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Racers battle up the hill in this shot from the Pedalfest race at Lake Castaic, California, in May 2016. The racing action returns to Lake Castaic on Thursday afternoons from now through the next few weeks. The biggest races start right around 6 p.m. Photo by Brandon Castelli/Mountain Bike Action
Former MBA test rider Spencer Rathkamp showed his competition how fast he was at the Pedalfest Race Series at Lake Castaic, California, in 2014. The race series returns to Lake Castaic (about 40 minutes north of Los Angeles) starting today ( May 9, 2019). Photo: John Ker/MBA
Finn Iles has risen to become one of the top downhill riders on the 2019 World Cup circuit. He’s also one of the first such racers to use a 29/27.5 wheel combo on his race bike. This is a shot of him from the Whip-Off World Championship at Crankworx Whistler in 2017. Finn served notice […]
Mountain Bike Action editor Zapata Espinoza gave a demonstration 30 years ago of proper leg extension for mountain biking. The saddle position in our top photo here is a little too low, which can be seen by how much the left knee is bent. The leg bend and the saddle position in the second photo […]
World Cup racing, Marco Aurelio Fontana, Mont-Sainte-Anne, Quebec, Canada. Photo: JK/Mountain Bike Action
Nino Schurter (left) and Jaroslav Kulhavy (right) were battling for the advantage in the early part of the World Cup race at Mont-Sainte-Anne, Quebec, in this photo from 2013. Kulhavy was riding a 29er, and he had beaten Nino at the Olympics the year before. Nino was riding a 650b (27.5-inch) bike. Nino would switch […]
The Sea Otter Classic returns to Monterey, California, next week. Weather forecasters are saying there’s a 40% chance of rain next Friday for the event. Here’s some of the pro racing in 2006, when the Sea Otter pros had to deal with deep mud, even after the rain had stopped and the sun had come […]
The late Blair Lombardi was an amateur national champion in mountain biking who became one of the top mountain bike coaches in the world, coaching thousands of riders—including Gary Fisher and Missy Giove—to improve their riding skills for both racing and recreational riding. Recently, one of our readers wrote to us and asked us if […]
This was one of the scariest photos that MBA photographer John Ker has ever taken in nearly 30 years of mountain bike photography. This was during the World Cup race at Mont-Sainte-Anne, nearly ten years ago. Aaron Gwin came flying over the jump in the photo at high speed, heading straight for John and the […]
Your Dream Career Awaits!
Perfect weather outside brought the crowds to Sacramento for the second day of the NAHBS event. Many of the bike brands at the NAHBS event are ones that many mountain bike enthusiasts have never heard of before, such as Black Cat. This bike by Black Cat won the award for best fillet frame in recognition […]
There are plenty of interesting bikes to be seen at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show in Sacramento, California, this weekend. This Olivetti bike (called the Wopcycle) looks like three different bikes depending on your angle of view. From the right side, it looks like a green bike. From the left side it looks like […]
This Isen mountain bike has one of the most beautiful finishes of all the bikes on display at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show, happening this Friday, Saturday and Sunday in Sacramento, California. Check back later this weekend for more photos. Check out www.nahbs.com for more info.
Cam McCaul demonstrates his jumping skills at Bootleg Canyon, Nevada, in 2004. Photo: JK/Mountain Bike Action Martin Soderstrom pulls off a double tailwhip at Whistler, B.C., in the summer of 2009. Photo: JK/Mountain Bike Action
There’s something about the lines of a mountain bike that draws us in, but nothing grabs our attention quite like a custom paint job. Australian professional mountain biker Bryn Atkinson teased his social media followers with a close-up photo of his new bike. That photo quickly racked up over 8000 likes on Instagram and immediately […]
Early disc brake: While disc brakes are the norm in 2019, they were very rare 30 years ago, when almost all mountain bike riders were using cantilever-style rim brakes. MBA spotted this primitive-looking disc brake at a mountain bike event in late 1988. “Both Magura and Mathauser have working units of their hydraulic brakes and […]
Specialized Stumpjumper Carbon EVO Pro 27.5″ vs 29″ Specialized launched the Stumpjumper EVO in 2018 at Crankworx, Whistler. The bike built off the newly designed Stumpjumper frame, but with an ultra aggressive twist. We’re talking about a bike that is about as long, slack and low as one can get. Today, Specialized is proud to […]
Can you name these two riders? The guy on the left is MBA editor Zapata Espinoza as he appeared in our February 1989 issue, and the guy next to him is John Parker, the man who started Yeti Cycles and convinced John Tomac and Missy Giove—two of the best riders on the planet—to ride […]
Tips from the people who do the hiring
Park City High School Mountain Bike Team
Spring-equipped seatpost
How much things have changed in 30 years
Good Old Days
In going through some back issues we found a buyer’s guide to the bikes of 1989. It’s easy to see how much mountain bikes have changed in the last 30 years. Notice for one thing the lack of front suspension, much less rear suspension. The first Rock Shox forks wouldn’t hit the market until later […]
Niner, founded in 2005, established their brand around building bikes with big wheels long before it was even cool to do so. One could argue that Niner’s passion and commitment to the larger wheel size helped paved the way for the growing popularity of 29er’s today. The RIP 9 was introduced to Niner’s fleet in […]
Paul Turner hadn’t come out with the first Rock Shox suspension fork yet when Specialized came out with its Direct Drive fork, shown here as it was advertised in our February 1989 issue of Mountain Bike Action. The curved fork design allowed the fork to flex when it hit rough sections of trail, smoothing out […]
We’re going back to November of 2011 with this photo
We had been hearing about this for weeks, maybe even months. We had even questioned Aaron Gwin himself about the matter. He had told us he couldn’t reveal any information about his plans for 2019 until the end of January or he would stop receiving money from YT, who had been his sponsor for the […]
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JUNIOR RIDER OF THE WEEK: KYLE STRAIT How do you spell chaotic? Junior Development Team Devo spells it “Kayodic” Kyle Strait. Kyle was picked up for Devo’s “B” Team in March 1999, during the Sea Otter Classic, when he was just 11 years old. Although finishing 41st out of all the 78 juniors, Kyle […]