Dirtscrolls

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 ...

My relationship with the new Ibis Ripley began some time ago. Way back in April, I was fortunate enough to be invited to the release ride for the latest version of the Ripley at Ibis Headquarters in Santa Cruz, California. Along with owner Scot Nicol, a group of us headed to the hills surrounding Santa ...

The MTR (Modular Tray Rack) 1-Bike Rack from Saris is a slightly different take on the traditional platform rack. While offering the same or similar benefits of its competitors, the MTR 1 is trying to differentiate itself with the addition of being able to nest the trays, by way of pivoting the trays themselves 90° ...

‘Tis the season for giving, and for guidance for that matter, and we have done both. Fresh out of the factory just in time for finding gifts for that special mountain biker in your life we present our Holiday Gift Guide! The best part about it is that it is free! That’s right, absolutely free ...

So many sales! Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday, Taco Tuesday, the list goes on and on. Rather than pick one day or another we are going for the whole block! From now until December 2 you can get 20% off all in-stock merchandise by using the code “MEOW” at check out. Head to ...

RockyMounts has partnered with us to give away MonoRail 2-Bike Platform Hitch Rack! The MonoRail is the most versatile rack in our line up. It has the capacity for all styles of bikes; from skinny tire road machines, up to heavy fat tire E-bikes. Rock solid going down the road, and a utilitarian design approach ...

Indoor bicycle trainers hover in a weird space in the consciousness of most cyclists; Falling somewhere on a spectrum between “absolutely not” to “necessary evil” to a “performance-boosting fitness tool.” Whether you’re for, against or agnostic when it comes to indoor bicycle trainers is moot, they’re out there and they’re growing more feature-rich by the ...

Adventure comes in as many shapes and sizes as the intrepid folks who pursue them. While the resulting pursuits may differ in the extreme, the one constant is the need to sleep outside at some point. Big Agnes sent over a few choice items for us to put to use while endeavoring to find our ...

For those that want a semi-sporty look and feel to their winter-time footwear, the new Molveno GTX boot from Lowa might be just the ticket. The Molveno GTX has all the trappings of a relatively hearty winter boot (full-grain leather and fabric upper, GORE-TEX Panda lining, and insulated soles), in a sneaker-like package. A thermoplastic ...

Like us, a lot of you probably noticed a distinct gathering of Red Bull’s female athletes in the Utah desert in the weeks running up to the annual Red Bull Rampage event. At the site of one of the original Rampage courses, some of the top women of freeride got a chance to showcase their ...

It may come as a surprise to hear that SR Suntour is the largest bicycle suspension fork manufacturer in the world. Even though this recognition is primarily due to targeting the OEM of entry-level and budget mountain bikes, SR Suntour has been quietly refining the company’s high-end suspension forks for the past decade. SR Suntour ...

The annual Tour Divide event has become almost a right of passage for the bikepacking enthusiast. The route, taking riders from Canada to Mexico through the heart of the Rocky Mountains is a grueling and taxing ride at even a casual pace.  This year Lael Wilcox set out to break records, and while weather and ...

Fergus Liam is a former San Fransico bike messenger turned marketing manager for Ritchey Design and self-proclaimed mediocre elite bike racer, lover of burritos, bikes, and his cat.  Big thanks to Fergus for taking time out of his day to answer the very crucial question, “What is your favorite mountain bike accessory?”:  Years ago, my ...

For the better part of 20 years, I called myself a cartographer. So what nerdier thing could I do to pay homage to a career that eventually merged with my mountain bike life than to travel to the last-mapped region in the United States? Even though I knew that Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and Capitol ...

Today, Pivot Cycles introduces the new limited edition Trail 429 Enduro build – a spec that replicates the custom builds of hard-charging customers and Pivot employees, unleashing the bike’s limitless potential. Build highlights include a 140mm travel, 44mm offset Fox Factory 36 with GRIP2 damper in Team Orange, a new Factory DPX2 Shock with a custom Pivot ...

Santa Cruz Bicycles commits to giving away $1 million to projects that increase access to trails Santa Cruz Bicycles is making a commitment to increasing access to quality trails. They are pledging to give $1 million over the next three years to trail development projects, local and national advocacy organizations, events, and programs geared toward ...

