Bike3 min read
Re-formation
Sometimes the most difficult part of being a pro athlete is figuring out how to not be a pro athlete anymore. When racing or sponsorship obligations no longer fill your cup, financially or otherwise, what’s the next step and how do you take it? For K
Bike5 min readAutomotive
Test
I tend to assume that anyone making a steel full-suspension bike must hold a dogmatic belief in ferrous metals. Don’t get me wrong: dogmatic beliefs can be correct, but the tiny proportion of the mountain bike market dedicated to steel full-suspensio
Bike6 min readAutomotive
Test
I drafted a few deep, philosophical analogies to lead us into this review, but I scrapped them all. The Murmur isn’t about the clever wordplay or fancy sentence structure that typical Bike intros normally traffic in. The Murmur is about riding your d
Bike6 min read
Permanent Installation
IT’S SATURDAY, SUNNY AND 75 DEGREES. THE FOREST IS A vibrant green and recent rains have made the loamy, redwood soil nothing short of magical. A seemingly endless conga line of riders labors up a dirt road. Before embarking on their descent, nearly
Bike1 min read
Turns You Earn
If modern shred groms learn that trail work today makes for better berms tomorrow, well then, that’s a generation of riders who will warp through technique, PRs and fear until they’re teetering on the edge of carnage. “He certainly can huck his meat,
Bike1 min read
Watering Hole
We’ve all been there. Exhausted, even if we love it. Pushed. Every creative drop squeezed, empty of words, energy wrung from a now-hollow inner. This ended a week of careful consideration—free flowing yet meticulous and thoughtful line choices. Camp
Bike2 min read
Progression Proven
When Casey Brown greased the landing of a difficult 30-foot jump at last summer’s Proving Grounds, the first-ever qualifier for Red Bull Rampage, no one watching could contain their excitement. Certainly not photographer Paris Gore, recalling the emo
Bike4 min read
Butcher Paper
To all the newbs I'Ve loved before don't ever change I haven’t written a letter like this in a while. Hell, last time I had the clammy-hand feeling of putting these types of words into writing, I was still a gap-toothed middle school kid whose go-to
Bike4 min readAutomotive
Empty Handed
It was 1991. Nirvana had just released “Nevermind.” I had just stripped my black Yeti FRO of its gears, as well as the heavy and failure-prone Mountain Cycle Suspenders fork and Pro-Stop disc brake, and decided to chase after the simplicity of single
Bike5 min read
Crafting A Rescue
Skye Schillhammer was shooting photos in Bellingham, Washington, on a winter day with Pacific Northwest ripper Taylor James, a local well-known for his wild-guy antics on and off the bike, when suddenly the day took a serious turn. James had just att
Bike3 min read
Letters
Thank you and, WOW! Mike Ferrentino and Nicole Formosa in the summer 2020 issue, thank you (Grimy Handshake and Start Here, Vol 27. Issue 2). Don’t give a thought to those who say, “I come here to get away from politics.” As you both say so perfectly
Bike2 min read
Start
I don’t take so many photos these days. Yet amid a strange year, the images I do capture feel more meaningful than before. With less time spent on the road, shooting everything all of the time, my lenses tend to focus on the people and places close t
Bike2 min read
Bike
EDITORIAL Nicole Formosa EDITOR Satchel Cronk PHOTO & VIDEO EDITOR Travis Engel GEAR EDITOR Robert Sawyer ART DIRECTOR Ryan Palmer SENIOR EDITOR Mike Ferrentino EDITOR-AT-LARGE David Reddick FOUNDING PHOTO EDITOR Mike Vihon CAPTAIN GRAVITY Senior Wri
Bike1 min read
Offline
SANTA CRUZ, CALIFORNIA. JUNE 14TH, 2020, 7:00 PM. PHOTO: DAIN ZAFFKE Bike (ISSN # 1072-4869) is published 2 times a year (Summer, Fall.) by Weider Publications LLC., a division of American Media LLC. 4 New York Plaza, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10004. C
Bike4 min read
A Block Of The Old Chips
The Chris King aluminum puck does not belong in “Matter.” We cover things like the first hydration pack, the first threadless headset, and the first lock-on grip. Flash points in evolution that changed the bike industry. The Chris King puck did not d
Bike6 min readAutomotive
Reeb Sqweeb V3
I can’t help but think that I got the assignment to test REEB’s latest iteration of the SQWEEB based on my long-standing aversion to travel-adjust bikes. Visions of cluttered cockpits and unfocused performance come to mind when I think of bikes that
Bike6 min readAutomotive
Guerrilla Gravity Gnarvana
Guerrilla Gravity is a brand you can really get behind. The concept around how it manufactures its bikes is truly unique and refreshing. Seriously, it is. This is not just another bike company making the same old widget with the same old marketing sc
Bike4 min read
Revel Rw30/industry Nine Hydra | $2,200
What is it about making carbon wheels that’s so enticing? Why does it seem like every single company in the cycling business is getting into the wheel game? Is there something I don’t know? Are carbon rims the secret cash cow of the bike industry? Pe
Bike5 min read
No Questions Asked
Carbon wheels have a PR crisis on their hands. They symbolize a deep divide that’s only getting deeper as bikes get more expensive. On one side are those who value the returns of buying top-shelf parts. On the other are those who stop buying when tho
Bike12 min read
What Does Your Bike Co$t The Planet?
