29er

Tester: Eric McKeegan Age: 43 Height: 5’11” Weight: 165 lbs. Inseam: 32” At first glance, the Pivot Switchblade doesn’t seem to be much different than bikes with similar travel numbers and 29/27plus wheel compatibility. But look closely and you’ll start to see a lot of small differences that add up to a compelling machine. Those ...

Did Santa Cruz ever expect the Hightower, with its 135 mm of rear travel to become the darling of  hard-charging EWS riders? Did it expect consumers to start experimenting with longer-stroke shocks to bump up travel? Did anyone really expect 2017 to be the summer of 29 inch wheels in gravity events? I can’t really ...

The hardtail renaissance continues with Niner’s all new SIR 9. Niner bills it as a “do it most” bike, and that sums it up pretty well if you ask me. And if you are reading this, it is easy to assume you are asking me. Some highlights from Niner: Reynolds 853 steel provides the supple, comfortable ...

The 2018 Marin Wolf Ridge launched at the Sea Otter Classic this past April with the Wolf Ridge Pro at the top of the line and the Wolf Ridge 9 as the less expensive build. Marin just released the details on the last bike in this group, the Wolf Ridge 8, which offers a more ...

I have a warm place in my heart for Paul. Just look at that happy camper. Paul Components and Dirt Rag Magazine both started in 1989 and we’re both pushing 30 years as companies. We met at Interbike before either of us were big enough to even have a booth. And we’ve grown together over the years ...

There have been rumors about major teams and fast riders showing up for a World Cup downhill race on 29ers this year, but Santa Cruz is the first major team to confirm it with news of a 29-inch V10. I can already hear the comments; “but XXXX did it first!”. Yes, there have been a ...

Kona knocked it out of the park with the Honzo CR Trail DL. Featuring a stealth matte black finish, aggressive all-mountain geometry and a reasonably lightweight package, this Honzo is a grand slam. It took all but five minutes on my initial ride to develop an attachment, which quickly led to confirming with our Tech Editor ...

Words and photos by Zach White Age:42 x Height: 6’2″ x Weight: 200 lbs. x Inseam: 32” “Hey man, sweet bike!” As a bike whore, er, “product reviewer,” I get an interesting perspective on brands and their reputation. There are times when I’ll ride a completely dialed and worthy bike for months on trails shotgunned ...

Words and photos by Jeffrey Stern Hoo-Koo-E-Koo. The first time I read that Miwok Indian named fire road on my Tamalpais trails map I fell in love. With the letters, how they flowed like the purest of singletrack sections into one beautiful word – and a beautiful trail at that. Cutting across the mid-section of ...

The Trek Fuel EX 7 exceeds the price limit of our $2,500 Trail Bike round up by a measly hundred bucks, but we decided it was so well spec’d that we couldn’t pass it up. For the current generation, Trek increased the Fuel EX to 130 mm of travel, giving it more aggressive trail geometry. ...

The new Viral Skeptic is not your ordinarily hardtail. And before you get huffy about that weird looking black box nestled in the bottom bracket junction, it’s not an electric motor but a 12-speed internal gearbox made by German company Pinion. The Taiwan-made frame is beautifully executed, with clean welds and a seat tube port ...

“As our first carbon fiber frame, the EPO continues our tradition of making bikes that we want to ride,” said Lance Canfield, co-owner and designer. “And that includes hardtail 29ers that are as much fun pointed downhill and in the air as the are efficient on the way up. And with the EPO’s carbon frame, ...

The 29/27plus platform has another option, this time in the form of a aluminum frame made in Colorado. Guerrilla Gravity looks to take a slice of the shorter-travel market with this 120 mm travel frame, the Trail Pistol. Eagle-eyed readers will notice the change to a Horst link/chainstay pivot. Why? Guerilla Gravity says: “Marketing, mostly. ...

There was a general sense of “WTF” when Trek killed off the Remedy 29 for 2017. Yes the new Fuel EX 29 had the same geometry and a stiffer frame, but 130 mm of travel is still only 130 mm of travel. How is the semi-retired Tracey Mosely supposed to take on the EWS without ...

During some discussions at Sea Otter this spring, Trek dropped hints it was working to simplify its trail bike line up. This was right before it dropped a new full-suspension fat trail bike, so I wasn’t sure how to take that statement. These simplification ideas became more clear few weeks ago when Trek invited us to Squamish ...

The Element has always been a cross-country bike that can handle more than it far share of rowdy trails. Rocky Mountain is making it even more capable with the newest version of its cross-country “race” bike. From Rocky Mountain: This is the result of over two decades at the front of the pack. The new ...

The SID fork has been around for a long time now, and has always been RockShox’s premiere cross-country fork. It even dabbled in the early trail bike fork arena with a double-crown model that had a whopping (for the time) four inches of travel and more recently with 120 mm models for lightweight trail bikes. ...

