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What you do with your bike in the privacy of your own room….
That Scottish dude who got caught having, uh, sexual relations with his bike in his hotel room? He’s been sentenced to three years of probation. Not clear whether he’ll have supervised visitation rights to continue seeing his bicycle. It’s a sad day when Government feels the need to get between a man and his true ...
Get Out the Vote
Trips for Kids Founding Director, Marilyn Price, has been named a national finalist for the Volvo for Life Awards. The winner will be determined by online voting, with the winner receiving $100,000 for the non-profit organization of their choice. The thought of a car company stroking a fat check for bicycles… well, that sounds pretty ...
2008 Fuel EX9: Test Update #1
If you’ve read my first post on the Fuel EX9, then you you already know that it’s my new Dirt Rag test bike. That first post was made on November 3rd, but I’ve actually been riding the EX9 since October 5th, so I reckon it’s high time for an update.
VROOOOOOOM!
A few weeks ago, Wired magazine ran a story about “hacker bikes” — basically, heavily modified bikes and bike-like objects. Among these was a “rocketbike,” that turned out to be a bit of a hoax — at least in the sense that its propulsion system was roughly the equivalent of two sparklers in your back ...
Back Off! Someone make some Yosemite Sam mudflaps for this ride.
In the genteel arms race to build the biggest baddest bike, Surly has been the stock SuperPower. Between the Pugsley and the Big Dummy, we’re looking at the biggest pedal-powered two-wheelers ever built. But Traffic Cycle design has built a one-off that actually looks like the bastard offspring of Pug and B.D., and it looks ...
Big Air: Kid-tested, Mother-approved
Whitefish, Montana may be the first city in the nation to build a city-sponsored bike jumping facility. About 850 cubic yards of dirt — 70-plus dump truck loads — was brought to the site of the new park. Dirt from the Old Towne subdivision with more clay and rock was used to build a 25-foot ...
Sneak Peek: Sinister Gruitr
 While researching my Rider Profile of Frank “The Welder” Wadelton, I learned that Sinister Bikes has been working on a new 4.5-5.5 inch, single-pivot frame named Gruitr. Sinister says they expect to start receiving production Gruitr frames (which will retail for around $1,400-1,500) from their Canadian fabricator in January of 2008.What’s up with the ...
The 6000 Calorie-a-Day Couch Potato
Lucas Brunelle is best known for his videos of high-speed urban riding in heavy traffic, especially this video of him alleycatting and skitching on a Mexican Interstate. (Those cops he’s passing? They’re after him.) I’ve long wondered how a guy trains to ride a fixie at 50MPH, and now I know. It’s not motor-pacing, it’s ...
Bikes & Nudity: A Continuing Love Affair
There is safety in numbers, of course. No one knows this better than a Critical Mass rider. Or a World Nude Cycling Day rider. On a fairly regular basis I see examples of the converse of this. Today, for example, I see that an Australian gentleman was arrested in a somewhat vulnerable state on his ...
The Broken Record, Side Three: Bike Polo!
I was ranting yesterday about the MSM’s fascination with the whole biking & erectile dysfunction story. (I’m still convinced it’s merely cub reporters who have struck upon a reliable and defensible way to write the words “anus” and “scrotum” in the family newspaper. Snicker snicker. Dude, like, how mature.) So this begs a question: What ...
Are You an Athlete, a Pathlete, or a Dirtbag Cyclist?
Swobo founder Tim Parr talked to CoolHunting.com’s Josh Rubin recently, and he had some interesting things to say. Chief among them? What’s almost ruined cycling is that too many athletes have gotten into it, not enough regular folks. I like that theory, but the bike industry expanded exponentially during the Lance years — some called ...
Spotlight on Portland
Click here to read the New York Times online article: “In Portland, Cultivating a Culture of Two Wheels”. Check out this NYT video on the Portland’s bike scene and the business side of biking.
