Columnists

By Rebecca Rusch

By Rebecca Rusch

Five days of the Trans-Sylvania Epic down and two more stages to go. I’m sitting solidly in 5th place in a super strong women’s field. I’m sort of OK with that, sort of not.

By Rebecca Rusch From Issue #188 As a kid, being able to ride no-handed was a rite of passage and the pinnacle of bike-handling coolness. It’s a killer move I never mastered until well into my 30s. I’d started bike racing and I’d won a few events, including three 24-Hour World Championships, but all I ...

On the Road With Bama Words and photo: Chris Milucky aka Bama. From Dirt Rag Issue #188 The first time I quit climbing the ladder of public opinion, I moved into a house with six other people, three dogs and a cat; the cat was smart enough to soon skip town and live someplace less ...

Words: Rebecca Rusch Illustration: Chris Escobar In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few. – Zen master Shunryu Suzuki Fat biking is not a fad. It’s here to stay and has opened the doors to a whole new segment of riding, especially in winter climates. I was not ...

Words and photos: Chris Milucky, aka Bama From On the Road With Bama, a column in the print magazine Originally published in Issue #189 Dear Bike Industry: Roll down your window. Your lips move, but I can’t hear what you’re saying. When I was a child, I used to ride my bike over to your house. We’d cut paths ...

Words and photo: Chris Milucky aka Bama From On the Road With Bama, a column in the print magazine Originally published in Issue #190 It’s somewhere over here—just carry your bike towards that tree. Don’t walk in a straight line, either; we don’t want anyone to find our tracks.” We holstered our hardtails and hustled ...

Words: Rebecca Rusch Photo: Pat R. Notaro for Red Bull Media House Originally published in Issue #190 What is winning to you? Is it KOM/QOM victories that you celebrate alone in front of your computer? Is it a medal or trophy that you take home to show your family? Is it proudly wearing the race ...

Rebecca Rusch, a seven-time World Champion and longtime Dirt Rag columnist, recently completed a climb up and mountain bike descent of Mount Kilimanjaro. She and fellow rider Patrick Sweeny undertook the journey to raise funds and awareness for World Bicycle Relief, a nonprofit. Over six days, Rusch and Sweeney rode, carried and pushed their bikes ...

Words and photo: Chris Milucky aka Bama From “On the Road With Bama,” a column in the print magazine Originally published in Issue #191 A child of the ’80s, I began my photography with a plastic 110-film camera. The pictures were pretty bad, and I think it’s fair to share the blame with both my ...

Words: Rebecca Rusch Illustration: Kyle Stecker Originally published in Issue #191 Since you are reading this column, I know that the simple act of moving around on two wheels has changed your life. Riding a bike might elevate your physical and mental health. It might fuel the competitive juices. It might be your social outlet, ...

Words: Rebecca Rusch Illustration: Stephen Haynes Originally published in Issue #192 I was wet, cold and fucking miserable. Riding 500 miles through Italy sounded much more pastoral and heavenly than it was turning out to be. At home when I looked at the squiggly lined course map for Italy Divide weaving through the hills from ...

Words and photo: Chris “Bama” Milucky From “On the Road With Bama,” originally published in Issue #191 Moab. Orange waves of sand, frozen in time, almost like me. I’ve been here six weeks—which is about five too long. Moab’s a great place to live, but I’m getting stir crazy. I’m beginning to feel like I’ve ...

Ed Note — MTBTP (Mountain Bike Trailer Park) is a new Dirt Rag column written by Uncle Dan that will appear about about twice/month. We scraped him off the walls of the interwebs after he attended Dirt Rag Dirt Fest in 2016 and wrote a funny story about it. Seems like a good guy. Hope you ...

Ed Note — MTBTP (Mountain Bike Trailer Park) is a new Dirt Rag column written by Uncle Dan that will appear about about twice/month. We scraped him off the walls of the interwebs after he attended Dirt Rag Dirt Fest in 2016 and wrote a funny story about it. If you missed his introductory column, read ...

Words: Rebecca Rush Illustration: Stephen Haynes A few columns back I wrote about my definition of winning and defiantly stated that it had little to do with a podium and more to do with personal performance. My definition of winning hasn’t changed, but lately I’ve become more aware of what losing is because in the ...

MTBTP (Mountain Bike Trailer Park) is written by Uncle Dan. He thanks you for your attention. I know, “I will never write a product review” is a bold statement. My dad taught me to “never say never.” Still, I realized that it’s not in my wheelhouse last weekend, when I went on a mountain bike trip with ...

