Cranked Issue 23

Cranked #23 is our ‘things can only get better’ issue. Ric McLaughlin gets back on the EWS wagon after an enforced summer lay-off, we celebrate a British World Cup DH win, Ryan Stuart investigates what climate change is doing to our trails and Tom Hill finds solace in interrupting his ride to pick up discarded chocolate bar wrappers. We also discover why the flattest part of the UK is actually a mountain bike nirvana, how a young freerider is carving out a career for herself and why you should never, ever carabiner a mug to your bike.

• The Bear Bones Way – bikepacking for shoppers and gravel wankers
• Independence Pays – an independent Scot and a nation within a nation
• Trash Free Trails – keeping nature natural
• The Diggers – earth-moving communities
• The Flatlanders – hills? Pah. We don’t need no damn hills…