Dirtscrolls

On the cover Rolling Stones Trail at Blanket Creek, Revelstoke, British Columbia. Photo by Ryan Creary.   The Dirt and Readings It was one of the muddiest and hardest Dirty Kanza 200’s in the event’s history, we have proof in The Dirt and Readings. We also show you why Pennsylvania’s Trans-Sylvania Epic is one of ...

Last year when working on the 2015 editorial calendar for Dirt Rag, I realized the holy grail might finally be found. Found is really the wrong word, and maybe the grail is the wrong metaphor, but who doesn’t love a good Indiana Jones reference? In any case, the grail I’m referring to is a single mountain ...

Fyxation might not be the most familiar brand to mountain bike riders, having started life focusing on the urban riding scene. Which is why this carbon fat bike came as a surprise from a company whose bike line is otherwise a fully steel affair. I asked Ben Ginster, Fyxation’s marketing guy, about the decision to ...

Test yourself this August in The Mariposa Challenge, a month-long, digital, mountain bike event for women. Log your daily riding adventures on MapMyRide and measure yourself against other riders in your area and across the USA. It is free to enter and the first 50 women to sign up in each Mariposa Challenge area will ...

Editor’s note: This “shootout” style product review first appeared in Dirt Rag Issue #66, published in July 1998—back when 100 mm of travel was considered “freeride” territory. This look back offers perspective on how far mountain biking, and suspension technology, has evolved since then. These five so-called double-triple clamp forks are good for something besides paperweights. ...

Photo by Sterling Lorence It’s not easy to raise the bar for mountain bike films, but the latest work from Teton Gravity Research and Anthill Films is likely to do just that. Their latest, unReal, is now available for purchase on iTunes and other online outlets and they’ve released this clip to give you a ...

Ponyrustler Spotted as a prototype at Sea Otter, the new 27plus full suspension bike from Salsa made its official debut today with two carbon fiber models and an aluminum model built around the excellent Split Pivot suspension. If you’re ridden the Horsethief 29er and enjoyed it, you’re likely to feel right at home on the ...

Courtesy of USA Cycling. Photo by Philip Beckman. Downhill On Saturday Jill Kintner (Bellingham, Wash./Red Bull-Norco Bicycles) followed up Friday’s dual slalom win with a convincing 15.64-second downhill margin of victory, crossing in 4:03.95 to earn her 15th career professional national championship. She defeated dual slalom silver medalist Jacqueline Thomas (Winter Park, Colo.), who earned downhill silver in 4:19.59, while Rebecca ...

Deadwood Somewhat surprising is this 29plus touring bike that Salsa says will be produced in somewhat limited numbers. More evolutionary than revolutionary, it’s kind of like what you’d expect to get if a Fargo and a Mukluk enjoyed a little too much bourbon around the campfire before snuggling into a sleeping bag together. It’s built ...

Courtesy of USA Cycling. Photo by Philip Beckman. Luca Cometti (San Diego, Calif./Intense Factory Racing) and Jill Kintner (Bellingham, Wash./Red Bull-Norco Bicycles) repeated as men’s and women’s professional dual slalom national champions, and Russell Finsterwald (Colorado Springs, Colo./SRAM-Troy Lee Designs Race Team) and Chloe Woodruff (Prescott, Ariz./Team Stan’s NoTubes-Niner) took over as men’s and women’s professional short track cross-country national champions on Friday ...

Courtesy of USA Cycling. Photos by Philip Beckman. Kate Courtney (Kentfield, Calif./Specialized Factory Racing) and Cypress Gorry (Brevard, N.C./Whole Athlete-Specialized Cycling Team) wasted no time collecting the U23 cross-country national titles on Thursday in Mammoth Mountain, Calif., claiming the first two Stars-and-Stripes jerseys of Day 2 at the 2015 USA Cycling Mountain Bike National Championships. ...

The cover of Issue #1 featured the catchy name “Dirt Rag,” a liberal use of clip art and the immortal slogan “It’s A Big World—Ride on it!” But no official logo.   By Issue #2 we’d adopted the above logo that featured a unique, scrawling font (created by Steve Chaszeyka of wizardairbrushgraphics.com).   In October ...

Nothing is better than crushing a trail on your bike in the summer. Unfortunately, storing said bike (in your garage or home) is not always as fun.  It’s like telling an octopus to “stay” — an octopus with cables, handlebars and disc brakes. We can help. Enter to win our shopping spree and no matter what ...

Photo by Eric Lenseth, Windham Mountain Resort On July 10 Windham Mountain Resort celebrated the grand opening of its lift-serviced Mountain Bike Park of downhill trails for pro and intermediate- level riders, a skills park,  and a pump track. The park was officially opened when New York State Assemblyman Peter Lopez, Elite U.S. Downhill Racer Neko ...

Pivot isn’t a brand that rests on its laurels. With the undeniable success of the original aluminum Mach 429 came the natural progression to a full carbon frame in 2013. More than just a change of frame material, the bike also had small but important geometry tweaks to further refine the already great-handling machine. Now, ...

