APRIL 21st:
Mel's World
Why pay to get all inked up when your favorite past-time has a way of bitch-smackin' you and leaving its own special tattoo.

APRIL 6th:
New Column:Mel's World
What do broken bikes and women's legs have in common? It's a long story...

MARCH 18th:
Mel's World
If mountain biking means having a lifelong love affair with your bike, then mountain biking sometimes also requires a trip to the therapist's couch.

Assholes of Interbike
Not all bike people are good people

Mitch's Interbike Picks
The boys from Canada may speak a little funny, eh, but they know a descent bike part when they see one. Here are a few favourites from Mitchell Scott

Vernon's Interbike Report: Part 1
Every year the bike industry holds a series of trade shows: there's one in Taiwan, a couple in Europe, one in Canada and one here in the states. The American version is called Interbike and it's home is the Sands Convention center in Las Vegas. There were a couple years there when the show was held in...

Season of the Scab
The pain digs deep. Down into the marrow of the bone, it seems. A slipped pedal, a wayward branch, an outstretched forearm grinding the rest of the body to a halt, forced to give up its flesh for the sake of stopping the greater whole. Aahhh, the blessed sacrifices of mountain biking.

The Crux
6/4/04 - I realize I'm standing. It takes just a moment to remember where. Suddenly it comes to me. I'm in the desert. All around me is darkness and a settling cloud of dust. There is a beam of light coming from my head. Now it all makes sense. This is the 24 Hours of Temecula.

To Squish or not to Squish?
5/19/04 - You've seen it a thousand times before. Lord knows you probably do it all the time. The Squish. One of those weird human behaviors recently introduced into the ever-growing catalog of weird human behaviour: reality TV shows, monster trucks, a man dressing up as a girl, voting for George Bush, and now...The Squish.

The Last Freerider
4/2/04 - Y'know how they say life imitates art? Well last month my life imitated The Last Starfighter, that flick where some kid is so good at playing a video game that he gets recruited by an alien army commander to save the world.

Pulling the Perfect Prank
3/30/04 - Just like Christmas, getting the most out of spring's biggest "holiday" means extensive planning. It's not the one with bunnies and candy that most look forward to, but it comes a few weeks before: April Fools' Day.

Encampment
3/19/04 - And just off the beach, where the interstate and the Pacific Coast Highway tangle, I found the homeless encampment. I turned off the road and rolled along a well-worn footpath behind some welding shop.

Cycle Therapy
3/11/04 - When I pull up beside Damo, he lays it on me like you would a thick slab of beef on a sizzling grill. "If you want to try it again, I don't mind waiting," he says.

Rinse and Repeat
3/5/04 - I can feel coarse flecks of mud grinding away at the soft tissue of my eyes when I roll them around in their gritty sockets, I can even feel mud when I blink.

Ode to a Trailbuilder
3/3/04 - He's at it again. I can tell by the spark in his eyes a new project is underway. I spy on him as he prepares his tools--chain saw, pruners and handsaw--they are all arranged carefully in his backpack.