My reviews on bikes and parts.
Had a very interesting morning yesterday. It all started with a bright-and-early 7 A.M. breakfast with a representative of SRAM (which was super fun to wake up for after the premiere of and party for Kranked 7: The Cackle Factor held Sea Otter in Monterey over the weekend).
Some time ago, on our local board we had a “discussion” on the pros and cons of square taper bottom brackets vs. external bearing bottom brackets. The mountain biking crowd has basically split into two camps.
1. Square Taper Devotees
2. External Bearing (X-Type) Riders
Fred at Wolfhound Cycles hooked me up with a set of sandblasted and powder coated XT cranks to go on the Terremoto. The black powder coat matches the frame exactly. I really couldn’t have asked for a better crankset for this frame.
Ok…so here is the story. For awhile now, Jenn (my other half…and the better half) has been wanting to get into riding. As you can imagine…I am all for this, but with the wedding coming up and other expenses, she didn’t think she would be getting a bike any time soon. With the help of Chad at Red Barn Bikes, I surprised her with her first real mountain bike.
I think we have some great things to look forward to over the next year. These releases should make Interbike very interesting. I expect to see even more 650B offerings along with complete lineup changes from the major fork manufacturers.
Overall, the forks look great even if I don’t agree with going to 15mm. Fox has consistently put out high quality products, so we are safe to say these will be as well. It does appear that they are adding more features that the Rock Shox users have gotten used to for several years now.
The big news here is that the 120mm Reba rumors are true. This will make a lot of riders very happy in the 29er and 26er market. With the increased travel on the Revelation and 20mm option…you have to wonder…what will happen to the Pike line? I guess we will find out soon enough, but in the meantime…SRAM continues to raise the bar in suspension forks. ’08/’09 should be extremely exciting.
I run the Syncros Bulk bars, so I am really excited to see new products in the Syncros line. I also think I have found the pedals that I have been looking for. Those will work out great on the 6″ bike for DH/FR duty. Their “grunge” graphics will take some getting used to, but they are already starting to grow on me.
Here’s the new Magura Marta SL Magnesium. For the first time, Magura has used magnesium for a lever body – which helps drop the weight for the system below the fabled 300g a brake mark. The Marta is intended to be a versatile brake, rather than the high-end XC pitch of its predecessor – and will work with 160/180 and 203 rotors.
Trek ushered all of the UK journos into a prefab VW garage at the Sea Otter to unveil their latest bike. It’s a 200mm frame platform that contains nearly every acronym and catchphrase they make. It has an E2 tapered headtube, an EVO-Link, Full Floater suspension and an Active Braking Pivot… Fortunately, after all that, it actually looks fantastic and a bike we’re keen to get to play on soon.