Journal
Illuminate the Trail on the Scott Lumen
Last fall when Scott announced a brand new e-bike to fill the niche of a cross-country style, lightweight, electric mountain bike our ears perked up, but then we found out we would be waiting well into the spring to even see the bike. Well, the time has finally come with...
So You Want To Do White Rim In A Day? - Isaac's Guide And Recounting Of The WRT
What is the White Rim Trail? Located in Canyonlands National Park near Moab UT, the White Rim Trail is one of the most famous and gorgeous marathon mountain bike loops in the country. 100.56 miles of stunning red rock topography and raw desert. In terms of grueling mountain bike loops,...
The Red Barn - A Brief History
Contender Bicycles has been a fixture of the Utah cycling community for over 30 years. We’ve spent the majority of those years in the “9th & 9th” business district of Salt Lake City and we added our second location in Park City in 2018. The addition of a second location...
A Rolling Masterpiece - Colnago Master Beautiful Bicycle
“They don’t make ‘em like they used to….” Well, someone still does. Welcome to our latest edition of Beautiful Bicycle, a brand new, hand made, steel Colnago Master! There aren’t many bikes out there that have been in production for nearly four decades, remaining largely unchanged in both form and...
Battle of the Cargo Haulers: Yuba Spicy Curry or Urban Arrow Family
With cargo electric bikes growing in popularity there are two styles that are coming to the forefront of the industry. They are distinguished by where they put the storage zone, as it is either a bucket in front of the rider, or an extended rear end behind the rider. With...
What You Need To Know About Wheel Upgrades
For many of us that are passionate about cycling, part of the fun is personalizing and upgrading our machines. We’re lucky to live and ride in an age where technologically advanced parts and components are available on almost every level of bike from the factory, but it’s still fun to...
Orbea Rise vs Wild - Light Weight, Heavy Performance!
The Orbea E mountain bikes Orbea has been turning out world class bikes for decades going head to head with far bigger names in the industry. So, it’s not much of a surprise that Orbea is on an admitted quest to create the perfect eMtb. That’s a lofty goal and it...
Ride Review - Santa Cruz Hightower Vs. Bronson
Like many siblings, these two Santa Cruz trail machines look a lot alike. We field lots of inquiries about how they compare, which one does what better and how best to decide between the two. Well, we’re here to help break all that down and let you know our impressions...
Dueling Domes - Giro Manifest Vs. Scott Tago Plus
If you’ve been watching our YouTube channel or have seen some of the photos on our website, you might have noticed two new helmets making an appearance. The two brain buckets we were testing are the Scott Tago Plus and the Giro Manifest. Both are peaked, trail style MTB helmets...
eMtb Ride Review - We Compare Three Top Performers
Electric mountain bikes have blown up in popularity over the past few years, so it was long overdue to take a trip to the desert to test some of the top models in the game. We decided to venture down to St. George with the Santa Cruz Heckler and the...
A Pinarello F Born To Stand Out
Pinarello (and Italians in general) pride themselves on history and tradition, so when you see a fluorescent yellow Pinarello you may consider it an unconventional paint choice. However, you would be wrong. Even though it may not be obvious, fluorescent yellow is a Pinarello staple. Fausto Pinarello, son of company...
Pinarello Granger X - Endurance Gravel, Italian Style
Early in 2023, Pinarello introduced a new member of their gravel family, the Granger X. We just received our first delivery of them and we're pretty excited! Coming in a little under the radar and on the heels of the Dogma F and the “X” and “F” series road bikes,...
Alison OPENs UP About Her OPENs
Ryan and I have the privilege of riding a lot of nice bikes. So it is not a surprise that our personal fleet has a high turnover rate. As we are just about the same height (actually I dwarf Ryan by at least an inch), we can share just about...
SCOTT Genius vs. Genius ST - Tech and Ride Review
When the new SCOTT Genius was released, a long travel version called the Genius Super Trail, or ST for short (super intuitive we know), was also released. SCOTT added the Genius ST to the lineup in order to have a more aggressive and capable descending bike utilizing the new internal...
Six Items to Get You Through the Endless Mud Season
If you are like most of us and live in Utah, you are over the constant snowstorms mixed with rain that we keep having this late in the season. We are counting the days until we can consistently get onto the bike. So we decided to put together a list...
