The second annual London Bike is happening January 12-15, 2012 at ExCeL with something for everyone from newbs to pros. There will be tons of new gear on display plus great deals on all kinds of cycling equipment. Tickets to the show also get you into The Outdoor Show, The Tullett Prebon London Boat Show, and the newly launched Active Travel Show. There’s even an indoor bike polo tournament and trials performances during the Animal Relentless Bike Tour.

To celebrate this year’s launch, the London Bike Show has given us 10 pairs of weekday tickets and we’re giving them to the first 10 mountain bikers who add a review or a new trail to singletracks.com. Once you’ve added your review or trail, just give a shout in the comments with a link to your work and we’ll add you to the list!

For more information about the London Bike Show, go to http://www.thelondonbikeshow.co.uk/ or follow the show on Facebook.

IMBA announced their list of 2011 Epic rides late last month and in case you missed it, here are the trails that made the cut. Two of the five new Epics are outside the US and, as IMBA’s Mark Eller notes, the new crop includes several backcountry trails. “For many years, the term ‘Epic’ was the only honorific IMBA used, so we started applying it beyond backcountry trails. Today, the variety of Model Trail categories provides more options, so it’s a good moment to go back to the original idea of an Epic ride.”

Brown County State Park (Indiana)

photo: MINiC.

With nearly 30 miles of singletrack, Brown County State park is a pretty solid pick for IMBA Epic designation. A couple quotes from singletracks reviewers: “the best trail system I’ve ever ridden,” and “if I could give this trail system more stars I would.” The trails are flowy and fast with rocks, boulders, and bridges to keep things interesting. And if great trails weren’t enough, Brown County State Park also offers fantastic views and scenery. As one reviewer put it prior to the IMBA Epic announcement, “I have ridden three EPIC systems and this is better than two of them!” Touché.

Kerr Scott Trails (North Carolina)

photo: plantme777.

North Carolina just bagged their third IMBA Epic trail with the addition of the Kerr Scott Trails this year. Dark Mountain was the first mountain bike trail built at Kerr Scott Reservoir back in 2002 and local volunteers have been working with the Corps of Engineers ever since to add more trails and more miles. Today, Dark Mountain is joined by the Overmountain Victory Trail and the Warrior Creek trail for a total of 35+ miles of singletrack. Sign up for next year’s BURN 24 Hour mountain bike race to get your fill of this Epic trail!

Mountain Hero (Yukon, CANADA)

Talk about a backcountry trail! Mountain Hero features 28 miles of hand-built singletrack crossing mining claims inside the Yukon, Canada’s westernmost province bordering Alaska. The IMBA description suggests bringing along bear spray if you attempt this one so bring your A-game.

Rattling Creek (Pennsylvania)

IMBA hasn’t posted a lot of info on this trail (system?) located near Lykens, PA but from the sound of it, this place is a hidden gem! There’s a 3/4 mile boulder field along the trail and riders say the trail flows well in either direction (a rare distinction among mountain bike trails). As best we can tell there are about 20 miles of trail at Rattling Creek, though we’d love some help filling in the blanks!

W2 Trail (Wales, UK)

Unlike most bike trails in the US, the W2 trail in Wales boasts a bike shop, showers, and bike wash right at the trailhead parking lot! The trail system itself features 27 miles of singletrack inside Afan Forest with a mix of tight, twisty stuff and clean jump lines. One ticket to Wales please.

For the US trails it looks like this year’s list is a sweep for states east of the Mississippi. Better luck next year left coast!

Smith & Wesson Tactical Police Bike (photo courtesy policebikestore.com)

Drug dealers in Watford, Hertfordshire (UK) are offering 150 British Pounds to anyone who trashes police officer Mark Pearce’s mountain bike. Apparently Pearce and his bike are pretty effective at fighting crime and the local gangs want to put a stop to the dynamic duo. Although the short article I read didn’t offer a lot of details, it does say the bike is equipped with “surveillance equipment, a camera, radio and siren.”

This certainly isn’t the first time we’ve heard about the effectiveness of police on mountain bikes but it is the first bounty we’ve heard on a bike. Other law enforcement agencies are also employing decoy bikes rigged with GPS transmitters to foil would be bike thieves so clearly the bad guys need to look out.

At the IMBA World Summit last week we learned about the effects of urban MTB trail networks in the bad parts of town and apparently the criminals and junkies aren’t into mountain biking. The I-5 Collonade bike park in Seattle forced junkies to find other places to get high while Ray’s Indoor MTB Park brings a whole new crowd to a previously abandoned warehouse district. No wonder thugs feel like mountain bikes are threatening their livelihood.

Checkpoint map from a recent trail nav competition. Courtesy trailbreak.co.uk.

We wrote about mountain bike orienteering a couple years ago and noted that it was a mostly UK phenomenon involving navigating a course using just a map and compass. Trail Break, a UK-based mountain bike event promotion company, has updated the concept with a new GPS-friendly race format called “Navigator Dual.”

