This week we’re sitting down with Manon Carpenter and Tommy Wilkinson to chat all about their new film project, 'Trails on Trial'. Find out how the project came about in the first place, and hear about their experiences as they travelled around the country to chat with trail builders and landowners. With rising user numbers across all outdoors groups, trail access is under more pressure than ever before. Manon and Tommy found some great examples of where mountain bikers have been able to work together with landowners to create incredible trails like those in the Tweed Valley. This is a really positive outlook on what can be done to keep our awesome wild trails up and running, with some really useful thoughts on what all of us can do to help. So sit back, hit play and listen to this episode about 'Trails on Trial' with Manon and Tommy.

You can watch the film over on YouTube here.

You can learn more about the trail associations and groups featured in the film by visiting:

Ride Sheffield ridesheffield.org.uk

Developing Mountain biking in Scotland: dmbins.com

The Tweed Valley Trail Association: tweedvalleytrails.org

Risca Riders: gofundme.com/f/riscarider...

You can read the current national guidelines from UK agencies by clicking the following links:

Forestry England: forestryengland.uk/articl...

Scottish Unauthorised trail guide: dmbins.com/trails/unauthorise...

Natural Resource Wales: naturalresources.wales/permit...

Supporting Partners

earSHOTS

EarSHOTS Bluetooth headphones have you covered for staying motivated while you train.  Their patented Magnetic ear clip solves the problem of earphones falling out or constantly dislodging and moving in your ear, so you can train without distraction. When riders like Wyn Masters and Sam Blenkinsop are using them, you know they must be good.

I have had a set of earSHOTS for nearly a year and I’ve been really impressed. I’ve tried them with a couple of different helmets, over a mixture of terrain including some pretty rough rocky stuff and they really do stay in place.

So if you’re looking for a set of headphones so you can smash out some podcasts while you’re riding, or for some banging tunes to keep you motivated while training, earSHOTS have got you covered. You can find out more over at earshots.com.

To be in with a chance to win your own pair, head to downtimepodcast.com/earshots and enter your details now. You’ve got until midnight on 4th January 2022 to enter.

Canyon

Canyon have just launched a full family of their 150mm big hitting Torque. It is now available in 27.5, 29 or Mullet setup, and you have a choice of an aluminium or carbon or frame. Canyon put themselves in the shoes of riders who are heading to Whistler or Queenstown for a season and need one bike to smash out bike park laps, ride gnarly off piste trails, but also enable them to pedal out into the backcountry without it feeling like a tank when the trail points uphill. And you can fit a bottle cage on it too!!

As a Downtime listener, with the promo code ALL-FEATURES-UNLOCKED-21 you’ll get a free bike guard to Torque AL and CF orders. Head over to canyon.com now and check them out.

Terms and Conditions:

This voucher code is valid online between 6 December 2021, 00:01 CET and 10 January 2022, 23:59 CET. The code applies a free Bike Guard to all Torque CF and AL orders. It cannot be redeemed in conjunction with any other discount code and excludes Factory Outlet bikes and framesets. The code cannot be applied retroactively and is available only to products available at the time of purchase. Cannot be redeemed for cash and resale is prohibited. The code can only be used once per customer. Canyon reserve the right to terminate or change the terms of the promotion at any time.

Podcast Stuff

Downtime EP

Downtime EP issue 1 is now available at downtimepodcast.com/ep. EP takes inspiration from the guests and topics of the podcast,