Dirtscrolls

Words by Scott Williams Frozen Fat is a fat-bike-only weekend held in Huntingdon, PA, or more simply, Central Pennsylvania. As evident as it may appear from the event title, I would be willing to bet there are quite a few individuals who ask, “Do I need a fat bike?” The short answer is no, but ...

Wolf Tooth Components is always coming out with interesting products designed to make the experience of riding a bike better and more fun, and that focus on reliability, functionality, and performance. Here are some of their latest product releases: GCX46 This is a 46-tooth cog that replaces the 42-tooth on SRAM’s XX1 and X01 cassettes with ...

I came really close to bailing on the ride. I felt overwhelmed with stuff to get done. It was a dreary day. I was tired. Maybe I’d just take a nap and then spend the evening at home packing for my upcoming trip, getting ahead with work, and cleaning my mess of a house. But ...

Contest ended. Congrats to Greg Jablonski of Grand Blanc, MI ! We’re sorry The promotion you are trying to access has ended. Who wants to start their spring off with a new wheelset?! Stans No Tubes has partnered with us to give one winner a Crest MK3 wheelset. Enter to win below.   Wider and even lower profile, ...

Quality Bicycle Products (QBP) is an overarching parent company behind brands such as Salsa, Surly, All City, Foundry, and Civia. They also work as distributors for a host of other companies, acting as the middleman between brands and bike shops. Every February, QBP hosts Frostbike, an industry trade show in their headquarters in Bloomington, Minnesota (just ...

At $1,499 the 27.5 Hawk Hill may be the lowest-priced bike in our upcoming group test of under-$2,500 full-suspension trail bikes, but it’s far from overmatched. Judicious use of house-branded components keeps the budget tight, without cutting corners on important bits such as the Shimano Deore Shadow Plus derailleur, Shimano hydraulic disc brakes and high-quality ...

As stated in the Trek blog, “There’s something undeniably cool about a high school mountain bike team, something that separates it from more traditional sports teams like football, wrestling, and soccer. The great distinguisher, perhaps, is that mountain biking doesn’t end with graduation. It knows no age limit. At Corner Canyon, the team has more ...

Harlan Price has been contributing to DirtRag for over a decade through articles and has coordinated the skills area and MTB clinics at Dirt Fest for the past five. A former professional photographer turned professional racer, Harlan owns and runs TakeAim Cycling, a MTB skills company putting on camps and clinics throughout the east coast. ...

Words by Rebecca Rusch I didn’t know what gelände quaffing was until I moved to Idaho. Now it’s an annual tradition that I host as a hotly contested competitive component of Rebecca’s Private Idaho. For those who don’t ride that fast, there’s still the opportunity for glory just before the sun sets in Ketchum. Beer ...

Check out this preview of Danny MacAskill‘s summit attempt of 19,000’ Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest peak in Africa. Stay tuned for the conclusion and the full video this May! Find more from Danny MacAskill here.

Words by Adam Hunt, photos courtesy of Stan Cohen “The bicycle has a number of advantages over the horse, it does not require as much care, it needs no forage, it moves much faster over fair roads…it is noiseless and raises but little dust, and it is impossible to determine its direction from its tracks… ...

Words and photos by Zach White It seemed fitting to have a budget-oriented fat bike show up at the doorstep the day after getting back from riding a handful of various all-carbon, high-end fat bikes in Crested Butte during Fat Bike World Championships. Pedaling $5000+ fat bikes around in big, mellow, snowy loops at a ...

A couple years ago, Salsa introduced the Deadwood, a steel 29plus drop bar touring bike. It was produced in limited numbers, we heard about it for a little while, and then it disappeared. Now, it looks like Deadwood is back, but in a much different form. The drop bars are gone, steel has been replaced ...

Words and photo by Burt Hoovis  For those of us who enjoy beer, there very well could be no better time to be alive than right now. It seems like every town with more than one traffic control device has a brewpub, and most are putting out very respectable products. While there are plenty of microbreweries, few can ...

With a name like “Fat Bike Worlds,” you might think this event is a serious race, for only the best and fastest on fat tires. The reality is, it’s quite the opposite. While this non-sanctioned event brings plenty of strong riders and racers, it also brings the fat-curious, those who have never been on a fat ...

The International Mountain Bicycling Association has just announced that Dave Wiens will be taking the position of Executive Director. Leslie Kehmeier caught up with Dave during his previous role as Chairman of the organization’s Board of Directors, a role to which he was elected this past November. This interview was also published in our latest issue, ...

I don’t often post videos. I don’t think I’ve ever posted a teaser vid. I’m making an exception here. Why? I’ve been on top of Texas Peak. I’ve stayed at Retallack. I may have ridden some of the trails in the upcoming video. I know the guy who wrote and directed this. And Graham Agassiz ...