We got a sneak peak at some for the new Kona’s for 2016. The website should be going live soon, but here are the highlights that stood out to me. Honzo The Honzo has been successful enough for Kona to spur development of two new aluminum models, although it seems the steel bike is now ...

Kona has been expanding away from its mountain bike background lately, and the sneak peak we got on the 2016 models takes things to the next level. Here are the four models that stood out the most to me. Private Jake – $2,000 An all new aluminum frame offers modern updates like front and rear thru-axles, ...

The new Shimano gravity series has been designed with input from Men’s Downhill World Champion Gee Atherton, 2013 Downhill World Champion Rachel Atherton and multiple British 4X National Champion Dan Atherton. The Atherton’s influence is clear to see in the AM9, which the whole GT Atherton team has been testing since the beginning of the ...

When you have a lot of stuff to carry and doing so on your bike isn’t an option—or your bike is already loaded up—a trailer is a great way to expand your capacity. BOB trailers in particular can carry a ton of weight and don’t have an adverse affect on your bike’s handling. They even ...

Have you noticed any of your favorite pro cyclists sporting tattoos in the shape of the Crankbrothers logo lately? They’re certainly fans of the brand but rather than make a permanent mark on their skin the temporary tattoos are a way to raise awareness for their favorite cycling-related charities. Participating athletes span the disciplines of downhill, enduro, ...

The Rally mountain bike short is a versatile garment built for all day single-track adventures. The light yet durable CFX-Shell fabric keeps the rider comfortable and holds up to abrasion. An adjustable waistline and pockets allow for perfect fit and post ride functionality. Made to fit over kneepads with ease, but designed to be worn ...

It has been said that the Vermont Mountain Bike Festival is the country’s most scenic and family-friendly riding festival. Riders can expect the best festival bang for their buck in Vermont July 31 to August 2. Registration comes with full access to ten companies demoing bikes, guided rides, women’s clinics, kids camps, BBQ, T-shirt, camping, ...

Until the very recent release of the new GX group (which also offers multiple chainring options if you go that way), SRAM’s X1 drivetrain was the company’s entry level, full mountain bike, 1×11 offering. Whether you’re a cross-country, trail or all-mountain rider, this X1 group is a great way to get a taste of wide-ratio ...

Rotating Mass Media, the parent company of Dirt Rag and Bicycle Times, is currently accepting applications for the position of online editor. This individual will be responsible for operating, managing, maintaining and developing RMM’s digital properties, including the websites of Dirt Rag and Bicycle Times, as well as auxiliary sites and services. The online editor will ...

Jamis is betting that the rider who wants a steep, short-travel cross-country bike is moving away from steel and looking for newer and lighter materials like carbon fiber. Thus they have redesigned the Jamis Dragon 29 to appeal to the more aggressive trail rider. Looking over the dramatic changes for the new model, I think some pretty wise choices ...

Felt has some bold claims for their 2015 line of Virtue trial bikes. If they’re really going to be the “benchmark for all trial bikes” then this here combo of Felt’s Equilink and Fast suspension better be the shit. There are some really solid 29-inch trail bikes on the market these days, so how is ...

The World Cup’s first trip to Lenzerheide, Switzerland, was a smashing success. Making it look easy on the Steve Peat-designed track, Greg Minnaar stepped to the top of the box once again, taking his record-setting 18th World Cup win! Greg’s won two of the four World Cups so far this season, and sits in third ...

Today, RockShox announced significant updates to the Lyrik as well as as a completely new model based on the Lyrik chassis called Yari. Lyrik The Lyrik was well liked among the hard-charging set, but was stuck in 26-inch wheel purgatory, a sad place to be for such a well made fork. No longer. The new ...

July 6 was the worldwide release of “Lezyne GPS – The Next Generation of Cycling GPS Computers”. The film features stunning footage from around the globe highlighting Lezyne’s diverse collection of teams and athletes. International stars like Danny MacAskill (Scotland) and world-class cyclists like Leah Kirchmann (Canada) combine for a cinematic display of epic riding. ...

We’ve already covered the new Top Fuel and Fuel EX 29, so when Trek invited us to a big press launch of the new bikes in Ziest, Netherlands, I decided to concentrate on riding the hardtail Procaliber. The hardtail has long been the cross-country race bike of choice. Even as the pro ranks have reluctantly embraced full-suspension, ...

Action photos by Carson Blume Destination: Trail. That was the buzzword surrounding the much anticipated launch of the all-new Specialized Camber. To showcase just how capable and versatile this bike is Specialized choose the Downieville and Lakes Basin area in Northern California as launch headquarters, based out of the Graeagle Lodge which proved to be ...

Emilie and Bernard have been a man down with Eliot doing some important rehab after his big spring crash, but he’s coming back this weekend and they are stoked to be all together again at the Swiss world cup of Lenzerheide. In the meantime, the crew has been carving berms in the awesome Austrian mountains, ...

Santa Cruz Bicycles, founded in 1993 and still led by Rob Roskopp, has been sold to a Dutch conglomerate that controls several major bike brands, including Focus, Cervelo, Gazelle and others. While the entire Santa Cruz management team will stay, as will its headquarters in Santa Cruz, the new venture will likely be able to streamline ...

