Looks like Dirt Rag is shuttering its doors. From their FB page

:Makes me sad. DR was my favorite MTB mag, although I enjoyed it less after they spun off Bicycle Times with all the non-mtb content. Now both DR and BT are gone. What a shame.

Dirt Fest gone too

yikes

Likely a casualty of youtube and other online content. GMBN/GCN and the like are getting to be my main sources of bike goodness.

yeah, we've been talking about both on my other forum
not much commitment now to single sources or even events

Mountain bike action is about all that’s left. I do like Kev Central. I can’t get into GMBN for some reason.

This is sad. Motorcycle Consumer New also just went away. My two favorites gone.

I can totally get where you're coming from with GMBN. I like all of their presenters and I think they have good content. I'm not much of a tech guy, since I like my bikes to be as simple and reliable to maintain as I can get them. Think Surly Karate Monkey more than some 15 pivot carbon enduro bike.
Where I think they shine are their epic rides they film. I can't get out to ride Patagonia or some other mutli-day trip in an exotic location, so the next best thing is watching a good edit of someone else way more skilled than I am get out there.
I do wish they'd cover more racing, especially either live or at least a wrap-up that includes video of the major races.

Did "Dirt Rag" have some kind of drug subculture thing going?? I bought the magazines but also thought they were a bit odd as well.

Well they made no secret of their love of good beer, and there was usually a page dedicated to that. But that is just part of mountain bike culture.
As far as pot goes... there were some occasional references to it, but not a "drug culture" by any stretch, IMO. There was a pot brownie recipe in there one time (or something like that), but this was at a time when that was legal in many states. I would not surprise me at all if a lot of them have partaken for years, but I don't think it made its way explicitly into the pages.

This could be another thread but I still don’t get why mountain biking and beer are generally associated together.

I don’t know, but beer (and partying in general) has been part of the culture everywhere I’ve been. Probably has to do with the general irreverence of the culture and a sense of not taking itself too seriously. The MTB clubs I have been associated with usually have gatherings at breweries, and are sometimes even sponsored by them.

Mountain bike beer stuff needs to quit being a trend.

Perhaps beer sponsorship of races is the reason for the trend.

I understand there's a connection between beer and mountain biking, so much so that we now have mountain biking beer.

that’s true

energy drinks/beer/tobacco sponsor so many sports many of us enjoy

Not if I can help it Besides, its not beer in general, it is craft beer (with the exception of a few hipster interlopers that think PBR is "ironic").

And I do not think beer and tobacco should ever, EVER be lumped together.

But if it makes you feel any better, as both mtb and craft beer have become mainstream and, the connection is far less significant. Just take a look at pretty much any other MTB mag. You see much beer in there?

Back when mtb and craft beer were both counter culture affairs, the fact that there was intersectionality of interest made it a part of the culture. Now that MTB and craft beer are far more mainstream and accessible, the connection is less meaningful. Also, the folks that made up MTB culture 25 years ago are a different lot than the ones coming on board now. It is no longer a counter-culture, Everything about the sport is more gentrified, polished, and presentable to the general public now (for better and for worse).

And New Belgium Fat Tire has been around since at least 2004 (that's when I first had it).

The club where I am now gets some support from a local Brewing Company. The came out with a Pale Ale a few years back, and a certain amount of the profits went to trail projects. A trail got named after the beer.

In the 90's during my drinking days I has subscriptions to DR and all the others. Every night I would sit on my couch, fire up my home stereo like everyone had, drink a 6 pack and just read the magazines. In the early 2000's when I moved I had boxes of at least 100 mountain bike magazines and I threw them all away. I regret that now.

Bike was actually my favorite.

I know a group of 20 ish year old mtb riders who hate the beer culture of biking in the area. This group of kids have their act together. Refreshing in fact to see.

Whatever floats their boat.

But I think it is a bit much to call it a "beer culture". We are not talking about Animal House and beer bongs.

Sad to see DR go -- quirky, but always entertaining. I bought a lot of issues of DR over the years, but Bike was always my favourite too, along with Singletrack (UK).

Bike has now been reduced to a quarterly under its new owners, and the staff concentrates more on producing web content. Even the quarterly issues (I subscribe) are just a shadow of what Bike once was, in terms of editorial content. Sad.

Fortunately, another quarterly -- Freehub -- has been improving and expanding. Brice Minnigh, formerly with Bike and an excellent editor and feature writer, is in charge. We'll see if it survives.

And this just happened in my town: https://www.tompkinsweekly.com/stori...ith-bikes,3473

Whatever pays the bills I guess (at the end of the day).

One could drink iced coffee or lemonade post ride too. All good.

Because a good craft beer tastes good at the end of a ride. And it's not only biking. Fly Fishing (which I do a lot of also) and beer are associated together in circle of those who fly fish. And for the same reason. At the end of a 8-10 hour day of fishing a beer tastes wonderful. Also the ski crowd (downhill or XC) is the same.

During the summer a group of us locals in my town ride out of the local brewery parking lot. We road ride for ~25 miles then head into the brewery for a beer afterwards. Couple of the other breweries in the next town over have bike racks out front for people.

A Beer Lover's Guide to Fly Fishing - All About Beer

Crafting Flies and Craft Beer a Perfect Match ? Northland Outdoors

https://www.craftbeer.com/craft-beer...-and-pale-ales

https://blog.vailvalleyanglers.com/f...ter-the-hatch/