Toby Hill

Toby Hill

A writer and editor with more than 20 years of publishing experience, Toby is one of the newest members of the BRAIN editorial team. His resume includes several years on the news and business copy desk at Southern California's Orange County Register before moving on to edit several entertainment and business trade publications, including Showbiz Daily and The Hollywood Reporter. As a longtime, though still woefully unskilled mountain biker, he is a frequent patron of the emergency rooms and urgent care facilities near BRAIN’s home base of Laguna Hills. And while his medical payments have helped adorn the schooners and yachts of several prominent orthopedic surgeons in the community, Toby has never been invited for so much as a harbor cruise. He lives in the mountain bike mecca of Fullerton—home of the famed and deadly Fullerton Loop—with his wife, daughter and two dogs.

All articles by Toby Hill

December 13, 2018
The Aventon Kijote chromoly adventure bike retails for $599.

CITY OF INDUSTRY, Calif. (BRAIN) — Avant Sports' Justin Christopher views the fixed-gear market much like the BMX market: It's hot for a couple years, then cold. Then hot again, and cold again. That's one reason why Avant's Aventon brand expanded beyond track and other fixed-gear bikes this year to offer its first geared bikes: a drop-bar adventure model and a commuter e-bike.

Posted in Product/Tech
December 7, 2018

MARIN, Calif. (BRAIN) — The Marin Municipal Water District will hold a public workshop next week regarding e-bike use in the watershed the agency manages on Mt. Tamalpais, widely regarded as the birthplace of mountain biking, and a local retailer is urging e-bike riders and supporters to participate in and speak at the forum.

Posted in Industry News
December 3, 2018

RICHMOND, Calif. (BRAIN) — Cycle Monkey on Monday announced a new partnership with Nicolai Bicycles to bring the German mountain bike brand’s line of handmade custom and standard-size aluminum framesets to the U.S. market — selling consumer direct and also offering sales to interested dealers.

Posted in Industry News
November 26, 2018

BENTONVILLE, Ark. (BRAIN) — Attendees of the 2016 IMBA World Summit who returned to Northwest Arkansas this October for the advocacy group's Dirty 30 anniversary celebration had a nice surprise waiting for them: more than a hundred miles of new trails that weren't around when they visited just two years earlier.

It doesn't take a CPA to figure out the rate of growth.

Posted in Industry News
November 22, 2018

TRUCKEE, Calif. (BRAIN) — A family need inspired outdoor industry veteran Brandon Dodd to launch Ride Concepts, a new player in mountain bike shoes. Two years ago his son, age 8 at the time and to this day an avid downhill mountain biker, was damaging his feet on big jumps.

Posted in Product/Tech
November 9, 2018

RED WING, Minn. (BRAIN) — Industry companies in the Upper Midwest are lending their support to a local community college's new engineering program focused on the design and fabrication of bicycles and their components.

Posted in Industry News
November 2, 2018

BENTONVILLE, Ark. (BRAIN) — Organizers of a new electric bike festival coming to the cycling destination of Bentonville next year hope to bring together thought leaders both inside and outside the industry to address the industry’s challenges and spur new innovation, with e-bikes as a key element in jump-starting market growth.

Posted in Industry News
October 8, 2018
Project321’s own aftermarket Super Boost rear hub

BEND, Ore. (BRAIN) — Many consumers and even bike retailers may not have heard of the Project321 brand before last week. But the Bend, Oregon-based component maker got a shot of name recognition when Crankbrothers announced at the start of October that its new Synthesis line of front- and rear-tuned carbon wheels would include Project321 hub internals.

Posted in Industry News
September 20, 2018
Rivendell's new Gus Boots-Willsen

RENO, Nev. (BRAIN) — For the first time since it began selling lugged steel custom bikes in 1994, Rivendell Bicycle Works is exhibiting at Interbike. The company, which is based in Walnut Creek, California, has historically sold mostly consumer direct, first by catalog mail order and later online.

Posted in Industry News
September 17, 2018
The San Diego brand launched its latest Peter Sagan editions of its sunglasses just before the Tour de France this summer.

SAN DIEGO (BRAIN) — This summer 100% released its latest Peter Sagan special edition sunglasses — the brand has worked with the ProTour superstar since December 2016 — just before the opening stage of the Tour de France.

Posted in Product/Tech

Pages