It looks like Kona is one of the first companies to slip their 2007 bike lineup online. Not much new, groundbreaking stuff, although the Stab receives an overhauled design and the Unit 2-9 and Unit look set to move further into some increasingly competitive markets.
I guess it’s one of those if-it-ain’t-broke kind of things. Check it out!
In recent years, single speed bicycles have been labelled everything from a revolution to a fad, even though the format keeps growing in popularity. There isn’t a specific reason for the fondness many riders have for singlespeeds, but the challenge of riding a bike with limited gearing, its minimalist style, and the ease of maintenance all play a role in its success.
Frankly, all three of the points mentioned above brought me to build a single speed bike this summer. In this article I’m going to give some basic information which can make the task of building a single from scratch, or converting a geared bike into a singlespeed, much easier. Read the rest of this entry »
This is my first article as a contributor to The Hub and I am very stoked about the opportunity.
In this first piece I’m just going to give a bit of a personal rundown and lay out what readers can expect from me in the future. For more specifics on me see my bio on the contributor’s page or check out my website Eloquii.
First of all, I’m the youngest writer in the group and I’m still in school. I don’t have a lot of assets and define myself very much by how I spend my time. I see these “facts” as being the source of my content. I plan on writing articles which other student-readers and people in a situation similar to mine will most enjoy.
This means that I’ll write everything from bang-for-buck analyses to discussions on cycling style. I want my writings to extend from the practical, like what to expect from different types of racing event, to the spiritual, such as how we are saving the planet one pedal-stroke at a time. I believe that cycling can be made into a lifestyle, a mindset, and a source of inspiration.
As for me and my “story” I ride as much as possible during the summer and bike when I need to get around in the winter. My racing career has been quite successful and I owe a lot of that to the great folks at Sweet Pete’s Cycles on Bloor (at Duffern) in Toronto. I have competed in standard, 8 hour relay, and 24 hour relay format events, and hope to ride an 8 hr solo by the time the snow shuts us down this year. I’d say my favourite so far is the 8 hr stuff but more on that later.
My other interests include photography, computers, and Ultimate Frisbee. I’m a big coffee drinker too, and most of my friends think I’m out of my mind because of the number of clubs, jobs, and random commitments I get myself into during the school year. I like being “too busy” and arrange my life accordingly.
With any luck, writing for The Hub will prove another addition to my bike-centric student life.
For Monday, I posted up some info about the 2007 Trek, Fisher, and Bontrager xc and all mountain lineup, along with a link to an article documenting Floyd Landis’ wonky hip. Guitar Ted’s review of the WTB Exi Wolf 29″ tire went up on Tuesday and, yesterday, after a death in the family, Dan shared his thoughts on cycling as therapy.
Someone spent a lot of cash sending Bike Magazine to Japan for a look at the 2007 Shimano XTR crankset and wheelset. Not much new there, but pretty pictures and a decent writeup. Singletrack has the scoop on the 2007 Marzocchi fork lineup — I’m loving the looks of the Corsa World Cup and the All Mountain SL (with 20mm axle! Hooray!). Along with a 29er, there’s a flashy-looking carbon Rush coming from Cannondale for 2007. Mike and the Bike brings Le Tour to your kids! An old post from the NSMB.com forums that offers DETAILED (and I do mean detailed) directions on rebuilding your Hayes HFX-9 disc brakes.
NBR. Hot on the heels of Bell GlobeMedia’s acquisition of CHUM Ltd., CBC serves up an interesting timeline that looks at who’s doling out what, when it comes to the media in Canada.
For most of this week, I’ve been trying to organize my thoughts over the announcement that Specialized’s is moving into the oem suspension marketplace.
The decision could be seen as a way for the company to move further into the top-to-bottom ‘customer experience’ thing that goes along with the dozen or so Specialized ‘concept stores’ currently in operation around North America. The move could also be an attempt by Specialized to foster the kind of brand loyalty that Cannondale established with its Lefty and Headshock lines of front suspension products.
There’s also the whole ‘integration’ thing, which is in full swing at companies like SRAM, whose Avid brakes, SRAM shifters, and RockShox are designed to work best with one another, something that market veterans Shimano learned was a key strategy years ago.
