First Ride

Vital Rides the All-New 2018 Specialized Stumpjumper (feature story)

Posted by iceman2058 on 4/16/2018 9:00 PM

If you’ve been riding bikes for over a two decades or ask your seasoned shop guy (you know, the only mechanic who can setup cantilever brakes within a reasonable amount of time) which fork changed suspension as we know it, one product will come to mind: Z1. Well before the year 2000 and the fran...

Posted by dirtworks911 on 4/10/2018 2:03 AM

Goodyear Tires Goes All In and Launches Complete Mountain Bike Line (feature story)

Posted by sspomer on 4/8/2018 9:01 PM

After years in the cycling industry, Jeff Soncrant and Kevin Sigismondo put their heads together to create a ground up mountain bike brand of their own. It wasn’t that they hadn’t been working with great folks, but they wanted the opportunity to create products without restraints and in their ow...

Posted by hurricanejoel on 3/28/2018 7:04 PM

Introducing the Updated 2019 RockShox Lyrik and Super Deluxe (feature story)

Posted by sideshow on 3/20/2018 1:26 AM

"What the hell do I pack for XC camp?" I wondered to myself the night before my flight to Santa Cruz, California, to check out the all-new Blur. "It's all perhaps a little shorter travel than the typical Vital faire," hinted Santa Cruz's Don Palermini in an email leading up to the event, "but ...

Posted by bturman on 3/16/2018 1:33 AM

After the helmet, a good pair of knee protectors is probably the most essential piece of protection for any serious mountain bike rider. Not only is falling on your knees painful, but even small injuries to this critical joint can leave you off the bike for a while, which is of course way worse ...

Posted by iceman2058 on 3/8/2018 10:50 AM

The Return of the Goat – We Ride the All-New 2018 YT Capra (feature story)

Posted by iceman2058 on 2/8/2018 2:52 AM

Legend is a term that should never be thrown about lightly, but in the case of Kona’s original Wah Wah flat pedal it’s not a stretch to invoke the L word to cement its status among the pedals that have left their mark in the history books of the sport – not to mention on a shin or two! When the ...

Posted by iceman2058 on 1/12/2018 12:20 PM

How do you make a great tire even better? It has to actually be available, for starters. In 2016 e*thirteen released their first tire. Those who tried it, including Vital, were by and large impressed. We were very pleased with cornering traction, noting that the tires held quite a bit longer t...

Posted by bturman on 1/8/2018 4:01 AM

Many young whipper snappers won’t remember the days where you either had a bike that could climb or a bike that could descend. Those of us who can remember truly appreciate how much technology and design have improved, in addition to the blurred line between the either/or of yesteryear. Canyon i...

Posted by hurricanejoel on 12/18/2017 9:05 PM

The 140mm trail bike market is a crowded one. Depending on where one looks it could be XC, trail, all-mountain, enduro… you name it. Canyon’s new Spectral doesn’t really seek to check any box in particular – instead, Canyon designed their new trail machine to fulfill the needs of the go anywhere...

Posted by hurricanejoel on 12/11/2017 12:51 AM

How much effort do you give? That is the question that 100%’s founder would often ask, and the answer became the brand’s name of course. Giving 100% implies riding not only when it’s sunny, so naturally the company decided it needed to offer something to cover up with for those rainy days as wel...

Posted by iceman2058 on 11/20/2017 11:50 PM

Big wheels keep on turning, or at least that’s how the saying goes. Wagon-wheeled bikes have come into the limelight this year, and for good reason. When paired with capable suspension and well-thought-out geometry, they offer rock crushing roll-over and traction smaller-wheeled bikes simply can...

Posted by jeff.brines on 10/26/2017 7:28 AM

With the rise of enduro, and more specifically the actual racing discipline, the good old helmet has found itself the subject of much attention recently. Combining near World Cup-level tech and speed on the downs with long, grueling climbs means that your helmet now has to offer full-face levels...

Posted by iceman2058 on 9/26/2017 10:14 AM

Fun fact: The original Nukeproof Mega was developed in 2009 to tackle the truly demanding Megavalanche race, and every new version since has been proven on the same world-famous glacier starts while bashing bars alongside hundreds of riders for miles on end. Nukeproof kicked things up a notch ...

