LOCALS - Rob Newman: Intense Tracer 2

Our popular LOCALS feature is back, this week we catch up with Rob Newman, A music teacher and enduro racer from "Out in the Sticks" in deepest darkest Devon!

Tell us a little bit about yourself?

Name: Rob Newman
Location: Out in the sticks, East Devon
Job: Music Teacher
Bike: Intense Tracer 2

How long have you been riding?
I properly got into Mountain biking when I was 11 so 17 years; although I have always ridden bikes since I was a wee nipper.

How often do you ride?
As many times a week as possible! Strava reckons I do an average of 3 rides a week but Strava doesn’t know about the skatepark & dirt jump sessions in between.

What bike are you currently riding and talk us through your set up?
My Enduro/All Mountain whip for this year has been an Intense Tracer 2 with a Double Barrel Air. Up front I run Marzocchi’s 55 RC3 Ti fork and as I custom built it, the groupset is a mixture of XT, SLX, Zee & Saint. An X-Fusion Hilo SL dropper takes care of my seat height & I run Answer Pro taper DH bars with a matching Answer stem. Oh, and not to forget the best grips in the world, ODI’s Intense Lock ons!

What types of riding do you normally do?
I ride everything on the Tracer, from all day trail rides on Dartmoor to Enduro races round the country and even the odd DH race.

What was the last new bit of gear on your bike?
Since building it I haven’t really upgraded anything so the newest bits have been replacing bits that I’ve broken! So the newest bit was a replacement inner plate for rear mech after it suddenly decided to snap when I was pedalling down one of the DH runs at FoD.

What are your local trails?
My most local spots are up on the Blackdown hills, but as its winter time and it gets really boggy up there I end up riding everywhere else; Dartmoor gets sessioned several times a month, Haldon, Triscombe & wherever else takes my fancy.

What's your favourite part on your bike?
That’s a hard one! It’d be a toss up between the fork & my Garmin. It’s amazing how much the Garmin & Strava motivate me at times. I love logging all the miles I do, seeing where I’ve been as well as chasing as many KOMs as I can! But seeing as it’s a non-vital part of the bike, I’ll have to go with the forks. Damn they’re so plush, so stiff for a single crown fork & just get on with the job of ploughing through any rock garden or rooty section. Admittedly they aren’t the lightest but I think it’s a fair price to pay for knowing they aren’t going to fail me.

What other bikes do you own?
I’ve got a NookieBikes Shuffle for Dirt Jump/Skatepark built up with Nookie components, Gusset cranks & Marzocchi DJ1 forks. And for clocking up the training miles I’ve also got a Scott Scale 960 hardtail 29er; to me its just a road bike but cooler & I can take it down any bridleways that take my fancy!

Massive thanks have got to go out to Marzocchi UK, SouthforkRacing.co.uk & Nookiebikes.co.uk for the help with my rides this year.

Cheers Rob!