About Dialed for Dirt
This is a resource for riders who take the sport seriously but live in the real world. You have a job. Probably a family. You train when you can, which is not as much as you'd like. You race — or want to — and you care about doing it well.
If that's you, you're in the right place.
Who's behind it
My name is Kevin Brannan. I started riding mountain bikes in the 90s, took a long break, and — yep — COVID brought me back into the scene. Picked up gravel more recently, and got conned by friends into building and riding singlespeed MTB. Backpacking is probably next. It's a slippery slope.
I'm based in northern New Jersey, the land of punchy climbs and where rock gardens are our flow trails. I ride a Rocky Mountain Instinct C70 for trail work and an Obed Boundary for gravel, with the Kona Sultra LTD currently strapped into the trainer. I'll be dipping into singlespeed racing this year on my Canfield Nimble 9 — starting with the H2H Mayhem in the Pine Barrens, with SSWC on the calendar. I use TrainerRoad to keep structure in my training when life gets in the way of big outdoor weeks, which is often.
By day I'm a brand and marketing executive with 25+ years in consumer electronics and gaming. I've spent a career helping brands figure out what they actually stand for and how to talk to the people who care. That background informs how I think about gear, training, and what makes information actually useful versus just filling space.
I'm not a coach. I'm definitely not a sponsored athlete. I'm a pretty competitive weekend warrior with a data-driven approach to preparation and strong opinions about gear — developed from actually buying and riding it, not from press samples (call me!).
What you'll find here
Training and preparation content built around real constraints. Honest gear takes on things I've actually ridden. Resource pages that save you time finding good stuff. Race reports from events I actually do. The occasional opinion on something worth having an opinion about.
The tone is rider-to-rider. If it sounds like a text from a riding buddy who just got back from a race, that's intentional.
Stay in the loop
The newsletter is the best place to follow along — training insights, gear takes, and dispatches from whatever race I just survived, before they hit the site.
Questions, recommendations, or want to tell me I'm wrong about something? Reach out at hello@dialedfordirt.com.