Monday Blues: RIP Dirt Rag Mag

I accumulated quite a collection of Dirt Rags over the years, enough that I could not keep them all on the shelves of the library. They, just started to take up too much space, and the oldest ones got shifted to the inevitable plastic storage bins in the garage.

Their stories took me to places I likely will never have the opportunity to ride, they introduced me to the wares of some of the most creative builders in the mountain bike world, they provided examples of some quality, and exciting, writing, the art and photographs of the "riders' eye" gave me something to aspire to, and attempt to equal.

Arriving home from work this evening, and sitting back down in front of another computer, I noticed a disturbing headline at the top of my reading list; it was over at RKP and simply said "RIP Dirt Rag." I was sorry to read that Dirt Rag will no longer be published, that the last of its pages has been flipped. I suppose it is partly my own fault, after all it was some years ago that I let my subscription lapse; picking up the occasional copy at the nearest bookstore was perhaps less smart economically for both myself and the Rag.

I would like to say that print will, sooner or later, make a comeback, and that some new magazine will come along attempting to take up the slack left by the demise of Dirt Rag. I can't see it anytime soon though, and I think that those riders among us who prefer the feel of paper to the glare of a screen (and in some way is that not all of us, I mean we ride as much for the tactile feel and rush of the real world as anything), are just a little more diminished today.