Bikes & Big Ideas

Madrone Cycles got its start making parts to repair a variety of SRAM mountain bike derailleurs, but now they’re taking on a much more ambitious project: building their own derailleur from the ground up. Third-party derailleurs had a brief run in the earlier days of mountain biking, but SRAM and Shimano have completely dominated the market for decades now. So why is Madrone taking on the big players now, and what sets their new Jab...

Rocket Ramps built a progressive bike park in the sovereign nation of Picuris Pueblo in northern New Mexico that has grabbed headlines and the attention of slopestyle athletes. We caught up with Rocket Ramps founder Henry Lanman to get the story behind the project and to find out what else they’re up to. Henry talks about their mission to grow the action sports scene in New Mexico, the science of ramp building, and why building a r...

Paladin Bikes was founded by a group of robotics engineers who love bikes and wanted to build their own — and do it in the US. The AM1 is the result, and while it’s a relatively conventional All-Mountain bike when it comes to its geometry and specs, there’s a ton about it that stands out, from its machined construction to its suspension layout, and in a lot of the smaller details.

So we sat down with Paladin co-founder and Gener...

September delivered some incredible bike racing, featuring the Mountain Bike and Road Bike World Championships, the Lenzerheide World Cup DH and XC, and the US Open Downhill, providing us with plenty to discuss. News on the bike industry side was a familiar affair, with YT going through a rough patch and retail sales being slow. There was also some rather shocking news about Giant regarding alleged labor law violations in Taiwan. D...

We sat down to talk about Chromag’s growing full-suspension lineup, and how the new Reazon slots into it; Trek’s surprising move to turn the Fuel into a modular platform, including adding a second 160+mm-travel Enduro bike in the Fuel LX; a couple of new eMTBs from Yeti and Propain; Hope’s new GR4 brakes; and a bunch more.

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With their athletes taking wins at the Tour de France and Red Bull Hardline, Enve has been having a hell of a summer. So today we’re talking with Enve’s Jake Pantone about what they’ve been up to, the increasingly blurry lines between bike categories, how wide Gravel tires should be, and why you might want to put a suspension fork on your drop bar bike. And Jake also shares exciting news about their plans to make Mountain Bikes.

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The list of world-class cyclists that have come out of the Durango Devo junior cycling program is astounding. Christopher Blevins is on a tear and is currently leading the UCI XCO overall. Riley Amos crushed the XC U23s last year. Sepp Kuss made a name for himself shepherding Jonas Vingegaard through the mountains and then went on to win a Grand Tour himself, and Quinn Simmons’ aggressive attacks made headlines during this year's T...

For this month's Reviewing the News Episode, Mike and I start with a topic that hits close to home: we both know extremely fit people who have passed away recently while riding their bikes. So, today we talk about how it's common for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease to go undiagnosed, especially in athletes, and what you can do, and should do, to protect yourself. Plus, we just had a fantastic, wet, and muddy weekend of racin...

Fox’s new Podium inverted fork has understandably garnered a lot of attention, and we’ve got an update on how our testing of it is going, along with the updated Float X2 and DHX2 shocks. But it’s not all gravity suspension on the docket, as we weigh in on the very good and very light Fox 34 SL fork; the ultra-versatile Trek Fuel EX; Revel’s first eMTB, the ReRun; and a bunch of brakes from brands large and small.

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For today’s Gear Therapy episode, the team gets together to try to solve Jonathan’s pedal dilemma. Like many riders out there, Jonathan is questioning his current pedal choice, and not surprisingly, he’s considering ditching his clipless pedals and replacing them with flats. Sascha and Zack bring a valuable mountain bike coaching perspective to the conversation, and together with Simon’s years of experience in the industry and bike...

Last year, we sat down with Casey Brown right after the first iteration of Red Bull Rampage to feature a women’s category to chat about what it meant to finally break that particular glass ceiling, what it took to do it, and how the event went.

Casey is, once again, among a stacked roster of women who will be dropping in for this year’s competition, but she’s been up to a whole lot more than just preparing for Rampage — from bri...

Why didn’t Jackson Goldstone race Red Bull Hardline in Wales and give us the highly anticipated showdown between him and Asa Vermette? Dylan and I dive right into our opinions on that, and then break down the rest of July’s incredible racing results, including a quick recap of one of Simon’s favorites — the Tour de France. And itt wouldn’t be a Reviewing the News episode without some tariff chaos, and unfortunately, also some bike ...

Our new Mountain Bike Buyer’s Guide is live, and while it takes some cues from our Winter Buyer’s Guide — the eleventh edition of which is in the works right now — it’s very much its own beast. So we sat down to talk about what’s in the Guide, how it’s structured, and why; how the mountain bike market has evolved; the return of ‘All-Mountain’ as a class of bikes; and a whole lot more.

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Stashed founder Elliot Tanner has many talents, like making ultra-light climbing gear and designing components for Marker’s Kingpin touring binding. But that’s not all: he also built his own high-pivot, gearbox-equipped Enduro bikes, and that was before high-pivots or gearboxes were cool. 

But it wasn’t until his family had amassed more bikes than they had room for that he got the inspiration to create a bike storage soluti...

The Pivot Firebird and Propain Tyee don’t look super different on paper — they’ve got about the same suspension travel, generally similar geometry, and both can convert between 29’’ and MX setups — but they ride quite differently from one another.

So what sets them apart? We wade into that topic, offer our early take on a couple of new pieces of Italian suspension, argue about what does (and doesn’t) make for a good mixed wheel ...

Our Bike Editor, David Golay, has a long history with BTR. Back when 26’’ wheels were still the norm, he found them while making a wide search for a builder who made a hardtail with the sort of aggressive geometry he had in mind at the time — and the Ranger was, by far, the most promising option.

Over a decade later, he’s on his third Ranger, having ordered two more with increasingly custom geometry as his preferences have evolv...

In the June edition of Reviewing the News, we start with some good news regarding the GOP’s withdrawal of the proposal to sell millions of acres of public land. We move on to discussing the merger of We Are One Composites and Industry Nine, followed by a recap of all the exciting World Cup DH, XC, and Enduro racing that happened in June, plus some Tour de France predictions, a selection of new products, and a whole lot more. &...

Since 2008, Portland Design Works (PDW) has quietly been designing products that inspire people to commute by bike, ride to the grocery store, or to simply hop on and go somewhere fun. Today, we’re catching up with founder Erik Olson about his history in the bike industry, why being fluent in Chinese was integral in building relationships in Taiwan, his first products and getting PDW off the ground, his commitment to sustainability...

We’ve been testing a massive range of bikes, from the XC-oriented Kona Hei Hei to the long-travel, full-power Santa Cruz Bullit, so David, Simon, and Dylan sat down to talk about a whole bunch of them. We also dive into Shimano’s long-awaited XTR Di2 wireless drivetrain and the Deore and XT versions that just launched, the consistency of Shimano’s new brakes, and a whole lot more.

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