Dirtscrolls

Editor’s note: After the show, I chased down our new tech editor, Eric McKeegan, and asked him what he thought of the show and what kinds of products we’re likely to see more of in the next year. 

What are five products that you saw at the show that you’re really excited about? 

Nukeproof Mega TR

Words and photos by Harlan Price

This weekend, September 29 and 30, was the inaugural King of the Mountain enduro at Mountain Creek Bike Park in Vernon, New Jersey. The three stages on Saturday were for amateurs and pros while Sunday had two extra stages just for the pro class, which was really just an open class for anyone who thought they’d be competitive or could handle the more difficult terrain.

By Stephen H. Smith

In the sensible Midwest, long before exotically-mapped fondos, gravel centuries, and mountain bike epics with entry fees steeper than a Colorado mountain peak, there has always been the Chequamegon Fat Tire 40. This meat-and-potatoes, point-to-point 40 miler has consistently filled the starting grid for three decades with racers eager to line up for the love of racing in a venue decidedly void of the trappings of A-lister cyclerati and hipster race names.

By Adam Newman

Interbike can be a stressful time for exhibitors working hard on their booths, and attendees working hard to damage their livers, but for the cycling media, it’s just hard work. Trying to cover the entire show and still find time to sneak away for some of this elusive "fun" doesn’t always happen. 

By Matt Kaspryzk

Moab is an odd place. There are a lot of mountain bikers, ATVs, 4x4s, and hikers for obvious reasons, but there are also a lot of folks who look like extras from "Cocoon" walking around town. It makes for a strange dichotomy.

By Gary J. Boulanger

A highlight of Interbike for me continues to be the annual Mountain Bike Hall of Fame induction ceremony, where the core bicycle industry icons gather to celebrate those who’ve contributed to our fascinating sport. This year, two large conference rooms in the belly of the Sands Convention Center in Las Vegas were filled with family, friends and well wishers to witness the induction of Bob Woodward, Monte Ward, Gary Sjoquist, Ruthie Matthes, and Dave House on September 19.

By Matt Kasprzyk

Yeti has come along way since the late ’80s and it doesn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon. I recently had the chance to visit their headquarters in Golden, Colo., and meet the crew responsible for its success. 

Make a $5 dontation to support the F&CK Cancer campaign and you could win this Intense Uzzi loaded up with a special paint job and some very bling parts. 

This medium Pink Intense Uzzi is a unique bike, specially built to generate resources and raise awareness, to help cancer victims. The frame is a piece of industrial art, hand-built in the Temecula California Intense Factory. The industry’s best have stepped up to donate to this cause. This bike was supported by and is loaded with:

By Adam Newman

There’s no doubt author and racer Molly Hurford is passionate about cyclocross—after all, this is the woman who permanently inked it into her skin, an act made famous by her column known as “The Girl With the Cowbell Tattoo” that appears in "Cyclocross Magazine." 

By Justin Steiner

If there’s one thing Interbike 2012 has shown us, it’s that 650b is here to stay. Ironically, on the plane flight home from Interbike, a fellow asked me if 29ers were here to stay. With much disbelief this dude was shocked to hear yet another wheel size is in the works and certainly looks poised to stay the course.

By the Dirt Rag staff

Pearl Izumi X-Project

Pearl Izumi is making a big push back into the mountain bike market with the flexible X-Project shoes. I say flexible because it’s designed to work for any use from Enduro racing to cyclocross, and because the slim carbon shank inside it is designed to flex much more than most high-end mountain bike shoes, allowing for a more comfortable ride and better walkability.

By Justin Steiner

Niner continues to expand Race Day Optimized (RDO) carbon technology through its bike lineup. For 2013, it’s the RIP 9 that’ll receive the RDO treatment. This Rally Blue beauty offers 125mm of Constantly Varying Arc (CVA) suspension travel and is designed for use with 120mm- to 140mm-travel forks. Frame weight with shock is quoted at a reasonable 5.8 lbs. for a medium-sized frame.

By Adam Newman

Best known for its line of ergonomic grips, Ergon continues to expand into new product segments for road and mountain biking.

The BA3 enduro bag is designed for mountain bikers with a gravity persuasion. It can carry a full-face and your pads on the outside and 15 liters of cargo on the inside. Available in two sizes, it can also be futher adjusted to a perfect torso fit with a four-stage adjustable back length. Price is TBD.

