Dirtscrolls

The career of the eldest Atherton sibling is often overshadowed by his World Championship-winning brother and sister. But Dan Atherton is an accomplished rider and trail builder, and his new project from Red Bull captures his quest to build the most extreme downhill tracks in the world. It’s a 20-minute film, so pour a dram, ...

Tired Last week the symptoms came out of nowhere about two-thirds through a road ride. At just under 60 miles it wasn’t particularly long but the route was peppered most of the way with short, punchy climbs that require bursts of power rather than even tempo—with seemingly more of them on the way back. After ...

Over the past two months I’ve been putting substantial trail time in on Giro’s top off-road offering, the Empire VR and it’s quickly becoming one of my all-time favorites. Giro’s new lace-up VR90 utilizes an old-school lace closure for a comfortable, snug fit. Laces rule because they don’t create pressure points anywhere across your foot ...

Attendees of the Fat Bike Summit and Festival who register at the $35 level will have a chance to win some juicy fat bike product from SRAM and Race Face. SRAM will also be offering a technical clinic on its Guide brakes and Bluto forks as part of the festival on Saturday. The festival is ...

This is the second Uvex helmet I’ve had, and I’m really sold on their design. For me the fit is dialed, the enclosure system is simple and dependable, and helmet doesn’t look stupid on my head. The visor is very easy to adjust, but it does seem a bit narrower than others. As with most ...

The new year draws near, and for the first issue of 2015, we’ve rounded up six bike in the $1,000 range as a representative sample at this popular price point. We’ve found it to be common dollar amount for a first “good” bike, or adding a second bike (or third or fourth, etcetera) to the ...

We saw it make its debut under the Syndicate riders back in July, and now it can be yours — the sixth generation of what is likely the winningest downhill bike ever is now on sale. Now you can ride what Ratboy rode to a World Cup overall championship and bone-crunching second place at the World ...

Fox Factory Holding Corp. (otherwise known as Fox Racing Shox) announced today it has agreed to acquire nearly all the assets of Race Face Components and Easton Cycling. The acquisition comes at a price tag of approximately $30.2 million, financed with debt, and the deal should be finalized by the end of the year. It is ...

Don’t let the inclusion of the word ”Road” fool you into thinking these (or Giro’s entire New Road clothing line) are dedicated to skinny tire pavement riders. A great pair of winter tights is a great pair of winter tights no matter where you’re riding. Bits and Pieces Construction is from a nylon/Spandex mix with ...

For the past month I’ve been running Answer’s Rove FR pedals on all my bikes. Swapping between a fatty, full suspension, dirt jumper and gravel grinder. That’s just how I roll. The Roves are solid. They feature a concave platform and ten hex-head pins per side. They even ship with ten replacement pins for when ...

Editor’s note: This edition of the Speciality Files first appeared in Dirt Rag issue #168 in February of 2013. By Jeff Archer Back in the earliest days of off-road cycling, there were two different sources for bikes: klunkers and cruisers. Klunkers were typically based on prewar balloon-tire machines that were modified for off-road use with ...

After a first ride on the new XTR at the Orbea Oiz launch this summer, we’ve been impatiently awaiting for the XTR groups to become available.  A few days ago, the wait was over. Peel off that shiny outer layer and things look even more classy. Just before the XTR stuff showed up, we also took ...

“Oh Shit!” That’s all I heard as I rolled past the young walker on the gravel towpath aboard my Borealis Echo fat bike tester. I was riding said path as part of a pre-run for the 125-mile D&L Fat Bike Epic in Pennsylvania—an event I’m most surely not going to do. The 50-mile ride served as ...

When the 575 was first introduced a decade ago, it broke the mold for trail bikes. With 5.75 inches of travel, it doubled what other companies were offering, plus it featured a 69-degree head-tube angle, which was unheard of at the time. Back then, it was considered so slack that Yeti told dealers it was ...

For the fourth time, fat bike riders and advocates will meet to discuss land access issues, best practices for the emerging market, and ride some bikes at the Global Fat Bike Summit. QBP, along with Fitzgerald’s Bicycles, Hoback Sports, Wyoming Pathways, and Mountain Bike the Tetons/IMBA are hosting the event January 23-25 at the Snow ...

Editor’s note: This Pacenti 650B bike review first appeared in Dirt Rag Issue #131 in 2007, the same year that Kirk Pacenti showed the first production 650b mountain bike at the North American Handmade Bike Show. By Andy Bruno If you’ve been asking yourself, “How can I rationalize buying yet another bike?”, along comes Kirk ...

