Dirtscrolls

Injuries are part and parcel to Rampage with such huge risks involved. While Andreu trains with his brother at home in Spain, Kyle and Tom dive into this year’s contest season from two very different angles. Kyle pursues his passion for racing and Tom goes to Europe for a Slope-style competition. It’s a decision he ...

Back in July, Yeti announced this newest iteration of the SB lineup, and our SB5c just arrived for long-term test. In a previous post, we delved into the new Switch Infinity’s design details. Now we’re stoked to get the SB5c out into the wild and slash some turns like Joey Schusler in this video.

These films just keep getting more and more mind-blowing. The latest work from AntHill Films and Teton Gravity Research is unReal, staring Brandon Semenuk, Brett Rheeder, Cam McCaul, Tom van Steenbergen, Steve Smith, Graham Agassiz, Brook MacDonald, James Doerfling, Matt Hunter, Thomas Vanderham, and friends. After the smashing success of Rad Company, what more could there ...

The latest episode of the Trail Ninja series is one of the best yet, with some jaw-dropping exposure in the Italian Alps.

Intense has announced they have hired a new Brand Ambassador, Talent Scout and R&D Guy.

Editor’s note: At the end of last month Jeremiah Bishop got an email from his Sho-Air sponsored team titled, “Sponsorship/Opportunity.” The content was to let him know he was laid off, sighting a small section in the contract that rendered 2015, which he was signed through, as meaningful as a wooden nickel, in his own ...

In the latest episode of ‘This is Peaty’, Steve Peat and the Syndicate team come to America to celebrate Christmas in August.

Having been building for just three years, REEB has already built as many bikes in 2014 as they did in all of last year. As an natural progression of its American-made steel and titanium bikes, REEB Cycles has announced a new partnership with True Temper and Henry James to create a new, exclusive steel tubeset ...

Who says freeride is dead? Red Bull Rampage is back this year with an all-new location with all-new lines. From big moves to big crashes, this competition is unlike any other. Get a glimpse at how the riders prepare in the first episode of the 2014 Road to Rampage.  

By Joh Rathbun, photos by Inga Beck. Don’t take out the disco ball and the pumps—high heels—because this is Ladies Night at Northstar California. Bring a bike pump instead, as NorCal’s favorite mountain is notorious for it’s rocky and dusty conditions. And with the drought that California is experiencing, the mountain is living up to its ...

Elected by a vote of past inductees and current Hall of Fame members (including our esteemed Publisher, Maurice Tierney), the latest members of the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame will be formally inducted September 10 at Interbike in Las Vegas. The Mountain Bike Hall of Fame & Museum was founded in 1988 in Crested Butte, ...

Carver Bikes has always been at the forefront of the fat bike movement, never hesitating to introduce new products as the market changes. It had even built one of the first full-suspension fat bikes. Now the brand is doubling down on big tires, with a host of new goods to keep you floating year ’round.

With a few exceptions, most bike companies seem to shy away from making true cross country race bikes, instead designing trail bikes that can be raced. The new Oiz from Basque bike-maker Orbea is decidedly not a trail bike. This is pro-level race machine, ready to decimate the competition when the ability to ride both ...

Coming as a surprise, the entire fleet of media demo bikes for the recent Orbea Oiz launch was outfitted with 11-speed 2015 XTR, including four sets of the scarce electronic shifting M9050. We managed to put in a good ride on both groups. Shimano originally announced the new XTR back in April, and we got a ...

While the recent influx of extended coverage helmet designs has brought better protection—and looks—to market for trail riders, there still exists a huge gap between their open-face coverage and a big downhill full-face helmet. Especially now that enduro racing and all-mountain riders are pushing harder than ever before, riders are looking for a little extra ...

Now in its fourth generation, the Meta AM seeks to find that perfect balance between descending ability and climbing composure. The new generation is a radical departure from the suspension layout of the previous designs, with the shock tucked in extra-low under the seat tube. Now it occupies a much more traditional spot under the ...

Late last summer there were signs that big(ger) things were coming from Devinci Cycles. Suspension designer Dave Weagle was working closely with World Cup downhill racer Steve Smith to develop a special bike for the (relatively) tame World Championship track in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. It featured not just a move toward lower, slacker geometry, but also ...

