Hi and thank you for visiting Emerald MTB. My name is Owen Franssen and I have been an avid mountain biker for about 15 years. In 2015 I rekindled my love of this (sport, recreation, hobby call it what you like) after a few years out. I found that in that relatively short period of time mountain biking had moved on considerably in almost all aspects - the bikes, the components, the sport and the types of events. As I was researching parts and components to use on my custom build new (to me) mountain bike it seems like a good idea to document some of the things I learned, some of the opinions and facts I came across and what real life usage was like on some of the products I tried.
In addition, with the Cube Munster Enduro Series starting this year, and with the Vitus Gravity Enduro holding a round at Ballyhoura which is relatively local to me I am planning on trying my hand at some gravity Enduro racing. And I’ll try and record my racing experiences here also.
I won’t limit it to racing though, there are plenty of great trails in the south west of Ireland that I would like to try and I’ll post photos of those on this site as well.
In short, Emerald MTB is intended to be a record of everything I see, do, ride and try involving mountain bikes in Ireland and possibly further afield.
Thank you for visiting, and please come back regularly to follow my mountain biking endeavours.