Thursday Nights in the Wiss
Many years ago, a bunch of us used to gather and ride at night in Wissahickon Park in Philadelphia. We’d ride and then head for beers at a local watering hole. It was great, but I fell off the night riding wagon for a while. There are always organized and semi-organized night rides going on ...
Riding Soft, Thinking Rigid
Ladies, if you spend any time riding with men, you basically know that we’re all a bunch of lecherous jerks with three thinks on our minds: bikes, beer, and… you know. So consider the following the sort of back-of-the-pack colloquy to which you’ve grown accustomed.Every six weeks or so, someone in the mainstream media picks ...
Preventing Theft Tip #213: Make your bike look like crap!
A few weeks ago, I was talking to some friends about preventing bike theft. First, we agreed that locks are no guarantee — they just buy you time. If you want, say, 24 hours of downtime while you’re singing sonnets beneath the Capulet balcony, you’re going to want at least two locks. If Juliet lives ...
Pre-Interbike Fun: the 24 Hours of Landahl
How stupid is it to start off the week of Interbike, an event known for grueling days and late nights, with a 24-hour race? I got the opportunity to find out. Turns out, it wasn’t too stupid, only a little bit, and it was a lot of fun. The race in question was Granny Gear’s ...
650B-Update
I mentioned my interest in 650B wheels a few weeks ago in a Brain Fart. I’ve been slowly putting together the needed parts. So far Kirk Pacenti has come through with a set of Neo-Moto tires and Velocity has provided a set of 650B Blunt rims. The tires both weighed in at 711 grams and ...
Under Test: Trek Fuel EX9
With a tip of the helmet (and any required apologies) to The Godfather, may he rest in peace:
Come here sister
Papa’s in the swing
He ain’t too hip now
but I can dig that new breed bike;
He ain’t no drag
He’s got a brand new bag
Please allow me to introduce my current test bike, a brand-spanking-new 2008 Trek Fuel Ex9.
Riding with Kids Update
After going to press with “Riding with Kids” in issue 130 our trip to Interbike shed some light on the running/no pedal bike market in the US. Kool-Stop imports the wooden Like-A-Bike from Germany. Specialized has a boys and girls aluminum version in their 2008 catalog, and Strider is importing a low cost version with ...
Greetings and Salutations from the Art Director
Oh I know, I’ve snuck into the Dirt Rag ranks here and you probably don’t know who I am. In fact I just visited the staff page and I’m not even there. (gasp.) So who is this mystery person? Well, I can tell you. My mother named me Amanda after her mother’s mother, Grandma Blankenship. ...
Milwaukee Bike Maps
Another post on the subject of bike maps? Well, as my two milk-crates full of accumulated maps will attest, I’m a bit of a map junkie. So, humor me. This time it’s the City of Milwaukee in the spotlight, with their free online bike maps of the Cream City. Hardcopies are distributed free at Milwaukee ...
The Pleasant Revolution
Here’s a bit of news, fresh from the Xtracycle Blog: Xtracycle Co-founder Kipchoge Spencer is stepping down from his role as Xtracycle president, to follow his long-time dream of taking the show on the road. His band, the Ginger Ninjas, and fellow bike musicians SHAKE YOUR PEACE!, along with an 8 person support crew, are ...
18th Annual Punk Bike Enduro
What’s it all about? Read Maurice’s “How To.” When/Where is it? Check the Dirt Rag Forum Thread. What’s it look like? Visit Dirt Rag’s gallery or pghjohn’s smugmug albums from 2006, 2005, 2004. What are you waiting for? (That’s a rhetorical question.)
New Pittsburgh Bike Commuter Map
The general consensus at DRHQ is that Pittsburgh is a great town for the bicycle minded. However, our beloved burgh is hilly, and those pesky three rivers preclude the typical urban grid street pattern—and that makes navigating a bit difficult ’round these parts. If I had a nickel for every time I heard: “you can’t ...
