The art of bicycle freedom // Mountain bike epic sessions with Brandon Semenuk // North American Mountain bike destinations //

Brandon Semenuk’s SRAM and RockShox equipped Trek Session Park. 

One Shot: Brandon Semenuk's unReal Segment

Where are the best mountain biking locations in Canada? 

• Globe and Mail includes reader suggestions.
• Singletracks includes a list of North America epic locations.
• HikeBikeTravel includes some great suggestions.
• TransCanada Trail includes route maps for epic cross country.
• Mountain Biking BC includes 21 pages of trail suggestions.
• Westjet Blog includes suggestions with photos of MTB routes.

If you have other suggestions, feel free to leave comments below. Of course, there are other global destinations worth mentioning, Mongolia has endless twin jeep tracks, the Himalayas of India have epic road routes that turn into dirt tracks across the Tibetan plateau. Peru? Costa Rica? Alaska? The list can be added here. Keep riding, regardless of the trail you choose - it's about freedom on two wheels and the relaxation it brings to you. Keep riding, keep exploring and enjoy the epic journeys, weekend trail rides, or cross country stomps near your home, or a flight away. Freedom is all about individual choices, healthy conditions, clear skies and heavy rain, rain forests or desert terrain, the freedom to choose where you will ride next. 

Planning something? - Mountain Bike Road Trip? Cross country epic? Bikepacking or Singletrack?

Choose a location. Plan your travel (flight, ride to location, train, drive), Pack your bike and repair/replacement equipment (Spokes, chains, Multi-tools, tubes, tires), Schedule a deadline for your mission. Test your equipment and ride your bike ahead of the epic ride. Make adjustments to wheels and suspension. Make a list of equipment you still need (can you use generic bags/packs?), buy replacements, maybe rework your bike using spare parts/wheelsets and talk to your friends. Bring a buddy, or when the schedule comes and nobody is available - Plan B: Go solo and enter your favorite world - on a mountain bike. Have fun, be flexible and work at entertaining yourself - it's easy on an adventure.

Enduro Europe // Path Finder // Mountain bike films // Adventure MTB riding through Poland, Romania, Bosnia, Herzegovina and Croatia // Epic Rides //

Ibis Mojo HD3 [Write up for this build on Digital Hippie]

A TransAm bicycle tour // Recumbent cycling through Wyoming USA // Adventure Cycling in America // Deserts of China // The Himalayas on tour //

Cycle touring across the Taklamakan Desert in 2011 [Perich travels, Korean-World]. This tour was awesome, I started on the slow boat to China from South Korea. And continuing from Beijing, I took a train to Urumqi in northwest China [Turkestan] and cycled the deserts first along the southern Silk Road before entering the Aksai Chin and returning to Kashgar. I continued my trek through Sichuan (western Tibet) and Yunnan Provinces via Chengdu, Kangding, Xicheng, Lugu Lake, Lijiang, Deqin. 3200 kilometers or 2000 miles later, I lost 53 pounds (24 kilograms) preparing and riding the tour. [Video from HimalayasX2011]



I discovered some great cycle touring video collections, this one covers the Trans American route across Wyoming, United States and seeing the scenery reminds me of motorcycling there 1994-1996.
[Authors notes:] I rode my bicycle self supported across the USA in the summer of 2011. This is a little video series that highlights parts of my trip.


Adventure Cycling Association just published this great short film on bicycle touring the American TransAm route. Videos like this are inspiration to go out and ride anywhere. [Authors notes:]With the incomparable Madison Range as a backdrop, cyclists explore the backroads, farmer's markets, and small towns of Big Sky Country using pedal power alone.

Urban Downhill Mountain Biking // Tbilisi Georgia // Redbull Mountain Bike // Adventure Cycling // Scott Gambler 710

The Scott Gambler 710 (in burnt orange/black colors) a Shimano-equipped DH machine with 27.5 inch wheels and boxer-framed floating suspension, the FOX RC4 Coil Kashmira rear suspension unit.  This 6061 aluminum hydroformed frame is custom-butted. The BB height is adjustable and the headset angle are also custom adjusted for rider preferences. A World Cup clone, setup with Syncros Handlebar components and features larger diameter 27.5 inch DT Swiss wheels with their Competition level steel spokes. The front suspension is completed using Fox Racing's FOX 40 RC2 FIT with 203mm of suspension travel. The price tag is mind-numbing, but the ride is smooth. Priced at a mouth watering $6499.99 MSRP.

 Hydroformed 6061 aluminum linkage.

