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I know, I know. It’s a little early to post up news about 2007 product lineups, especially since we’re only a couple of months into 2006 BUT there are some images of the 2007 Shimano drivetrain stuff floating around the ‘net that are worth talking about. Keep in mind that the items in the following pages aren’t likely the same as what you’ll see in your LBS at the end of the year — I’d expect to see a few minor tweaks to the final design of the parts.
The best batch of photos that I could find is located on a Norwegian biking site — I expect full translations from all you readers based in Oslo — which has some good closeups of the 2007 Deore XT rear derailleur, and it looks absolutely gorgeous, with sweeping lines and a solid-looking body. And the XT triggers don’t look half bad either. For all of you who can’t stomach the price of the higher-end stuff, the site also has a bunch of pics of the LX and Deore components for you to drool over.
Update (27 February 2006): BikeMagic has a writeup on some of the pieces in the 2007 Shimano component lineup. Nothing new in the photo department but the words are in english, something that will help those of you out there who aren’t fluent in Norwegian.
Update (10 March 2006): Mountain Bike Action has some shots of the redesigned XT triggers, the 2007 Hone rear derailleur, and some other information about Shimano’s 2007 component lineup.
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This week we welcomed Guitar Ted into the fold and are looking forwards to his thoughts on 29ers, endurance racing, and cycling in general.
Original content
On Monday, Guitar Ted started up his discussion of the 29er, one that continues next week. For Tuesday, the third entry in Ashwin’s cross country skills series — it focused on rear wheel tracking — was posted online. Wednesday saw Denise’s initial impressions of North Shore Racks’ four-bike hitch rack, followed by Dan’s look at Cycling.tv.
Elsewhere on the ‘net
Jeff Kerkove has a short term review of the Diadora Team Racer MTB Carbon shoe. Carl Buchanan compares the Cannondale Rush with the Cannondale Prophet. bikecentric points us in the direction of the North American Handmade Bicycle Show.
BikeMagic has a review of the Marin Rock Springs trail bike and a review of the Schwalbe Ice Spiker tire, too. BikeMag.com reviews the Nokian Hakka WXC 300 studded tire. This dude paid to play.
Scientists shared their thoughts on the magma flowing beneath Yellowstone National Park. A team of American divers discovered a new species of crustacean — 7540 feet below sea level.
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Catching cycling on television in North America is spotty at best, so fans of the sport are often limited to on-again, off-again freeride shows or ancient footage on specialty networks like the Canadian Extreme Sports.
Unlike in Europe, where bike racing is often shown on Eurosport, racing footage on this side of the pond is virtually non-existent. The one exception to that rule, of course, is the Outdoor Life Network with its Tour de France coverage every July, but even that is in question now that Lance is out of the picture.
Personally I find watching cycling motivating while I’m sweating it out on the trainer in the middle of winter, but with such limited coverage the only option I had was to watch road racing or mountain bike footage on DVD. Now, however, there is another option for those of us looking for moving pictures. And best of all it’s free… well most of it anyway. Read the rest of this entry »
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8 March »
Reviews »
Denise
North Shore Racks is a family-owned business that was born and bred on the forested slopes of North Vancouver, BC. The company’s owners are avid riders who spend plenty of time moving their bikes around the Shore and to places like Whistler and Squamish.
When I arrived at North Shore Racks’ headquarters, located at the base of Mount Fromme, I was greeted by Malcolm, the company’s owner / designer, who had just finished a ride. Read the rest of this entry »
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Editor’s note: This is the third in Ashwin’s series of cross country biking skills. The second discussed the trackstand, and the first introduced some basic concepts about bike handling. These pieces have a cool, old-school feel to them — I hope you’re enjoying them as much as I am.