Whatever the reasons for the decision, the fact that Specialized looks ready to release its own set of forks and its own rear shocks means that the mountain bike market will look a little different starting in 2007. Specialized isn’t the largest manufacturer out there but I’m sure that the ‘biggies’ are watching this foray carefully. Similarly, it’ll be interesting to see how the major suspension manufacturers react to this shift — unless the product features Fox or Manitou internals (like Cannondale’s Leftys), at least one company might take a hit on its bottom line.
Some of the the short travel mountain bikes in the 2007 Specialized lineup were revealed overseas this past week.
Aside from the shocking news mentioned above, the company’s short travel bikes for ‘07 look great. According to the UK mountain bike mag Singletrack, Specialized brought Mike McAndrews (who’s worked for Fox, RockShox, and Maverick, and designed the ‘Brain’ shock used on the Epic) back into the fold to “help them with their suspension and, inevitably, to produce Specialized-brand rear shocks and a new fork”.
Enduro SL. The company’s frame development team was busy too, completely redesigning the Enduro and using a set of rocker arms to connect to the rear shock. That, and the fact that the bike will be spec’d with a lightweight dual-crown fork with a non-standard 25mm thru-axle, and you’ve got a sub-28lb. rocket of a trail bike.
Epic and Stumpy. You can check out the details and some good pics over at the Singletrack and BikeMagic websites, but know that the bikes look great, with nice swoopy lines and lots of shiny bits.
Some people ride for exercise. Some people ride to train for races.
But as I’ve learned over the past few weeks, riding can be pretty therapeutic too.
I haven’t posted much over the past 10 days and the reason is my father passed away July 5. I’ll spare you all the details, but I’m happy to say he died peacefully and I was by his side when he went.
Needless to say it was a tough week, especially because it was 15 years ago someone close to me died. As my father’s only son, it was my responsibility to take care of his business things, so I spent a few days last week living in a hotel in his hometown of Toronto.
It was pretty devastating to go through, but the turning point was last Thursday night, when I got back to my house in Niagara Falls and hopped on my bike for the first time in four days.
It certainly wasn’t a long ride – maybe 15 or 20km on the roads around the Falls, but it was one of the best rides I’ve had. For that time I was finally able to take my mind off things and just enjoy the sunshine. I didn’t care about heart rate, cadence or my average speed. I was just out there riding because I could.
I have now ridden every day since then and it has been great. I certainly hadn’t lost my passion for riding before all this happened, but I’ve gained a whole new level of interest. I have learned that riding can do more for the mind than an hour on a couch with a shrink.
If you haven’t done so recently, give your father a call and tell him you love him, and then hop on your bike and go for a spin, just because you can.
Almost all of the 29”er bikes out there owe something to WTB, which introduced the very first 29″er-specific two-inch plus fat tire way back in 1999. WTB’s early commitment to the format with the Nano Raptor help ensure the survival of the big-wheeled mountain bike. Since then, the marketplace has started to fill out, as more options become available for the intrepid 29″er rider; one of the more recent tire additions to the scene is the WTB Exi Wolf 29”er tire.
The Exi Wolf gives the 29”er rider the type of large volume, all-mountain type tire that simply wasn’t available before its introduction in 2005 and, since then, the tire has found a wide audience with manufacturers of 29 inch wheeled bikes.
Look for many of the new 2007 29″ wheeled bikes to be sporting these treads. Read the rest of this entry »
My apologies if this is old news — I’m only a casual fan of road racing so I wouldn’t be surprised if the subject’s been covered elsewhere.
This one’s a bit of an understatement, since anyone who can ride through the Pyrenees and Alps and log a couple thousand kilometers in less than a month is truly hardcore in my books, but ex-mountain biker and Phonak team leader Floyd Landis is a step above. According to a writeup in the New York Times magazine (login required), Landis suffers from a degenerative bone condition in his right hip that makes everyday life difficult, let alone countless hours on a bike.
Osteonecrosis is a degenerative bone condition that occurs as a result of poor blood supply, something that happened to Landis’ hip after he crashed in 2003. Since then, Landis has been in near constant pain, and has been forced to alter his time trial position (see the third photo in the slide show) and just plain deal with the problem while on his bike and on tour.
