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I’ve had a really busy couple of weeks. Last week saw a friend drop in for a few days before moving overseas, and then some other friends set up camp for the weekend while one of them raced in a local dh event. The riding conditions also happen to be stellar at the moment, so when you add all of this stuff together, it means that the computer has been gathering dust.
I’ll surprise you all with a boatload of new stuff some day soon but in the meantime…
TBH Content
Given my lazy man excuses (see above), new content has been a little thin the past couple of weeks but here comes the recap, fast and furious: check out this ride through the Southern Namib Desert. Guitar Ted describes some of the things you need to consider when sizing up a 29er. That was it for the week!
Elsewhere around the ‘net
Lots of goodies here, proving that the world doesn’t stop when The Biking Hub goes silent.
2006 Norco Six. NSMB serves up a review of the Norco Six from a woman’s point of view. I’ve ridden this bike, and it’s fantastic as a light freeride, Shore-style bike. It’s a little heavy for real all mountain use, but word on the street that that’ll change for 2007.
2006 Cannondale Prophet 4x. Pinkbike has a gushing review of the 2006 Prophet 4x. While I haven’t ridden the 4x, I have spent a bit of time on the regular 140mm Prophet and I must say that I was thouroughly impressed by the ride. It’s a fun, snappy little trail bike.
2007 Cannondale sneak peek. BikeMagic released some great shots of the 2007 Cannondale lineup, including photos of the carbon Rush, the Perp (a slopestyle / freeride rig), and the ‘07 Prophet (see above).
Other gear news. The forum users at NSMB.com bagged a look at the bikes that Commencal has for 2007 and, although I’m not riding too much of the gnarly stuff right now, I’d jump on the Supreme Six in a heartbeat. What a gorgeous looking bike. BikeMagic has a review of the 2006 SRAM X.0 rear derailleur and trigger shifters. Trek has brought Jose Gonzalez on board to work on the company’s full suspension mountain bike lineup.
Other. Flipper has some great cycling photos (Flash required). The Trans Rockies Challenge started up this past week. The Broadband Racer looks set to deliver cycling footage to you nuts out there — as long as you live in the United States. Since I don’t reside in the US of A, I’m just passing this one along and don’t forget Cycling.tv if you’re into this sort of thing.
Crankworx 2007. The Crankworx love fest was held up at Whistler a couple of weeks ago and, while the event wasn’t without controversy, the crowds loved the Slopestyle event and many of the industry’s big names (at least on the dh and freeride side of things) made an appearance.
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TBH Content
We started out the week with Dan’s review of some of Amino Vital’s energy products. After that, I went camping for a few days in the mountains to escape some pretty uncomfortable weather down in the valley. Aside from a dumbass discharging a can of bear spray into our campsite, it was an awesome retreat — no bugs, comfy temperatures, and lots of swimming. Good stuff.
Elsewhere around the ‘net
VeloNews posted up the transcript for Floyd Landis’ chat with Larry King. BikeMagic has a review of the Scott Ransom 10. MTBR.com reviews Niner Bikes’ SIR 9. asilvertouch ‘zine takes a look at some Kona XC gloves and a Kona hydration pack.
One of the world’s premier mountain bike events has been taking place up at the Whistler Bike Park over the past 10 days. Even though I didn’t head up for the event myself, I’ll post up some links later in the week instead of the canned releases that are showing up elsewhere. As a teaser, you can know that Brian Lopes won the AirDH race down A-Line, Giant’s Adam Craig took the Super D race, and Cam Zink won the Slopestyle event.
Oh, and Floyd Landis’ Tour result is under the spotlight after the results from a single test showed a high testosterone : epitestosterone ratio. The results were released prematurely too — how difficult is it for the people involved in this thing to keep their mouths shut for a week while Landis’ B sample gets tested? And WTF is the media doing hounding Landis’ mom? Last I checked, she wasn’t even remotely involved in this thing, other than being on of The Floyd’s parents.
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Like much of the rest of North America, out here in BC, we’re sweating through the start of a major heat wave — temperatures are expected to move into the high 30s (celsius) for the rest of the weekend. Make sure everyone packs their sunscreen and lots of water before heading out on their early morning (or evening) rides!
There was a bunch of stuff I didn’t get to this week — Ashwin has a writeup ready that talks about choosing an xc bike, I’m going to have one about choosing an trail / all mountain ride, Dan has a writeup for us, as does Adrian. It was a busy week around here, but I’ll try to rein things in for next week. Sometimes regular life just gets in the way.
TBH Content
New TBH contributor Evan let us have a peek at his new singlespeed on Monday, and provided some decent tips for converting an existing ride to a single. For Wednesday, Guitar Ted offered up an interesting take on the definition of the endurance race. Yesterday, I posted up pics from one of my rides and I’ll try to make this a more regular occurence too — it’s always interesting to see what and where other people ride. Feel free to send me your pics and I’ll post them up — if you have a blog, make an entry on your site and send me the link!