Kashmira coated Fox Racing Fox 40 RC2 FIT

[Authors notes] Who needs dirt trails when you've got 132 flights of stairs? Filip Polc shot over to Tbilisi, Georgia for a chance to show the locals how urban downhill mountain biking really goes down, hosting a race that ran between urban stair sets and dirt trails in a day filled with all-out riding.

GiddyUp! MTB from Transition Bikes // Pro Bicycle Light Reviews 2014 // Comparison of Mountain bike or Cycle lights //

Giddy Up Mountain bike from Transition Bikes

GiddyUp Bikes Press Release from Transition Bikes on Vimeo.
A little stoke released from Transition Cycles.

2014 MTBR Bicycle light review and shootout. MTBR tests manufacturer lighting in their laboratory to compare performance with the company's claimed lumens (brightness). They also compare prices, weight, design and build quality and the battery performance. They tested some tail lights as well, like the Leyzne Micro Drive Rear light with 75 lumen light output which can be highly visible even in daylight hours. The Sefas True 350 lights share a housing design similar to the Cygolite Expilion 350 that I personally use on treks that wasn't tested (and it's very good). The Serfas True 350 was tested producing 420 actual lumens and has a 2 hour battery life on their $120 model. The most powerful light tested was the Dallas, Texas, USA hand built Trail Led Halo 6000 which produced 5350 lumens as tested and is priced in the high-end of the consumer bike light market at $1199. The Trail Led Halo has a 38 hour battery if running the device at 600 lumens.

Trail Led Halo 6000 - High-end helmet lighting for night rides.
Compare all models tested at MTBR Bicycle Light Reviews 2014

LaPierre Gravity Republic // World Cup Championship Mountain Biking // Team Experiences // Mountain bike film //

Kevin Dewinski of Germany competes in the men's downhill qualifying round at the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup on June 8, 2013 in Fort William, Scotland. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

 [Authors notes] Seven months of filming, 10 countries and countless travelling miles later and Life on Wheels presented by Creative Concept and Cycles Lapierre is released.

Following the Lapierre Gravity Republic team on their 2013 UCI World Cup and World Championship season, this film is about the characters and personalities behind who makes the team tick. From the riders to the mechanics and the management, everyone plays a part as we find out from the inside what the team is really like.

Starring 

Sam Blenkinsop

 Loic Bruni

 Emmeline Ragot

 Loris Vergier 

Directed by 

Aaron Bartlett

Danny MacAskill - Epecuén - 2014 // Street Trials MTB in a Ghost town // Argentina's Villa Epecuén the lost Tourist Village //

[Author notes] Watch as Danny MacAskill brings a forgotten city back to life with his latest street trials film. Following on from 2013's mind-blowing 'MacAskill's Imaginate'
Epecuén is the latest film from Danny MacAskill. 

Directed by long time collaborator Dave Sowerby, we'll see Danny take his riding back to the roots of trials riding, exploring the forgotten town of Epecuén in Argentina, a location that has been submerged for the majority of the past 25 years.

Pablo Novac, Epecuén's only resident throughout the troubled times, gives a brief history of the location culminating with his thoughts that he '...can no longer see what use this place has for us now,' MacAskill however has other ideas.

Be part of the conversation by using #epecuen
_

Experience the world of Red Bull like you have never seen it before. With the best action sports clips on the web and YouTube exclusive series, prepare for your "stoke factor" to be at an all time high.[End]

[Wiki notes] Villa Epecuén was a tourist village that was located in the Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. Now abandoned, its ruins are found on the eastern shore of the Laguna Epecuén, about 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) north of the city of Carhué.

Developed in the early 1920s, Epecuén was accessible from Buenos Aires by train. The Ferrocarril Sarmiento line served the Villa Epecuén station, while the Midland Railway and the Southern Railway carried passengers to nearby Carhué station.[2]

Tourism was well developed in Epecuén, as vacationers from Buenos Aires would seek the therapeutic salty waters of Lago Epecuén. At its height, Villa Epecuén had the capacity to accommodate 5,000 visitors,[3] while unofficial accommodations allowed for 2000 more.[citation needed]

On 10 November 1985, a seiche caused by a rare weather pattern broke a nearby dam first, then the dike protecting the town. Rapidly made uninhabitable, the town saw the waters rise progressively, reaching up to 10 metres (33 ft) at its maximum. The village was never rebuilt.

At the time of the catastrophe, there were up to 280 businesses in Epecuén, including lodges, guesthouses, hotels, and businesses that 25,000 tourists visited between November and March, from the 1950s to the 1970s.