Did you miss out on our pre-order for the new Bolt™ logo T’s and Sweatshirts? Well, you are in luck! We have a limited number of long sleeve T’s in black with a Mustard yellow version of the Bolt™ design. Get yours while the getting is good, these won’t be around for long! Scoop yours ...

“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 ...

Dropper posts are typically a tough item to review; they work, or they don’t. In the case of the OneUp Dropper, the company not only delivers a lightweight post that is reliable, but OneUp Components has also managed to provide riders even more travel from their dropper. First, OneUp shaved every millimeter the company could ...

The United Kingdom’s mountains lie mostly on its western flank and bear the marks of the Ice Age several thousand years past. Our tallest peaks are modest when compared to even our continental neighbors and certainly to the likes of the Himalayas, Atlas Mountains, Andes and Rockies. Altitude sickness is something you cannot experience here, ...

Here at Dirt Rag World Headquarters we’ve got a whole rack of magazines in the kitchen / conference room, and love flipping through them while we put off doing any real work around the office. But when we’re out on assignments, playing at Dirt Fest, or just away from home – the Dirt Rag mobile ...

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 ...

Nestled in the shadows of the Rocky Mountains along Highway 50 sits the city of Gunnison, Colorado. The town received its name in honor of United States Army General John W. Gunnison, who was sent to survey the land for the railroad. In the late 1800s, miners, ranchers, and mountain men settled into Gunnison once ...

The Wayward from Why Cycles is a plus-sized bikepacking bike from Carbondale, Colorado-based Why Cycles. Why was founded in 2016 by Adam Miller and Greg Herman who were previously behind Borealis, a brand that sold innovative super-light carbon fat bikes at a time when most fat bikes were steel and weighed more than a barrel ...

There is no denying the resurgence of fanny packs. Love them or hate them; they have their benefits. Osprey is known for its quality backpacks, mountaineering packs, hydration packs, and some stellar lifestyle bags.  The Details The Osprey Seral 1.5Liter Lumbar Pack has a breathable back panel, dual-zippered hip belt pockets, a blinker light attachment ...

We are closing in on the end of our collection of mountain bikes from this year’s Philly Bike Expo. Our sport has been on a pretty serious growth spurt these last few years and the frame builders are reciprocating with a bunch of interesting and beautiful bikes. Danielle Schön of Shön Studio recently moved from ...

If you sit down and talk with Stephen Fitzgerald about how and why he created Rodeo Labs, his nonchalant delivery leads one to believe it was kind of a goof. Make no mistake that Fitzgerald completely intended for both the Flaanimal the Trail Donkey to exist, but more for himself and friends to enjoy in ...

The Pivot Vault has been positioned as a versatile drop-bar bike since its debut in 2013. Built for gravel, dirt, and road, its geometry has always leaned in favor of the cyclocross world more than the endurance scene. Now, with the latest geometry tweaks on the fourth-generation Vault, Pivot maintains the focus on high performance ...

I first met Kristofer Henry of 44 Bikes at the 2017 Philly Bike Expo. The immediate impact of a clean looking titanium hardtail will always grab my attention so like a moth to a flame I drifted into the 44 Bikes booth. Based out of New Hampshire, Kris knows a thing or two about riding ...

As the Reeb Sqeeb V2 rolled up to my art studio, the aptly-named “Illusion Blue” paint job and sparkling silver accents made me nostalgic for my childhood days playing with Hot Wheels race cars in the driveway. As a craftsman myself, it’s heartening to know that I can roll into Longmont, Colorado, and shoot the ...

Megan Dean has been welding bike frames together for quite some time now. A transient of sorts Dean spent a good chunk of time cutting her teeth on the streets of Los Angeles as a bike messenger before starting a career as a frame builder. Her work speaks for itself, beautifully designed and finished bikes ...

If you were trying to find Eric Estlund in a crowd it may not be as easy as you think for a guy sporting a head covered in tattoos and piercings. The soft-spoken Estlund is the sole driving force behind Winter Bicycles and on Saturday I combed the floor looking for his booth during the ...

With storms in the mid-west and high winds up and down the east coast on Halloween,  Peter Olivetti sat deep into the night in a Chicago airport wondering if he would make it to this year’s Philly Bike Expo. Eventually, Olivetti made it to Philadelphia but his bikes were still in limbo, victims of the ...

Philly Bike Expo is easily one of our favorite events of the year. Despite our cross-state hockey rivalry, we love to visit Philadelphia. As noted by many of the attendees, the vibe at the Philly Bike Expo is always so positive, warm and welcoming and each year there are new vendors, new builders, and always ...