Editor’s note: This review originally appeared in Issue #32 of Bicycle Times. To make sure you never miss a bike review, order a subscription and you’ll be ready for the everyday cycling adventure. The Specialized AWOL Comp ($1,950) is an adventure bike, and a darn good one at that. What’s most surprising about the AWOL ...

Courtesy of T-Bar Films A Kingdom Odyssey was shot in Vermont’s Kingdom Trails ( perpetually rated one of the premier mountain biking networks in the country) only a stones throw away from the Canadian border. These trails comprise the Burke Mountain Resort downhill trails as well as the Kingdom Trails Association network – a non-profit ...

The year is almost over and it’s time we look back and consider all the bikes, components and gear we’ve tested in 2014. It’s always tough to choose favorites, but choose we did, highlighting our favorite products of the year in the new issue of the magazine. We asked each editor to choose the product ...

The year is almost over and it’s time we look back and consider all the bikes, components and gear we’ve tested in 2014. It’s always tough to choose favorites, but choose we did, highlighting our favorite products of the year in the new issue of the magazine. We asked each editor to choose their favorite ...

Editor’s Note: This review originally appeared in Dirt Rag Issue #180. To make sure you never miss a bike review, order a subscription today. You’ll be helping to support your independent mountain bike forum. The Thunderbolt is an all-new offering in Rocky Mountain’s 2014 lineup. With its 120mm of front and rear travel, this 27.5-inch ...

The year is almost over and it’s time we look back and consider all the bikes, components and gear we’ve tested in 2014. It’s always tough to choose favorites, but choose we did, highlighting our favorite products of the year in the new issue of the magazine. We asked each editor to choose their favorite ...

The Mojo HD has been a successful bike for Ibis, with multiple wins under current team rider Anne-Caroline Chausson and former team rider Brain Lopes. But with 27.5 wheels now the norm for long travel bikes—and even though the previous 26-inch model was approved for use with bigger wheels—creating a chassis designed around 27.5 is obviously a ...

The year is almost over and it’s time we look back and consider all the bikes, components and gear we’ve tested in 2014. It’s always tough to choose favorites, but choose we did, highlighting our favorite products of the year in the new issue of the magazine. We asked each editor to choose their favorite ...

The new Carver Gnarvester is designed specifically for  29+ (29×3.0 tires) and we got one in-house for a long-term review. We are building up this titanium frame with a selection of new and used components. This is a pretty sweet chainstay yoke. What kind of word is yoke anyway? Sliding dropouts with Paragon Machine Works ...

Who needs skis? (Or a fat bike?) Filmmaker Thomas Rinfret shows us that mountain bikes can be a ton of fun all year long, especially with a furry friend in tow.

Courtesy of the International Mountain Bicycling Association: The MTB Project website and mobile apps have been updated and improved with new functionality. The apps are available in both Android and iOS versions, and are completely free. MTB Project continues to grow in popularity, with a catalog of user-generated content that now exceeds 34,000 miles of trail. ...

There’s not much more to say, trials and freestyle just look like even more fun when you throw big tires into the mix. Check out Rick Koekoek showing us how it’s done.

Can’t say we didn’t see this coming. With the stratospheric boom in popularity of fat bikes and the positive reaction to the aluminum version of the Bucksaw, Salsa has just let loose that a carbon fiber version will be joining it on the trails in the near future. Still built around 100mm of travel through the ...

On the cover This year’s Red Bull Rampage winner Andreu Lecondeguy shows some attitude. Photo by Malcolm Mclaws   The Dirt Stevil Kinevil laments being lost and alone, Bama connects the hug of Lady Winter with drinking a 40 under a bridge, and we catch up with the “Fit Chick,” Selene Yeager.   Readings What ...

Cannondale has a rich legacy of pushing the boundaries of mountain bike design. In 1991 sharp-eyed readers spied Gunnar Shogren riding a prototype Delta V full-suspension bike in a Cannondale advertisement that appeared in Dirt Rag #20. Our favorite lab rat spilled the story behind this vintage photo. That was a prototype bike with the ...

With the hard-charging soul of Santa Cruz Bikes and the enlightened guidance of the legendary Juliana Frutado, Juliana Bikes is proud to have some of the most fun and fast ladies on earth on their team, including Anka Martin and Katrina Strand. If you think you’ve got what it takes to join them in 2015, ...

Cam McCaul appeared, of all places,  on The Weather Channel this week, promoting his new mountain bike film, “Unreal”. McCaul is no stranger to being in front of a camera or holding a microphone, but he really outdid himself by appearing as a live weather reporter describing the amazing “dirt flurries” that were snowing down ...