“Our mission has always been to advance women’s cycling while also racing at the highest level,” said Stan’s/Kenda Women’s Elite Team Co-Manager Jennifer Smith. “We are rider owned and operated and represent a powerful combination of professionalism and passion for cycling.” Fellow Co-Manager Sarah Kaufmann said, “We are proud of the longevity of our team ...

Contest ended. Congrats to Aaron Timman of McCordsville, IN! We’re sorry The promotion you are trying to access has ended. Win a ZOIC Empire Jersey and Beta Shorts with Liner for men or Jerra Jersey and Navaeh Shorts with Liner for women. Score yourself a new men’s or women’s mountain biking outfit from the ZOIC 2017 Collection, ...

The collection includes a new Phoenix Team Carbon Handlebar, Phoenix Team Enduro/Trail Stem, Phoenix Team XC/Trail Stem, Phoenix Team PadLoc Grips, and a Phoenix Team Carbon Seatpost. The system is meant to augment the company’s industry-leading standard of frame stiffness and ride quality, and allow riders to further upgrade their cycling experience by eliminating the problems ...

Words by William O’Connor, photos by Michal Dzikowski This story begins at my house, in a small village in the west of Ireland where bank holiday weekend biking plans are being made. My usual plan involves packing a van, a motorway dash, service station food and a late night drive home. Our rule of thumb ...

When I rolled up to Whitegrass Ski Touring Center outside of Davis, West Virginia yesterday morning, the thermometer in my car said it was 32 degrees, but the windchill felt like it was about 8. Bundled-up fat bikers milled about amongst cross-country skiers outside of the lodge. Wait…fat bikes and XC skiers together in the same ...

Ed. Note: MTBTP (Mountain Bike Trailer Park, not Toilet Paper) 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.  I have eSAD. That is, end-of season-affective disorder. Okay, maybe that’s not an actual disorder. Maybe I made it ...

Get your copy now!   Columns and Readings This issue sees the debut of a new column by Simon Stewart, titled Dog’s Bollix (named as an ode to his Irish heritage). As he is a former mountain bike guide, it will give a sassy insight to all things travel, life as a guide and mountain ...

The BC Bike Race is a 7-day stage race in British Columbia, Canada that takes place in July. This year, the organizers of the event are offering yet another BC experience—The BC Bike Ride. The Ride will take place August 5-13, 2017, and is open to 100 participants for its inaugural year. Touted as “the ...

Contest ended. Congrats to Vladimir Capka of Arlington, MA! We’re sorry The promotion you are trying to access has ended. Win a Sunrace CSMX8 11-46 11 speed cassette and a DLMX30 11 speed rear trigger shifter. Shift it like you mean it, enter to win below.   The Sunrace CSMX8 11-46 11 speed cassette will fit on a ...

The IMBA Instructor Certification Program offers professional training and certification to those leading group rides or teaching skills clinics. They have been establishing a nationally-recognized standard for mountain bike lessons, while continuing to grow a network of instructors. More instructors means that more new riders have access to a course so that they can enter ...

“I’ve crisscrossed the globe as a competitor for many years, but I rarely ventured beyond the mountain resorts that the contests were held in,” says Geoff. He decided to make it a point to escape the industry bubble and get out in the world more, and he wanted to motivate others to step out of their ...

Words & photo by Burt Hoovis Being the good wife she is, Mrs. Hoovis recently came home with several new and interesting varieties from her trip to the local beer monger. Among them was Contact High from 4 Hands Brewing in St. Louis, Missouri. Right off the bat, there were several reasons that I didn’t ...

The Bicycle Academy is a frame-building school in Somerset, England. Recently, they have started a series of events called Old Skool x New Skool, a collaboration between frame-building veterans and a new wave of builders shaping the future of bicycle making. This video documents Tom Ritchey’s visit to the Academy in September 2016 to spend ...

This new event will take place at Big Bear Lake Trail Center, near Bruceton Mills, WV, July 14-16, 2017. Pivot Cycles is very excited to be such a big part of yet another big east-coast event. Carla McCord, Marketing Manager of Pivot, says it’s great to see more and more events like this pop up in the east, ...

Words by Eric Porter. Photos by Scott Markewitz. This story originally appeared in Dirt Rag #186. “Pull over! It’s burrito time!” snarled Scott as he reached his breaking point. Throughout our entire time in Ecuador, he had been carrying a bag of tortillas and a can of refried beans that he brought from the U.S. ...

Cannondale’s Bad Habit could not have rolled into our Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania headquarters at a more appropriate time. As the trails began their late-season transition into an array of conditions from pristine hard packed to mud, slop and snow, the Bad Habit was ready to impress. On more than a handful of occasions, I found myself ...