Editor’s note: “At the Helm” was a project we undertook earlier this year as part of our 25th Anniversary celebration. Four bikes, four companies, four founders. Much like Dirt Rag’s own history, each of these founders has seen rough times, but the ship still sails with a firm hand on the wheel. The stories you’ll read ...

At 100 feet, 3 inches, Zink landed the backflip perfectly in front a huge ESPN X Games crowd at Mammoth Mountain Bike Park. The event was televised live earlier this evening on ESPN and will air again as part of ABC’s “World of X Games” show on August 24 at 2 p.m. Eastern. Watch his ...

Boehmke, on the right, with Dirt Rag’s Publisher Maurice Tierney. Longtime industry veteran Steve Boehmke has been hired by Rotating Mass Media—publishers of Dirt Rag and Bicycle Times magazines—as its newest advertising sales account representative. Boehmke is based in Orange, California, and replaces Gary Boulanger, who was named Bicycle Times editor in late March. Boehmke ...

We first spied this all-new creation from Diamondback back at Sea Otter—hell it was hard not to, considering its electric orange paint can be seen from space. Now it’s in our hands and ready for a long-term test ride.

Mountain biking is all about overcoming challenges—climbing mountains, fear of falling, or making that jump for the first time. But some challenges are infinity more difficult. Filmmaker Leo Zuckerman created this short profile of a young man who quite literally battled for his life.

Hot off the heels of one of the most talked-about races in the young series’ history, the Enduro World Series has unveiled its plans for an eight-round series in 2015.

Apart from wheel sizes and the number of gears involved, the biggest trend in the mountain bike industry in the last decade has been carbon fiber. You can get carbon anything these days: frames, rims, handlebars, brake levers, stems, seatposts, cranksets, chains… ok, maybe not chains, but the Gates Carbon Belt Drive is pretty close. ...

Hot on the heels of the the SB5c trail bike, Yeti releases a new cross country platform dubbed the AS-Rc. As much as longer trail trail bikes are everyone’s favorite topic these days, not everyone wants or needs all that travel and slackness. This new AS-Rc should fill in the gap nicely between the trail ...

The story of the year at Crankworx was #LetFinnIn, the hashtag petition to let 14-year-old Finn Iles compete in the Whip-Off World Championships. It paid off too, as Iles didn’t just prove himself worthy, he proved anything is possible.

Trek has been busy this year, with the Re:Aktiv shock technology we covered a few months ago. Now on the gravity end of things, we are seeing the anticipated release of carbon version of the well regarded 160mm Slash, and the Session splits into two models in both carbon and aluminum, the 26-inch Session Park ...

For the fifth year, Niner has created a special IMBA themed bike in support of the non-profit’s mountain bike advocacy efforts. This year’s version is a custom painted ROS 9 Plus complete bike with special detailing and components throughout. The ROS 9 Plus is a brand new addition to the Niner line up – an ...

Few places in the mountain bike world have the magical cache as Whistler, British Columbia. If you’ve never been, it’s home to not just the Whistler Bike Park, but hundreds of miles of trails throughout the valley and far up the mountains. A lot of folks come here for different reasons, but it seems not ...

I think it’s safe to say that Specialized has created an instant icon. Simply put, the new Demo 8 is unlike any downhill bike we’ve ever seen. While it retains the classic FSR suspension layout, the pivot points were all moved as far down as possible, with the main pivot finding itself concentric with the ...

The stuff. All the things that I’m carrying. When it’s all laid out, it doesn’t look like much for a few weeks of living off the bike. But when I’m pushing it up a mountain road, it feels like a ton. I’ve never cared about how much my race bike weighed. I’ve always felt that ...

Editor’s note: We love hearing from readers. This is, of course, The Mountain Bike Forum. Gary sent us this great story of how he saved his hide from a looooong walk with a little bit of MacGyver ingenuity. Have a story you’d like to share? Send it to [email protected]. By Gary Bolton Last Sunday we ...

Photos by Adam Newman The sixth round of the Enduro World Series rolled into Whistler just in time for a little thing called Crankworx to get under way. Several classic Whistler trails were groomed especially for the event with the deep, soft terrain of Crazy Train contrasting sharply with the rocky, exposed Top of the ...

