SRAM is planning something big for 2008. Word on the street is the front derailleur will be a part of the past.

he shake-down ride actually ended up being a time trail at Big Creek’s Two Ways in a Day. Big Creek is a Atlanta local trail that provides great insight on how a bike will act in tight, twisty, quick up with quick down situations. As you can see by the elevation map, you really don’t get a break at this place when you are going for the lowest time. The trail still, even after all of the traffic it receives, has loose rocks and steep climbs.

The second annual Big Creek – Two Ways in a Day time trail was yesterday and they saw a great turn out. RAMBO, the Roswell Alpharetta Mountain Biking Organization (division of SORBA), puts on this event at the Big Creek mountain biking part in Roswell, GA.

can not wait for this one to come out. The Collective is releasing Seasons in April. This is from the same guys who brought you Roam which is one of the best mountain biking videos ever made.

With its new duo of long-travel bikes, Cannondale returns to the cross-country/trail bike battlefield dominated by the likes of Specialized, Marin and Giant.

Steve Stickel is a name that many of you probably don’t know…but should. His custom frames are hand made out of Asheville, NC and have incredible craftsmanship. For those of you local to the Atlanta area, you can see Lonestar’s white 26″ singlespeed made by Steve at the local trial head. LS will be the first to tell you how great the frame really is. Custom touches, like brake rotors used as gusseting, really set his frames apart from others I have seen.

SRAM’s X.0 rear derailleur went through a redesign for 2008. The most visual of these changes is the new 20th anniversary gold accenting on the mounting bolt and graphics. What you will also see is a new 6061 aluminum backing to the carbon Blackbox cage.

Brian Lopes’s recent announcement of a sponsorship deal with Ibis caught many of us by surprise. Much speculation quickly followed suit regarding which Ibis models he’d be riding. Bike magazine HQ happens to be right around the corner from Casa de Lopes so last week he swung by our office to give us a complete tour of his new quiver.

Mountain Bike Action just did a great write-up on the El Ciclon. For those of you that don’t know…the El Ciclon is the 5″ travel bike in the Ventana line-up.