It’s no secret that Jared Graves annihilated (well most of the time) the opposition at this year’s world cup four-cross rounds. He simply out gated and outclassed everyone. Graves has looked like the man to beat for a couple of seasons and YET(i) it has taken until now for him [...]
Bike Test: CORSAIR CROWN It’s only a few years since Pablo Montoya and his colleague appeared at that most intimidating of mountainbike events, Eurobike. Even then their products, early prototypes, came across powerfully both visually and mechanically, a small company setting out to do things different. They impressed a lot [...]
Keith Scott has taken over at Banshee as head engineer and had almost the opposite effect when a link asking for people’s comments on a new design he’d worked on followed a largely positive thread. More than that, some of the more balanced returns resulted in feedback that has been [...]
Bike Test: KTM Tribute If paying for a name comes at a price with many brands, particularly US ones, take a moment to digest their wafer thin background relative to what we have here. Kronreif and Trunkenpolz have been synonymous with two–wheeled sport since the inter war years, and ever [...]
Bike Test: K-9 The Full Package Of the production bikes that have been featured recently only the South African Morewood Makulu and UK made Empire really stand out, they came almost one hundred percent ready for action. Each had a package of components both complete and appropriate for the business [...]
WITH MOST PRODUCTION DOWNHILL BIKES WEIGHING IN ON AVERAGE AT AROUND FOUR GRAND, IS THERE ANY PLACE FOR AN ENTRY LEVEL £1700 COMPLETE BUILD? AND DOES SPECIALIZED’S NEW BIG HIT STAND UP TO IT’S ‘TOP DOLLAR RIDE’ BILLING? There does not appear to be any consistent direct correlation between price [...]
Bike Test: All Square – Orange Alpine 160, Specialized SX Trail and Commencal Supreme THREE WELL–INTENTIONED FREERIDERS – AN AMERICAN, AN ANDORRAN AND A NORTHERNER, ALL WITH TRANS–GLOBAL HOOLIGANISM IN MIND, SEEK LIKE-MINDED INDIVIDUALS TO SEARCH FOR NEW BOUNDARIES. EQUALLY HAPPY TO SPEND LONG WEEKENDS IN DIRTY WELSH WOODS IN [...]
BIKE TEST: INTENSE M6… Intense. The company, the name and the bikes have a passionate and loyal band of followers. Worldwide the origins of such fervent bike love stems from such bikes as the literally ground braking M1, a bike made and raced by legends. Palmer and Tomac got it [...]
BIKE TEST Sam Blenkinsop’s Yeti 303 and Yeti RDH It is vitally important from the outset to get across what the Yeti 303 is and what it is not. Therefore to progress from this point it is important to read the Yeti 303 FAQ’s and answers on their website, www.yeticycles.com. [...]
Bike Test: The Cannondale Rush It is possibly by mistake that a bike of such badness has emerged out of the “marathon bike” category stamped on it so definitively by Cannondale, Tinker and the boys. Yes it’s all the things the American company say it is, and yes its carbon [...]
Bike Test: RAGE DH Jones might be completely wrong about the look of this bike. You may think it has a raw industrial appeal that far surpasses the fickle decorations of other manufacturers spray jobs. Swank is something many European manufacturers are not shy of. Amazing how a splash of [...]
Words Steve Jones Photos Victor Lucas This is a typical piece of French artistry, the likes of which we have not seen since the heady days of Sunn. Who else could make a bicycle look just so bloody chic? The flowing top tube, colour coordinated pivot caps, derailleur hanger, chainring [...]
THE WHYTE E120 This bike teeters on the very edge of the kind of bikes we have in this magazine. Its inclusion is hardly about its looks (but then who looks at a bike when their riding?), but about carrying speed. And everyone wants a bit of that action. I [...]
For a while it was the free thinkers who ruled. Niche brands roamed the blistered, wrinkled and ripped skin of the earth’s surface on brawny yet sophisticated creations, always unique and very much the ones to hang out with. Things changed, corporations, even mini cities were built, stuff became smothered [...]
Bike Test: 2STAGE ELITE9 It’s not often that we get the chance to ride a bike from New Zealand, so when the opportunity arose we jumped at the chance. 2Stage is a relatively new company and even though it was only in 2006 that owner David Evans released the downhill [...]
A COMPARISON BETWEEN GEE ATHERTON’S PRO BIKE AND THE PRODUCTION MODEL Words Steve Jones Photos Victor Lucas The Commencal Supreme DH bike ridden by Gee, Dan and Rachel Atherton is the most successful race bike of the 2008 downhill season. Is it? Well of course it is. With prototype suspension, [...]
Why Doesn’t Tarzan Have A Beard? Fox 36 Forks 2009 by Steve Jones. Here we bloody go again. Seems like only yesterday I was trying to make a meal out of a can of oil and washers and air from this company. And why is it no one else has [...]
Here’s three sets of pedals the Dirt crew have been hammering Superstar Mag Lite CNC Pedals It was only when I picked these up off Ed H’s desk that I realised they were pretty special and a hell of a lot lighter than they looked. “Dog ‘em on your bike” [...]
>THE TECH RTS, LTS (in all it‘s various guises), LOBO…OK, so each of these bikes may have later turned out to have a few flaws, but let’s not forget that at their time of release they were all found on World Cup podiums, and deservedly so. GT’s i-Drive system has [...]
>THE TECH For years Marin cut themselves a furrow in the single pivot field, but over the past few years they’ve sneaked in a few extra pivots. I say ‘sneaked’ because at first from a distance they looked almost identical to the old bikes, but there’s no mistaking what’s going [...]
>THE TECH Before you all start thinking we really have finally gone completely stark raving mad, we do realise that the bike you see before you does in fact say ’Six Pack’ on it, not RFX, but fear not, it is one and the same. Mr Turner obviously decided that [...]
We’ve probably already harped on enough about how you shouldn’t ever forget the humble hardtail, and all their qualities, so this time we’ll keep it short. Trails, 4X, street… which ever one you pick, your chosen steed is unlikely to be anything but a hardtail. With that in mind we [...]
I think I’ve died and gone to heaven, I’ve got hardtails coming out of my ears! It’s like I said before, there’s a whole heap of hardtails out there that deserve a mention, but here’s a quick look at the six tastiest offerings to land at Dirt HQ this month. [...]
In the world of downhill I can only think of a few bikes that are both ‘super’ and ‘exclusive’ (and unavailable) at the same time – the Honda, Nicolai, B1 and MSC gearbox bikes. At the moment there are possibly six very good race bikes and another twenty or so [...]
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