By Justin Steiner

W MX Wheelsets

Features

Places to Ride: Brown County State Park

By Robert Annis

Many people out west were left scratching their heads when the International Mountain Bicycling Association bestowed “Epic” status on Brown County State Park in southern Indiana last year. But folks who ride these trails on a regular basis had their own question: “What took so long?”

By Karl Rosengarth, photos by Denis Chazelle.

I found the idea behind the MoCo Epic very intriguing: riding more than 100k on an IMBA Epic mountain bike loop right in the suburbs of Washington, DC. So much so that, along with Justin Steiner, I’m headed to Germantown, MD, to check out the third annual Epic, which takes place on October 14.

American Classic continues to evolve its mountain bike line with more wheel sizes and more terrain categories. All the wheels get updated graphics for 2013, doing away with the white and red look for a more subdued black and gray.

By Justin Steiner,

Though Liteville may not be a household name in the US, it’s been going strong in Germany for years. For 2013, Liteville’s 301 and 601 frames will be coming stateside and distrubted by Syntace USA.

As quality rises and prices drop, the action camera business continues to accelerate. Now Sony is getting in on the game with the Action Cam, a fully-featured digital camera that can record in full 1080p and in 720p can record 30, 60, or 120 frames per second for super-smooth slow motion action.

Sony borrowed several technologies from its still camera lines, including the Carl Zeiss lens, Steady-Shot image stabilization, and battery.

By Justin Steiner

Royal Racing women’s line

For 2013, Royal Racing is branching out into new territory with technical apparel for women. Two price points of jerseys and shorts will be offered along with a pair of women’s specific gloves.

By Eric McKeegan,

By Adam Newman

KHS 650b downhill bike

By Eric McKeegan,

By Stephen Haynes, photos by Justin Steiner.

The Marin Team CXR 29er PRO is the top of the line carbon hardtail 29er from the storied California brand. This race-inspired bike is as light as it is capable.

The frame uses Marin’s Race Geometry, which has a longer top tube to put you in a race ready stance but I didn’t feel like I was way out over the front wheel which was nice.

By Stephen Haynes

In case you didn’t know, Haro makes more than just 20-inch bikes for the likes of Dave Mirra and Ryan Nyquist to do amazing feats of acrobatics while flying through the air. They make mountain bikes too.

By Justin Steiner, photos by Stephen Haynes

Despite being one of the many large manufacturers who were slow to adopt 29-inch wheels, Giant is now safely on the longer-travel 29er bandwagon. New for 2013 is the Trance X 29er, offering 5 inches of travel out back, paired with a 32mm-chassis, 120mm-travel fork out front. According to Giant, the Trance X 29 is aimed at the “epic” trail, enduro, and super D market.

By Eric McKeegan,

By Justin Steiner,

By Eric McKeegan,

By Justin Steiner,

The Devinci camp is in high spirits after taking home first and second place finishes at the final round of the World Cup Downhill circuit this past weekend in Hafjell, Norway. Winner Steve Smith took the victory aboard Devinci’s new Carbon Wilson SL, but that’s not the only carbon fiber bike Devinci is showing and demoing here at Interbike.

Dixon Carbon

By Adam Newman

Spot Brand Honey Badger

He’s more than just nasty, he’s the latest model from Colorado-based Spot Brand. A steel 29er with sliding dropouts, it’s designed to run traditional gears as well as being Gates Carbon Belt Drive compatible in singlespeed mode.

By Gary J. Boulanger

The Ritchey P-29er is an old-school looking steel hardtail with a nearly Encyclopedia Britannica-esque history of development and racing heritage, beginning with its iconic tri-color fade paint job, as ridden to silver-medal glory by Swiss pro Thomas Frischknecht at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

By Adam Newman

650b

There’s not doubt we’re going to see a lot of "tweener" items at the show this year. Several bike brands including Norco, Rocky Mountain, KHS, Scott, and others have new models debuting. Both Fox and RockShox now have dedicated 650b forks and nearly ever major tire brand is expected to show new treads. In fact, the only real surprises might be what we don’t see. The Big 3 (Trek, Specialized, and Giant) are biding their time and slipping into the waters slowly.