The original Santa Cruz Tallboy is arguably the bike that signalled 29ers acceptance into the mainstream/cool kids’ cycling club. That’s not to say there wasn’t good 29er before the Tallboy or that it had the most revolutionary geometry. What is had was a certain something that was well loved and well used. Fast forward a few ...

Finally, I get my grubby mitts on a bike with them thar plus-sized tires. My portulent partner for the next few weeks is Marin’s Pine Mountain 1, sporting a pair of 27.5 x 3.0 inch Schwalbe Nobby Nic tires rolling on wide-bodied Maddux DD40 rims. Those tires and I are bound to become best buds, ...

Tester: Jon Pratt | Age: 45 | Height: 5’11” | Weight: 195 lbs. | Inseam: 31” The Canfield EPO is a sexy carbon 29er hardtail born from the gravity-loving minds at Canfield Brothers. Its very name is meant to take a jab at the carbon hardtail 29er racing crowd. This is by no means a ...

The 29er trail bike market continues to heat up, and Yeti turns up the flames even more with the SB4.5c. This is Yeti’s first 29er to use its Switch Infinity suspension system. We covered the tech behind Switch Infinity here if you want to read more about it, but to sum it up: “As the suspension ...

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 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 ...

Did you know you can place an order with Taco Bell using the restaurant chains’ mobile app? Simply choose the items you desire via push-button selection, whether it’s a Party Pack of tacos, or a six-pack of Burrito Supremes (hold the guac), select your local franchise, pay using the register built right into the app, ...

The Process 111 is the shortest of travel and biggest of wheel in Kona’s lineup of enduro bikes. Focusing on a slight 111mm of rear suspension and 29-inch wheels, it’s easy to wonder how an XC bike ended up with the longer-travel 27.5 offerings, which includes the Process 134 and 153. But, taken as a ...

Each year, Quality Bicycle Products, the parent company of Salsa (as well as Surly, All-City and others) hosts a dealer show at is Minnesota headquarters. Salsa took the opportunity to announce it would be officially offering a production version of the Powderkeg tandem that has been floating around in prototype form for years. Powderkeg Not ...

Ahhhh Surly’s Karate Monkey. Released at the Interbike trade show in 2002, it was the first 29er to come through the doors of Dirt Rag. I reviewed it for issue #103 and later purchased it for my own use and abuse. I’ve had many life-changing experiences on this bike, and some near-death ones as well. ...

It was certainly not the first, but no bike typifies this new genre of “trail” or “all-mountain” 29ers quite like the Honzo. The brainchild of some serious gravity-addicted minds at Kona, this ain’t no old-school big wheeler. How so, you ask? Well, up front the 68-degree head tube angle is mated to a 120mm RockShox ...

I woke to the sound of rhythmic scratching, my mouth a hollow, dry cavity that tasted like stale IPA. Subtle chanting in an unrecognizable dialect reverberated as if in confined quarters, putting an exclamation mark on the headache forming behind my eyes. As the world around me came into focus, my attention fell to a ...

Editor’s note: Here at Dirt Rag we don’t really do “comparison tests” or “shootouts” or declare “winners”. Every bike we review has a story to tell, and they’re all interesting. That said, we rounded up six full-suspension trail bikes in the $2,500-ish range to see what’s really out there in the heart of the mountain ...

Editor’s note: Here at Dirt Rag we don’t really do “comparison tests” or “shootouts” or declare “winners”. Every bike we review has a story to tell, and they’re all interesting. That said, we rounded up six full-suspension trail bikes in the $2,500-ish range to see what’s really out there in the heart of the mountian ...

Take what you know about a hardtail mountain bike and toss those opinions in the trash; the new Specialized Fuse for 2020 is an entirely new animal, and it’s ready to party. This aggressive hardtail is sporting a slack 66.5-degree head angle, minimal branding, and adjustable dropouts for those that refuse to let singlespeed life ...

By Brett Rothmeyer Online:www.viathonbicycles.com Price: $1998 Last year before the annual Sea Otter Classic, there were rumblings of a high-end Walmart bike coming to the market. Yes, high-end bikes and Walmart are an easy segway to a punchline, but it is no mystery that the Walton family has a vested interest in the bike industry. ...

INTRO Back in ‘81 when the first Specialized Stumpjumper hit the floors of shops, it sported a rigid fork, cantilever brakes, 26-inch wheels and a high-post. Today, while the Stumpjumper name is consistent, the bike itself has changed a lot over the decades. Available in three modes of rowdiness with options in carbon or aluminum ...

Liv may have cracked the code on how to sell a women-specific mountain bike. While some other brands fuss about paint color and handlebar length (both important!), Liv was taking measurements on how women ride bikes: The average ranges of our body dimensions (inseam versus torso length, for instance), where our power comes from, how ...

by Zach White If you’re a Rocky Mountain fan, and/or a fan of the Godfather of freeriding, Wade Simmons, you may have caught what appeared to be a marketing move a couple of years back, as the Canadian company hyped up a custom bike made specifically for the living legend. Technically, the Pipe Dream introduced ...

