3Sixty Sports ambassador Lynette Deacon may have had a later introduction to mountain biking than most, but that hasn’t stopped her taking podiums, competing at Crankworx and always pushing herself to new and bigger goals. Her love of the sport even inspired a move from Scotland to New Zealand to get a better work-life balance (which really just means more time on the trails!).
Lynette shared her mountain biking journey with us as well as her top tips for emerging – and experienced – riders.
From hire bike to pro athlete
British-born Lynette Deacon was always interested in adrenaline sports like snowboarding and rock climbing, but only ever considered mountain biking as a form of transport – “to get to a friend’s house and back again.”
A chance encounter with a friend of a friend while she was living in Scotland changed all that.
“This guy hooked me up with a hire bike and we rode the red grade ‘Spooky Wood’ trail at Glentress,” Lynette explains.
“I got to the end of that ride and was just grinning from ear to ear. After that, mountain biking just took over my life – in a good way!”
“Compared to a lot of riders, I discovered mountain biking late – I was 26. I’d just finished university and had my first full-time nine-to-five job. So I had weekends and evenings to fill and had made friends with people who were into mountain biking.”
“It started off as odd weekends here and there and then it absolutely snowballed and I ended up biking every weekend. I was living not far from Edinburgh and there were a lot of trails there so you could go somewhere new every week.”
The race begins
Lynette’s first race was the Muckmedden – a fun, grassroots event. Getting on the podium there gave her the confidence to carry on and find more events.
“Admittedly there were not many women racing there but I had a lot of fun and after that, I was racing almost every weekend. The UK has a massive racing scene and there are lots of events happening throughout most of the year.”
The Muckmedden event that brought her podium success was an Enduro – so from day one that has always been Lynette’s focus.
“I have dabbled in other disciplines but I always come back to Enduro, that’s my favourite.”
Aotearoa calling
We asked Lynette what sparked her move to New Zealand. Her response?
“What a stupid question! Have you looked outside? It’s stunning here!”
After spending some time in Queenstown, Lynette now calls Rotorua home, which gives her excellent work-life balance (aka close proximity to the trails). Her office borders the famed Whakarewarewa Forest so getting ride time in is easy.
“If you want to ride your bike in the UK, it’s almost always a minimum hour trip to get to a trail. On top of that the weather isn’t great. You come back and you have to spend hours cleaning up all your gear.”
“Here, I just roll out and the forest is right there. I can spend six hours riding and not do the same trail twice, it’s fantastic. Don’t get me wrong, Scotland is beautiful too, but the weather is awful for most of the year. It’s very difficult to find the motivation to get out and do six hours in the saddle when you’re being pelted with rain and you can’t feel your fingers!”
3Sixty Sports and the fantastic Forbidden Dreadnought
Lynette has been sponsored by 3Sixty Sports for 18 months – a partnership that came about after talking to Jerry [Jerry White – 3Sixty Sports’ sales and relationship manager] in the field.
“I was generally just throwing insults at Jerry, which I feel very much describes our working relationship,” Lynette jokes. “Good vibes, lots of banter and laughs. To me, this goes hand in hand with the mountain biking scene – at the end of the day, we’re all just out there riding bikes pretending to be 12-year-olds.”
“But in all seriousness, 3Sixty Sports is a great brand to work with and the 3Sixty team and I all get on really well with each other.
Lynette’s favourite piece of 3Sixty Sports kit?
“The Forbidden Dreadnought,” she emphatically says. “I mean I genuinely love all of the 3Sixty components I’m running – Renthal bars, We Are One rims, Industry Nine hubs, the BikeYoke saddles. I trust all those products and they’re brilliant.”
“If I had to choose one stand-out piece, the Forbidden Dreadnought mountain bike frame has been unbelievable. It’s great fun to ride, it feels really intuitive. I’ve been on it for 18 months and, other than replacing the bearings a couple of times, I cannot fault it, it is still in amazing condition.”
“And the versatility is fantastic. When I started, it was very much like a trail bike, full 29ers, and I’ve been able to play around with it. I’ve swapped to a mullet set-up so I’m running it with a 27 ½ inch wheel in the back and a 29 in the front.”
“Two weeks ago I was racing an Enduro qualifier in Christchurch and I had it as an aggressive Enduro bike and then swapped the components around and raced it for downhill at Crankworx. It’s the same frame, but a totally different bike set-up for a totally different event.
“Having that versatility in one frame means I don’t have to compromise – I can have one frame that does everything.”
Future talent
We spoke with Lynette just after she’d competed at Crankworx Rotorua, where she raced the Pump Track and the Downhill and Dual Slalom. In trademark Lynette Deacon style, fun was always the aim of the game.
“Crankworx wasn’t really on the radar for me. I spent all of my off-season training for Enduro so that’s where my focus was. For the Crankworx Downhill and Dual Slalom, I’d stepped back from pro and was just having fun in amateur. Then I got asked if I wanted to do the Pump Track which is a pro-only invitation event.
“Everything went really well and was a lot of fun. The Downhill was great, the Pump track was even more fun than I was expecting because we were on a new course, and Dual Slalom’s always just a good laugh cos you’re there with your mates and everyone’s cheering each other on.”
Lyentte was excited to see big numbers and big talent in the under-15s female category and has no doubt riders from this group will be winning World Cups in five years’ time.
“The times of these girls are already fast enough to be competing in the Open and Pro categories. There’s a lot of talent coming through, especially in Rotorua.”
Pro tips
As a 3Sixty Sports ambassador, Lynette shared with us her three tips for new riders – but they’re things that riders at all levels can take on board.
“Firstly, get coaching – especially if you are an adult coming back to the sport. Just because you could ride a bike as a kid doesn’t mean you can immediately jump onto a mountain bike and ride trails. It’s dangerous and there is a lot you need to know.”
“It doesn’t matter how much money you throw at a bike – your riding technique will be the limiting factor. You need to be able to ride correctly in order to keep yourself safe and, in turn, have more fun as well. Invest in yourself, not in the parts.”
“Secondly, be safe. Wear the helmet, wear the knee pads – it doesn’t matter what you look like. A lot of work is being done into concussion testing in the mountain bike industry but its early days. My friend Dr. Euan Speirits is the head medic at Crankworx and he’s basically writing the book on concussion testing. It’s only within the last two years that the industry has started to take note.”
“A lot of inexperienced riders don’t want to wear the safety gear but there have been many times where I’ve crashed quite badly and should’ve been injured but I’ve gotten up and carried on because of the protective gear I was wearing. It’s so important.”
“Lastly, have fun! Everybody has different reasons for riding. At the end of the day, if you’re having fun it doesn’t matter if you’re the slowest, fastest, or have the best gear – it’s all about enjoying yourself. As long as you’re smiling, that’s the whole point.”
“People can take it far too seriously and then get very stressed, they get tense and make mistakes and that results in crashing and hurting yourself.”
“We all want to win but I get just as much enjoyment cheering my friends on the sidelines as I do from racing myself.”
Looking ahead to 2023, Lynette has got her sights on racing EWS in Europe – and we’ve no doubt the 3Sixty Sports ambassador will keep having fun every step of the way.