With the cold, fluctuating temperatures of the transitory seasons of autumn and spring, cycling gear can be hard to pin down. Feet get cold easily on metal pedals while freezing puddles splash up from the freeze-thaw trails. Meanwhile, the start and end of a ride can be exceedingly cold, especially on the way to and ...

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 ...

Revel Bikes is raffling off a very special edition pink Rail to help fund the LoveYourBrain Foundation. Founded in 2014, the LoveYourBrain Foundation (LYB) was established by brothers, Adam and Kevin Pearce, following Kevin’s severe TBI from a snowboarding accident before the 2010 Olympics. They are a non-profit organization on a mission to improve the ...

It feels like only yesterday that we were breaking down the big top tents but here we are preparing for the Dirt Fest 2020 events. Registration is officially open for both events and we have some great things planned for 2020. We hope to see you all on the trails of Allegrippis and Big Bear ...

Editors Note: I have to be honest, I was digging through the back catalog of Dirt Rag’s searching for a ghost story, something Halloween related when I stumbled upon Watts’ “Vanzig” story from a few years back. While not a spooky story per se, it is a story I quite enjoyed. So while we are ...

If you are the type that likes the finer things in limited quantities to show your friends just how fancy you are, well then feast your eyes on the Rocky Mountain Instinct Carbon 99. The Instinct 99 will only be available in the US and Canada and there will only be 20 made available in ...

Editors Note This the third installment of an ongoing series where we ask the mountain biking community what their go-to accessories are for tackling the trails, enhancing the ride, or saving the day. Check out the first installment here and the second installment here. I had emailed Bina, asking her directly what her favorite bike ...

By Stephen Haynes Whether cutting the sleeves off a brand-new T-shirt or remodeling the interior of a home, the desire to tailor one’s possessions is a siren song most of us succumb to at some stage of our existence. It’s human nature to personalize artifacts to reflect whatever self-image we’ve contrived, imbuing these things with ...

“Any One of Us” is the story of Paul Basagoitia, a professional mountain biker who suffered a traumatic spinal cord injury that left him paralyzed. The film debuts tonight October 29th on HBO at 9m est. The feature-length presentation of “Any One of Us” marks the first-ever partnership between HBO Sports and Red Bull Films, telling ...

photo by Garth Milan courtesy of Red Bull Style, class, and ice in his veins, Brandon Semenuk showed up to win Red Bull Rampage and did just that. After strong winds delayed the start of the competition Semenuk wasted no time showing everyone he meant business in a field of 20 of the best riders ...

Photos by Brian Lorence Well, its that time of the year again when a large portion of the mountain bike community drops everything to watch an elite few push the boundaries of what is possible on a bike. Red Bull Rampage has gone down in the deserts of Utah since 2001 and the amount of ...

It’s been a busy week in the world of bikes. First and foremost it is Red Bull Rampage week and with that comes all the excitement of the big day which you can watch live on Friday Oct. 25th on Red Bull TV. Outside of the cliffs of Virgin, Utah, there has been a bunch ...

The time has come! Issue 213 is peeling out of the parking lot and burning up the highway on its way to your door! It’s been a wild year, and 213 is the final chapter of Dirt Rag 2019. Part Gumball Rally, part Smokey and the Bandit, and all Mad Max, we have left a ...

Cannondale Habit Carbon 3 Price: $4,000 Sizes: S, M, L (tested), Online: cannondale.com Where were you “The Year Punk Broke”? It was 1991, sometime between late August and mid-October, Nirvana had just released “Smells Like Teen Spirit” into the world and everything, as we knew the popular culture to be, was about to be flipped ...

Today the World Enduro Series announced that they will be visiting Burke Mountain in East Burke, VT for stop #6 of the 2020 season. Hot on the heels of the mountain biking World Cup event in Snowshoe, WV, east coast fans will once again have the opportunity to see some of the best riders in ...

We don’t usually review Kickstarter products, but the Follow Hollow Alpaca Socks are a well-deserved exception. Brian Davis, the founder behind Fix It Sticks (reviewed here), is back at it with his newest creation, socks. INFO Follow Hollow socks are constructed from 80% baby Alpaca fiber, 15% nylon, and 5% spandex. The Alpaca fiber is ...