And I’m also fully aware that the article is at least partly a result of the American media trying to find someone to fill the void left when Lance Armstrong retired and find the Next Great Hope, but it’s still a solid piece of cycling writing.
Link via TDFBlog.
Okay, okay, the title is a little tongue in cheek, especially since Trek did release the downhill and freeride-oriented Session series and the All-mountain Remedy lineup over the past couple of years. So the company hasn’t exactly ignored its mountain bike lineup over the past few seasons, but with the insane degree of success it’s had with Lance Armstrong and the rest of the Disco-boys, mountain bikers have definitely played second fiddle to the roadies for some time.
CyclingNews.com has a good two-part writeup detailing Trek’s upcoming plans for some of the key parts of its 2007 mountain bike lineup and, while they certainly won’t light the world on fire, there are some changes in store for next season.
Fisher. Starting with the Fisher brand, the article looks closely at the frames built around the company’s new version of its long-standing Genesis geometry — aptly named Genesis 2.0 — and provides plenty of photos to back it up. The new designs revolve around tweaked angles and a custom-built Manitou fork that are meant to bring out the strengths of the system. Of course, this means that if you’re not a fan of the fork that’s spec’d on the bike, you’re s.o.l. and, as a consumer, I’d be more than a little wary of throwing all of my eggs in a single basket.
The article also features an image gallery with a close look at the Fisher HiFi, the successor to the company’s soon-to-be-history Cake line.
Trek. The second part of the article focuses mostly on Trek’s Fuel models, the company’s tried and true racer, and the longer travel Fuel EX trail bike. Other than some new carbon frame elements on the OCLV 110 carbon frames and increased tire clearance on the EX models, the rest of the changes for ‘07 seem to be relatively minor.
Bontrager. Bontrager has been pumping out some solid components for the mother company for years, and next season looks to be no different. Along with a new 29″er wheelset (the Race X Lite), Bontrager will be introducing the Rhythm rim for next year, a new design intended to work with the larger tires that have gained a solid foothold in the market over the past few years.
We’re back at it this week after an empty Week 25 when I took a sanity break and spent some time off my bike and away from the interweb.
On Tuesday, Guitar Ted served up a helping of advice on tweaking your bike so it feels ‘just right’. If you haven’t thought about doing this, it might be a good idea to spend a week or two worth of riding making little adjustments to your ride — you could be surprised at the results. For Wednesday, Ashwin posted up a great interview with cycling coach Gene Hamilton; there are lots of good tips and some amusing anecdotes hiding inside the writeup. Dan followed up his preview of the 24 Hours of Summer Solstice with a recap of the event. It sounds like a good time, and the starting line photos make the event look like it was a UCI World Cup race.
Le Grand Tour. During this morning’s stage of the Tour de France, it looks as though Robbie McEwen has trumped his rivals yet again. With McEwen’s dominance over the rest of the field at the line, I can’t believe the race for the green jersey is still close. Despite a host of underwhelming runs at the finish, I guess Boonen’s picking off enough points during the stage to hang close.
Gear news. Singletrack has the scoop on Manitou’s 2007 long travel singlecrown forks. Those wacky Brits also have the spec sheet for Shimano’s ‘07 XTR lineup — now all of you weight weenies can start shaving those grams off your rides (and saving your pennies). NSMB.com has a look at the 2007 Marzocchi lineup, and I’m loving the look of the new AM series. If the published weight (under 5lbs) is accurate, I’d love to compare the fork with the Fox 36 TALAS that I’m running now. asilvertouch has a good look at the burly chromoly Stylus frames being put together by Whistler’s Chromag Bikes.
Events & industry news. The founder and president of Titus Cycles, Chris Cocalis, left the company at the end of June. You can draw your own conclusions about the move but, based on the quotes provided in the BRaIN writeup, it doesn’t sound as though the exit was a harmonious one. Fabien Barel, the current men’s dh World Champ, crashed out of the UCI series while filming for a new bike flick. NSMB.com has a recap of the Adidas Slopestyle 2006 event and it looks like there was some unabashed craziness going on over in Austria.