Our correspondent Jay de Jesus is in upstate New York for the only stop of the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup in America. He’ll be bringing us the latest from Windham, New York.

UPDATE: The survey is now closed. Thanks to all who participated! How much wrenching do you do on your own bike? Our friends over at Feedback Sports wants to know. Take our super-quick survey and you could win a Pro Truing Stand. Enter to win here.

Recently we brought you the details of the new 27.5 Scott Gambler downhill bike and the Voltage freeride. Today our friends over at ShapeRideShoot bring you some behind-the-scenes details of how they were created and some prototype testing with Alex Evans, Nick Pescetto, Nico Vink, and Vincent Tupin.

Take a peek at the new Rocky Mountain Thunderbolt MSL. We have an aluminum version of the 120mm chassis in for testing now, but before we could finish our review the team from British Columbia have upped the ante with a carbon fiber frame.

Our correspondent Jay de Jesus is in upstate New York for the only stop of the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup in America. He’ll be bringing us the latest from Windham, New York. Wednesday was moving in day for the international trade teams. European-based Team Chain Reaction’s gladly unload their overstuffed rental. 

There’s nothing quite like a magazine you can hold in your hand, but more and more readers are choosing to read their favorite mountain bike magazine on digital devices. Today we’re announcing Dirt Rag will be available in Magzter. Magzter has become one of the fastest growing cross-platform digital newsstands in the world with over 17 ...

From RockShox: Whether it’s pulling off your first bunny hop, or winning a World Championship title, we all have a “can’t” we’re chasing. People once said “suspension can’t make up for the added weight.” That didn’t stop RockShox from changing the face of mountain biking in ’89. And it hasn’t stopped riders from doing what ...

I haven’t been able to sleep. Every night I wake up, thinking that I still have more miles to ride to the border. “No, Colleen already picked you up, it’s over,” I tell myself. Then the sun comes up and my legs are rubbery. Tour Divide was monstrously hard. I thought that I understood how ...

Raleigh isn’t a name you normally associate with mountain bikes. Though we have ridden and reviewed a few models, the brand is introducing a series of new full-suspension bikes for 2015, from entry-level to high-end. It is also expanding the Tamland line of gravel/adventure bikes with an aluminum sister model, the Willard.

Dirt Rag contributor Brice Shirbach not only writes words and shoots awesome photographs, he also does a fair share of videoing as well. His latest is an expose’ of the amazing trails in Beacon, New York. “Welcome to Beacon stands to showcase some of the amazing trails that descend from the summit of the town’s ...

Yeti Cycles pro rider Hannah Barnes got into cycling relatively late (through her younger brother, Joe) and it was 2005 before she did her first MTB race at age 18. “I love the variety of doing a bit of everything, and thats why I find Enduro such a good fit for me,” she says. “Our ...

Ibis recently introduced a 29-inch version of the Tranny and we’ve have been happily pedaling it around local trails over the past few weeks. What makes it different from other hardtail 29ers on the market? Check out my first impressions of this unique carbon hardtail after the jump.

Issue #179 is available now. Within its pages, you’ll find a great El Paso, Texas and Juárez, Mexico travel story, a riveting Access Action piece that found the legendary Hugh Jass team today and examines how they’ve given back to their mountain biking community more than any “organized” team I can think of, and coverage ...

We’ve tested lots of bikes at Dirt Rag, but none have garnered even a fraction of the attention of the Miami Vice bike. This blue and magenta heartthrob instigates all sorts of comments from riding buddies and other trail users. Rightfully so, thus far in the test period it’s backed up those good looks with a ...

Last time on This is Peaty we watched as teammate and protege Josh Bryceland picked up his first ever World Cup victory. In Episode 4, the Syndicate spend the long gap between races testing some new bikes, including the 27.5 V-10 and an all new model, the V-16.

The UCI released the 2015 schedule today and it includes six cross-country events, seven downhill events and zero cross-country eliminator events. The season will kick off on April 11-12 with round one of downhill in the new venue of Lourdes (France). Although new to the World Cup calendar, Lourdes has already hosted the French Cup, and ...

After a bit of a summer vacation, World Cup downhill racing returns this weekend with the first of two North American stops at Mont Sainte Anne in Quebec, Canada. As always, the one and only Claudio Caluori shows us the track.