Crankzone

Photo of 1948 Schwinn Majestic courtesy MOMBAT.org
First Flight bikes in Statesville, NC (about 40 miles north of Carlotte) is dedicated to preserving the history of mountain bikes and recently opened MOMBAT, the museum of mountain bike art and technology. The museum has more than 400 bikes on display including an original 1981 Specialized Stumpjumper, the first mass produced mountain bike. Appar…

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The Jackson County, Alabama director of tourism is proposing the county fund the recruitment of a mountain bike resort in 2009. The idea is to create a destination for mountain bikers from both inside and outside the state and bring in badly needed tourism dollars to a struggling local economy. Although I’ve never been to Jackson County myself, from what I can see on the Google map it’…

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The thrill of the forest speeding past at thirty miles per hour. The rush of making hair-raising turns around boulders. The joy of making it to the top of what seemed like an insurmountable peak. Mountain bike school will have you up and running in no time at all.Original post by James

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As 2008 draws to a close I want to highlight some of our favorite articles of the year and talk about some of the trends we’ve observed in the MTB world. Believe it or not we managed to crank out 350 unique posts in 2008 - read on to get caught up!

Mountain Bikes
The mountain bike story of 2008 has been the 29er and at Interbike I had the chance to demo 29er mountain bikes from Rocky Mounta…

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Over at the Raleigh News and Observer Joe Miller says a potential land acquisition at Eno River State Park *could* open new trails to mountain biking within the park. Mountain biking is addressed in the park’s draft General Management Plan which will be revised with public input over the next few years. Park officials say they’ve already been contacted by local MTB clubs who have offe…

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The Dakine Step Up gloves are pretty good but unfortunately they aren’t magic - I discovered that after smashing my left hand against a tree in them on a recent night ride. There was no blood thanks to the knuckle padding but my fingers still hurt like crazy - lesson learned.
Dakine’s Step Up gloves are well constructed, with double stitched seams throughout. The light synthetic nylon…

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There are so many great things to say about the Dakine Drafter hydration pack I almost don’t know where to begin. I will start with the most obvious: it is plaid. A very nice plaid, similar to my ancestors’ tartan back in ye old country. Don’t worry, if your lineage comes from the other side of a different pond, or if “logger flannel” is just not your thing, Dakine m…

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We just received this message from IMBA over the weekend:
The U.S. National Park Service (NPS) has proposed an important rule change that will make it easier for parks to open trails to mountain biking. IMBA urges mountain bikers to register comments in support of the new rule. We have been asking the NPS to make this change since the 1990s — we now enter a 60-day commentary period to make the …

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With my sunglasses on, I’m Jack Nicholson. Without them, I’m fat and 60.
Jack Nicholson
Okay, I’m not fat or even close to 60 but with my Ryders sunglasses on I’m pretty sure I turn into a mountain biking badass. I picked up a pair of Zephyr sunglasses for the trail and Cadence shades for the trailhead and I’m pretty stoked about both.
If you hadn’t guessed by …

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Sometimes the beauty of a design comes from simplicity rather than a full feature list and the Skink and Beetle safety bike lights from Knog prove the point nicely. All Knog LED safety lights are encased in flexible silicon exteriors that double as a bike mount system - just stretch and attach!
The Skink has 4 red or white LEDs and with the included 2 AAA batteries you can get up to 220 hours in …

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