Dab - to put a foot down to prevent toppling over.

Damping - - the process of controlling suspension action, without which a suspended fork would bounce like a pogo stick

Death Cookies - fist-sized rocks that knock your bike in every direction but the one you want to proceed in.

Death March - a ride that turns into an investigation of your endurance limit. "The bridge was out, and I had to go all the way back the way I came. So the morning's nice, easy ride turned into a Bataan death march."

De Mattei - US Olympic bronze medallist. The nicest lady in the sport (making Dave Weins, her hubby, the luckiest guy) and - best of all - a mommy by the time you read this. Congrats, Susan and Dave.

Derailleur - - a lever-activated mechanism that pushes the chain off of one sprocket and onto another, thus changing the gear ratio

DFL - Nobody wants to finish there, but plenty of us do. Good for the soul

Dialed In - when a bike is set up nicely and everything works just right.

Diamond frame - - the traditional men's bicycle frame, the principal parts of which form a diamond shape

Digger - a face plant. "Look at that guy on that gnarly single track... he's going to go over the bars and do a digger."

Dirt Bike - an off-road motorcycle. Usually louder than MTBs

Dirt jumping - A BMX discipline that gets to the essence of mountain biking. Build a giant mound in your back yard or a vacant lot. Ride up it as fast as you can. Fly as far as you can. Do weird shit while you're airborne. Then stick the landing. Whee! You're a kid again.

Disc brakes - They're almost there. When they are - next year, maybe the year after - you'll want them. Why? Better stopping. Easier to maintain and set up. And completely logical as bikes evolve into more sophisticated machines (see entry under "Mafac."

Dish - - offsetting of the hub in a rear wheel on a derailleur bike to make room for the cassette and still allow the wheel to be centered within the frame

Domestique - a racer who sacrifices individual results to work for the team leaders.

Do-rag - There's one on every trail - some major freak wearing a bandanna around his head. Why would anybody want to do this? News flash: you're ugly. Unfortunately, the headbanders now have a personal hero: Frenchman Laurent Brochard, 1997 world road champion, who - in an astonishing display of bad taste - wears one of these all the time. What, they ran out of berets?

Double-crown fork - - a type of suspension fork that resembles a motorcycle fork due to crowns above and below the head tube, which increase stiffness

Downhill bike - - a bike designed for racing down mountains; features include long-travel dual suspension frame, great brakes, single chainring, long saddle and riser handlebars

Down tube - - the frame tube running from the headset to the bottom bracket, one part of the main triangle on a bicycle frame

Down tube shift levers - - shift levers that are mounted to the down tube of the bike (old style)

D-ring - - a D-shaped ring found on some models of shift levers, used to adjust the level of tension on the inner parts of the lever

Drafting - - tucking in closely behind another rider so he/she’ll break the wind saving you energy (see wheelsucker)

Drillium - any part with lots of holes drilled in it to make it lighter.

Drivetrain - - the derailleurs, chain, freewheel, and crankset of a bike

Drop - - the vertical distance from the horizontal line connecting the two wheel axles and the bottom bracket, one way of determining the location of the bottom bracket in relation to therest of the bicycle frame

Dropout -  a slot in the frame into which the rear wheel axle fits (see fork tips)

Dropout hanger -  a threaded metal piece that extends below the right rear dropout, used as a mount for the rear derailleur

Drops - the lower, straight portion of a turned-down-type handlebar

Drugs - They're there, they make a difference. Too bad the UCI wants to save the sport from the dangers of modern technology instead of chemical-enhanced performance.

Doubletrack - a wide path that looks like parallel singletrack. Also called a jeep trail.

Downhill - an off-road event usually contested at ski areas. Fastest rider to the bottom wins.

Dualie - another term used for dual-suspension bike

Dual slalom - similar to skiing, in which riders maneuver around gates on a short downhill course..

Dual-suspension bike - a bike with front and rear suspension

Dual-Track - a dirt road used by four-wheeled vehicles rarely enough that their tires have made ruts that became parallel singletracks. Also called doubletrack.

Dump - crash

Dustcap - a metal or plastic cap that fits into a hub shell to keep contaminants out of hub bearings; a metal or plastic end cover for a axle in a pedal or a cotterless crankset.