Dirtscrolls

By Josh Patterson

Niner Bikes, the company that prides itself on its singular focus on producing mountain bikes with 29-inch wheels, unveiled their first all-carbon full suspension last summer at a press camp in Deer Valley, Utah. I was one of a lucky few to spend several days riding the Jet 9 RDO.

By Shannon Mominee

The numbers for total mileage and days commuted by bike to the Dirt Rag office have been calculated, and per her normal dominance—or at least our ability to mark an “X” on the record board—Karen Brooks, above, takes home the prize for most days and mileage. Actually, there is no prize, but all of us receive $1 for every round trip cycled.

Intense has been getting rave reviews for its Carbine trail bike, and now they’ve gone and lightened it up to create an all-new teammate.

The 2012 crankbrothers dreambikes auction is off to an exciting start. The total raised for Wheels 4 Life is already up to $19,227. Thatʼ s enough to purchase 192 bikes for people in third world countries to use as transportation to work, to school, or to receive health care. We are already at 38 percent of our goal to raise $50,000, and we still have nine beautiful dreambikes that will be auctioned over the next few months.

By Josh Patterson

There’s a lot going on the interweb these days. And the little corner of the blogosphere—yes, that is in fact a word—inhabited by cycling-related blogs and bloggers keeps expanding.

Here are four of the bicycling blogs I frequent:

On Monday, Ethan from Maverick Bikes posted on MTBR.com the following: 

Its time for me to post a short message regarding Maverick. As of Jan 1st Maverick has ceased operations. Paul Turner has reclaimed the brand and licenses. What he will do with it remains up in the air, some rumors have floated around but none for me to add to! I don’t think the technology will disappear, it’s too good and other manufactures are looking for ways to beat their competition.

British TV personality Helen Skelton is known for her daring adventures—2,000-mile kayak trips, ultra-marathons, highwire tight-rope walking—but this winter she may top them all with an 500-mile bike ride to the South Pole.

Hoots Inc. is a legendary professional freestyle rider that has made it his mission to create better quality facilities for riders around the world. His British Columbia-based trailbuilding and bike park construction company, Hoots Inc., builds parks large and small for its clients.

Kona keeps expanding its 29er lineup, and for 2012 they’re offering a huge range of models for riders who do everything from racing to hucking.

The Satori sits close to the "huck" end of the spectrum, as 130mm travel all-mountain/trail bike that can hang just about anywhere. Spec’d with a Fox RP2 shock with ProPedal, a RockShox Revelation fork with a thru-axle and a 142×12 rear end, it’s stiff and stout.

By Karen Brooks

So one fine day after I came back from some time off over the holidays, I found a package in my office mailbox:

What better way to commemorate such a gift than with a Team Dicky-style blog post? Here goes.

We’ve got some exclusive pics and details of the Salsa full-suspension fatbike prototypes to share.

By Karen Brooks

Few brands have embraced the fat bike as much as Salsa and its QBP siblings, Surly and 45NRTH. Today Salsa posted on its blog that they’ve built some prototype full-suspension fatbikes.

Obviously the frame and swingarm must be specially designed, but sourcing a fat-compatible fork will likely involve some custom work as well.

Beginning in 2012, the mountain bike race team of Dan, Gee, and Rachel Atherton, will join non-family GT rider Marc Beaumont and form the new team GT Factory Racing.

With online registration for the 2012 Edition of Dirty Kanza 200 fast approaching (registration opens Saturday, Jan. 14th), Dirty Kanza Promotions is announcing an exciting opportunity for race participants to join the fight against childhood cancer. For 2012, Dirty Kanza 200 will join forces with the Pablove Foundation’s Shutterbugs program, in memory of Adrian Lewis Solano.

Two very fast and very lucky participants in the single speed category at the Whiskey Off-Road will win a free trip to the 2012 Single Speed World Championships (SSWC) located in Spioenkop/Winterton Kwa-Zulu Natal province, South Africa.

Each top ten male and female single speed finisher will be entered into a raffle that will take place following the Pro cross country awards ceremony on Sunday, April 29. All they have to do is finish in the top 10 to be entered.

By Adam Newman

Lynskey might be getting a lot of press right now for bikes they are building for other brands—see our Kona post from yesterday—but they build plenty with its own name on the side too.

Posted over at the Kona Cog are the details of an all new model for spring 2012. Seems Kona is partnering with Lynksey to offer an American-made titanium 29er – the Raijin.

Designed around all the modern touches like a Press Fit 30 bottom bracket shell, 44m headtube for tapered steerers, sliding dropouts for geared or singlespeed use, a 27.2mm seatpost for flexness, and five sizes to choose from, all built around a 100mm fork.

By Matt Kasprzyk,

My commute to work, should I choose, takes me over a variety of surfaces. Because of that, I’ve had a monster ‘cross-style bike on my mind for about year now. A road bike with disc brakes that could fit 29 x 2.0 tires seemed ideal to tackle the few miles of road, cinder, and rough gravel.

By Karl Rosengarth

Now that Giant has ushered the Anthem X 29er into their lineup, the last of the major players has finally supped from the big-wheeled chalice. Just what flavor of full-suspension 29er Kool-Aid are they serving at Giant? Well, this varietal begins with the light, crisp notes of a race-inspired singletrack machine, and finishes with a 100mm-travel flourish. Makes one rather thirsty.

By Eric McKeegan

I’ve always been interested in internally geared hubs, but other than servicing a random few in my shop days, I’ve had little riding time with them until we started Bicycle Times. Over the last year I’ve spent many of my commuting and utility miles on Shimano’s Alfine group.