Mountain Bike Trailer Park is written by Uncle Dan. He thanks you for your attention. If you’ve been reading this column for a while, you may notice that I close each post with an admonition to “be brave.” You may wonder why I do that (but probably not). Either way, let me explain. There’s a ...

By Stevil Kinevil “New bike wood.” Robert Ives first uttered this phrase to me some 18 years ago in reference to that specific and very special feeling one gets when he or she has a new bike. Specifically, for those whose minds are not naturally in the gutter, it refers to an erection. Now, unlike ...

In Part One of The (mini) Van Life, Dan Fausey travels…in a mini-van…to Arkansas for the IMBA World Summit. Read Part Two next week! Germans do a few things right.  One of them is language.  See, Germans keep it simple – when they lack a word for something, they make a new one by putting ...

Here’s Part Two of Dan Fausey’s mini-van adventure to Arkansas for the IMBA World Summit. Read Part One here. Every two years, a different city plays host to the Summit.  This year, the city of Bentonville took the Summit as opportunity to showcase the town and trails.  They had vied for the Summit in 2014, ...

Ed. Note: MTBTP (Mountain Bike Trailer Park) is a regular column written by Uncle Dan that appears monthly on the Dirt Rag Interwebs. If you missed his previous columns, check them out here.    A three dollar pen. Three dollars for chrissakes! For a cheap, red plastic clicky-top pen at the airport newsstand. The four ...

Ed. Note: Mountain Bike Trailer Park is a regular column written by Uncle Dan that appears monthly on the Dirt Rag Interwebs. If you missed his previous columns, check them out here.  My wife grumbles as the alarm sounds. It’s Saturday and she wants to sleep a little longer. She rolls away on her side ...

Ed. Note: Mountain Bike Trailer Park is a regular column written by Uncle Dan that appears monthly on the Dirt Rag Interwebs. If you missed his previous columns, check them out here. Well, I sold my bar bike, affectionately named the Shitbike. The Shitbike had gone through many changes over time, ultimately shedding parts as ...

Ed. Note: Mountain Bike Trailer Park is a regular column written by Uncle Dan that appears monthly on the Dirt Rag Interwebs. If you missed his previous columns, check them out here. Have you had those breaded cauliflower “Buffalo wings” yet?  I first saw them a few months ago at a restaurant. They’re kind of a chicken ...

Words by Rebecca Rusch They call Ho Chi Minh Trail the Blood Road because so many people lost their lives there. This complicated network of paths and trails runs from north Vietnam through the jungles of Laos and Cambodia, then re-enters Vietnam near Ho Chi Minh City. The trail was the main supply route for ...

Ed. Note: It Sounded Like A Good Idea is a new semi-regular column by Olympic track racer Bobby Lea and endurance mountain bike racer Ian ‘Big DiRtY’ Mullins who have teamed up with plans to race Cape Epic, Breck Epic and Leadville next year. But, this isn’t just another story about some guys going to ...

Ed. Note: Mountain Bike Trailer Park is a regular column written by Uncle Dan that appears monthly on the Dirt Rag Interwebs. If you missed his previous columns, check them out here. Part One – Chasing Ducks “My focus today is like a bird dog in a field of ducks!” I got this text from ...

Words and photos by Simon Stewart Standing in a FedEx copy center the other day, I noticed a “Let us pack and ship the tough stuff” sign complete with a picture of a full-suspension mountain bike. A quick look around revealed not a single bike tool in sight; I’m not sure they could even get ...

Ed. Note: Mountain Bike Trailer Park is a regular column written by Uncle Dan that appears monthly on the Dirt Rag Interwebs. If you missed his previous columns, check them out here. Chuck, Bill, and I laughed as I cracked my first cold, foamy, and sweetly malted can of America. I had just arrived at Big ...

Ed. Note: It Sounded Like A Good Idea is a new semi-regular column by Olympic track racer Bobby Lea and endurance mountain bike racer Ian ‘Big DiRtY’ Mullins who have teamed up with plans to race Cape Epic, Breck Epic and the Leadville Trail 100 next year. But, this isn’t just another story about some ...

Ed. Note: It Sounded Like A Good Idea is a new semi-regular column by Olympic track racer Bobby Lea and endurance mountain bike racer Ian ‘Big DiRtY’ Mullins who have teamed up with plans to race Cape Epic, Breck Epic and the Leadville Trail 100 next year. But, this isn’t just another story about some ...

