Our Mission

Looking at, and promoting, a more mature, enjoyable and philosophical side to life on the bike (especially but not exclusively mountain bikes)  from a broader aspect than the mainstream ‘tabloid’ bike media. Our opinions are ours based on what we, not advertisers want us to, think – we do what we do because that’s the way we think it should be done. We don’t exist report on the latest and greatest V100.5 of big brand X, preferring to search out ideas, people, organisations and brands that offer something unique to the community.

Twenty Six Inches is owned and operated by:

Design Ronin Pty Ltd

ABN: 56 866 215 913

The People??

Since 2001, Twentysix Inches has had a dedicated number of people that have pushed it along. Over the years some came and some left but the flow has been low and those that put their hand up tend to stick around.

While there continue to me various folk contributing, behind the helm today you’ll find two key people:

G, founding conspirator, man behind Lab-Gear and wearer of many hats.

Riding, in the sense of more than around or to the local shops, since 1983 and on a mountain bike since 1987, bikes of many forms have been a constant in his life, though today you’ll finding riding a bike designed 20 years ago… “because it’s just so damn good”.

Having lived in Southern California during the hey day of the Mountain Bike boom in the early to mid 90′s, he was forever infected with an anodised fetish and love of bikes with boing.

Trained as a product designer and having worked in a vast range of fields, from moto design to web design, these days he splits his time between designing for and running Lab-Gear, working as design director for US based Mountain Cycle and doing Twenty Six Inches ‘stuff’ amongst other things…. His personal ‘site-o-crap’ can be found [here].

Sammydog aka Lenny… Man of mystery, trail building legend

Sammydog, or Lenny to those fortunate enough to claim to know the mythical man, has allegedly been hitting the trails since the early 90′s. Some may dispute the fact that he actually rides, however on rare occasions he can still be found on a trail riding one of his beloved Proflex bikes.

Lenny can’t help but stick his fingers into places they don’t belong, and probably weren’t really wanted in the first place, and has spent time as the President HMBA  for multiple years, the NSW rep on the MTBA committee, NSWMTB trails advocacy officer and consultative committee member for the Glenrock State Conservation Area. One theory doing the rounds is that Lenny does all this to divert attention from the fact that he doesn’t really know how to ride a bike.

Lenny has a passion for trail advocacy though and if asked will quickly point out his main contributions to the lifestyle of mountainbike have been the retention of trails in the Glenrock area (and subsequent positive relationship with the NPWS) and the development of the Awaba mountainbike park.

Never one to turn down free stuff, lenny can be contacted at ……….with sponsorship offers.

A brief History:

Twenty Six Inches has a history stretching way back to the very first websites about mountain biking on the Internet in Australia and possibly the world as while it only became known as 26inches.com in 2003, the concept, and the content go back to 1995.

1995: Scotty Taylor and his friend Robert Saunders release Oz on Dirt, a personal website about mountain biking in Australia. It’s the first ever dedicated mountain biking web site in Australia and among the first in the world, the site continues to run until 2000 when Scotty closes it down.

Early 2001: G purchases a Sydney based trails database from a small site that was closing down. The database has the most comprehensive list of trails to ride in and around Sydney at the time and still has not been equaled at a local level.

Mid 2001: Scotty Taylor and G meet via the mtb-oz email list, also running since the mid 90′s. The owner, John Stevenson, agrees to allow G to use the domain mtb-oz.com, and a web site is set up.

2002: Scotty and G have several meetings over beers in Sydney and redesign the way the webiste works. An automated database back end is added, allowing staff contributors to update content and some of the old Oz on Dirt content is revived with new content from G and Scotty and others is added. The site rapidly becomes the single biggest 100% independent online publication for mountain biking in Australia, with weekly articles added from a range of contributors.

2003: 26inches.com is born in March, after the owner of mtb-oz did not want the domain used for a commercial web site. A forum is added and the site grows steadily. Scotty and G develop the idea of making video content for the web site and CD subscription to support the site.

2004: A business is formed, 3 CD’s and a DVD are released with much help from the 26inches community. The first ever 12 Hours of Darkness is run, an Australian mountain biking first. It is held without backing of a club, in a place that never has, and never will again host a 12 hour overnight race, on a track that nobody had ever ridden, or ever will again. Several live bands play through the night and saw half the riders down their bikes and take to dancing in -4 degrees C. No money is made, nor any lost, fun is had, lessons are learned.

2005: The success of the first race leads to another, however learning from mistakes through feedback, the race is relocated within Canberra and turned into the 18 hour EnduroFest, the first of its kind again with top local live music playing through the night. Unfortunately the turnout is lower that expected, so it is decided that it would be the last race.

2006: Scotty becomes increasingly involved with the BMX community, leaving the day to day operations of 26inches.com to G. Rather than closing 26inches.com entirely, Gt takes on the expenses of 26inches.com as sponsor and 26inches.com as an independent business is closed. The 26inches.com website continues on and the 12 Hours of Darkness is revived with the assistance of the Southern Highlands MTB Club and holds its first race successfully at Penrose State Forest, situated halfway between Sydney and Canberra. It is decided that live entertainment and mountain bike events will never mix, no matter how hard we stir.

2007: 26inches.com moves to a new faster local server platform, switches forum platforms. It also receives a major update in December.

2009: G takes 26inches.com and transfers it to twentysixinches.com, representing a new leaf in the life of the site. With almost 10 years behind running 26inches, and sensing a desire for something more than the lifeless tabloid approach to bike and mountain bike life (in particular), G teams up with Lenny aka Sammydog to launch ‘twentysixinches.com …the endless ride’.

2010: G and Sammydog decide to tone it down and get more personal with the site, while putting the VVC event front and centre.

By Scotty Taylor edited by G