Whenever I am doing a build, there is only one brand I go to for my seatpost and stem needs…L.H. Thomson Co.. Located in Macon, GA USA, the L.H. Thomson Company makes, by far, the best posts and stems on the market.

So what am I referring to? It is a great idea to carry an extra full water bottle with you on your longer rides. This little tip has helped me through some of the most brutal rides I can remember. On a normal ride, I will carry my 100oz bladder full of water. This is normally perfect on any ride that I have done previously or I know will not end in a do or die feeling.

I am a huge fan of Hope brakes. As you can probably tell by most of the test bikes. For 2009, Hope is updating it’s line and getting rid of the Ti 6’s. This is the first sighting of the 2009 Mono Mini’s at Eurobike.

So here are a few pics of the all new, 2009 W.F.O. 9. This bike is for real but you’ll have to wait for early 2009 to get one. And so is the fork. We’re launching the W.F.O. with Marzocchi and their all new 2010 Marzocchi 44 29er fork.

Huge news from the first day of Eurobike. Dave Turner and Dave Weagle have teamed up to change the entire line of Turner Bikes over to the DW-Link. This is a gigantic change for Turner Bikes and it is the release that Weagle has been hinting towards for some time now.

Since this was my first experience with a recovery drink, my expectations were pretty low. I had often seen products like this in the past, and I often thought it was just a placebo effect. I was wrong. After every ride over the past month, I drank two scoops of the Tropical Escape Fluid Recovery drink out of a water bottle.

When I first heard this quote out of a motorcyclist’s mouth, I could immediately relate. There is something about two-wheeled motion that truly moves something inside of you. Those that don’t participate in this open wheeled bliss…just don’t understand.

If you are looking for an incredibly fast cross country machine…take the Evolve for a test ride. You will not be disappointed. This bike performs flawlessly for what it was designed for…fast, hammering xc singletrack. I had some friends throw a leg over the ride during this test session and on our local trails…the Evolve was hard to beat.

At lower pressures, you are going to notice more grip and a softer ride. You want to run the pressures low enough that you get these benefits but not so low that you get experience pinch flats. Pinch flats occur when the tire bottoms out on the rim pinching the tube between the ground and the rim. This punctures the tube and causes a flat.