Building on growing success and expansion, Dirt Rag and Bicycle Times magazines have created a new parent company, Rotating Mass Media LTD, to oversee a collection of growing products.

“We realized we are now more than just Dirt Rag, and we needed a new name—a new brand—to include all our efforts in the world of cycling,” said founder and Publisher, Maurice Tierney. “We didn’t get bought out by some corporation, we’re making it our own.”

Dirt Rag’s world famous literature contest is a celebration of the written word. It’s our annual effort to recognize and reward writers who possess the ability to deliver fine prose with a cycling slant and a unique narrative style.

Guidelines

Judge’s decisions are final. Plagarism is a crime. Do not plagarize.

One entry per person. No more. Please include your name, the title of the piece, and your contact information.

By Gary J. Boulanger

Mt. Tamalpais in Marin County, Calif., is the sacred epicenter of modern mountain biking, a 2,572-foot peak overshadowing Mill Valley and Fairfax. Pioneers Gary Fisher, Charlie Kelly, Joe Breeze and Otis Guy not only plied their trade in the mid 1970s, modifying then constructing machines capable of going up the mountains as well as bombing down, they also spent thousands of hours in the saddle.

After Red Bull decided not to renew the Atherton Project for 2012, filmmaker Clay Porter decided to pitch a new idea: a four-episode mini-series that featured each of the three Atherton siblings in a more in-depth look.

By Shannon Mominee, photos by Justin Steiner and Adam Newman.

The Element debuted in 1996 as a 26” full suspension bike and continued as such until this year, when a 29” version was added to the Element family. There are three 29” models, each with the same hydroformed aluminum frame. The 950 is the middle bike in the Element 29er line and the one with the most interesting, and versatile, component package.

Join our team of independent, hardworking bike geeks to spread our love of mountain biking far and wide. We’re looking for someone with a grounded understanding of how Dirt Rag serves our current readers, and a strong vision for where you think we should be headed. We’ll be placing a lot of weight on the strength of your vision, and its alignment with our vision, during this hiring process.

By Josh Patterson,

By Jeff Lockwood,

Thousands of bike industry insiders, retailers, and media poured through the aisles of the Messe in Friedrichshafen, Germany this past weekend to see what’s new for 2013. Attendees chowed on some true Bavarian meals and downed many hefeweizen beers. The cold rain may have dampened the farmlands around the convention hall, but it definitely didn’t ruin the atmosphere of the show. Here are some of the more interesting items we gathered over a few days.

By David Alden-St. Pierre

My first, second, and third singlespeed mountain bikes were Gary Fishers (two Rigs and a Superfly), so I was very curious as to how Trek’s latest entry-level singlespeed 29er, the Marlin, would stack up against those more expensive models.

By Justin Steiner and Eric McKeegan. Photos by Emily Walley and Philip Duncan.

By John Herron

I’ve ridden my share of custom hardtail wünderbikes over the last 20 years. Not being familiar with Van Nicholas bikes, I was skeptical when I heard their bikes were sold online. The words “custom” and “online” are nearly as oxymoronic as “budget titanium”. Can one reach perfectly fit, snappy, light Ti Nirvana from a dropdown menu? Spoiler alert, yes, it seems like you can get pretty damn close.

The eyes of the mountain bike world will be at Leogang in Salzburgerland, Austria, the next two weekends as the UCI World Championships come to town. 

First up this weekend is the men’s and women’s 4X on Saturday and the men’s, women’s, and junior’s downhill races with the elite cross country races the following weekend. 

A while back, the Santa Cruz Syndicate, along with a host of other top teams headed out to Leogang to ride/test on the up-coming Leogang UCI World Championship track.

Hot on the heels of Rocky Mountain’s launch of the new 650b Altitude comes the new-for-2013 Instinct, a 130mm-travel 29er with the same Ride-9 adjustable geometry and progressive (read: slack) geometry numbers. 

By Joshua Stamper. Photos by Extreme Photography Unlimited.

If your abhor mountain bikes with garish logos and loud colors, the stealthy good looks of the carbon fiber 29er Broadaxe from Foundry Cycles comes as a breath of fresh air. But don’t let the plain matte look fool you — there is much performance underneath its understated exterior.