Brain Fart: Changes Are No Good
Welcome to The Bicycle Industry, the place where no good idea goes unpunished. Where the status quo is sacrosanct, and changes are no good.
5,000 Bikes for Zambia
We received the following email from Quality Bicycle Products, a company that distributes bicycles and parts to bike shops. While portions of the email are aimed at QBP’s bike-shop customers, much of the message is applicable to the general cycling public, and is worth sharing: 5,000 Ways to Make a DifferenceIn Zambia, a nation where ...
Brain Fart: Out There in the Woods
Sometimes it seems as if everything that could possibly go wrong happens all at once. I know you all know what I mean. Here’s a hypothetical but representational situation: that dude/chick you’ve been seeing/living with turns out to be a freakish stranger. Your dependable car of many years suddenly starts to drop pieces and make ...
Brain Fart: Let’s Talk About the Wheels
I started working on a this a few days ago, spent a good bit of time with a write up on my Interbike experience. I finally gave on that last night, way too much info for one post , plus I got a bit overwhelmed once I started sorting through photos, notes and business cards. ...
Out Through The Inbox
SSCXWCThe kids have been busy in the Beaver State. On the weekend of November 10-11th, the Portland Single Speed Collective (PSSC) will play host to SSCXWC— an event that’s billed as the Official UnOfficial World Championship event for singlespeed cyclocross racers. SSCXWC, which involves a time trial on Saturday and the Grand Boucle on Sunday, ...
Seven Springs brings…
…pain. There is pleasure in pain, right? I must be a masochist at heart because bringing pain to myself seems to be my style. Anyone who is willing to ride their bicycle for 24 hours solo seems to fall into that category, and I am one of many.There is a day that we label as ...
Interbike Musings
Dirt Rag Blog Take One. Vegas Baby. And Interbike. When I first started working at Dirt Rag back in June, the whispering of the plans for Interbike 2007 was just beginning. I had naively assumed that the new girl would stay behind and mind the store. As it turns out, everyone goes to Interbike. I ...
Brain Fart: Confession of an Addict
Addiction is a strong word, so now that I have your attention, I’ll change my wording from addict to fanatic. What is it that I’m so hung up on? Rearview mirrors! I must confess, I never pictured myself as a mirror-wearing cyclist. Now that I’ve started down the mirror road, I can’t imagine ...
Post Interbike Thoughts
I’ve been going to Interbike for ten years now. I’ve seen a lot of different stuff, and met many cool people over the years. Yet, a few years ago I started to become kind of cynical and sick of it all…I had no desire to fly to Las Vegas, see all the “cool bikes,” deal ...
Outside the Inside of Interbike
Today’s Blog from Interbike comes from Chris Coccia. Chris is a stand-up comedian who has shows in Vegas this week. Since he’s also a big bike nerd, we invited him to do some blogging, etc. Look for him hosting our Dirt Rag TV episode…which we’ll post over the weekend. Chris Coccia: Interbike 2007 Day One. ...
Today’s Interbike Transportation Provided By…
In the past, during our time in Vegas, we’ve borrowed a random assortment of bikes from various friends who drove to the show, and rode the two-or-so miles from the crappy motel we called home to the convention center. This year things are different—we are stylin’. First of all, we rented a house, complete with ...
Interbike: Bootlegger
By now you’ve read Karen and Shannon’s blog entries from day one of the On-Dirt Demo at Bootleg Canyon. I missed out on the opening day action, but was in line bright and early today to catch the first bus to the chock-full-o-bikes desert playground in Boulder City. The Felt booth was right at the ...
The Sand, The Sky – Day 1 of Interbike Dirt Demo
Ah, the wide blue skies of the Nevada desert… stretching overhead like a magnifying glass, and we’re just pale ants scurrying around in the dust and gravel underneath. That’s sometimes what this woods-dweller thinks about the scene at the Dirt Demo, but really, the weather was quite nice today, not too hot at all, and ...
