In my attempt to populate the world with more mountain bikers, I thought I would start at home! Most of you have probably already seen the thread on Johnny’s girlfriend aka. my future wife’s new bike. Yesterday we got the change to get it dirty for the first time at Blankets Creek in Woodstock, GA. Blankets Creek is probably the best beginner trail that I am aware of.
I think I have mentioned this before, but from time to time…I am going to post up the blogs that I read on a daily basis. These are some of the ones that I have found that have really caught my interest.
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 mountain biking community lost another passionate member yesterday during a race at Sea Otter. Mark Reynolds passed away from at heart attack (from what I understand so far) that happened during the race and caused a bad wreck over a bridge during the race.
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.
So the pictures that are coming out of our regular rides seem to be getting better and better with each ride. Somehow the bar has really been stepped up a notch lately, and I am pretty stoked about how great they have gotten.