Dirtscrolls

By Helena Kotala  Whether you’re going bikepacking or doing a long winter ride in ever-changing conditions, a packable yet very warm jacket is an invaluable piece of gear for when you reach camp for the night or the temperature suddenly drops 20 degrees high in the mountains. There are two routes to go for such ...

The original Marzocchi Bomber Z1 changed the way we all ride mountain bikes. Not only did it change riding, but it forced the competition to step up and offer better products. The new Z1 looks to carry on the tradition of ride quality over all else. Marzocchi is now owned by Fox, so these forks will share ...

Cross-country racing continues to get more and more technical and demanding and the new SID looks ready to continue RockShox’s winning ways in the Lycra arena. RockShox SID World Cup A no-compromise, elite-level racing fork, the new SID World Cup is a short-travel tool for winning races. FEATURES / BENEFITS New friction-reducing DebonAir™ air spring delivers ...

A Scottish and a Swiss mountain biker meet on a trail… What seems to be the beginning of a lame joke is actually the beginning of a magnificent encounter. You can see what actually happens when mountain bike pros Danny MacAskill and Claudio Caluori meet up in Graubünden, Switzerland, in the new video “Home of ...

Last March, Cane Creek launched its first ever fork, the HELM. However, designed only for 27.5 inch wheels, it left out a lot of people in the 29er and 27plus crowd. If you’re one of those who has been eying up this offering from Cane Creek wishing it would work on your bike, wish no ...

Tester: Brett Rothmeyer Age: 40 Weight: 165 lbs. Height: 6’1” Inseam: 32″ Dropping into the first section of fast and flowy singletrack on the Big Honzo DL was like plugging a Les Paul into a Marshall stack and hitting an open A chord. We are not talking a Roy Orbison open A; we are talking ...

Your local bike shop or seller of media should be well stocked with the latest issue of Dirt Rag. Inside the pages you’ll find: Anka Martin teaches us how to be enduro, Sonya Looney takes us through Stage Racing 101, and Jocelyn Gaudi Quarrel guides us through the ins and outs of bikepacking. We’ve got product reviews ...

By Jeffrey Stern We’ve all experienced bike lust. You know, those days that your friend rolls up to your group’s adventure on a bike so new the chain is still silver, the hairs on the tires are still jutting out and the frame just glistens in the sun. Bike envy ensues. The questions come from ...

Trek’s Stache 29plus hardtail has opened many eyes to the wonderful weirdness of 29plus tires. Ever since the introduction of the SE4/XR4 29×3 tire in the Fall of 2017 I’ve been wondering if there might be a bike designed around the capabilities of this tire. I stopped wondering a few weeks ago when this weird ...

This giveaway has ended. Congratulations to our winners: Winner of the Fox Factory High-Pressure Digital Shock Pump: Tyler Pettit of Philadelphia, PA Winner of the Moxie Cycling Company jersey: Cara Butler of Arlington Heights, IL Winner of the Wicked Girl Jersey: Megan Constable of Dayton, OH Winner of the Stan’s No Tubes Tech Hoodie: Nathan Brockmeyer of Jarrettsville, MD Winner ...

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In the early days of mountain biking, quick-release seatpost binders were on the bikes even when the wheels were nutted. The trails in those days were usually pretty primitive and bore little semblance to the IMBA-spec’d trails being built today. Many steep descents required the saddle to be lowered out of the way so you ...

You may know that Big Bear Lake Trail Center is the home of Dirt Rag Dirt Fest West Virginia.  But how much do you really know about this magnificent mountaintop milieu? How did Big Bear Lake Camplands and Trail Center come to be? Is there really a lake there? And what’s the story behind the ...

We here at Dirt Rag are big music fans. Whether it’s a solo ride with headphones in, tunes in the van to get the crew stoked on the way to the trails, or some mellow morning jams on the stereo to help ease into the work week, we know music is magic. We are excited ...

Yup, pun intended. Sorry. But in all seriousness, this new bike from Surly is designed to be somewhat of a jack-of-all-trades, a blend of the brand’s dirt and road touring models that is meant to handle a variety of surfaces, loaded or unloaded, and offer a platform that is adaptable to a variety of riding ...

I’ve been a fan of Bontrager’s Chupacabra tires since they first hit the market. For something so light and fast the Chupas manage to provide predictable traction in conditions that should stymie its pattern of small tread blocks. But that lightness comes at a price. I’ve punctured these tires a fair number of times in ...

Words by Adam Newman, photos by Howard Draper This is it. The Big One. The Cascadia Subduction Zone has shifted, resulting in a massive earthquake and tsunami that has devastated the Pacific Northwest. In Portland bridges are unsafe to cross, gasoline is being rationed and electricity is spotty. Luckily the city is filled with cyclists who can ...

