Mountain Flyer Magazine

To celebrate 20 years (and 80 issues) we wanted a mix of nostalgic and new. So, we tapped mountain bike hall-of-fame journalist Zapata Espinoza to see what he had to say about an iconic, influential mountain bike of his choice (spoiler alert, he picked T-Brown’s Manitou); we sent Erik Mathy into the field to interview and photograph Maurice Tierney; we set resident gear guru Jason Sumner to the task of examining the bikes, parts, tools and more that progressed the sport of mountain biking; and we took a deep dive on the past 20 years of this very publication.

Then we looked forward. Up and coming photographer and writer Hannah Sourbeer dove into the first women’s Red Bull Rampage to profile the seven riders who made history on Utah’s daring desert lines. Legendary photographer Bruno Long captured Iceland’s sustainable trail building efforts in a 12-page photo essay. Our own editor and publisher Adam Howard reported out on a World Cup event in Lake Placid, New York, and how, in an era of Euro-dominated mountain bike racing, American women are bringing the sport home. And, in a fitting turn from old gear to new, K.M. Collins took a visit to Abbey Bike Tools to find out how founder and maker Jason Quade came to be one of the leading small-batch bike tool manufacturers in the industry.

There are a few other sweet surprises inside, too. We added in chapters to help organize this thick book, and we reached out to some of our favorite artists—Stephen Haynes, Jon Bailey, Dean Libeau and Jeremy Collins—and offered them some large, blank pages to get creative on. You’ll just have to flip through the book to find them.