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“.
Today’s normally the day that I post up Weekend Reading but I’ve been lax, and haven’t gathered a tonne of links over the past couple of weeks. That being said, there’s lots of good stuff floating around out there.
2007 Norco sneak preview: Someone over on the NSMB.com bulletin boards posted up the catalogue pics for the 2007 Norco lineup. Later in the thread, you can find a great pictorial history of the Team DH that shows the bike from 2001 up until 2007. I wasn’t super-stoked on the ‘06 lineup but this year’s a different story; some of the bikes that really caught my eye were the blue A-Line, the Shore 1 (with the new Rock Shox Totem), the Six1 (and the SE), the Fluid1, and the xc-focused Faze.
Other gear news and reviews: BikeMagic reviews the Giro Hex helmet, a lid that’s designed for the burgeoning all-mountain / trail market. It offers a little more rear protection than your typical xc helmet without looking like a truncated full face bucket. BikeMagic gives us a look at Thomas Frischnecht’s Scott Spark, a new short-travel (110mm) bike from the company that gave us the Ransom. While it’s a little late to the plate, NSMB serves up its take on the 2007 Specialized product launch, including some interesting words on the company’s move into the suspension market. And, speaking of Specialized, Pinkbike posted up an extremely positive review of the Specialized SX Trail. CyclingNews releases some good info on Mavic’s expanded 2007 wheelset lineup. Bicycle Tech writes a bit about Cannondale’s new carbon Rush and Taurine frames — if I get a chance, I’ll post up more pics of and info on the frames and complete bikes in the ‘07 lineup.
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.
Brain cramp. When I sat down to write this evening, my plan was to crank out a review of the 2005 Giant Trance frameset that I built up a couple of months ago and have been riding with much enjoyment. But, things happening as they do, I ended up drawing a blank, despite having copious notes for reference and a whole bunch of clever comments to go along with my points.
I’ll fill you in with the review in the next week or two but, suffice it to say, I’m looking seriously at selling my bigger bike since it’s only seen action when I’ve felt like taking the oh-so-nice Fox 36 out for a ride.
Race season heats up. 1 April saw the first cross country UCI World Cup race and other mountain biking events are swinging into action all over the place. Endurance events like the Trans Iowa Race V.2 is set to take place at the end of April (more on this event from Guitar Ted in the coming weeks) and the scene in British Columbia has a pile of sanctioned mountain bike races over the next month.
Feel free to plug your own local series in the comment box below. Where necessary, I’ll edit any legitimate links to make them more search engine friendly and / or readable for site visitors.
Other stuff. NSMB.com’s Money Shot contest is still open to the public. Bust out those cameras and, maybe, your best work could win you some sweet gear, including a 2006 Rocky Mountain Slayer 90.
Danika Schroeter is a local (for me) downhill racer who’s looking to compete on the World Cup circuit for 2006. While she does have support from a number of corporate sponsors, she’s looking to raise cash to cover part of her expenses during the season. And don’t mistake her for a wannabe — she’s the three-time defending Canada Cup champ and is currently ripping it up down at the Sea Otter Classic.
I could have rolled this post into yesterday’s weekly roundup but I didn’t, so you get a double shot this week.
The 29″ers. Marketing hype? Grassroots explosion? WTF is a 29″er? Whatever your take on the 29″er, there’s plenty of talk about the big-wheeled bikes around the ‘net: there was an interesting discussion about the 29″er on one of the forums at NSMB.com earlier this week; Cycling News published the results of an informal field test that compared 26″ bikes with 29″ ones.
And for those of you who think 29″ers are the creations of marketers, I suggest you look instead at the huge number of ‘all mountain’ bikes that have made their way to market over the past couple of years.
Gear news. BikeMagic has an introduction to the 2006 Giant Glory. I’ve seen the Glory in the flesh, and I must say that it’s a ridiculously sharp looking bike although, if it were my bike, I’d be a little concerned about trail debris being flicked up towards the shock mount area. There is an aftermarket carbon-fiber cover available but it probably should’ve come stock on the bike.
CyclingNews has some more information (but no pictures) about the 2007 Shimano XTR group. What’s on tap for all you Shimano devotees? Trigger shifter options, separate brake levers, an XTR branded pedal, and a carbon / titanium middle chainring are all on the table.
Doping and cycling. PezCycling News has a good introduction to EPO. Cyclelicio.us points us towards some comments by Nathan Schultz about blood doping and Tyler Hamilton. Following Schultz’s entry, there are lots of really interesting comments from a pretty diverse range of individuals and the resulting dialogue.
Mountain Cycles shuts its doors. Portland-based Mountain Cycles has closed its doors after the company’s Taiwanese parent laid off its US-based employees. Relying on Jonathan’s comments below, this move has nothing to do with the legal dispute between Specialized and Mountain Cycles over the name ‘Stumptown’.
Trail building and politicians. Trail building in British Columbia is a refined art. Builders around the province continue to develop innovative, thoughtful, and economically valuable trail networks and, as the trails become more and more popular there are a whole host of increased demands on these volunteers. NSMB.com just posted up an interesting article by a guy who’s quite involved with the trails in my neck of the woods.
The December 2004 issue of Bike Magazine had a feature on what the editors called the ‘10 best trails in America‘. For those of you who missed it, the article was just posted online and is a worthwhile read if only because it will help you beat your mid-winter blues. Personally, I try not to do the ‘list thing’ too often because they often end up as forum-fodder, but a number of the places mentioned in the writeup caught my eye and I’m sure you’ll find the name of a place that looks fantastic.
And then, some time last year, Bike followed up the first article with another that mentioned 10 trails that could have been included in the original list. Enjoy.
Normally I save my best links for later in the week but, since it’s only Tuesday and I’ve already got a good collection of material, I thought I’d do a quick, midweek link dump.
As the Turin Olympics approach, I’m starting to see a bunch of funding announcements for Canadian amateur athletes. The latest is Louis Garneau Sports’ announcement that the company has stepped up its sponsorship of the Canadian Cycling Association (CCA), with an official supplier agreement that will see the manufacturer provide cyclists with clothing, protective gear, and frames (!) until after the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that Walmart was headed to court as a defendant in a Tennesse lawsuit involving an allegedly-defective bike. Now, there’s a verdict expected in another bike-related suit involving the company, one that alleges that ‘Walmart conspired to cover-up defective quick releases‘.
In the ‘blogosphere’, Ashwin has a couple of preliminary thoughts about the relationship between on-bike performance and a rider’s fitness level. It’s a worthwhile read and I can vouch for the veracity of Ashwin’s words; I’ve stepped up my level of fitness in the past couple of years and have noticed a distinct increase in speed and bike handling ability on the way down.
When BikePortland publicized a cease and desist letter sent by Specialized to Mountain Cycle regarding Mountain Cycle’s use of the name ‘Stumptown’, it created a little bit of a stir around the Web. Along the way, the news elicited comments that hinted at what some perceived as heavy-handed tactics by Specialized. Since then, Specialized responded to any inquiry from Jonathan Maus, and it looks as though the big ‘S’ is standing firm. It’ will be interesting to see how (and if) this issue goes any further in the realm of public opinion (via cyclelicious).
Elsewhere, Carl Buchanan has a good set of photos showing a rebuild of a Fox F80x fork, Bike Magazine made some tweaks to its front page, and The Steeps has a quick overview of a Crank Bros. Eggbeater rebuild. There’s also a neat little independent video about the mountain bike trails on Vancouver’s North Shore over at Commute by Bike and a discussion of high end bike parts over at RogueMechanic.
