steel-is-real

We are closing in on the end of our collection of mountain bikes from this year’s Philly Bike Expo. Our sport has been on a pretty serious growth spurt these last few years and the frame builders are reciprocating with a bunch of interesting and beautiful bikes. Danielle Schön of Shön Studio recently moved from ...

Megan Dean has been welding bike frames together for quite some time now. A transient of sorts Dean spent a good chunk of time cutting her teeth on the streets of Los Angeles as a bike messenger before starting a career as a frame builder. Her work speaks for itself, beautifully designed and finished bikes ...

If you were trying to find Eric Estlund in a crowd it may not be as easy as you think for a guy sporting a head covered in tattoos and piercings. The soft-spoken Estlund is the sole driving force behind Winter Bicycles and on Saturday I combed the floor looking for his booth during the ...

With storms in the mid-west and high winds up and down the east coast on Halloween,  Peter Olivetti sat deep into the night in a Chicago airport wondering if he would make it to this year’s Philly Bike Expo. Eventually, Olivetti made it to Philadelphia but his bikes were still in limbo, victims of the ...

By Eric McKeegan While an English bicycle company building steel frames isn’t that noteworthy, Starling stands out with a number of full-suspension bikes, including a single-speed-specific downhill bike. These bikes have an unexpected foundation, Starling founder Joe McEwan spent about 20 years as an aerospace engineer, mostly testing carbon fiber structures. So, how does a ...

Let us begin with a bit of backstory on the Olivetti Thunder Pig. Leading up to the 2018 NAHBS event, (that’s the North American Handmade Bicycle Show for those of you not hip to the acronym) I scoured the list of builders looking for people to interview in the run-up to the show. On the ...

Intro Craft beer and mountain biking go hand in hand. Even if you fall on the nonalcoholic drinker side of the equation, the correlation between the two is evident. It’s the post-ride happy hour, mid-ride vista paired with a trail “soda” or hell, I’ve even witnessed cold ones stored in racers’ aid station bags. Beer ...

Sklar Bikes has gained notoriety in the custom bike world for pushing the envelope with progressively designed Titanium and steel mountain bikes and all-road bikes. This summer Sklar is taking their award-winning mountain bike geometry mainstream with a stock build,trail-focused mountain bike. The Sweet Spot – it can be a lot of things. for example, ...

We were all sitting around the kitchen table at the Dirt Rag office as we do during our weekly meeting discussing the finer points of handmade bicycles. In particularly we were discussing a current test bike in the form of the Oddity Punk Rock Jazz, a piece of art more than a bike, but it also ...

Tester: Scott Williams Age: 31 Height: 5’10” Weight: 175 lbs. Inseam: 32” In early 2017, the SIR 9 had vanished from Niner’s website, shocking and confusing more than a few fans of this steel-framed classic. It wasn’t until June that Niner officially released its newly revamped SIR 9, and with the dust settled, it was ...

We breezed through the Breezer booth this morning to catch up with Joe Breeze and see the latest version of the Lightning. Breezer being rooted in tradition is offering the Lightning in a classic steel frame, dressed in some tasty trail treats. The frame allows room for some meaty 29er treads and accommodates a dropper ...

As Surly says, “The Lowside is the bike that gets you across town for a quick rip on singletrack, then over to the bar for a night out.” This singlespeed picks up where the 1 x 1 left off with the addition of modernized features like internal dropper post routing, Gnot-Boost rear spacing and thru axles. ...

Yup, pun intended. Sorry. But in all seriousness, this new bike from Surly is designed to be somewhat of a jack-of-all-trades, a blend of the brand’s dirt and road touring models that is meant to handle a variety of surfaces, loaded or unloaded, and offer a platform that is adaptable to a variety of riding ...

Surly has been coming out with a lot of new stuff lately, from the Pack Rat front-loader touring bike to the redesigned Pugsley fat bike. Here at Frostbike in Minneapolis, the brand launched yet another brand new bike, the Midnight Special. The folks at Surly describe the Midnight Special as a bike that can ride ...

A few weeks ago we caught up with Chris McGovern of McGovern Cycles as he prepares for NAHBS. In our conversation, we asked Chris who he was looking forward to seeing during the show this year, and his answer was Peter Olivetti. Olivetti Bicycles is located in the mountains of Boulder, Colorado. Peter left his job ...

If you have been paying any attention to the hand-built bicycle scene over the last year, you likely have caught wind of Adam Sklar. His bikes are eye-catching and popping up all over the internet and trail systems around the country. Last year, Adam took home the award for best mountain bike at the 2017 NAHBS ...

The Surly Karate Monkey is an iconic hardtail that helped popularize 29er wheels back in the early 2000s. It remained unchanged for 14 years, until 2016, when Surly launched an update to the frame that brought it into modern times. With longer, lower, slacker geometry, 27plus compatibility, internal dropper post routing and a frame that’s designed ...

Tester: Helena Kotala Age: 27 Weight: 127 lbs. Height: 5’3” Inseam: 29” I’ve never ridden a bike that has elicited more stares, compliments and questions than the Proudfoot Primed, a steel full-suspension trail rig from a small made-to-order bike building operation in Golden, Colorado. Aside from the eye-catching purple powdercoat (the official color is penstemon, ...

One of the best things about handmade bike builders is the pure love they have for creating two wheeled machines and the time and effort they put into a startup business, just for the simple joy of making and riding bikes. Jon and Erin Acuff of Proudfoot Cycles are no different. When you meet them, ...