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20 March »
Reviews »
Cory
Update (22 May 2006): I’ve finished up my review of the Minute: 04 and posted it online for your reading pleasure.
Answer Products is the company responsible for the Manitou suspension lineup. After a strong start in the early nineties, Manitou forks sort of ‘floated’ on the periphery of mainstream consciousness and stayed there until a few years ago. At that time, the company moved back strongly into the mountain bike market and started pumping out some excellent rear shocks, making noticeable inroads into all segments of the market.
The success of the company’s recently-discontinued Sherman models, thanks in part to Answer’s pioneering use of the 1.5″ steer tube, has contributed directly to the demand for extremely stiff single crown forks with travel equal to that found on double crown forks. In fact, the Manitou Travis Single Intrinsic boasts a whopping 203mm (8″) of travel — all in a single crown package. At the other end of the spectrum lays the newly minted Manitou R7, a lightweight cross country designed to fly over race courses worldwide. Weighing in at just over 3lbs and featuring either 80mm or 100mm of travel, the R7 features Manitou’s Snap Valve SPV, the standard Reverse Arch, and a lightweight crown.
Smack in the middle of the lineup, between the freeride-focused Travis line and the xc-oriented R7, are three versions of the Manitou Minute models. Featuring travel that tops out at 130mm and weights that range from 4 to 4.4lbs, the Minute forks are meant to slide into the enduro / trail market, with the Nixon taking care of the all mountain / light freeride crowd.
Recently, I picked up a 2006 Manitou Minute: 04 for my Giant Trance. In addition to having a number of features I was keen on using, I wanted to see how the Minute: 04 measured up to trail riding, BC style. I’ve been running the Minute for a few weeks and thought that it was time to let you in on a few of my early notes about the fork. Read the rest of this entry »
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Things are heating up on the news front as companies start generating the early buzz for the upcoming trade show season. Shimano and SRAM have each seen ‘leaked’ images of 2007 product making its way onto the web and other companies (like Magura) are following up so keep your eyes peeled in the coming weeks for these sort of posts. Our 2007 review schedule will start to fall into place, providing the weather starts to cooperate a little more than it has for the past few weeks.
Original content
On Monday, I posted up some of my initial thoughts on the Cannondale Prophet 4000. Tuesday was a continuation of Ashwin’s cross country skills series and Wednesday saw Guitar Ted delve a little further into the world of the 29″er. On Thursday, Dan posted an update on the activities of IMBA Canada and Denise gave us some information about the 2006 Sugoi Dirt Series.
Elsewhere on the ‘net
The director of Shimano Europe spoke with BikeBiz. Head on over to BikeMagic and post up your questions for Keith Bontrager. Bike Magazine has a review of the Yeti 575 trailbike. Purple Extreme offers a quick how-to on cleaning your bike in a hurry. Good stuff.
Everything you need to know about gyroscopes. Google Maps moves to Mars. If you’ve got some time to spare, try out Iron Sudoku.
Short and sweet roundup for this week — we have house guests for the next few days.
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16 March »
Events »
Denise
Hey Ladies! Looking to learn some new skills or improve on those that you already have in an encouraging and positive environment? This season the Sugoi Dirt Series will be offering 15-20 locations to pick from.
Beginnings: the origins of the Dirt Series
In 2000, the BC provincial government launched an initiative to bring more women into the sport of mountain biking and to encourage further those who were already committed to the sport. Since then the series has grown from an event that taught bike skills to women into one that now includes a couple of coed locations. Candace Shadley, the founder and director of the series, can still be found at select locations teaching skills to participants. Read the rest of this entry »
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Since the International Mountain Bike Association (IMBA) opened its doors in Canada two years ago, the interest level north of the border has been growing. I’m a member of IMBA and a big supporter of the efforts they’re making to improve existing trails and fight for access issues.