The Problem
Tell me if you have every experienced this? Huffing and puffing up a single track hill, at your limit. You spy a rock in the trail. Deftly, you steer around it, pleased with yourself for missing it. Then your rear wheel hits the rock and you stall because you have so little speed and momentum, and you unclip. Read the rest of this entry »
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Recently, the 29-inch wheeled mountain bike — the 29″er — has been creating a bit of a stir inside the mountain biking world. Perhaps you have heard of them or know someone who has one but, if you are like most mountain bikers, you probably are wondering what all the fuss is about. There are plenty of good, 26-inch wheeled off road bicycles out there so why in the world should there even be mountain bikes with 29-inch wheels?
To begin to answer this question it’s important that we understand wheel size terminology, so I’m going to start there. Read the rest of this entry »
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6 March »
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Guitar Ted
I have been an avid cyclist ever since I was five years old, when my first ride without training wheels ended in a rose bush. Over the years, I spent many hours exploring the offroad tracks around my hometown in Iowa and when I discovered the mountain bike in 1989, I was hooked. I raced cross country and started working in a bicycle shop and have found myself drawn further into the world of these bikes as time passes. Today, I am married with children, and I still work in a bicycle shop (after a stint as an auto mechanic).
Since 2003 I have been riding a 29” wheeled mountain bike, or “29er”. I am thoroughly impressed by many of the unique aspects of these particular machines and have found that there are a lot of misunderstandings concerning 29”ers. My articles for The Biking Hub should help you to see that the big wheels are here to help and that they do not want to hurt anyone!
The other area that I have been getting into more and more is the endurance race scene. I help promote an endurance race and I participate in them now too. Also, I am surrounded by some self-proclaimed “endurance freaks” at my work place, so you can be sure that I will have plenty to write about on this quickly growing segment of the mountain biking community.
You can check out my weblog at: g-tedproductions.blogspot.com
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Next weekend (March 11), the Cannondale Demo Tour is going to be setting up shop at the place where I build trails and spend most of my time riding. That means that I know the terrain and that I’m pretty comfortable on the trails so I can factor that into my impressions.
Anybody out there want some specific feedback about any of the bikes in the 2006 Cannondale bike lineup? I’d prefer to stay away from the Scalpel because it’s not the best ride for the type of terrain out here but I will punish myself if the demand is there. Also, there’s expected to be a pretty high demand for the Judge and the Prophet MX bikes — and because I’m not allowed to jump or do any serious drops at this stage in my recovery, any time on these bikes will be spent going as fast as I can.
Leave your requests in the comment box.
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This week I suffered through mild case of the stomach flu but my limited contributions were propped up by some really good stuff from some of the others.
Original content
On Monday, I offered an unintentionally lengthy first impression of the Fox 36 TALAS RC2 — I’ll follow that up with a full length review in a couple of months. Dan’s story for Tuesday discussed a recent vacation to San Francisco, where he turned a weekend getaway into a cycling adventure that left him reinvigorated and ready to ride through the rest of the winter. He followed that up with a recap and some photos of the Amgen Tour of California. For Wednesday, Ashwin prepared an introduction to what will be a series of articles on cross country fundamentals — a list a basic skills that will help all of you xc racers fine tune your skill set. That first entry was pretty popular, so we followed it up with a piece on The Trackstand, the first full-length writeup in Ashwin’s skill series. Also, I didn’t get Denise’s piece up for this week — that was mostly a result of me shutting down over the past couple of days — and you can expect to see that next week.
Elsewhere on the ‘net
Pinkbike.com served up a review of the Specialized Demo8. Bike Magazine reviewed the Redline Monocog 29er. BikeBlogs.com continues to serve up semi-regular batches of links to bike-related weblogs. There’s an interesting ongoing discussion over on the NSMB forums regarding the organization of area mountain bike groups.
This one’s a bit older, but the sequel to The Dark Crystal is in the works. And, yes, that is important. The Patent Pending blog continues to pump out good stuff.
Finally, next week we’re welcoming the newest member of The Biking Hub: Guitar Ted will be writing about endurance racing, 29ers, and whatever else strikes his fancy. Within reason, of course.
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