With the explosion of bikepacking, the market has become inundated with small bag makers, each with their own take on a relatively simple concept: holding stuff. It seems that each city has its own local bag maker and each maker has its own cult following. Restrap is a small British bag and accessory company out ...

This contest has ended. Congratulations to David Brooks of Apple Valley, CA. Rocky Mounts has partnered with us to give one winner a 2″ MonoRail Platform Hitch Rack. Enter to win below. The MonoRail is a two bike platform hitch rack.The 2″ can be expanded to carry a 3rd bike with the optional add-on. The MonoRail is ...

Rotating Mass Media is proud to announce the addition of REI to the list of sponsors at Dirt Rag Dirt Fest presented by Pivot Cycles. This partnership highlights the continuing convergence of the cycling and outdoor industries and will open the door to more outdoor companies becoming involved in mountain bike events and opportunities to ...

West Virginia’s capital city, Charleston, springs up from the convergence of the I-64, I-77 and I-79 and spreads out along the banks of the Kanawha and Elk rivers. With a greater metropolitan population of around 220,000, Charleston definitely qualifies as a small city. What it lacks in census girth, however, the city makes up for ...

We got to know the previous-generation Thunderbolt very well during the One Bike Challange in 2015. That little bike won hearts and minds with its ability to take on any task set in its way. But even great bikes have room for improvement and Rocky Mountain is dropping a promising new version of the Thunderbolt. ...

Ibis just launched the Ripmo, a long travel 29er mashup of the brand’s Ripley and Mojo models. The Ripmo aims to combine “the Ripley’s balance and speed with the Mojo HD4’s capabilities when things get hairy.” The Ripmo features a 160 mm fork with 145 mm of rear travel provided with either a Fox DPX2 or ...

Charlie Kelly’s brother Jim wrote a series of poems about their mountain bike adventures. He is currently working on turning this series into a publication called “The Bike Cycle.” Here is one of the poems, titled “Repack,” recounting the infamous Repack Downhill races.  Riding a bike on the street isn’t hard, Up on the sidewalk, around ...

If you look up the word stoke in the English dictionary you will find that it means, “to poke or stir up or supply with fuel” or “to increase the activity, intensity or amount of.” On highway 58 in the town of Cedar Point, North Carolina, there is an old service station coated in fresh ...

If you are like me, it’s hard to think of the city of Boston, Massachusetts without thinking about bicycles. Boston is home to countless custom frame builders, racing legends and access to some wonderful scenic and challenging singletrack within the city limits. The current bicycling infrastructure has also helped grow Boston’s cycling community tremendously over ...

Many mountain bike cross-country courses are becoming increasingly gnarlier, demanding a fine balance between trail capable and lightweight race sleds. The recent Stellenbosch World Cup course is a perfect example. Riders are often choosing full-suspension cross-country race rigs over their hardtails for increased control, power delivery and taking on all that chunk at mach speeds. ...

Pittstown State Forest is located northeast of Albany and Troy, New York and the I-87 corridor. While its 12 miles of trail hardly make it a destination-worthy mountain bike spot, it’s a great place to ride and camp if you’re passing through the area. The 12 miles of trail are located within Pittstown State Forest, which ...

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This year, Kitsbow launched its inaugural Trail Advocate Program, which recognizes local leaders in trail advocacy through a crowd-sourced nomination process. The first Trail Advocate of the Year recipients were announced yesterday: Joe Lopresti (Homer Glen, Illinois), Tim Kugler (Gunnison, Colorado) and Erik Mickelson (Northvale, New Jersey). Kitsbow’s hope with this program is to build community and maintain awareness ...

Every time Dirt Rag editor Eric McKeegan looked at the Soma Condor drop bars on my gravel bike, he just shook his head and laughed. Which made me laugh. Why? Because they do look pretty ridiculous. But all giggles aside, these bars do have a purpose aside from looking funny, and that’s to provide an ...

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. ...

Today at Land Run 100, Salsa is launching a new gravel/all-road bike known as the Journeyman. With a significantly lower price point than the brand’s other bikes in that category, this model seeks to reach new audiences, continuing Salsa’s recent goal of providing more affordable entry points to the sport of cycling. The Journeyman will ...

By Jeffrey Stern It goes without saying, but sometimes it still needs to be said: we’re lucky. Much of the United States offers an undeniably unique opportunity for people of all types, abilities and with varied interests to get outside and play outdoors. Whether it be aboard a bike, on foot, hanging from a rope ...

