We’ve all been there – bombing down that beautiful technical single-track, hopping over everything you can, carving perfect lines through the corners, getting ready to pedal your way over that big root and… Nothing. Nothing more than your yells of frustration and, as was often the case for me, pain. What happened? Why didn’t it work!? Yep, […]

While we were picking up my Dad’s first new bike in probably 25 years (a slick bianchi road bike to replace his custom-made-from-used-parts college road bike), he began reminiscing, “You know, I can remember each bike I’ve had throughout my life very distinctly.  And how I felt when I got that bike.  Much more vividly […]

A few weeks ago, on January 26, I started my second season of racing cross country. This is the first part of an on going series about my experiences racing.   Sprinting past the team tents My first race of 2013 was the series opener at CCCX. The race was held on the awesome single […]

The real question is in my title, here. And my short answer is absolutely, to patch. First and foremost, let me say that I completely understand the skepticism of patching tubes, especially that of ones that we inflate to super high PSI’s, as in road bike tubes. With something being inflated to such high pressure, how in […]

I think I am the last person on the planet to try out a 29er.  I have ridden a couple around a parking lot, but that isn’t quite the same as getting on the trail and spending some quality time on one.  With all the great press and good things I have heard about the […]

Have you ever been in a situation on the trail where you thought about the procedure for those “understood rules”? I present to you the International Mountain Bicycling Association’s ‘Rules of the Trail’.  For most people, this would be common sense, but for new cyclists…this is the fine line between an exchange on the trail, […]

What does that mean?  Steel is Real?  So Aluminum is fake and Titanium is an impostor and Carbon is a figment of our imaginations? That saying has bothered me for years.  How could steel possibly be better than Aluminum or Carbon?  Both are lighter, stiffer, easier to work with, and cheaper than the higher quality […]

While I was at Jump Ship last year I stopped by the Kali Protectives booth and loved the look of their helmets and gear so I contacted them to see if I could test out a helmet. After a few weeks they sent me an Amara Cam to review. It was a happy day when […]

In my last post Introduction to Downhill Racing Part 1, I talked about some of the possible misconceptions non-racers might have about racing. If you haven’t already, I would suggest going back and reading that now. In this post, I hope to answer some of the very basic questions somebody may have before attending their […]

What is this? A new widget to hold a tube and flat tire kit under one’s saddle. A improvement on the old toe strap, pump strap, or whatever bodge as the Brits call it to hold the tube in place. No longer fighting to open the seat bag and then watch everything fall all over […]