It seems like a long while since I’ve been on a Trek. In the couple years that have passed since I last rode one, we now see some of its once proprietary geometry principles implemented by other manufacturers, such as the increased offset fork on 29ers. ‘So what’s new,’ I had to ask as I began ...

Borealis claims that its Echo is the first ever high-performance fat bike to be designed around RockShox’s 100mm travel Bluto fork. Considering that the company’s headquarters is a mere three miles from SRAM’s Colorado Springs R&D office that’s no surprise. Borealis was the first company to get its hands on the fat bike specific fork ...

Take a look at the bikes above. They seem to share very few things in common. One is a stripped down rigid bike, or as they say on the in Internets, “ridged.” The other is a very modern all-mountain bike, able to survive weekend trail rides and the worst downhill tracks imaginable. What are they ...

Photos by Justin Steiner and Emily Walley We’ve arrived at version 3.0 of the venerable Nomad, a bike that’s pushed the boundaries of pedal-friendly long-travel bikes from its inception. It comes as no surprise to see this new Nomad further redefining the capability and versatility of the all-mountain category, this time with 27.5-inch wheels. Perhaps ...

This just in from Cane Creek: To our customers, At Cane Creek, we strive to make best-in-class products that provide exceptional performance and rider experience. During the initial production of the DBinline rear shock, we did not live up to this promise. We have determined that certain DBinline shocks manufactured from May 23, 2014 through ...

Courtesy of Ruckus Composites: (Click here and you’ll understand the cow image.) Calling All Single (Speed) Ladies! Everyone knows SS ladies have more fun. If ya didn’t, now ya do. And girl oh girl do we have a race to prove it. We’ve built a special course with interesting twists and turns, a few kegs ...

It is pretty easy to come down on a pair of $240 shorts ($410 when the liner short is included) for being too expensive. And I’m not going to argue with that. But in a world of $10,000 bikes, there is a market for these shorts, and I’m pretty stoked someone needs to review things ...

Winter has barely made its presence known but we’re already looking forward to the Sedona Mountain Bike Festival in March. Scheduled from March 6-8 at the Talaquepaque Arts and Crafts Village, it promises a great way to enjoy the sunshine, red-rock trails and power of the Vortex. Hosted by Over the Edge Sports, the event will feature ...

Giant is reintroducing its 160mm travel Reign in 2015 after a one-year absence. First appearing in 2005 as a 26er, its return (and overhaul) makes Giant’s dedicated-to-27.5 line-up complete. Besides wheel size, there are a few other significant changes as well. First, the mainframe on the Advanced 1 is carbon fiber with an aluminum rear ...

Bottle cap for perspective. This thing is small. A few weeks ago Sony invited us out to New Jersey to check out its new Action Cam Mini, a slimmed down version of the successful AS100 series Action Cam, which isn’t exactly a big camera either. The new smaller camera still packs the same sensor and Zeiss ...

A few weeks ago we shared an awesome Lego mountain bike video created by Oxburger Studios. This behind-the-scenes peek shows you how it was made with just some Legos, a Canon Rebel, two desk lamps and tons and tons of hard work.

Earlier this year the Richmond Ride Center was awarded one of the Bell Built Grants, a huge influx of cash that will help the network of trails near Richmond, Virginia, continue to expand. The project focuses on improving the existing trails on-site to diversity trails and depth of experience, along with developing a new gateway trail ...

Several brands including SRAM, Liv, United Bicycle Institute (UBI), Quality Bicycle Products, Pedro’s, and Park Tool have joined together to offer ten scholarships for women to attend United Bicycle Institute. Recognizing the bike industry needs to reach out to more women, these industry heavyweights have collaborated to fund a scholarship program for women. Additional support ...

  By Joh Rathbun Torrential rain was driving out of the sky and pooling in the soft, welcoming dirt. Washing away a dry summer, the rain didn’t let up, but it didn’t stop some of mountain biking’s luminaries from teaching women of all ages at the Truckee Bike Park at the annual Little Big event. ...

Watch as Poppy the dog hits the trail with her favorite human, pro DH racer Casey Brown, in the latest Sony Dream Capture.

Fabric is a new brand woven from the folks at Charge Bikes and the Cycling Sports Group. With the goal of creating a whole line of high-quality parts and accessories, it has started with touch points, including grips and saddles. The Scoop saddle is designed for multipurpose use, from road to cyclocross to mountain biking. ...