The performance of the Kore OCD bar and Repute stem have been flawless over my several month-long testing period and have earned their place on my full suspension trail bike. Add to that the attractive but subtle styling, and I doubt I’ll be swapping these out anytime soon!

Read the full review here.

Over the course of my road trip last summer, I saw almost every approach to mountain biking trail access imaginable: well-established destinations with hundreds of miles of trail, all open to mountain bikes, with more singletrack on the way; locations with decent trails already that are planning major expansions to attract more riders to the area; areas where plenty of singletrack trails exist but virtually none of which are open to mountain bikes; and finally, places where the legality of mountain bike trails is dubious and indeterminate, and where an implicit don’t-ask-don’t-tell policy is in effect.

The latter is Los Angeles, California: the Wild West of mountain biking.

Read the full blog post here.

The Face strikes an interesting balance between style and performance that definitely leans more toward style. The faux-metallic coloring and reflective lenses scream confidence when you are out cruising the town.

Read the full review here.

On my recent fall trip to North Carolina, my main goal was to ride Bent Creek Experimental Forest… but there was no way I was going to visit the Pisgah area without doing a ride in Pisgah proper! After consulting with GoldenGoose and doing some research in the Singletracks trail database, I decided on the Laurel Mountain trail.

Read the full blog post here.

If you’ve never heard of Foundry Cycles before, don’t be ashamed: they’re one of the newest bike companies around. But if you have heard of them, I wouldn’t be surprised! Officially launched in October 2011, Foundry is just over a year old but has already made a splash in the mountain bike industry, especially in the online MTB world.

Read the full article here.

Jeff has blogged before about the concept of Flow Country Trails and what this new style of trail building could mean for the future of mountain biking. He has also highlighted flow trails around the world and blogged in-depth about two different flow trails: Sandy Ridge in Oregon and Coldwater Mountain in Alabama.

But what kind of work does it take to create a flow-style mountain bike trail? How much more labor intensive is it than building a regular trail?

Well, to find the answer to that question you should really read my Access Action article titled “How To Build a National Mountain Bike Destination from Scratch” in Dirt Rag issue #165. But you can also watch this awesome five-minute video from the Czech Republic about the process that a group of builders there is going through in order to construct their “Superflow Trail,” officially opening in the spring of 2013:

Watch the video on Singletracks.com by clicking here.

This was my final essay for my Advanced Composition course in the spring of 2012. The assignment was to write a multi-genre paper that combined several different genres of writing into one effective whole. Dr. Brauer's final comment reads:

"Given the topic, the juxtaposition of personal narrative and expository writing makes sense. That said, the expository sections rely heavily on source material and you leave little room to develop a sophisticated rhetorical purpose. B"

There's definitely room for improvement in this essay, but a B from Dr. Brauer is like an A from some other professors, so in the end I was still very happy with the outcome. 

This is a work of creative nonfiction that I wrote for my Advanced Composition course in the spring of 2012. I wrote this with the school essay in mind, but also with the thought that I could have it published in Dirt Rag Magazine, since I was also doing an internship with them at the time. This still has not been published in Dirt Rag, but the final comment from Dr. Brauer reads:

"This could have been a bland, by-the-numbers piece of writing, but your strategy works. The larger narrative of the race is balanced effectively by the careful focus on the struggle to keep your feet warm. A"

Yet another "A" from Dr. Brauer. Not much else I can add to that!

 

This is an essay that I wrote for my Advanced Composition course in the spring of 2012. The final comment reads:

"Though you offer some thoughtful subtopics in the first half of the essay, the developed critique of Plato's application is the highlight of your analysis. Though your face can be fast, your focus and purpose are superb. A"

Dr. Brauer is known to be a very difficult professor, so any time I receive an "A" from him, I'm happy with it! Not only did I receive an A on this paper, but my writing received the descriptor "superb" yet again!

This is yet another short 500 word essay that I wrote for my Advanced Composition course in the spring of 2012. The check plus grade is roughly equivalent to an A. The comment reads: "Superb focus on audience here." Any time my writing garners the description "superb," I'm happy!

This is a short essay that I wrote for my Advanced Composition course during the spring of 2012. The grade of check plus equals roughly an A, and the comment reads: "Good discussion of implications/applications."

This is a short essay that I wrote for my Advanced Composition course during the spring of 2012. The final comment reads:

"Your tone and general organization are solid, but you need to balance the exposition on the benefits of blogging and blogging with more reflection and sustained argument. B+"

I'll take a B+ since Dr. Brauer is a hard grader, but I do take issue with his final comment. We had a very short word limit and as such there was only room for a limited amount of information. "More reflection and sustained argument" would have required many more words, hence the reason my argument was not "sustained."

This is a short essay that I wrote for my Advanced Composition class in the spring of 2012. The check plus grade denotes it as roughly an A. His comment reads: "good development of analysis."

This is an essay that I wrote for my Epistemology class in the spring of 2012. The final comment by the professor reads:

"Greg, interesting take on the exchange, though I worry that there may be a confusion early on. See my comments. 92"

It's an A... I'll take it!