Starting today, we’ll be posting some monthly news from IMBA’s Canadian branch, which is located in Collingwood, Ontario. Each news item has a link at the end of it where you can get more information. Read the rest of this entry »
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Last year, Shimano’s Hone crankset was one of the best values in mountain biking. Of course, the price of these cranks (they can be had online for $165 usd) meant that they were out of stock for much of the season but, if you were able to get your hands on a set, you were probably pretty happy with the performance of the Hones.
Built around Shimano’s HollowTech II design and featuring external bottom bracket cups, the Hone crankset is strong, relatively light (they weigh about 930 grams — about 100 grams more than Shimano XTs), and durable. They’re a great option for value-minded riders who want to reap the benefits of the x-type crank system without dropping a ton of cash on a set of XTs or Race Face Atlas cranks.
Bike Magazine has a review of the Shimano Hone crankset that’s worth checking out. There are some interesting thoughts about chainring options and it sounds as though the reviewer really put the bash guard on his two ring setup through the paces.
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As we move towards spring and out of the dark of winter, reviews of gear that will be used during the upcoming 24 hour race season is starting to filter onto the web. BikeMagic has a review of the Cateye EL700 Triple Shot light that’s a must read if you’re considering a new set of lights for the upcoming season.
If you’re just getting into the scene or want to learn more about riding your bike in the dark, there are a bunch of decent starting points in The Biking Hub’s archives:
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In my first post, I discussed how the 29 inch wheel got its name and touched on its background a bit. This post will reveal the main reasons why the 29 inch wheel works for mountain biking. It is these benefits that drive the 29 inch wheel movement.
Angle of Attack
This section is not a treatise on military maneuvers. Rather, it is a description of how a wheel rolls over an object. Read the rest of this entry »
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Editor’s note: This is the fourth in Ashwin’s series of cross country biking skills. The first entry explored some basic basic concepts about bike handling, the second discussed the trackstand, and the third looked into rear wheel tracking.
Lifting your front and rear wheels off the ground is a good skill to have in your arsenal when you’re trying to ride over logs and ledges or attempting to perform the infamous bunny hop. Before we look at those specific skills I’m going to break down the movements associated with getting each individual wheel airborne.
Again, these write up are written from an xc perspective, but they are applicable skills for riders from any discipline. Read the rest of this entry »
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This past weekend, the Cannondale Demo tour made a stop in my backyard and I had the opportunity to hop on a 2006 bike for a couple of hours. Initially, my plan was to take three bikes out — the Rush, the Prophet, and the Gemini — but we received a dump of snow a few days before the event was scheduled to take place. The snow-covered ground meant that there wasn’t going to be a whole lot of pedalling on the day, and it also meant that I wasn’t going to make multiple trips up the mountain.
As I looked over the bikes that were available I quickly ruled out the Rush, since I wouldn’t have the chance to do it justice by climbing and it wouldn’t be as fun as the others for snowy descending. The Gemini was axed soon after that because I wasn’t particularly keen on pushing a big bike through 6 inches of crusty snow. In the end I settled onto the Prophet 4000, Cannondale’s high-end trail bike and headed up the hill. Read the rest of this entry »
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With the Taipei International Cycle Show wrapping up on Saturday, the sneak peek season is officially in motion. While both SRAM and Shimano let ’slip’ a glimpse of some 2007 over the past couple of weeks, more and more details are starting to show up on the ‘web.
VeloNews is first on the board with more details on SRAM’s 2007 group. Of note is the claim that SRAM’s X9 line will be relabeled as X7, something that is great for all of you blue collar riders out there. Unofficially, there’s going to be three new freeride forks from Rock Shox, including a lower priced model (Domain), a ‘light freeride’ version (Lyric), and a top-end model (Totem). Each of the forks is set to have oversized stanchions and the two higher priced versions have a load of external adjustments and damping options.
Also, VeloNews has the scoop on new items by Crank Bros., a word from American Classic on last year’s recall, some notes on new product from the tire companies, and photos of it all.
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