Ed. Note: It Sounded Like A Good Idea is a new semi-regular column by Olympic track racer Bobby Lea and endurance mountain bike racer Ian ‘Big DiRtY’ Mullins who have teamed up with plans to race Cape Epic, Breck Epic and the Leadville Trail 100 next year. But, this isn’t just another story about some ...

Words and photos by Ryan Taylor The moving circus of Singletrack 6 has lured me in again with the promise of six days of prime Singletrack and mountain bike bliss in the heart of British Columbia, Canada. This year, the organizers have pulled out all the stops and it should be a real tough mans race. ...

Words by Ryan Taylor Ryan Taylor is writing about his escape from the rat race of life at Singletrack 6 stage race in British Columbia. His race reports are interlaced with personal observations and dashes of humor. If you missed the first installment, check it out here.  Rossland stirred to life this morning for the ...

Ed. Note: It Sounded Like A Good Idea is a new semi-regular column by Olympic track racer Bobby Lea and endurance mountain bike racer Ian ‘Big DiRtY’ Mullins who have teamed up with plans to race Cape Epic, Breck Epic and the Leadville Trail 100 next year. But, this isn’t just another story about some ...

By Ryan Taylor I am halfway through Singletrack 6 and life is moving in slo-mo. Stage 2 was a test of wills. Between the heat, constantly-steep climbs and choppy trails, I’m beat up. The majority of the day was spent going uphill, and the descents were so dusty if anyone was around you that there ...

By Ryan Taylor What time is it? What day is it? I have no idea. I asked a woman on the street if I had to put money in the parking meter. She said, “Of course, it’s 2 pm on a Wednesday.” I’m not sure if these memory lapses are from fatigue or because days ...

By Ryan Taylor Well, that’s a wrap! Singletrack 6 ended with a fantastic day in Nelson, BC, one the birthplaces of freeride. Luckily, the rash is completely gone and I woke up ready to attack the day. Of course, we started with a massive climb, and kept on climbing. Pavement, gravel, dirt…yada, yada, yada…climb, climb, climb. ...

Ed. Note: It Sounded Like A Good Idea is a new semi-regular column by Olympic track racer Bobby Lea and endurance mountain bike racer Ian ‘Big DiRtY’ Mullins who have teamed up with plans to race Cape Epic and the Leadville Trail 100 next year, among others. But, this isn’t just another story about some ...

Ed. Note: Mountain Bike Trailer Park is a regular column written by Uncle Dan that appears monthly on the Dirt Rag Interwebs. If you missed his previous columns, check them out here. It’s early and I’m skittish. The roots are still wet with dew and I’ve had too much coffee and not enough sleep. Joe and ...

By Stevil Kinevil It wasn’t the first cyclocross bike I’d owned, and it’s most likely not going to be the last. I can say, however, without reservation that beside all of my other bikes past and present, it’s my very most favorite. I suspect everyone has one of those. It’s the pony in the stable that ...

Mountain Bike Trailer Park is a regular column written by Uncle Dan that appears monthly on the Dirt Rag Interwebs. He dabbles in a variety of topics including racing, training, trails he loves and not taking himself too seriously, all with a big dash of humor. If you missed his previous columns, check them out here. ...

Mountain Bike Trailer Park is a regular column written by Uncle Dan that appears monthly on the Dirt Rag Interwebs. He dabbles in a variety of topics including racing, training, trails he loves and not taking himself too seriously, all with a big dash of humor. If you missed his previous columns, check them out here. ...

Mountain Bike Trailer Park is a regular column written by Uncle Dan that appears monthly on the Dirt Rag Interwebs. He dabbles in a variety of topics including racing, training, trails he loves and not taking himself too seriously, all with a big dash of humor. If you missed his previous columns, check them out here. ...

Words by Stevil Kinevil For the sake of full disclosure, the last couple of years of riding mountain bikes just hasn’t stoked the same sort of internal flame that it had over the course of my existence aboard knobby tires. This is due in large part to a fairly catastrophic knee injury I experienced back in ...

Change is inevitable, and for the past decade, it has been extra inevitable in the world of mountain bikes.  For a sport that is still relatively young, especially one that is so dependent on equipment, that is to be expected.   Taking a step back and examining these changes, it can be easy to think ...

Words by Simon Stewart I rounded a corner and fired right into a shit show: The bike was upside down, the racer was frantic and, from what I could initially see, the drivetrain was properly banjaxed. “Hey there, patrol here, need some help, buddy?” He described some sort of derailleur trauma that I couldn’t quite ...