Elsewhere around the ‘net
BikeMagic reviews the CamelBak MULE. PinkBike puts in some time on the Hutchinson Barracuda all mountain tire. Bike continues its series from Japan that looks at the 2007 Shimano XTR lineup. Singletrack discusses the 2007 Trek Bikes lineup. Crank Brothers unveiled the Acid pedal, which is meant to slide in between the Candy and Mallet lines.
Tour de France.
On the day after The Stage of this year’s Tour de France, Jan Ullrich has been fired by T-Mobile for allegedly being involved in that complicated doping affair uncovered last month by Spanish authorities. The best part? It was done by FAX. Ouch.
Bicycle Design looks at some of the bikes from past Tours.
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TBH content
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.
Elsewhere around the ‘net
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.
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TBH Content
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.
Elsewhere around the ‘net
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.
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TBH Content
It was another kind of a haphazard week around here and all of these things — nice weather, lots of work, new toys — have cut into my computer time. I’m running some new gear for testing — Hayes El Caminos, SRAM X0 twist shifters, some new Camelbak product — and I know that most of the others have new gear reviews in the pipe, so expect to see those things in the coming weeks.
This week, we posted up a piece by Guitar Ted that argues for the adoption of a new standard for wheel over lock dimensions (over the current 135mm setup). Dan followed that up with a preview of the 24 Hours of Summer Solstice race that is going down this weekend; if you haven’t checked it out, there’s also a good gear checklist you can use when preparing for your own 24 hour event. Yesterday, Ashwin posted up a quick gear shot of WTB’s Moto Tec clamp-on grips.
Elsewhere around the ‘net
This part of the summer is kind of a slow time for new gear news; most of the 2007 component stuff has been ‘leaked’ at places like Sea Otter, the various UCI events around the world, and upcoming events like Crankworx in Whistler. People with quick eyes can see product from most of the major bike manufacturers at local events but the ‘official’ announcements are usually saved for trade shows like Interbike and Eurobike. That being said, there’s still news out there…
2007 SRAM lineup. SRAM unveiled a bunch of its gear at a media camp down in Utah last week and other new stuff was spotted at Saalbach in Austria. Singletrack was in Austria and delivers the goods on the 2007 Rock Shox products and the upcoming releases from sister company Avid, including the 4-piston Avid Code and the xc-racer Avid Juicy Ultimate. NSMB.com has some shots of the Truvativ Noir crank, as well as some scenery pictures taken in Utah.
Others. NSMB also posted up a long-term review of the Norco Fluid 1 — the reviewer knows what he’s talking about, so an endorsement from him means it’s a solid ride! Hot on the heels of the bulletin board posting that looked at the ‘07 Kona lineup is BikeMagic, which has a better look at next year’s batch of Konas.
It’s the last full week for our Sette cockpit giveaway. For whatever reason, many of you are hesitant to drop your name in the box so those of you who have are in good shape! I’ll announce the winner’s name in the first week of July.
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Short and sweet this week. Real world demands have wreaked havoc on my days…
TBH Content
Dan started us off this week with a review of the Magura Marta SLs, followed by Guitar Ted’s opinion piece on the recent round of 29″ - 26″ comparisons. Adrian added an interesting writeup that looks at balance and offers a couple suggestions that should help you out.
Elsewhere around the ‘net
NSMB.com has a two-part look at SRAM’s 2007 lineuup, starting with ‘07 Rock Shox freeride forks. That writeup is followed by a closeup at the new Avid Code disc brakes and some new cranks from Truvativ and derailleurs by SRAM. Pics of the Intense Socom have been floating around the ‘net for a while, but MBA has a good shot and some basic spec info for you to drool over. Some photos of newer-looking Kona bikes surfaced on the NSMB forum but I’m not sure they’re full-on 2007s. Niner Bikes updates their website with information about the soon-to-be-ready R.I.P. 9.
Don’t forget that Price Point’s Sette giveaway is still open for entries — feel free to add your name to the list for a chance at some decent gear.
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Living on BC’s West Coast, it sometimes seems like we’re stuck in a state of perpetual spring. The weather’s never really that cold, but it can go from nice and sunny to cold and damp overnight, and then go back to the way it was a few days earlier. This week was one of those weeks, except we were stuck in the ‘nice and sunny’ mode for a few days. Schedules were adjusted accordingly.
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On Monday, I announced a giveaway — there’s a complete Sette cockpit for your xc ride up for grabs — that will run until the end of this month. If you haven’t entered yet (and I know a bunch of you haven’t), give it a go. You don’t need to sell your soul with it, just come up with something interesting.
For Tuesday, Guitar Ted unleashed his passion for crashing and I thought about his entry as I was sliding out on a loose corner earlier this week. After I’d stopped, I realized that I might not have the same enthusiasm for bailing as some of this site’s fine readers. Ashwin followed up with a good introduction to your bike’s gears, how it effects your ride, and how analyzing your gearing can have positive effects on the way you ride.
Elsewhere on the ‘net
BikeMagic was busy this week, with a review of the 2006 Giant Reign, a closeup look at Felt’s new full suspension trail bike, and a very nice interview with Shaums March, in which he discusses riding, coaching, and his working relationship with Marin. And, speaking of Shaums March, the Singletrack website has a good writeup about the type of coaching that goes down at Mad March skills camps. CyclingNews built up two bikes — a twenty-niner and a 26″ mountain bike — with identical specs and is set to compare them on the trail. Even if you have no interest in the comparison, check out the article for the closeups up the frames, carbon and titanium beauties from Seven Cycles. Guitar Ted posted up a criticism of CN’s method that many of you might get a kick out of.