Legendary trials rider Martyn Ashton was paralyzed from the waist down when he broke his back in September 2013 during a stunt demo at a Moto GP. A 10-foot fall from a high bar resulted in severe damage to his spinal cord and a dislocated T9 and T10 vertebrae. Ashton, best know recently as the ...

Editor’s note: In the Readings section of Issue # 38, published in August 1994, Mark Tierney curated the following selection of music reviews under the headline: “Recomm Endo (Worthy Recordings).” While there was no long-range plan at the time, Mark’s idea would eventually morph into our semi-regular music/movie/book/etc. review column now known as Recommendo. Frank Zappa ...

By Justin Steiner and Emily Wally. Photos by Jeff Swigart, Michael Raney, Emily Walley and Justin Steiner. Though we’re far from reaching gender equality in the mountain bike world, the percentage of female mountain bikers rises steadily every year. Despite this increase in participation, the industry’s adoption of the women’s market has occurred in fits and ...

The Trek Fuel EX has been one of the most popular trail bikes in history but Trek wasn’t about to rest with “good enough.” After the folks from Waterloo added a 27.5 version last summer with the introduction of the amazing Penske Re:aktiv shock technology, the 29er model gets a full refresh with new features, new technology ...

The fifth annual Ride Sun Valley Bike Festival presented by Subaru of Twin Falls drew a large number of the biking community with an array of two-wheeled events June 25-28. From fierce competition in the SCOTT Enduro Cup presented by Vittoria and the new Shimano Boulder Mountain Fox Trot 50k cross-country race to the comedic ...

Yes, you read that right—the trail system in Anniston, Alabama, is quickly becoming a must-ride destination. Eric Porter and Cody Kelley recently travelled to ride the IMBA Bronze level ride center at Coldwater Mountain. Just down the road from the famous Talladega Nascar race track, these trails absolutely rip. There is a surprising amount of vertical ...

Trek discontinued its 26-inch wheeled Top Fuel cross-country line a few years back in favor of re-branding Gary Fisher’s successful 29er Superfly. Now, as the Superfly grows long in the tooth the Top Fuel is reborn in 2016 and it’s as modern and high-tech as a cross-country bike can be. Like the longer travel Fuel ...

We had our first introduction with Advocate Cycles earlier this year when the new brand brought its Hayduke model to the Sea Otter Classic. This week the company announced its second model, the steel Watchman fat bike frame. Just like the Hayduke, the new Watchman is built from Reynolds 725 steel with an original Portage ...

The Ripley 29er is one of the youngest models in the Ibis line of full-carbon trail bikes, yet it has already earned a refresh to better match the desires of Ibis customers. The geometry of the standard model remains the same, but a second longer and slacker version, the Ripley LS, has been added with ...

When Focus first came to the U.S. in 2009, the brand made a name for itself in the road and cyclocross markets, but it wasn’t able to bring its full mountain bike line across from Germany because of patent conflicts. Since that time, it has been able to expand its suspension offerings in the U.S., ...

The latest Pivot trail and all-mountain bikes—the Mach 4 and Mach 6—have been a big success, but most recently the 29ers have been restricted to the cross-country end of its lineup. Now the new Mach 429 Trail lets 29er fans—ourselves included—enjoy the excellent dw-link suspension on more rowdy trails. Pivot started the design with a ...

Editor’s note: Paul Angiolillo contributed the words and John Hinderliter inked the drawings in this illustrated piece from Dirt Rag Issue #42, published in February 1994.                       Keep reading We’ve published a lot of stuff in 26 years of Dirt Rag. Find all our Blast ...

Reflective apparel can make the difference between being seen and being invisible, not only at night but in any low-light conditions. Moxie Cycling‘s exclusive Lumenex fabric is ultra reflective for enhanced visibility. Under normal light conditions, Lumenex appears sleek and sophisticated so you can stay safe and sassy. Lumenex even meets ISO standards for high ...

Carbon fiber has come to dominate the high end mountain bike market when it comes to frames and components, and more and more brands are using it in wheels as well. Stan’s NoTubes first molded its Bead Socket Technology design in carbon last year with the cross-country and race oriented Valor wheels, which we were impressed with in ...

The women’s bike market just got a another serious player in the form of Yeti Cycles. Taking an approach that mirrors Santa Cruz’s Juliana women’s bikes, Yeti’s new Beti line utilizes existing frame designs, adapted for women with distinct finishes and component selection. Yeti selected two of its most popular carbon fiber models for the ...

Photos courtesy of Scott Sports The tidal wave is coming, and it’s rolling on big tires. Scott is one of the first major brands out of the gate with 27plus, in this case built on the Genius full-suspension platform and Scale hardtail. The brand touts the added traction offered from the 27.5×2.8 tires while sacrificing ...

Editor’s note: This vintage trio of reader letters reminds us that mountain bikers were adept at ranting long before the Internet made it all too easy to blow off some steam. Here’s some favorites we found in the archives. Rear suspension sucks! One thing in your last issue annoyed me. It was your claim that ...