The town reached a population of 1,500 inhabitants at its peak. The town now has a sole resident, Pablo Novak, who returned to his home when the waters receded after covering the town for 25 years.[1]

Pablo's Villa, a 2013 documentary, chronicles the life of the town and of Pablo Novak.[4][5]

The town was used as the setting for an advertisement featuring the street trials cyclist Danny MacAskill released by Red Bull Media House on 27 May 2014.[6] [End Wiki notes]

Ride Positive. A Mountain bike Manifesto // Adventure Mountain Biking // Davos, Switzerland // Alps Freerides //

Ride Positive. A Mountainbike Manifesto. from Filme von Draussen on Vimeo.

[Author notes] A short reminder for all the people who ride bikes to ride bikes.
Follow us for background-infos and making-ofs on Facebook
Filmed (almost entirely) in Davos, Switzerland.
Soundtrack: Reid Willis "Bloom"
Riders: Ben Schulz, Johannes Riebl & Tom Malecha
Contact us at: filme-von-draussen.ch

Ibis Mojo SL

Kona Explosif Steel framed XC Mountain Bikes // A look back in time to 1995 // Daegwallyeong Mountain // South Korea bicycling // Pablo Neruda

Life is better on a bike.

ODA A LA BICICLETA, PABLO NERUDA

Oda a la bicicleta

Iba

por el camino

crepitante:

el sol se desgranaba

como maíz ardiendo

y era

la tierra

calurosa

un infinito círculo

con cielo arriba

azul, deshabitado.

Pasaron

junto a mí

las bicicletas,

los únicos

insectos

de aquel

minuto seco del verano,

sigilosas,

veloces,

transparentes:

me parecieron

só

lo movimientos del aire.

Obreros y muchachas

a las fábricas

iban

entregando

los ojos

al verano,

las cabezas al cielo,

sentados

en los

élitros

de las vertiginosas

bicicletas

que silbaban

cruzando

puentes, rosales, zarza

y mediodía

Pensé en la tarde cuando los muchachos

se laven,

canten, coman, levanten

una copa

de vino

en honor

del amor

y de la vida,

y a la puerta

esperando

la bicicleta

inmóvil

porque

sólo

de movimiento fue su alma

y allí caída

no es

insecto transparente

que recorre

el verano,

sino

esqueleto

frío

que sólo

recupera

un cuerpo errante

con la urgencia

y la luz,

es decir,

con

la

resurrección

de cada día.

Ode to Bicycles

I was walking

down

a sizzling road:

the sun popped like

a field of blazing maize,

the

earth

was hot,

an infinite circle

with an empty

blue sky overhead.

A few bicycles

passed

me by,

the only

insects

in

that dry

moment of summer,

silent,

swift,

translucent;

they

barely stirred

the air.

Workers and girls

were riding to their

factories,

giving

their eyes

to summer,

their heads to the sky,

sitting on the

hard

beetle backs

of the whirling

bicycles

that whirred

as they rode by

bridges, rosebushes, brambles

and midday.

I thought about evening when the boys

wash up,

sing, eat, raise

a cup

of wine

in honor

of love

and life,

and waiting

at the door,

the bicycle,

stilled,

because

only moving

does it have a soul,

and fallen there

it isn’t

a translucent insect

humming

through summer

but

a cold

skeleton

that will return to

life

only

when it’s needed,

when it’s light,

that is,

with

the

resurrection

of each day.

- Pablo Neruda, 1956

Numerous reservoirs on fire roads around Daegwallyeong-myeon 

 Daegwallyeong Mountain, Gangwon-do, South Korea (25km from Gangneung City)

Welcome center at the Sheep farm.

 Daegwallyeong Sheep farm is also surrounded by 1000 meter descents into Gangneung by single track hiking trails. From the sheep farm to the radio/cellular towers, a long downhill mountain bike track.

This bike climbs like a billy goat. The steel frame is ultra-smooth for soaking up bumps and rides like a full suspension on XC trails. One of the best bicycles I have ever owned...

She's gone!, but I will remember her.