Here’s how it works: riders download a GPX file with numbered checkpoints onto their GPS device. In Stage 1 of the race, riders have to visit each of 8 numbered checkpoints in order, #1-8. After checkpoint 8, riders try to hit as many of the remaining 20 checkpoints in any order they wish – just as long as they get to the finish before time is up. It’s not clear how long the overall race is but riders must hit the first 8 within 3.5 hours. Most checkpoints / shortest time wins.

This definitely sounds like an interesting idea and one we may see here in the US as more and more mountain bikers begin using GPS on the trail. Forget MTB Geocaching – Navigator Dual is the next big thing in MTB GPS!

Mountain bike paramedic in London. Photo via Firegeezer.

By now you’ve probably seen police officers on mountain bikes but here’s something I hadn’t heard of: mountain bike paramedics. Apparently this has been going on in the UK for quite some time (since 2000 in parts of London) and it sounds like it’s pretty effective.

Mountain bikes are being used for medical response in densely populated urban areas and allow first responders to get to patients quickly. In fact, one article I read said “often the bike-riding paramedic will get to the patient while the (911) caller is still on the phone.”

Bikes are equipped with standard first aid equipment and some not-so-standard items like mini defibrillators and high power drugs. Unlike ambulance-based crews, mountain bike paramedics can take their “vehicle” and equipment right up to the patient – often riding through shops and elevators. Of course all that equipment does “alter the dynamics of the bike” according to an official with the program so they’re always looking for paramedics with at least some cycling experience.

IMBA’s National Mountain Bike Patrol (NMBP) performs a similar first-responder role, though solely on trails and not in urban areas. Unfortunately NMBP members don’t receive nearly the same level of training and typically don’t carry well stocked emergency kits but it’s certainly better than nothing when you’re hurt on the trail.

Besides being fun as hell to ride, mountain bikes can perform useful functions in a wide variety of settings. Who knows where we’ll see them popping up next…

photo courtesy cyclewise.co.uk.

So this is a cool concept: a mountain bike trail built explicitly for mountain bike coaching. The Cyclewise Coaching Trail provides a place for mountain bike coaches to work with students without having to worry about other trail users bombing down and interrupting lessons. The grand opening is set for October 17.

Judging by the (overly stylized) photo above you might think this is just a wide, soft mulch-strewn trail for teaching newbs to ride off road but apparently there’s more to it than that. Cyclewise says this trail includes “3 berms, 3 table tops, a rythmn section, drop offs and step ups as well as a technical climb and descent” which should be challenging for even advanced riders. Seems like a good alternative to teaching yourself to land 10 foot drops by trial and error

Here in the US it’s not unusual for new trails to include skills areas that offer progressively larger and more difficult technical trail features but most are open to the general public. I imagine this idea might be tough to implement here due to liability concerns plus there isn’t really a culture of mountain bike coaching in the US (yet). As more and more high school mountain bike leagues start up this might change though…

via SingletrackWorld.

Daniel Hume, RIP. Photo from telegraph.co.uk.

Some sad news to report this week:

Daniel Hume, former pro mountain biker from the UK, was killed while on foot patrol in Afghanistan last week. Hume was ranked the #3 downhill rider in the United Kingdom at the age of 15 and in 2007 he joined the Royale Marines. It’s reassuring to know we have tough-as-nails mountain bikers like Hume protecting us overseas – he will truly be missed!

Rittner “Ritt” Lewis of Everson, WA died after crashing his mountain bike on a popular Telluride Ski Area MTB trail. Ritt died of head trauma even though he was weaing a helmet at the time. Just one more reminder that even with all the right protective gear mountain biking can still be dangerous. Hopefully his family can take some comfort in the fact that Ritt died doing something he loved.

Rest in peace.

No, unfortunately this isn’t a joke. The first ever World Indoor MTB Championships were actually held over the weekend in the UK and featured top riders including Gee Atherton and Greg Minnaar, the eventual winner. If your head is filled with visions of guys screaming around an indoor course like the one found at Ray’s Indoor MTB Park, think again. While racers pedaled real bikes, the course was completely “virtual” in the sense that it was computer simulated and the bikes were stationary. And what the heck are these guys doing riding inside – it’s June for crap’s sake!

I suppose the Brits have a different idea of an exciting sporting event because the Indoor MTB Championship will be televised on Sky Sports next month. Right… I’m sure millions will tune in to see a race that happened a month ago where the athletes ride in place. I already get that show for free at the gym.

The only cool thing I can say about this idea is that it makes it possible to bring mountain bike competitions pretty much anywhere in a spectator friendly format (that is, if the spectators aren’t bored after just a few minutes). Then again I think I’d still rather drive to the mountains for a few seconds of watching riders blast past me.