January 1995, with Bernie Tusko on the cover.
Bernie was our top test rider for MBA bike test photo shoots in the 1990’s and early 2000’s. He appeared on something like 25 different covers during that time. Ironically, Bernie almost never competed in mountain bike races. He was a speedway, flat-track motorcycle racer in Southern California who had incredible bike handling skills on both motorcycles and mountain bikes. MBA’s editor at that time, Richard Cunningham was also a speedway motorcycle racer, and he used to ride mountain bikes with Bernie, too. Richard was so impressed with Bernie’s mountain bike skills that he talked Bernie into becoming a test rider for our MBA so we could photograph him whenever we needed a good rider. After we tried him once, we kept on using him as much as we could. Bernie started the Cool Head visor business in the 1990s, but his main source of income now comes from his guitar-tuning tool business. Bernie’s nickname these days is “The Fret Guru,” which he earned because of his guitar-tuning tools. If you Google “Bernie Tusko, Fret Guru” you can find photos of him playing his guitar.
January 2005.
January 2007, with the Santa Cruz Superlight appearing in the action shot.
January 2010. The late Burry Stander scored the cover of our January 2010 issue.
Burry Stander was one of the top riders in mountain biking when he died in 2013, after being hit by a taxibus driver near his home in South Africa. His biography on Wikipedia includes the following information about Burry:
In the 2008 Summer Olympics, held in Beijing, Stander finished 15th in the cross-country mountain bike race.[1] In the 2012 Summer Olympics, held in London, Stander finished 5th in the cross-country mountain bike race.
Stander paired up with Christoph Sauser in 2009 for the Absa Cape Epic. Although the team only managed 6th place that year, they then came back in 2010 to claim 2nd place. Finally in 2011 Stander and Sauser finished in 1st place, making Stander the first South African rider to win the Absa Cape Epic. In 2012 the team were victorious once again, winning the Prologue and four of the seven stages of the marathon stage race.
Stander died on 3 January 2013 after being hit by a taxibus while finishing a training ride and returning to his Concept Cyclery Shop in South Africa. The KwaZulu-Natal minibus taxi driver who struck Stander down was convicted of culpable homicide on 17 April 2015 at the Port Shepstone Magistrates Court, and was sentenced to three years in prison.[2]
January 2013— with Brandon Semenuk on the cover.
January 2015, with the Pivot Mach 4 on the cover.
January 2020
Did you notice that Intense bikes made the cover in both January 2005 and 2020. Their mixed-wheel, mullet setup of 2020 showcased the brand’s introduction of their 29/27.5-inch-wheeled Intense Primer.
How will bikes change over the next 20 years? Will 32-inch wheels take over cross-country racing, or will 29-inch wheels still reign supreme? We’ll have to wait and see.