Road biking can effectively be broken into two groups: racing and non-racing. Sure, roadies will argue that subtle differences are significant, but show your grandma a Tarmac and a Roubaix, and she'll…
After getting snowed out at the beginning of the month and subsequently postponing and moving our ride, Saturday, April 12th rolled around, and we were finally able to meet up for our…
We see World Cup racers for 3-5 minutes less than a dozen times a year going at full tilt, race pace. That leaves not just hours and minutes but days and months…
Fat bikes were everywhere at the Sea Otter Classic this year! Sure, fat bikes make for a cushy cruise around the dusty venue at Laguna Seca, but there were many fat bikes…
Delphinide recently wrote a great post about the "Top 5" trails to ride at the Fruita Fat Tire Festival. It was a good list if you've been riding for a year or…
In the previous installment, I addressed a few quality characteristics that I recommend looking for in a local bike shop, based on several personal experiences. Here are several more things that riders…
Voting is now live for the Western portion of the Bell Built Grant! Vote now through April 20th. Videos have been posted for each of the proposed projects. Here's the video for…
Singletracks has published some excellent articles over the years about choosing a bike shop, why to buy from a local bike shop (LBS), and reasons to buy online. …
Voting is now live for the Western portion of the Bell Built Grant! Vote now through April 20th. Videos have been posted for each of the proposed projects. Here's the video for…
Voting is now live for the Western portion of the Bell Built Grant! Vote now through April 20th. Videos have been posted for each of the proposed projects. Here's the video for…
After a nasty bout with winter where I practiced embracing the cold and the snow instead of shunning it, dry dirt and temps in the mid to upper 60s arrived in Salida…
Way back in early February I received notice of some very interesting (but not totally shocking) news... and now I can share it with you! Shimano has revamped their XTR group for…
Fat bikes might just be the biggest advancement in the mountain bike industry in the last decade. Perhaps that's a bold thing to say, but I can't think of a single change…
ZOIC also sent over their Coalition Schacket for review. The Schacket is an enigma of sorts: it's somewhat like a shirt, kinda like a jacket, but really it's neither. If you live…
The Hoodoo Shorts from Zoic are a pair of mountain biking shorts designed with a twist. For one thing, these shorts sport no less than eight pockets: tons of space for stashing…
Hey everyone, just a quick note that mudhunny is our biker on the ground at Sea Otter this weekend and she'll be posting photos and news to our Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook…
Today has been the day for fat biking news! Hot on the heels of the announcement of the first-ever fat bike suspension fork comes--you probably guessed it--the announcement of the first-ever production…
Earlier this morning we published a quick news post about the new Rocky Mountain Blizzard, which featured a teaser of the new RockShox Bluto RL fat bike suspension fork. Now, we have…
Rocky Mountain Bicycles has just announced their brand-new Blizzard fat bike, coming in the fall of 2014. The all-new Blizzard features a "suspension-specific design, agile trail-bike geometry, and a truly capable parts…
The 19th Annual Fruita Fat Tire Festival is happening April 24-27th (register here). Although not overly-crowded, expect hundreds to gather and partake in the bike demos from top manufacturers, libations, live music,…
I received a pair of the brand-new WTB Breakout tires under a shroud of secrecy back in February, but now finally I can share my ride impressions with you! But first, the…
Last year was the first year that I attended the famous Fruita Fat Tire Festival (FFTF). "18 and Legal," the event promoted, after almost two strong decades of kicking off the knobby-tire…
Singletracks has partnered with Georgia State Parks to offer a new badge in the Singletracks Trail Challenge to mountain bikers who ride in at least six of the twelve GA State Parks…
So often we mountain bikers fight against winter: we flee to the desert or to the South to ride our bikes, we complain about the snow and the rain, and we grumble…
While mountain bikers have speculated wildly on internet forums about the application and the final specs of RockShox's new RS-1 fork, RockShox has finally released some official information and put our late-night…
Hot off the presses, we've just added the latest Sedona topographic trail map from Beartooth Publishing to the Singletracks online store. The map, just published this spring, includes descriptions of 14 of…