This February, the world’s top freeriders will converge at the 2012 Winter Teva Mountain Games presented by Eddie Bauer in Vail, Colorado. The first-time winter event—modeled after the highly successful summer Teva Mountain Games—gives riders a chance to battle it out in three competitions for significant cash prizes.

By Adam Newman

Specialized is warning local bike shops that a new app from Amazon.com could seriously undercut their business. In a letter to dealers from Specialized’s founder and president Mike Sinyard warns that the app, which allows customers to scan a bar code and find an item for sale online and make the purchase from their phone – often cheaper than in the store – would effectively turn a local bike shop into a fitting room for online retailers.

Editor’s note: This review originally appeared in our sister magazine, Bicycle Times, but since we got the bike plenty dirty enough, we thought Dirt Rag readers might enjoy it too.

By Eric McKeegan

By Justin Steiner

By Shannon Mominee

Bronto is located in Springfield, OR, and their mission is “To build some of the best riding and best looking handmade steel mountain bikes,” says Todd “Jedi Master Welder” Gardner. Gardner has 11 years of building experience. He got his start at Burley, where he built over 1,000 steel and aluminum frames. These days, Todd builds two frames per week in five stock sizes. David Alvarez, Gardner’s business partner, handles sales and marketing.

By Matt Kasprzyk

I really don’t get into “the holiday spirit.” This time of year really doesn’t get me excited. You could blame the commercialism of traditions, or the impositions of religion, or just call me a scrooge. Will Ferrell is funny and all, but it’s just another gray day here. As I tap this out, it’s wet and gray outside, and for the last week the weather has left me with little ambition to get out of bed in the morning. Nothing much to get excited about.

By Justin Steiner

By Karen Brooks

Inspired by Hans Rey and his determination to give back to the sport that has done so much for him, Crankbrothers created the Dreambikes program to benefit his charity, Wheels4Life.

Vittoria Cycling Shoes’ US Sales Manager Michael Musil shows the staff the 2012 shoe lineup.

By Adam Newman

By Josh Patterson, photo by Justin Steiner

SCOTT Sports announced today the formation of a new XC team based in North America. The Team, named SCOTT– 3Rox Racing Team, will include Geoff Kabush who will target the UCI World Cup series, the 2012 Summer Olympics and select North American events aboard the SCOTT Spark and Scale mountain bikes.

The complete team consists of:

Let’s be honest here, the week is pretty much over. We’re only thinking about where we’re going to ride this weekend. So in that vein, we’re bringing you weekly clips to help you stay focused on what’s really important: riding. This one is from Ben Mueller of 3nahalfproductions.

Got a favorite video you want us – and other readers – to see? Let us know at [email protected].

You might have thought we’d never get here, but here we are: A 26/29 comparison test. No, we’re not going to pick which one is "better", but with Specialized offering its legendary Stumpjumper in both flavors for 2012, it’s a great time to compare and contrast the two models and see how they fit with our riding style.

We chose the Stumpjumper FSR EVO models for their bumped up travel and all-mountain versatility. The bruisers of the Stumpy line, the EVO bikes have different geometry and parts specs for more aggressive riding. Check out the specs below.

By Stephen Haynes

Words by Josh Patterson, photos by Shannon Mominee and Josh Patterson

Ok, it’s not a bicycle product, but it’s close enough. The bike world’s favorite brewery, New Belgium, announed it is launching an all-new brew called Shift. It’s a pale lager named after the brewery’s tradition of offering employees a free beer after each shift (and obviously a nod to their cycling fans, with a chain and ring motif on the can)

Forbes Magazine is known for their rankings of the richest individuals, the "most powerful people" and more. Their latest ranking of the "most promising companies" includes two brands from the outdoors industry: Niner Bikes (No. 63) and Contour Electronics (No. 14).

How do they come up with these rankings? 

Pedal-Driven: The Official Trailer from Howell at the Moon Productions on Vimeo.

By Jon Pratt

Headsets are assembled by hand before packaging.

By Josh Patterson, Photos by Adam Newman

By Stephen Haynes

Plagued by the memories of my first Punk Bike Enduro experience last year, I felt compelled to produce a poster that captured both the spirit of the event and my own nightmarish recollections. If you’re not familiar, Punk Bike is a race event held every year near Pittsburgh that combines speed, skill, and standing around in the freezing cold woods drinking beer.

First, some haphazard, drunken sketches were scribbled:

Ok, we didn’t get to personally, but his sponsors SRAM and Truvativ put together this behind-the-scenes look at the champ’s life.

And if you’ve been living under a rock and haven’t seen his World Championship-winning race run, prepare for your jaw to drop.

By Eric McKeegan

These wheels are quite a departure for DT Swiss, away from the standard J-bend spokes and standard lacing patterns and into the brave new world of wheel systems. Billed as all-around trail wheels (what DT calls cross mountain), these should be right at home on any 4-6” trail bike.

Portland isn’t know for being the most accomodating city for mountain bikers, but finding a place to ride is about to get a bit easier with the construction on a new indoor park dubbed the Lumberyard.

Jill Missal, the editor of the women’s-only outdoor blog GearGals, couldn’t stop smiling aboard the SpeedFox.

By Adam Newman

By Justa Jeskova:

Winter is knocking on the door here in Pittsburgh, and that means it’s singlespeed season. We’ve had a couple new bikes arrive this week for long-term tests and you’ll soon be seing them in the pages of Dirt Rag.

Virginia Mountain Bike Trail from Scott Wootten on Vimeo.

By Adam Newman

Sidi might be a household name in the cycling business, but as a share of the shoe market, they are a surprisingly small player. With most cycling shoes selling in the $99-$150 range, Sidi refuses to compromise quality and fit and thus commands a higher price premium.