News broke yesterday that THE pioneering 24-hour mountain bike race, the 24 Hours of Big Bear, is canceled for 2010.

Granny Gear Productions, based in Davis, West Virginia, points to an un-friendly economic climate as a major factor in the decision to cancel the race this year. Laird Knight, founder and head of Granny Gear Productions, also stresses that the event is not finished for good. Knight plans to simply “reset” the event by taking some time to assess things and see how it can be improved for the future: “By taking a breather, I can set up a good marketing program to grow the event for 2011.”

Granny Gear Productions’ 24 Hours of 9-Mile, scheduled for July 31 and August 1, 2010 in 9-Mile Forest, Wisconsin, has also been canceled. However, Knight wants everyone to be sure the cancellation of Big Bear and 9-Mile will now allow him and his staff to devote even more energy to the 24 Hours of Moab, set for October 9th and 10th. The 24-Hour National Mountain Bike Championships were originally going to run along side of the 24 Hours of Big Bear. As a result, the Championships will now run concurrently with the 24 Hours of Moab.

The 24 Hours of Big Bear was to be held over the weekend of June 13th and 14th. Since the race is canceled, Knight is tentatively planning on inviting anyone who’s interested to the site of the race for a weekend of riding the trails and course, and to participate in a very grassroots and informal feedback session about the race. Check the Granny Gear web site for more info in the coming weeks for that.

The 24 Hours of Big Bear began life in 1992 as the 24 Hours of Canaan, the original 24 hour mountain bike race in the United States. The event remained in the Canaan Valley, albeit in a couple different venues, until 2000 when it moved to Snowshoe Mountain Ski Resort in Snowshoe, WV. In 2005, the event moved to Big Bear Lake Camplands near Hazelton, WV.

Along with Granny Gear staff, Knight grew his 24-hour mountain bike racing empire to include events all over the country: Georgia (24 Hrs of Conyers), Vermont (24 Hrs of Killington), Utah (24 Hours of Moab), California (24 Hours of Temecula, 24 Hours of Tahoe, 24 Hours of Donner Pass) and Missouri (24 Hrs of Landahl), among others.

Here’s a gallery of photos from the 2008 24 Hours of Big Bear.

Dirt Rag and these events grew up together, and we have a lot of memories from the races over the years. Leave a comment below to share yours.

We have some fantastic news coming out of the National Bike Summit in Washington, DC this morning. The League of American Bicyclists is reporting that Google Maps has finally added a “bike there” option to the choices of directions between to locations.

According to the press release from the League of American Bicyclists:

“This new feature includes: step-by-step bicycling directions; bike trails outlined directly on the map; and a new “Bicycling” layer that indicates bike trails, bike lanes, and bike-friendly roads. The directions feature provides step-by-step, bike-specific routing suggestions – similar to the directions provided by our driving, walking, or public transit modes. Simply enter a start point and destination and select “Bicycling” from the drop-down menu. You will receive a route that is optimized for cycling, taking advantage of bike trails, bike lanes, and bike-friendly streets and avoiding hilly terrain whenever possible.”

If you’re reading this article, chances are you’re as excited about this as we are. Not only is this a great tool for planning rides and commutes, but it also gives yet another example of the visibility, impact and importance of cycling. Like Andy Clarke, President of the League of American Bicyclists says, “It is a game-changer…”

You can see all of this in action, along with a cool little video and some instructions here.

Are you excited about this? How will this impact your riding and/or commuting? Let us know your thoughts by adding a comment below.

