Shin guards are pretty simple things when it comes down to it. They sit on the front of your leg, and hopefully provide enough protection in the event of something unpleasant happening. Other then that, they don't have much use, other then of course telling random people you ride by how extreme you are.

The first sightings of the 50 50s was all it took. People went nuts. They were so different, so cool, so unique, that everybody had to have them. The interchangeable plates, complete with monster color pallete, made the 50/50s a hot topic in pedals.

But there is more to a good set of pedals then how they looks, or how pretty the colours are.

Shimano's Hone grouppo is supposed to be a "budget oriented" setup. Its supposed to land somewhere in the middle of the line. Its supposed to be only for all mountain riding. Its supposed to be somewhat beefy, but hardly invulnerable.

Shame that the cranks don't know all that.

The Marzocchi 4x is light, simple, and purpose built. Designed purely as a 4x race fork (duh) its aimed at those that live thier riding lives 30 seconds at a time. But, is it any good?

Ahhh Fox. The darlings of the Motocross world and gangster kids, the Fox name is probably the most well known out of all the brands out there. Theres good reason too, as they have a great image, and push out some really great products.

Industry Nine is a company out of Asheville NC that likes to do things a bit differently. Currently they have a wheelset that, while similar to standard mountain bike wheels, has one hell of a plot twist to them. Instead of a standard set up of hooked steel spokes in a flanged hub, Industry Nine uses their own custom machined 6061 spokes (that’s right, aluminum spokes) that have the nipple integrated in the end. The spoke is threaded at one end and screws directly into the beautiful Industry nine hubs, making for a very light and very secure complete system. Stock Industry Nine wheels use DT Swiss rims, but you can use any rim you want, long as the hole count matches up.

Alex Rankin is arguably the top "Race Movie" film maker in the downhill mountain biking scene. His Earthed Series is already a classic, and the prior three have all been no brainers to buy. You can imagine then how excited we were when Earthed 4 was finally available.

We were not dissapointed....entirely.

Oakleys just got that thing that makes them Oakley. Style, image, and pretty good stuff...yeah they just got it dialed. The Crowbars are the latest Oakley Goggle to come out, and man are they ever "Oakley-ish." Whether or not thats a good thing, well thats up to you.

Everybody knows about the 36 Talas. Its all adjustable, air sprung, and gives people semi’s when they touch it in the shop. The 36 Vanilla is the same body, but with a coil sprung setup, similar to the regular Vanilla fork, although with different guts. Is it as good though?