Blog: InterBike 2007
Well it’s that time of year again and the Dirt Rag staff is in Las Vegas preparing to bring all the excitement of InterBike to a computer screen near you. Fighting through the jetlag, lost cab drivers and the slots parlors it is 7:30 on Tuesday morning and the adventures have begun. On Monday, we ...
Interbike 2007 Prequel
I’m in. Non-stop from the Burgh to Sin City, thankyouverymuch Southwest Airlines. Treasure Island, that’ll be my home away from home for the next five nights. I wonder if they picked the sign colors to match the crystal blue desert sky? Today’s the first day of the On-dirt Demo, but that’s not in the cards ...
Brain Fart: Misadventure in Portugal
Recently, I experienced my first full fledge bike tour on a trip with A2Z Adventures (www.a2z-adventures.com) in Portugal. The duration was eight days and covered about 370 miles, depending on how many turns were missed and how disoriented one became. A group of sixteen riders, including Gary Fisher, and growing to as many as 25 ...
Flog
That’s right. I’m calling this a Flog. You might have noticed that we did away with our usual method for posting Brain Farts. We figured it was better and easier for everyone involved to just do our Brain Farts through the Dirt Rag Blog. Since the term “blog” is a compound of “web” and “log”, ...
9.11.2001 Remembered
After the September 11th attacks, Michael Browne, Dirt Rag’s editor at that time, sent out a request via our eNewsletter. Here’s what it said: “I haven’t been able to get away from the news for the past week, and I’m sure most of you feel the same way. Wherever you were, whatever you were doing, ...
Put A Load On, Pt. 2
Awhile back I wrote about getting interested in cargo bikes and other ways to carry things by bike (instead of on your back). Since then I’ve used Maurice’s B.O.B. trailer quite a few times, particularly on Mondays, which is the day that the local farmer’s market is located on my way home. It’s getting to ...
Racing Tidbits
Cyclocross NationalsThe USA Cycling 2007 Cyclocross National Championships are scheduled for December 12th-16th at Wyandotte County Park in Kansas City, KS. If you’re planning on attending, then you’ll want to note that online registration will open on September 15th, at 12:01am CST. This is important because: “All athletes will be staged based on when they ...
Brain Fart: Reward! $100
Reward:$100 for any information leading the capture, arrest, public humiliation, race license revocation, and torture for the guy who dropped that Gu packet on the race course. You know who you are, but who the hell do you think you are? Do you think trail fairies come and pick up after you? Is your mommy ...
Pigs on Bikes
It seems that U.S. Secretay of Transportation Mary Peters feels that spending DOT moneys on bicycle paths is just another way to spell pork. According to the excerpt below, from the League of American Bicyclists website, Peters made the remarks on a recent edition of the PBS NewsHour with Jim Leher. There are links in ...
The Big Wheel Mountain Bike Story
Now that 29ers are catching on in a big way, Don Cook looks back (way back) to the origins of this alternate format for mountain bike creations.
By Don Cook
2008 Santa Cruz Bikes
With the bicycle industry trade shows in Europe and the USA right around the corner, manufacturers are taking the wraps off their 2008 models. The folks at Santa Cruz bikes gave Dirt Rag the skinny on the latest and greatest from the NorCal purveyor of pedal power. The Stigmata is an all-new cyclocross offering from ...
Fashionably late.
Hi. I also am posting my first race report. Carol Clemens is my name and racing mountain bikes, well I guess it is my game.This is a little something about one of the endurance series events in North Carolina. Cowbell Challenge 2007 Time has continued to move at a rapid pace into what is now ...
What’s up with racing mountain bikes?
Hello world. I suppose I’ll introduce myself seeing this is my first post. My name is Ryan LaBar. I interned with Dirt Rag last summer and am now a contributor and racer for them. This summer I’m living, racing, and riding bikes in Colorado before I go back to Michigan to race the collegiate mountain ...
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