & Don'ts" of Grinduro Scotland.   

The Team. Post Grinduro, caked in mud, wet and cold but still smiling! Top Effort.

World traveler and bike packer, Josh Ibbett, has just spent the last six weeks in Europe mostly riding through the Iberian Peninsula. At the time of writing he has caught a plane to New York and now managed to ride up to the Canadian boarder at Niagara Falls. We managed to check in with Josh and catch him for a journal entry on his experiences so far.

Enjoy. 

As Hunt has grown, so too has the number of people putting in the hard graft behind the scenes. Our latest recruit describes himself as ‘just another cycling junkie’ but really does know his stuff. Stan Bolyarov is a Robert Gordon University Management with Marketing Graduate who races road and cyclocross. He has even raced the Bulgarian National Road and TT Championships. To say the least… he is very handy on a bicycle. With experience of Dutch and German markets, having lived in both countries, Stan’s role will lie in pushing forward our website usability to give you the best access to tech information, spares and support you need. He will also be found in the customer service, tech and dispatch areas.

We have managed to catch Stan for our latest On The Drops interview... enjoy!

One of best days had out on the bike we have had with the Hunt Team was filming for the release of our newest wheelset - the Superdura Dynamo Disc as well as our farewell to Josh, our first full time employee. Having a helicopter fly above our heads as we snaked down the South Downs on our Mason Bokeh bicycle was certainly something we had never experienced before (and probably never will again!) 

Last weekend, former Hunt Brand Manger Josh Ibbett, left the UK and headed for the continent to commence his riding trip around the world. At the time of writing, he is currently down near Bordeaux but knowing Josh, this can be more accurately described as 400km radius from the coastal French city.

You can check out the final video by clicking here.

We decided to put together a short photo gallery of the cold morning spent on the Downs trying our best to keep things rubber side up.

We have a few very special things happening at Hunt so in keeping with this trend we thought it'd be best to all out a South Downs bikepack adventure to celebrate, and record it for a film... WITH A HELICOPTER!

Donated to us for a few hours from a (very, very cool) friend of Sarah who works here at Hunt, we gathered at the top of the South Downs armed with a fleet of Mason Bokeh go anywhere, ride anything bicycles, to make a film celebrating the launch of some exciting products and special new adventures for one of our crew.  

A Mushroom, Luigi and Yoshi walk into a bar... no sorry a highly competitive, serious, everything on the line 'cross race...

After weeks in spent training up for their big race, Hunt Team members Josh, Ollie and Dan big race day finally came this past weekend. Performing at the very highest level at the SSCXEU champs meant everything, including racing kit, was throughly thought out to gain that extra 1% advantage. After all, it's the details that matter.

Results don't come easy at UCI pro-conti level, so for training duties, team BIKE-CHANNEL CANYON will be relying on the HUNT RACE AERO WIDE wheelsets as they prepare for their season.

At a scantly 1480g, the team will hardly notice the disadvantage compared to their carbon race wheels as they pump through the hill reps or punch out paceline efforts. The RACE AERO WIDE's even manage to maintain an aerodynamic edge through their 31mm deep rim profile. The 20Front/24Rear aero bladed spokes laced to our straight pull Race Season hub complete the package.    

BELGIAN NATIONAL CX CHAMPIONSHIPS

The following are excerpts from my new cycling journal I got for Christmas. I will be taking it with me on trips abroad and other such adventures. Expect shorthand, wishful thinking, and logical fallacies…

Friday 6^th Jan 

The four of hearts. Apparently, that’s my card. Sitting on the ferry from Dover to Dunkirk, Aston, Danny & myself resorted to the most rudimental of card games called ‘guess the next card’. It’s amazing, if we ever meet I’ll teach you how it works. After just 3 cards were flipped and (incorrectly) guessed, I totally nailed it. It’s impossible I just got lucky, so cue suspicions from my peers over cheating. Thanks a lot, Lance...

I had this week all planned out – Wednesday was going to be a leg-breaking, lung-busting 215km ride from home out across the Strines to Holmfirth, then up the ‘Moss, over the Glossop and Macclesfield, up the Cat and Fiddle and home via Buxton. Then a cold intervened and I decided something a little more low-key and less chest-infection-inducing was more in order.

I decided that I’d tick off another ride on my list instead – the Monsal Trail tunnels. Having ridden on the trail as a youngster, and knowing that the tunnels had been opened up in 2012 after some grant funding to make them safe, I had fancied getting up there and riding the entire length of the trail for some time. As it is flat all the way, I thought it would be less likely to transfer the lurgy to my chest and have me running to the GP for the dreaded antibiotics.