North Shore Billet’s floor glitters with aluminum shavings like the tinsel on a Christmas tree, and it’s apt for a mountain biker: We love shiny new stuff more than just about anybody. Standing next to owner Chris Allen, I watch CNC machines buzz as
Bike11 min read
Near Sighted
AJKEIOMANGK JDKKANGHALA JKDKIEHAHNAEO DAEOANAJAKGG The forest is so thick it’s threatening to swallow the ing line of dirt running in front of my tire. The Southern Appalachians are like that; so lush and dank that if you pedal fast, the understory a
Bike9 min read
Digging Toward Detachment
TOWERING FIRS CREAKED AND GROANED AS they swayed in the canopy of a moody Blackcomb forest, a once-peaceful sanctuary not far from Whistler’s din. As I stood there silently, I thought back to when this exact spot used to be eerily quiet. A wild place
Bike1 min read
Home Loam
MAY 20, 2020 2:51 P.M. TERRACE, BRITISH COLUMBIA Some would say Terrace, British Columbia, is a form of social distancing in itself. Some, indeed, would be right. When zoomed out on Google Maps, it looks like Terrace is sniffiffing Alaska’s lower coa
Bike4 min read
Made To Be Broken
In the world of mountain biking, and general adult tomfoolery for that matter, I’m an outlier. Correction. I was an outlier. When post-ride discussions turn to tales of broken bones and other assorted injuries, folks point to different parts of their
Bike4 min read
Hand In Glove
The spring of 2020 was a fucking mess. I think we can all agree on that, right? Global pandemic leading to widespread economic instability and spawning wave upon wave of protests whereby armed goobers stormed state government buildings because they f
Bike7 min read
A Voice For Change
As her home city of Minneapolis became the center of the Black Lives Matter movement in late May, Rachel Olzer emerged as one of the most powerful voices in cycling. Olzer is a Black cross-country and cyclocross racer, Specialized ambassador and co-f
Bike5 min read
Building Boon
When you’re laid off from work, banned from traveling and happen to live in one of the most progressive trail-development communities in the Pacifific Northwest, it doesn’t take long to fifigure out what to do with idle hands and hours. Squamish, Bri
Bike2 min read
Buzz
Riding in the high alpine is so special. The views are smashing, it’s always a bit challenging and the season is relatively short. On this particular day, we were above the village of Sexten in the Italian Dolomites, and didn’t see another soul. Juli
Bike3 min read
When Just ‘The Ride’ is Not Enough
As we went to press on this issue, the world was in the midst of more turmoil than any of us is likely to see again in our lifetime. A global pandemic with a death toll nearing a half-million, civil unrest triggered by centuries of systemic racism an
Bike2 min read
Bike
Editor | Nicole Formosa Photo & Video Editor | Satchel Cronk Gear Editor | Travis Engel Art Director | Robert Sawyer Senior Editor | Ryan Palmer Editor-At-Large | Mike Ferrentino Founding Photo Editor | David Reddick Captain Gravity | Mike Vihon Seni
…Or Discover Something New