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Words and photos by Ryan Taylor The moving circus of Singletrack 6 has lured me in again with the promise of six days of prime Singletrack and mountain bike bliss in the heart of British Columbia, Canada. This year, the organizers have pulled out all the stops and it should be a real tough mans race. ...

In the beginning, there were axle nuts. They were simple and crude and required a tool to remove. They still exist today on many bikes, from cheapie department store numbers to the finest BMX bikes money can buy. They work and work well. Then came wing nuts. Racers needed a way to get wheels off ...

Words by Paul De Valera My bicycle is my best friend, my only true ally in this world. My bicycle will never betray me. Though it may break and throw me off into a bush or get a flat and make me push it now and again, it won’t ever work toward my undoing — ...

Words by Helena Kotala, photos by Evan Gross As someone who has been serious about riding bikes for a relatively short period of time, I still vividly remember being a beginner. Well, to be honest, I started riding bikes seriously a long time ago (around age 10 or 11), even raced a little, but then ...

I came really close to bailing on the ride. I felt overwhelmed with stuff to get done. It was a dreary day. I was tired. Maybe I’d just take a nap and then spend the evening at home packing for my upcoming trip, getting ahead with work, and cleaning my mess of a house. But ...

MTBTP (Mountain Bike Trailer Park) is written by Uncle Dan. He thanks you for your attention. I know, “I will never write a product review” is a bold statement. My dad taught me to “never say never.” Still, I realized that it’s not in my wheelhouse last weekend, when I went on a mountain bike trip with ...

Originally published in Issue #192 “Respect was invented to cover the empty place where love should be.” — Leo Tolstoy, “Anna Karenina” Repairing bikes isn’t a great way to make a living. On average, bike mechanics are paid less than the average high school dropout. Pretty sad state of affairs for an industry that seems ...

Words: Rebecca Rusch Illustration: Kyle Stecker Originally published in Issue #191 Since you are reading this column, I know that the simple act of moving around on two wheels has changed your life. Riding a bike might elevate your physical and mental health. It might fuel the competitive juices. It might be your social outlet, ...

Words and photo: Chris Milucky aka Bama From On the Road With Bama, a column in the print magazine Originally published in Issue #190 It’s somewhere over here—just carry your bike towards that tree. Don’t walk in a straight line, either; we don’t want anyone to find our tracks.” We holstered our hardtails and hustled ...

From Issue #190 Throughout the evolution of the mountain bike, we’ve seen new technologies and ideas introduced at a very rapid rate. Just 30 years ago most of what we take for granted while riding now wasn’t even on anyone’s radar. Some of the technology has been discarded along the way, usually with good reason. Dual-control ...

Words and photos: Chris Milucky, aka Bama From On the Road With Bama, a column in the print magazine Originally published in Issue #189 Dear Bike Industry: Roll down your window. Your lips move, but I can’t hear what you’re saying. When I was a child, I used to ride my bike over to your house. We’d cut paths ...

Words: Rebecca Rusch Illustration: Chris Escobar In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few. – Zen master Shunryu Suzuki Fat biking is not a fad. It’s here to stay and has opened the doors to a whole new segment of riding, especially in winter climates. I was not ...

With my apologizes to Bukowski. Life continues to surprize me, and frustrate me, and bring moments of unmitigated joy. I quit smoking almost 12 years ago. It was cold turkey, and it wasn’t fun. I fell off the wagon a few times, including a few months of stress smoking involving hand rolled cigarettes and a ...

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 ...

By Jeffrey Stern We’ve all experienced bike lust. You know, those days that your friend rolls up to your group’s adventure on a bike so new the chain is still silver, the hairs on the tires are still jutting out and the frame just glistens in the sun. Bike envy ensues. The questions come from ...

By Jeffrey Stern It goes without saying, but sometimes it still needs to be said: we’re lucky. Much of the United States offers an undeniably unique opportunity for people of all types, abilities and with varied interests to get outside and play outdoors. Whether it be aboard a bike, on foot, hanging from a rope ...

Mountain Bike Trailer Park is a regular column written by Uncle Dan that appears monthly on the Dirt Rag Interwebs. He dabbles in a variety of topics including racing, training, trails he loves and not taking himself too seriously, all with a big dash of humor. If you missed his previous columns, check them out here. ...

By Jeffrey Stern Walking into my bike shed is overwhelming at the moment. There are frames hanging from the ceiling, wheels leaning against every wall, parts and pieces all over the workbench and the bike I want to ride is always cornered by the ones that I just snapped a cable on, or even worse, ...