Posted by bturman on 9/20/2017 5:53 AM

Heritage is a strong base to build on when it comes to releasing new technology. Formula was founded in 1971 as AEM, manufacturing aftermarket parts for motorcycles, and success quickly followed as they became known for their attention to detail and a fastidious approach to winning. Fast forward...

Posted by sideshow on 9/16/2017 6:54 AM

Three New 2018 Bikes: Introducing Kona's Second Generation Process Lineup (feature story)

Posted by bturman on 9/12/2017 4:24 AM

For the last year some friends and I have been toying with the idea of riding the Colorado Trail from Molas Pass to Durango – a ride actually deserving of the word "epic." Three weeks ago we made the high-country adventure happen. We planned to tackle the beast over two days with a sag-wagon ful...

Posted by bturman on 8/29/2017 1:47 AM

Just a few years ago we were all wrapped up in full body amor and burly helmets while racing our downhill bikes. Today's enduro-craze has us racing and riding the same trails at the same speeds on smaller bikes with less protection. Seems odd, doesn't it? Enter the convertible helmet – one where...

Posted by bturman on 8/14/2017 10:54 AM

Cracking into the flat pedal footwear game is no small task, as Five Ten, the longstanding champ, presents a very formidable opponent with proprietary rubber compounds derived from the rock climbing world. Specialized isn't one to shy away from a competition, however, and their new shoes will gi...

Posted by bturman on 8/1/2017 2:42 AM

The Giant Reign is one of the world’s best selling enduro bikes, and it’s been around in one version or the other for almost 13 years by now. Whilst the basic design concepts behind the bike have not really changed over the years, of course everything else has. Materials, geo, suspension, standa...

Posted by iceman2058 on 7/24/2017 12:00 AM

What began as a friendship within Colorado's once thriving downhill racing scene has since turned into a full-time bike building endeavor, and the partners heading up the Denver-based Guerrilla Gravity bike brand continue to push ahead with interesting new designs. Month after month they keep ex...

Posted by bturman on 7/17/2017 5:37 PM

Longer travel 29-inch wheeled bikes seem all the rage these days. Santa Cruz has thrown their proverbial hat in the ring with their updated Hightower model dubbed the "Hightower LT." A bike developed specifically by Santa Cruz's Enduro World Series team, the new big-wheeled bike features a bump ...

Posted by jeff.brines on 7/5/2017 9:27 PM

The arrangements were simple: "We've got some new prototypes to show you. Where do you want to meet?" "I'll be free March 30-31. Moab? Let's do this thing!" "Deal. Bring a trail bike." Just minutes before they were due for departure from their San Luis Obispo, California office, e*thirteen's...

Posted by bturman on 7/5/2017 3:58 PM

Speed Balanced Geometry: Transition's Approach To Creating Better Mountain Bikes (feature story)

Posted by bturman on 6/29/2017 11:42 AM

Intense Cycles haven’t been shy about their participation in the wheel size wars. Back in 2009 when many were still #26forlife, their wagon-wheeled DH bike – the 2951 – stirred things up. At that time, Jeff Steber filled us in about why he felt big wheels had potential and what factors were limi...

Posted by hurricanejoel on 6/26/2017 4:50 PM

Billed as the Swiss brand’s take on the ultimate do-it-all shredder, the Genius is an important bike for Scott. It sits squarely in the all-mountain segment, but thanks to a nifty multi-mode suspension platform and generally low weight, it can venture out on either side of its principal raison d...

Posted by iceman2058 on 6/15/2017 12:56 PM

When you look back at the history of SRAM's 1X drivetrains, it took quite a while for all that wonderful technology to trickle down to a price point that many considered to be affordable. Three years and multiple intermediary drivetrains separated the 2012 introduction of XX1, the company's flag...

Posted by bturman on 6/8/2017 1:25 AM

Defining the new Nomad left me scratching my head for words. Most everything I wrote sounded like a cliché directly from the 2009 Handbook for Mountain Bike Journalists. "A trail bike that descends like a downhill bike." "A mini-DH bike that can pedal." Yeah, they've both been used ad-nauseam......

Posted by jeff.brines on 5/31/2017 4:12 PM