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The humidity up here in BC is hovering somewhere around 100% and the temperature is sitting around 20 celsius. It’s certainly not tropical but it’s pretty uncomfortable. Lots of hiking, not so much riding this week.
Original content
We started off this week with a writeup from Dan that looked at his five ‘must have bike tools‘; there were a few decent responses but we could always do with more. I spent too much time tracking down info about the last UCI World Cup event, held at Fort William in Scotland over the past weekend (also check out a couple of the links below for more on the event). On Wednesday, we posted up Ashwin’s interview with Dave Morris and it’s worth a read, especially if you do any sort of training as a part of your cycling routine. Yesterday, I served you my better-late-than-never review of Off Road to Athens, a documentary film following eight American riders as they vie for spots on their nation’s 2004 Olympic team. I gave Guitar Ted the week off — check back next week for your usual dose of humour and charm from Iowa.
Elsewhere on the ‘net
Sneak peeks from Fort William. Some manufacturers used the UCI event at Fort William to introduce new product; in case you missed it, Singletrack Magazine’s website has some good photos of some new brakes from Hope and the Felt Virtue, a 130mm full suspension ride with an interesting rear suspension linkage. Descent World has even more photos of the new Hopes, as well as a couple other sneak peeks.
Gear news and reviews. Pinkbike posted up some words and photos on a bunch of gear from Dakine, including gloves, a hydration pack, and a number of different bags. I saw images of this next one floating around the ‘net a couple of weeks ago but I didn’t think to post it up for some reason. Anyways, Intense is leaking pictures of the FRO Spider, a race-only xc chassis that uses the hallowed VPP suspension platform. The intrepid members of the MTBR.com forums captured some spy shots of the 2007 Giant Reign, spec’d with a DHX Air and featuring 6.7″ inches of rear wheel travel.
Shimano XTR. The informal launch of the 2007 Shimano XTR lineup is the longest one in recent memory. Weeks after introducing its shifters, brakes, wheels, and rear derailleur at Sea Otter, the new XTR cranks and front derailleur have surfaced in a number of locations. BikeMagic has some great images of the 2007 XTR crankset (hot!) and front derailleurs (sort of hot!), and Bicycle Retailer has some interesting technical info about the parts.
More next week! Over and out.
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Doh! When I loaded up the site this morning, I realized that I hadn’t hit the ‘publish’ button to put this post online. I guess it was because I had to turn off my brain to get through the film version of The Da Vinci Code; obviously, I forgot to turn it back on when I left the show. And I don’t want to see any ‘You’re always like this’ comments…
Original content
For Monday, I posted up a review of the Manitou Minute: 04 and followed that up with Ashwin’s comparison of the fibre-based Flat Attack sealant and Stan’s latex concoction. For Wednesday, I posted up the build specs for my 2005 Giant Trance, thinking that the entry would generate some decent discussion — ‘Too heavy!’, or ‘Why not get a Reign?’ — and it did, just not the type of discussion I expected. Moving on, Guitar Ted gave us a thoughtful glimpse at the type of event that served as the foundation for the growing ultra-endurance race scene.
Elsewhere on the ‘net
Over at NSMB.com, Lee McCormack posted up an overview of the 2007 Fox Racing Shox freeride and downhill lineup. Stumbled across a Flickr photostream with a bunch of pics of classic Shore riding. CyclingNews reviews the Scott Scale 10 hardtail and has a closeup look at Liam Killeen’s pink 25th Anniversary Stumpjumper. Cannondale launches SystemSix, its next generation frame technology. Word is that there will be a mountain bike SystemSix frame in production for next year too. More to come on 06.06.06.
2006 Giro D’Italia recap: In road biking news, Ivan Basso is set to win the Giro d’Italia by a comfortable margin. It looks as though Jan Ullrich quit the Giro during today’s nineteenth stage. Although a back injury was cited as the main reason for the withdrawal, I’d put money on Jan not wanting to ride anymore during the Giro. And since I’m in a gambling sort of mood, does anybody want to put money on the T-Mobile team being in disarray during the Tour de France this year?
More blood doping controversy. Elsewhere, Manolo Saiz, the director of the Liberty Seguros cycling team, was arrested by Spanish authorities after a long investigation into doping allegations. Saiz was released on bail after promising to appear in front of a judge, although the bags of frozen blood, steroids, and other materials seized during the operation won’t help his defense any. And while it likely cost Liberty Seguros a boatload of cash — it’s going to cost a fortune in lost exposure / marketing opportunities — the Spanish insurance company terminated its sponsorship agreement with its pro cycling team. I’m sure the fallout will continue…
Healing vibes go out to the dude on a bike that was smacked by a motorist close to my home. Thankfully he wasn’t hurt badly (ie. no ambulance) but I do hope that the driver of the car gets the book thrown at them for blowing through a crosswalk.
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