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

June 22, 2017
The new Pivot Les 27.5 hardtail.

PARK CITY, Utah (BRAIN) — Pivot had been scheduled to unveil the revamp of its Mach 4 Carbon model at Eurobike. But a robust early selling season for the original version of the lightweight 27.5-inch, 115-millimeter-travel bike, which debuted here at PressCamp three years ago, accelerated the time table.

Posted in Industry News
April 21, 2017
Kona's Remote plus-size e-MTB

MONTEREY, Calif. (BRAIN) —Don't pin the "adventure bike" tag on Kona’s new generation of road-plus-tired, disc brake Rove bikes. “It’s more our take on an endurance road bike than it is on something like an adventure bike,” product manager Ian Schmitt says.

Posted in Product/Tech
April 20, 2017

MONTEREY, Calif. (BRAIN) — X-Fusion is closing its U.S. headquarters in California and moving customer support to an outside facility in Reno, Nevada — a move necessitated by the costly construction of a new dedicated factory for the suspension brand in Taichung, Taiwan.

Posted in Industry News
February 28, 2017

SAN FRANCISCO (BRAIN) — Retailer Summit Bicycles, with five brick-and-mortar stores in the Bay Area and Silicon Valley, has signed on to Beeline Bikes’ Retail Partner Program to launch a fleet of seven mobile bike shops serving customers from San Francisco to Santa Cruz, California.

Posted in Retail News
February 16, 2017
H3 Publications owner Dave House in a BRAIN archive photo from 2005

VALENCIA, Calif. (BRAIN) — H3 Publications owner Dave House has closed down industry titles Decline and Road after a 13-year run. The staff of six employees at H3's headquarters in Southern California were let go Tuesday morning, sources said.

Posted in Industry News
December 8, 2016

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. (BRAIN) — With a sharp focus on the use of composites in bicycles and cycling accessories — from materials selection and optimization to manufacturing processes, safety testing, repair and, ultimately, recycling — the second annual Cyclitech bike technology conference drew 145 industry engineers, presenters and sponsors.

Posted in Product/Tech
October 25, 2016
The Dealer Tour crew makes its way to The Bike Gallery in Charlotte.

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (BRAIN) — The opening day of Bicycle Retailer's Carolinas Dealer Tour was short on mileage but long on diversity of retailers as our dozen-strong contingent of editors and sponsors pedaled 11 miles of streets and bike paths in Charlotte, one of the fastest-growing cities in the nation.

Posted in Retail News
August 5, 2016
Component maker says it wants to avoid market confusion with Gravity Dropper brand.

MUKILTEO, Wash. (BRAIN) — FSA announced it will stop using its Gravity mountain bike brand for its adjustable-height seatposts to prevent confusion with rival brand Gravity Dropper.

Posted in Industry News
July 13, 2016

Editor’s note: This clarifies a story previously posted on July 11.  

Posted in Industry News
June 21, 2016

LYNDONVILLE and EAST BURKE, Vt. (BRAIN) — Go to any consumer bike event, and it’s not difficult to find at least someone with a gripe about it: “Too few demo bikes.” “Not enough bathrooms.” “The weather always sucks.” “Swag was weak.” But it was all smiles and uniformly good vibes this past weekend as NEMBAfest staged the 19th edition of its “celebration of summer and all things mountain biking” in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom.

Posted in Industry News

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