By I first met Francis Glatz just over a year ago when I rang him up to ask him if he had any spare parts for my ATZ mountain bike forks. He immediately invited me down to his amazing workshop nestled in the Jura Mountains in Switzerland so he could have
The Old and the New: A tale of two Swiss Mountain Passes??
On the language border of the French and Swiss-German speaking Swiss communities, there’s a village that sits on the French speaking side called Jaun, and where everyone speaks German as a primary language. Jaun is the Swiss-German name for the village, and Bellegarde is its French name. Confusing I know.
A true *RSF Spring Classic
*The Rough Stuff Fellowship I wrote this post specifically for a journal edition of The Rough Stuff Fellowship, which is THE original off-road cycle touring and mountain biking club, and founded in 1955. It’s a global club and well recognised. It even has special lifetime members and ambassadors of off-road
Technique is everything
Our garden in Switzerland is mostly grass and trees, and is on about a 45 degree slope. We manage it quite naturally, and just like most of the Swiss farmers manage their mountain meadows. This means that we just let the grass and wild flowers grow until about mid-June and
S’Bike Prototype – More research required……
Last November, I nailed a post to this site under the title ‘Rapid Prototype’. I had obtained an unknown frame from a friend who featured in ‘Interesting Interview No.1 – Terrance Malone’, and this special frame had no markings, serial number, or provenance. It gave some clues to it’s heritage
The Interesting Interview Series – No.2: Christoph Vetter
Welcome to the second in the series of ‘Interesting Interviews’. I first met Christoph when I had to give him some money to sign on for the Punk Maskara CX race. In return, he gave me a race number. His leadership of the whole event that day was legendary, as
ATZ forks for my Swiss Cilo Mountainbike
Without getting too scientific, which would push the boundaries of my own physics and chemistry knowledge quite quickly, an elastomer is a type of polymeric material that can be repeatedly stretched beyond its original length with little or no permanent deformation. It can also be compressed repeatedly and still return
Cilo Mountain bikes and bears?
I’m riding up a tiny, Swiss road that has 27% gradient and it keeps going up at this rate for 3 kilometres. For a couple of months of the year, it’s impassable due to snow. It’s only a very narrow road with rough tarmac and it’s not used enough for
1991, Scott mountain bikes, and cake!
In an attempt to make a short story long, a scene setter journey back into 1991 is required first. Whether you were old enough to remember 1991 or if you arrived on the planet after, here’s a summary; The Gulf War kicked off, the dissolution of the Soviet Union took
Cilo – The opportunities and pitfalls of re-launching a brand
A number of readers have noticed that the Swiss bicycle brand of Cilo has been re-launched, and its prompted me, whilst being inspired by watching the Alabama Shakes message their brand https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sNNTpORtDQ to take a look at some brands that have gone through a similar re-vitalisation. Firstly, you don’t need