The Flow Factory Trail at North Spencer Mountain Trailhead in Whitefish, MT is a thrill ride of a slopestyle/slalom-type trail, incorporating natural features in the middle of the forest. It flows through…
This weekend, things didn't go quite as planned for 30 Days of Biking, thanks to a big snowstorm blasting into the state of Colorado. Still, what's biking in April like without a few…
"What the heck is a ski bike?" I asked as my friend Kristen tried to explain it…
This sign is posted at all the trailheads, and every year there are reports of cougar sightings, mostly of the feline family. Albuquerque offers a diverse collection of…
We're four days in to the #30daysofbiking challenge, and I've yet to set tires on a trail. Tuesday the weather forecast called for afternoon winds of up to 40 mph with "areas…
If you read my work religiously, you've probably heard me say this multiple times before... and now you're going to hear me say it again: if there's one thing that keeps me…
About a month ago, this article created quite a bit of buzz on a Facebook group page. It focused on a Letter to the Editor of Total Women's Cycling about the amount…
Hello everyone, Due to this massive storm that is in the process of blanketing the entire state with snow, and is dropping a significant amount of the white, wet stuff on Buffalo…
It's finally here! Ever since I decided that I'd tackle the 30 days of biking challenge again this April, I've been counting down the days to 4/1/14 eagerly. In fact, I've been…
The Cannondale Jekyll has been completely reworked for 2015. Developed in collaboration with Jerome Clementz, the all-new bike features the new SuperMax front suspension, a new Fox DYAD rear shock with extra…
In addition to completely redesigning the Jekyll, Cannondale also recently announced the brand-new Trigger 27.5 and Trigger 29 at their global launch in Spain. Trigger 27.5 The Trigger 27.5, simply referred to…
While some might think it's odd to release a new product on April Fools day since many people might not take you seriously, Santa Cruz, on the other hand, seems to embrace…
If you purchased a so-called "fat bike" recently, you're going to want to douse it with white gas, light it on fire, and push it off a cliff, because the latest fad…
The State of Utah has announced that for the summer 2014 mountain biking season they'll begin testing riders for marijuana use before allowing them to ride their trails. The news is devastating…
We wrote previously about the return of the Bell Built Grant and the application process, and now the finalists have been chosen! Check out the infographic below for details on the different…
Yakima is well-known in the world of bike racks, offering a variety of ways to transport your bike, with options for virtually every type of vehicle available. A few months ago I…
I recently received a press release from SRAM and it just so happens to cover my favorite topic: MTB brakes! SRAM announced the release of the GUIDE line of brakes. Now, you're…
Easton has long been known as a manufacturer of quality carbon bike parts, including this handlebar I recently reviewed, as well as highly-acclaimed wheelsets. To match my new carbon bar (or maybe…
We spend a lot of time here on Singletracks talking about gear, technique, and the amazing experiences we've all had on our bikes. But what…
Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Goldilocks who liked to ride…
Be sure to check out Part 1. We spend a lot of time talking about trails here on Singletracks... and I think that's pretty understandable, since we are home to the largest mountain…
We spend a lot of time talking about trails here on Singletracks... and I think that's pretty understandable, since we are home to the largest mountain bike trail map database in the…
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![Road biking can effectively be broken into two groups: racing and non-racing. Sure, roadies will argue that subtle differences are significant, but show your grandma a Tarmac and a Roubaix, and she'll likely tell you they're the same bike... unless, of course, you show her a pink and blue bike.
Mountain biking, on the other hand, has quite a few niche groups: uphill, downhill, all-mountain, small mountain, enduro, fat bikes, and skinny bikes. Half of those are technically made up, but show your grandma a fat bike and a downhill bike, and she'll likely comment on more than the color.
There are major differences between each sub-group that results in significantly different biking experiences. One sub-group I couldn't wrap my head around for the longest time was the single speed group. What would drive one to mount a bike based out of the early 1900s and then attempt to tackle dirt and rocks? In short, the masochistically stupid. So when my husband told me he wanted to build a fully rigid single speed, chocolate milk shot from my nose as I laughed in his face.
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