Photos by Peter Bakken We’ve all seen these rooftop tents floating through magazines and the interwebs, but not many of us have actually seen them out in the wild, so I was pretty excited when Tepui Tents out of Santa Cruz, California, was willing to send us their 3-person Kukenam SKY for review. Arriving in ...

Access to our remote backcountry trails aboard a mountain bike is becoming more and more challenging. Ride along on the Fun/Suffer Divide with Chris Shalbot, Scott Rinckenberger and Justin Olsen as the trio discovers a stretch of the Continental Divide Trail between Montana and Idaho in the hopes of shedding some light on this beautiful ...

The Skull 120/60/30 Gravel Grind highlights Harney County, Oregon’s rugged character, from long mountainous ascents to teeth-chattering and eye-watering descents, to breathtaking vistas, open rangeland and alpine forests. With two stream crossings and cattle guard after cattle guard, this gravel grind is a feat to finish and a testament to the rider’s grit and determination. The Skull 120 ...

By Jen Sotolongo In 2009, Bill White of Twin Bridges, Montana, began to notice the long-distance cyclists that were passing through the small town of fewer than 400 inhabitants. They stopped for a coffee or burger and then headed on to the next campground. He realized that “all the bike riders passing through were like ...

Tester: Stephen Haynes Age: 39 Height: 5’11” Weight: 200 lbs. Inseam: 30” A thought experiment, if you’ll indulge me. Try to picture the bike you learned to ride on. Think about the memory of that bike, just the bike; do you remember it? Chances are good that you do, and for most of you, that ...

Tegan Phillips is a comic artist who first started drawing for a contest to win a touring bike and gear. Guess what – she won that bike and set off riding it around the world. Today, she is an avid cyclist, artist, motivational speaker and all-around interesting and adventurous person. We caught up with Tegan ...

Calling all student-athlete writers! We’ve partnered with NICA to bring you a fun literature contest with some awesome prizes! Prompt: Has your NICA coach helped you develop not just as a rider but in character as well? Describe in 750-1000 words how you have been able to develop a strong character with the support of your ...

The International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA) will host its first-ever IMBA UPRISING event to bring together female leaders in mountain biking from all over the country who are cultivating strong riding communities in their backyards. The event will take place March 22-25, 2018, in Bentonville, Arkansas. UPRISING is two-and-half days of hands-on collaboration among dedicated, ...

By William Kirk Kenda introduced the Hellkat as a full-on downhill tire capable of handling the most rugged of world cup tracks. The tire is aimed at a wide variety of technical terrain; its large center blocks and aggressive cornering knobs place it at the forefront of Kenda’s assortment. I fitted the 2.4 inch Hellkat’s ...

This contest has ended. Congratulations to the winner Frank Calabrese of Franklin, MA. SR Suntour has teamed up with us to give one lucky winner a brand new SR Suntour Auron 35 or 34 RC2-PCS Fork. Enter to win below! The Auron is our top-notch trail fork with a wide range awesome possibilities and applications. Designed ...

Words and photo by Dave Joachim The “race” was three laps on an obscure knob of land outside Philly, the course a barely cut path through the woods, over downed trees, wet leaves, soft dirt, off-camber hillsides, rocks, mud and steep climbs. It was cold and rainy, and we were on singlespeeds. It was ridiculous ...

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. ...

Tester: Karl Rosengarth Age: 59 Height: 5’10” Weight: 150 lbs. Inseam: 32” Carver’s Ti All-Road is a mountain biker’s road bike. With a design aimed at mixed- surface comfort and stability, the All-Road stands ready for rough road rambles, gravel grinds and singletrack shortcuts. The Bike Built from 3/2.5 titanium alloy, the All-Road comes with ...

Name: Evan Gross Age: 30 Weight: 187 lbs. Height: 6’2” Inseam: 36” Introduced in late 2016, the Big Fat Dummy is not just a Big Dummy (Surly’s original 26-inch wheeled longtail cargo bike) with fat tires, though the name makes it seem as such. But there’s a lot more than just fat tires that separate ...

The Verde Valley Cyclists Coalition (VVCC) is launching a Ride-for-Five fundraiser drive today to help raise money for the Western Gateway trail construction project in Sedona, Arizona. This project will contain the first true beginner-level trails in the area. From the VVCC: Construction on the Western Gateway will begin in fall 2018. It will be a ...

This contest has ended, congratulations to the winner Edward Marshall from Peoria, IL. ESI Grips has teamed up with us to give one lucky winner a grip and handlebar prize package featuring a pair of FIT Grips(XC, CR or XG) Chunky Grips, Silicone Tape and Bar Plugs. Enter below to win! ESI Grips are the original ...