1995  Kona  Explosif
Bicycle Type Mountain bike, front suspension
MSRP (new) $1,399.00
Weight 24.4
Sizes 18"
Color: Forest Green


Frame & Fork
Frame Construction TIG-welded steel
Frame Tubing Material Columbus Max Or
Fork Brand & Model Rock Shox Judy Race
Fork Material Aluminum, triple-clamp crown
Rear Shock N/A

Components
Component Group Shimano Deore XT
Brakeset Shimano Deore XT mechanical rim brakes, Avid lever (front), Hayes trail disc (front)
Shift Levers Shimano LX GOLD (dual mechanical; swapped with Shimano LX Rapid-fire 9-speed)
Front Derailleur Shimano Deore XT Compact Drive, bottom-pull/clamp-on 28.6 mm
Rear Derailleur Shimano Deore XT GS
Crankset Shimano Deore LX Compact, 22/32/42 teeth
Pedals Shimano PD-M535 SPD (clipless)
Bottom Bracket
Shimano Deore LX Integrated sealed BB/Hollowcrank
Rear Cogs 9-speed, 11 - Shimano Deore XT M770
Chain Shimano HG, 9-speed Dura-Ace/XTR
Seatpost Kona Race Light O-Beam, 27.0 mm diameter
Saddle SMP Selle
Handlebar Bontrager Titec 150g
Handlebar Extensions Ergon GP2
Handlebar Stem Kona Race Light Velocity
Headset 1 1/8" Kona Race Light Control Center

Wheels
Hubs Shimano Deore XT w/suspension front axle
Rims Mavic 217 SUP, 32-hole
Tires Front: 26 x 2.25" Schwalbe Racing Ralph, Rear: 26 x 2.35" Schwalbe Fat Albert
Spoke Brand Stainless steel, 1.8 mm straight gauge
Spoke Nipples Brass nipples

2013 Sea Otter Classic Dual Slalom //...from Vital MTB // Mongoose Fat bikes //

The Sea Otter Classic is a bicycling and outdoor sports festival and tradeshow held each spring since 1991 at the Laguna Seca Recreation Area in Monterey, California. The four-day event is considered the world's largest cycling festival, drawing nearly 10,000 professional and amateur athletes and 50,000 fans. The Sea Otter Classic is named in honor of the southern sea otter, an indigenous mammal which flourishes along the neighboring Pacific coast. [More information...]

Manuel Beastly - Mongoose Fat bike took down the field at 2013 Sea Otter Classic -  Enjoy! 
The real story on Mongoose Fat bikes and mystery rider Manuel Beastly a.k.a. Adam Craig

Life Cycles - The Bicycle // Our Noblest Invention //

Sit back for a 3-minute teaser of Life Cycles, enjoy the journey. Adventures are in the making. Freeride Mountain Biking - Another form of two wheel freedom, every pedal stroke.

Freeride Mountain Biking, Selection of the the Best 2011-2012

FREERIDE MOUNTAIN BIKING, EXTREME OUTDOOR ENTERTAINMENT...A FEW VIDEOS TO ENJOY...

[Authors notes:] Freeride Entertainment, producers of the New World Disorder series, are pleased to announce the beginnings of a new project taking mountain biking back to the roots of freeriding.  Featured riders from this first expedition were Darren Berrecloth, Kurt Sorge, and James Doerfling. http://RedBull.com....Freeriding the Gobi Desert 

Liam Stevens at 14, Freeriding and loving it. 

[Author notes] Liam Stevens shreddin the resort with style, hard to believe he's only 14 yrs old. He would like to thank Specialized, Justin Terwiel, His parents and everyone else who's helped him out along the way. 

“Well this is some pretty B-Grade chute ridin” – Evan Schwartz"

Brendon Semenuk Freerides into his dreams. Canadian mountain biker Brandon Semenuk was born and raised in the action sports capital of Whistler, BC. Canada 

The Mustang region in the Himalayas of Nepal // the ultimate dream for adventurers

High Altitude Mountain Biking, Himalayas region

[Authors notes follow] The Mustang region in the Himalayas of Nepal is a land so beautiful, it has long been the ultimate dream for adventurers all over the world. Here, the sacred peaks of Annapurna and Dhaulagiri - shining with snow all year round, tower over the Kali Gandaki River, forming the deepest valley on the planet.


Follow local rider Mandil Pradhan as he rides in the shadows of the world's highest mountains, through mystic Himalayan villages, on trails that have been trodden upon for centuries.


A Himalayan Rides Production (www.himalayanrides.com, www.facebook.com/himalayanrides)
A film by Gaurav Man Sherchan (www.gauravman.com)


Rider: Mandil Pradhan, Himalayan Rides
Music: Radical Face - Welcome Home (www.radicalface.com)
Edit: Gambhir Rajkarnikar, Mokshya Production
Driver: Ram Bahadur Magar
Porter: Purna Bahadur Pariyar


Special thanks to:
Nepal Tourism Board
Yeti Travels Pvt Ltd
Trekker's Inn, Jomsom