You are currently browsing the archives for the 'October 2006' category.
27 October »
Reviews »
Adrian
There comes a time for in every biker’s life when he or she needs tools. Most people invest big money in their bikes but don’t do the maintenance they need to have their bike operate at its best. I built up my previous tool kit over the past five years with bits and pieces that I had picked up over time.
One thing I found was that I was always missing one or two tools to do the jobs that I needed to do. With this in mind I looked at the option of buying individual pieces and decided that the cost was too great. I finally decided that I needed a whole new toolkit (as you do) and the result after much hard selling of old bike bits on eBay and wife convincing was the Park Tools PK 57 Tool kit and a nice roller tool chest.
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Ibis Cycles, makers of the exquisite Mojo Carbon mountain bike, has relaunched its website. There are a couple of wonky bits and empty pages in there but it’s a fun site and I find it easy to forgive any bike company whose flagship mountain bike has detailing like the Mojo.
Visit Ibis Cycles for more pics of this bike! And if you’re interested, Scot Nicol (aka Chuck Ibis) has a “not-a-blog“.
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Norco is big out here on the west coast of British Columbia, partly because it’s a homegrown company but also because its bikes have generally proven to be solid rides that give great value to consumers. And, while the company doesn’t introduce re-vamped models every year or two like many of the other manufacturers in the industry, Norco spends a good amount of time tweaking and revising its bikes each season. For 2007, Norco continues down a well trodden path, cranking out a bike lineup that looks set to give fans plenty of ways to make it up and down the mountain (and to rip along the road, if that suits your fancy).
Now that I’ve got the cheesy introduction out of the way, let’s have a look at some of the Norco bikes that’ll be out there next year.
Note: I’ll get some time on a number of these bikes as next season progresses, so you’ll likely get some feedback on their real-world performance. Read the rest of this entry »
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Dean sends us some helmet cam footage of one of the North Shore’s classic trails: Upper Oilcan. The rub with this one is that the footage was shot at night. For any of you who’ve ridden this trail in the daylight, you’ll understand that riding it in the dark is an acquired talent.
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13 October »
Events »
Dan
CLEVELAND ROCKS IS BACK
That’s right folks, Cleveland Rocks is back for a third year!
The first bus trip of the season from St. Catharines, Ontario to Ray’s Indoor Mountain Bike Park in Cleveland, Ohio has been scheduled for Nov. 25.
Registration is now open on the official trip site located here.
The trips this year will be organized through the TheBikingHub.com, so be sure to check back here often for updates and trip reports.
The trip can only happen if we get 35 people on board, so register at the Cleveland Rocks website as soon as possible. Registration will be $5 cheaper if you sign up and pay before Nov. 1.
And watch for a complete “What did you ride today” review on Ray’s Indoor Mountain Bike Park, which now has something for everyone with box jumps, north shore stunts, a foam pit, cross country courses, a skatepark-style area and more!
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Floyd Landis has taken his defence of the doping allegations against him public.
The 2006 Tour de France winner who was alleged to have an illegal testosterone ratio during the race, posted documents and presentations on his website which he plans to use to fight the United States Anti-Doping Agency’s disciplinary process against him. Read the rest of this entry »
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Interbike Wrapup
Well, I’m back from Vegas and after resting for a week or so I can finally get back to the grind here. Once again the show was incredible with literally thousands of new products from hundreds of companies.
Every year there seems to be some sort of theme that emerges from the. Last year was the year of carbon, where every manufacturer seemed the need to make multiple items out of the weave. This year there seems to be a few emerging trends which was quickly evident by walking around a few booths. The first is sort of a continuation of a theme from last year, which is 29” mountain bikes. More manufacturers have added 29” bikes to their lineups, but many have started playing with the mix from going to a single-speed model to using the 69-er style, which is a 26” wheel on the back and a 29” wheel up front.
The second theme is cyclocross. With the road bike segment starting to cool off a little bit, it seems retailers are spreading their buying dollars around. Cyclocross is a growing segment and the options at Interbike range from basic models with alloy frames and low-end groupsets to full carbon fibre frames with SRAM Force and Shimano Dura-Ace grouppos.
Here are some of the bigger companies with some interesting new products to show. In the next few weeks, we’ll have a few reviews of some of the funkier new products that were on display. Read the rest of this entry »
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The Cut crew visits LA Hospital
For sometimes obvious reasons, freeride and downhill mountain bikers sometimes get the reputation as being party animals who care more about themselves than anyone else.
That’s why it’s nice to hear some riders are trying to change that opinion by doing something nice to make the lives of other people better.
Cannondale’s team riders known as The Cut headed to the Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles Monday where they visited with the kids and put on a riding demonstration. Read the rest of this entry »
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5 October »
Features »
Guitar Ted
The 29 inch wheeled bike segment may be typified by the single speed hard tail right now, but if a few forward thinking individuals get their way, that won’t be what you think of in the future. There is a growing movement in the 29″er mountain biking world and it is a gravity fed one.
A Quick history of 29′er DH/FR
Early on the 29″er bicycle met with much resistance and one of the most vociferous groups was the All mountain/ Freeride crowd. They were quite sure that the larger wheel size would never see action on their trails due to the “inherent” lack of strength and the total lack of suitable equipment to ride with. It’s now looking as if these obstacles are being swept aside and that a new era in mountain biking might just be around the corner.
Strong words? Perhaps you haven’t heard of Lenz Cycles, a company out of Colorado steeped in downhill and freeride tradition. Company head, Devin Lenz took up the challenge to build a durable, workable 29″er trail bike early on and created the Leviathan. In the beginning, it was only a three inch travel frame, which matched most closely with the forks available at the time. Now with the addition of four inch travel White Brothers forks to the 29″er arsenal, Lenz has stepped up and produced the Behemoth, a five inch travel frame and increased the travel on his Lenz Leviathans to four inches. Read the rest of this entry »
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