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2006 mountain bike trends
A couple of days ago, Feed The Habit published an article about their 2005 mountain bike Gear of the Year which featured products by Dakine, Maxxis, SRAM, and Titec. I’m not out to debate the merits of the list — every item would be a welcome addition to my “collection” of gear — but it did get me thinking a bit about mountain biking in my neck of the woods.
Mountain biking in my area leans less towards cross country than it does towards freeride and all-mountain riding so my bias will be towards the arena with which I’m familiar. So without further adieu, I offer my take on what’s going to be In for mountain biking in 2006:
5″ and 6″ all-mountain bikes with true all-mountain geometry
For me, “all mountain” means riding all of the trails on a mountain, jumps and drops included. Currently, choosing a great all-round, all-mountain bike is all about give and take; for many of the all mountain bikes currently on the market, you need to choose between an efficient cross-country style climber like the Giant Reign and a more capable descender. Solid examples of this type of bike are the Specialized Enduro, the Rocky Mountain Slayer, the Norco Fluid, and the Turner Five Spot.
And while bikes like the Santa Cruz Nomad and the soon to be available Intense 6.6 push the travel envelope while remaining capable climbers, they do bump overall build weight up to about 33-35lbs (depending on the burliness of the build), which is likely a touch too heavy for people looking to abandon their cross country racing pretensions and move into something more “comfortable”.
5″ and 6″ single crown forks
This one’s sort of a hold over from this year, but I think that people, particularly out here in BC, are just starting to realize that they don’t actually need that Monster T on their bike. Forks like the RockShox Pike, the Fox 36, and the Marzocchi Z1 are changing the way many riders approach “freeride”. And for the record I own a Monster T, and while I love it on many of the steep, gnarly trails in my area, I rarely use it these days.
X-Type / external bearing cranksets
Even though they’ve been around for a couple of years, the benefits of X-Type cranksets are just now trickling down into product lines like Shimano’s LX group. Aside from the fact that they look great and are reasonably inexpensive, these things are so much easier to install and maintain than ISIS or square-taper systems that it’s not even funny. Kind of like:
SRAM shifting systems for mountain bikes
I’ve ridden Shimano for years and, until the last couple of years, they’ve been far and above the competition. Now I can go to my local shops and see a superior alternative spec’d on a bunch of bikes without being concerned about their long term durability or performance.
Update (9 September 2005): Jonathan Maus has started a similar topic on his site, Just Riding Along. Check it out for another take on industry trends from someone more in the know than me.