This weekend at Crankworx Whistler, Maxxis is launching a new signature tire, created with downhill World Cup champion Troy Brosnan. The Dissector is designed especially for dry, loose conditions. Beginning in early 2018, Brosnan and Maxxis engineers worked together to find the right balance of rolling speed, cornering traction, and braking traction for the Dissector. ...

By Scott Williams As an avid snowboarder in the winter months, charging down the mountain on two wheels in summer was a natural progression. It’s the same set of teary eyes trying to weave through the forest and somehow putting the blindfold over the part of your brain that detects fear, the amygdala. Each year, ...

By Scott Williams INTRO Ripping through singletrack on a singlespeed is where I find my ultimate happy place, but each year, the niche I connect with continues to sink further into the depths of a forgotten past. From a business perspective, I fully get it, but that doesn’t mean I like it. The weight difference ...

At this year’s Sea Otter, there was a lot of fresh stuff to see. Some brands were bringing out their classics in new colors, while others had exciting product launches or were showing up at Sea Otter for the first time.  

Editor’s note: For this review of Hutchinson’s Griffus tires, designed especially for gravity shredding in dry, loose trail conditions, we sent “Janker” Ted Jaramillo, an enduro racer riding for Transition and based in Northern New Mexico, to Digne-les-Bains, France with Hutchinson to test these tires at the EVO bike park. Janker Ted knows what a ...

Surprisingly, in a recent year-end survey conducted by Dirt Rag, we asked riders if their wheels were set up tubeless, and of the near six-thousand responses, 52% responded no. This was really surprising to me considering how long tubeless technology has been around. However, even if you’re not running tubes in your wheels, you still ...

The latest evolution of the Phoenix from Pivot Cycles is a 29er downhill machine built to handle all that the World Cup courses can throw at them The Phoenix 29 is quite possibly the worst kept secret on the World Cup Downhill circuit.  Riders have been seen testing this ultra-fast unicorn in various incarnations over ...

Light Bicycle AM928 Wheelset – $1,269 us.lightbicycle.com By Scott Williams Back in 2010, the carbon wheelset market was just starting to gain momentum, and low-cost, unbranded carbon fiber rims started emerging online. One of those companies was Xiamen Light Bicycle, a global manufacturing company that started with carbon rims shipped directly from the facility in ...

Editor’s note: This review originally appeared in issue 206 of Dirt Rag Magazine. Like what you see? Subscribe now at dirtragmag.com/subscribe to catch issue 208, coming real soon.  Name: Eric McKeegan Age: 44 Weight: 165 lbs. Height: 5’ 11” Inseam: 32” Price: $6,799, $7,999 with carbon wheels Sizes: XS, S, M, L, (tested) XL Online: ...

On Monday, Ibis launched its newest carbon hardtail, the DV9. Inspired by Lili Heim, the varsity XC racing high school daughter of Ibis co-owner and CEO Hans Heim, this bike is designed to be fun, fast, and affordable. With 67.4° travel on a 120mm fork (68.5° on a 100mm fork), the geometry is slacker than ...

Trek has released their updated Marlin, their entry level bikes that come in both “standard” and as a “women specific design” (WSD). Between the two model lines, not much is different. The smallest sizes (13.5″ and 15.5″) of the WSD models have a more sloped top tube for standover clearance compared to the slight slope ...

Canadian bicycle company Devinci has been in the game for over 20 years, and today they unveil their update to their all-mountain Troy line for 2019. There are a number of options for both the 29 and 27.5 carbon models to be set up with the new SRAM 12-speed Eagle. In addition to getting just a ...

Name: Brett Rothmeyer Age: 40 Weight: 165 lbs. Height: 6’1” Inseam: 32” The Speedfox 01 by BMC is touted as the latest in a long line of proclaimed, “quiver killers.” Labeled as a trail bike, the Speedfox looks to straddle the line between fun and performance, cross-country and trail. Falling into the medium travel category ...

Or: Why I Always Carry a Map Mountain biking is a lot like the military in two ways: It’s a family and operates as an “army of one” (in most every other way it is probably the exact opposite). So it was fitting that I got completely lost riding alone in the Jemez Mountains near ...

Ibis just launched the Ripmo, a long travel 29er mashup of the brand’s Ripley and Mojo models. The Ripmo aims to combine “the Ripley’s balance and speed with the Mojo HD4’s capabilities when things get hairy.” The Ripmo features a 160 mm fork with 145 mm of rear travel provided with either a Fox DPX2 or ...

  Remember Kona’s first 29er trail bike, the 130 mm Satori? Five years ago it was a solid first effort, with 68/74 head/seat angles, just over 17″ chainstays, and a long reach for the time. When the Process 111 hit the market, the Satori disappeared. Or maybe it disappeared before the 111? Does it really ...