Minneapolis is always a good place to be. I’d say MPLS or minneapplepuss or whatever you wanna call it is the city with the strongest bike culture in these United States. Geno at One On One Bicycle Studio , Hurl at Car R Coffins Coffee Bar and Cykel Garage and so on, well ya can’t go wrong, even in the middle of a close-to-arctic winter. These guys make the rest of us look like pansies. I’m talking the whole MPLS community mind you. While MPLS has a luxurious system of bike paths as well as singletrack, just take a look at what we’re dealing with here on the ride home from a party at Angry Catfish, the latest in the Bikes and Coffee bizness. Solid, glaring, black ice…

Somehow I managed to not fall down on that ride home. This gave me a feeling of great self-satisfaction I’ll tell ya. Man’s got skills. But this piece is supposed to be about Frostbike, an annual mini-Interbike held at Quality Bicycle Products in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington. “Q” distributes bicycle parts to bicycle shops who then distribute the parts to you. They have grown from a few page catalog (1981) to one that is five inches thick and encomapasses two volumes. Here’s a display of the history of “Q” catalogs…

Many of QBP’s suppliers were in attendance. Salsa (A brand owned by QBP) showed off their line of Titanium hardtails, available in 2-six, 2-nine and cross. Sweet graphics lazer-etched into the downtube. Made at the Lynskey factory and retailing for $1800…

Salsa also showed a sweet rigid fork with a Maxle thru-axle. Here Ed from SRAM shows the fork and it’s required damping cartridge….

Speaking of Sram, they have a sweet new road kit for the budget minded, Apex…

I took a few photos mind you, not too many, so I’m just showing you a few things that I thought or someone told me were interesting. Like this Swingline Office Hauler garment pannier from Pacific Outdoor. You can put a fine suit in there and arrive at the office looking like a pro, as long as you have somewhere to change…

Lazer has a new helmet with an integral water feed device. Designed to cool your jets without getting water in your eyes.

The Hive has these sweet looking cranks that remind me of the old Grove Innovations design back in the day…

Ever look inside a Rohloff hub? Sweeeeeet….

And Andrea from Brooks showed off their sweet Oxford Rain Cape. While completely waterproof, it rolls up to take a very small space under your saddle. $300 retail…

The Surly booth is still the place to be. Although the prohibition on alcohol made happy hour patrons unhappy…

So those are a few things I saw at Frostbike. Here’s a shot of the QBP building. While miles from the city it is about as bike friendly as it can be…

Much like Minneapolis. The Midtown Greenway I rode home that one night has a very expensive bicycle and pedestrian bridge. Sweet Infrastructure stuff like this makes all the difference…

Bib and I wish you good day!

The 8th annual U.S. Open of Mountain Biking returns to Diablo Freeride Park in Vernon, NJ on May 27th through 30th, 2010. With a rich cash and prize payout valued at nearly $60,000, the event attracts big names from around the world.

The event’s PRO/AM format gives amateur athletes the unique opportunity to compete against the world’s elite gravity racers—providing the ultimate proving ground for racers looking to measure themselves against world-class standards.

The Kenda Downhill race will be capped at 450 total competitors, with 150 qualifying spots allocated to the Pro Men’s category and 300 dedicated to the Men’s Amateur categories. The Kenda Giant Slalom event will be capped at 125 competitors, with 125 spots reserved for Men’s Amateur categories. The Women’s fields are uncapped.

Due to the popularity of the U.S. Open of Mountain Biking, pre-registration is highly recommended. For more information and to register visit www.usopen-mtb.com.

As the calendar flips to March, the action in the Dirt Rag online event schedule is heating up. One can only hope that spring-like temperatures are not far behind.

We invite you to join us as the Dirt Rag / Bicycle Times 2010 World Tour rolls into the Seattle Bike Expo on March 13-14th. Or scan the list and find an event near you and roll your own tour.

If you’re a promoter and you’re wondering why your event is not on this list, it’s probably because you did not send the information to our Vice President in Charge of Event Listings. If that’s the case, then click here to email the V.P. with the details on your upcoming events, so we can list them in the future.

We’re in the van on the way home from another successful NAHBS adventure, but I wanted to post today’s photos for your viewing pleasure. Sure is amazing to see that much raw talent under one roof. These guys really do represent the best of the best.

If you haven’t seen them, check out Friday’s and Saturday’s photos, too.