Words by Maurice Tierney. Photos courtesy of www.firstflightbikes.com. Richard Cunningham founded Mantis Bicycles in 1981. Ever the innovator, Mantis made a variety of bikes, including the fillet brazed Sherpa, Pro Floater suspension bike and Flying V monocoque frame. Here we have an early Valkyrie X frame bike, made just before elevated chainstays came into vogue. ...

Davison has been on the upswing lately, earning a silver medal at the 2016 world championships in Czech Republic, and competing in the Olympics for the United States a second time. She is also an eight-time U.S. National Champion and has been a Clif Bar sponsored athlete – albeit on another trade team – for the ...

Dirt Rag Dirt Fest Pennsylvania has a renewed focus on getting new riders into the sport of mountain biking, and we are very happy to once again partner with SRAM, who have been a huge supporter of women’s events in previous years. Leigh Donovan and her team at ichoosebikes will also be returning to teach women’s-specific skills ...

Thank you to everyone who participated in the year-end survey this past December! We figured maybe some of our readers would be curious about who some of our other readers are, and lots of people like to geek out over stats (myself included), so here are the results to a few of the questions we ...

Words and photo by Shannon Mominee. You may think that beer and tomato juice is sacrilegious, and maybe it is depending on the beer. My mom mixes bottled Michelob Lite with it, hardly a beer at all. I turn the volume up a bit and put a personal spin on the Michelada Espana or “Mexican ...

The Sun Valley Bike Festival will be taking place June 29-July 2 in Sun Valley, Idaho. It’s a celebration of life on two wheels, including races, group rides, clinics, and demos. There will also be live music and plenty to do in town during the festival. Sun Valley boasts over 400 miles of singletrack, including some ...

Trek designed the Farley EX 9.8 to be a year-round bike capable enough to tackle any trail or weather condition. Fortunately I got my hands on this beauty at just the right time, as we transitioned between a glorious fall and bitter winter. I figured the large 3.8″ 27plus tubeless tires would be a welcome ...

For its eighth year, the event will be returning to its original location, Bear Creek Lake Park in Lakewood, Colorado. The main highlight of the weekend is a women’s-only race that caters to every skill and experience level, from pro racers to those who have never tried a race before. But this weekend is not only ...

Words and photos by Jeff Archer. Every rider who has thrown a leg over a top tube has probably spent some saddle time mentally designing their “ultimate” bike. For some, it might be a 14 pound, electronically shifted carbon fiber wonder, while for others it might be a fully loaded touring bike created for that ...

Contest ended. Congrats to David Hey of Canton, MI! We’re sorry The promotion you are trying to access has ended. We love adventure and travel and so does Over the Edge Sports. They have partnered with us again(!) to give one lucky winner two passes and hotel accommodations to the Hurricane Mountain Bike Festival. Kick off the ...

This May, Dirt Rag Dirt Fest will be celebrating its eighth year, and Pivot Cycles will be returning for its third year as presenting sponsor. “Dirt Fest is an amazing weekend that truly offers the best in good vibes and great trails. It’s a can’t-miss event!” says Carla McCord, Marketing Manager of Pivot. “We are ...

Words and photos by Jeffrey Stern. The concept was simple really – traverse three mountain ranges, tip-toe around two wilderness areas all while crossing the entire southern portion of Los Padres National Forest, a nearly 2 million-acre section of seldom-visited forest in northern Santa Barbara county. Logistics were the ultimate challenge in completing such an ...

“The world needs more people, especially women and girls, who have more faith in their abilities, on a bike and in life,” says Angi. In this inspiring video, Angi shares her passion as a coach and shows off her skills as a rider.

Words and photos by Chris Klibowitz. While much of our society is focused on affordable—and unfortunately disposable—products, there are many within the cycling community still producing high-quality, heirloom pieces. It’s no surprise that the revitalized Silca—a brand rescued from Italy and relocated to Indiana—fits that bill, as most of us have one of their old ...

  I’m a big fan of an IPA, or two, after a long day of riding or building trails. The resurgence of tasty canned beer has made it much easier to bring a few along for a trailside toast. Oskar Blues is one of the American brewers at the forefront of the good beer in ...

The new Viral Skeptic is not your ordinarily hardtail. And before you get huffy about that weird looking black box nestled in the bottom bracket junction, it’s not an electric motor but a 12-speed internal gearbox made by German company Pinion. The Taiwan-made frame is beautifully executed, with clean welds and a seat tube port ...

She’ll still be riding, but as she puts it, now she “just wants to have fun and share her passion with as many people as possible.” Anne-Caroline Chausson, aka Anne-Caro, or simply ACC, has been racing mountain bikes, and winning, since the early-90s. Amongst her list of awards are 19 World Championship wins, several World ...