Mountain Bike Trailer Park is a regular column written by Uncle Dan that appears monthly on the Dirt Rag Interwebs. He dabbles in a variety of topics including racing, training, trails he loves and not taking himself too seriously, all with a big dash of humor. If you missed his previous columns, check them out here. ...

Mountain Bike Trailer Park is a regular column written by Uncle Dan that appears monthly on the Dirt Rag Interwebs. He dabbles in a variety of topics including racing, training, trails he loves and not taking himself too seriously, all with a big dash of humor. If you missed his previous columns, check them out here. ...

Mountain Bike Trailer Park is a regular column written by Uncle Dan that appears monthly on the Dirt Rag Interwebs. He dabbles in a variety of topics including racing, training, trails he loves and not taking himself too seriously, all with a big dash of humor. If you missed his previous columns, check them out here. ...

Mountain Bike Trailer Park is a regular column written by Uncle Dan that appears monthly on the Dirt Rag Interwebs. He dabbles in a variety of topics including racing, training, trails he loves and not taking himself too seriously, all with a big dash of humor. If you missed his previous columns, check them out here. ...

Mountain Bike Trailer Park is a regular column written by Uncle Dan that appears monthly on the Dirt Rag Interwebs. He dabbles in a variety of topics including racing, training, trails he loves and not taking himself too seriously, all with a big dash of humor. If you missed his previous columns, check them out here. ...

Mountain Bike Trailer Park is a regular column written by Uncle Dan that appears monthly on the Dirt Rag Interwebs. He dabbles in a variety of topics including racing, training, trails he loves and not taking himself too seriously, all with a big dash of humor. If you missed his previous columns, check them out here. ...

Words and Photos by Andrea Wilson I hail originally from the hot, flat realm of Memphis, Tennessee. I moved to the Colorado Front Range almost three years ago, and I’ve been obsessed with finding all of the nooks and crannies of the mountains ever since. When I realized that the population density of the Denver ...

By Uncle Dan Mountain Bike Trailer Park is a regular column written by Uncle Dan that appears monthly on the Dirt Rag Interwebs. He dabbles in a variety of topics including racing, training, trails he loves, and not taking himself too seriously, all with a big dash of humor. If you missed his previous columns, check ...

Words and Photos by Andrea Wilson I hail originally from the hot, flat realm of Memphis, Tennessee. I moved to the Colorado Front Range almost three years ago, and I’ve been obsessed with finding all of the nooks and crannies of the mountains ever since. When I realized that the population density of the Denver ...

Bzhiort! I can still hear the buzzing sound in my ear, like the Great Gazoo appearing out of nowhere. But this time the sound came with a tingling sensation. I was hanging with my crew at the 24 Hours of Allamuchy #eastcoastrocks XC race in the summer of … 2000, maybe? It was the year ...

A Friend Like This To throw a leg over a bike is a release. To push the pedals and make it move forward offers vast catharsis. The components of the simple act of riding a bike are many, yet all fall in lockstep when it comes to parting mental clouds that obscure and confuse. It’s ...

“So … is Marlene your partner?”   It was, in hindsight, the wrong question. But it’s what came out. My own politics and experience taking the minimal number of facts I had gleaned from the limited conversations I’d had with Darlene, applying poor multiplication and manufacturing a product.  The factors:  (She lived with a woman) x ...

Walking the expo at this spring’s Dirt Fest Pennsylvania, I couldn’t help but marvel at all the killer new bikes on display. As a fan of vintage bikes, a vast majority of my experience with frame construction materials is constrained to steel, aluminum and titanium. Carbon fiber, at least as we know it today, was ...

The whiskey bottle was in the air before I could even register what was happening. A long, beautiful arc across the artificial daylight of too many streetlights, the only witnesses being the hidden stars … and literally everyone at the party. There was a cacophonous silence of anticipation as the bottle hit its apex and ...

When I was a small child, I was completely fixated with a magazine called CARtoons. Essentially it was a black-and-white comic book featuring artists like George Trosley and his feature, “Krass and Bernie.” And then there was my other favorite, Shawn Kerri. If you’re not familiar with her, head to the internet and get up ...

To get to the north we decided to go by train rather than automobile or plane, relying on our previous travel experience to “wing it.” How hard could it be anyway? Most of the time it can be as simple as getting on the train, buying a ticket and figuring the rest out as you ...