The only thing magical about the 2008 Kona Coilair with Magic Link this year has been their elusiveness.  I have yet to see one in person and my attempts at getting on a demo bike have been cut off at the pass. So, I’m left to wait until Interbike Outdoor Demo this Fall until I can swing a leg over the Coilair. For 2009, the Coilair goes through the refinement machine as some new features and tweaks are introduced. For starters, the entire front triangle is new with a tapered head tube (1 1/8″ upper and 1 1/2″ lower cup), beefed-up downtube, new, beefier rocker-arms and refined Magic Link. The new paintjobs are also stunning.  Here are the details of...
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It hasn’t taken long for me to recognize the beauty of bigger hoops. Up until a year ago, I hadn’t ever swung a leg over a 29-er, but now I’ve ridden a fair amount of them and am beginning to understand what all the hullaballoo is about. They roll fast, they climb exceptionally well and they smooth out the trail without relying on tons of suspension travel. Good timing and a little luck has me with two top-notch 29-er trailbikes for the next month: The Niner RIP 9 and the Ellsworth Evolve. Both are top-shelf bikes available as a frame-only so you can customize the build from head-to-toe to your exact liking....
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It didn’t take much sleuthing to come to the conclusion that Santa Cruz would re-design their ever-popular Nomad frame for 2009. With the complete re-design of the Santa Cruz Blur LT this season, it made sense that Santa Cruz would pass along all that goodness to the Nomad. I’ve ridden the previous Nomad and have lots of friends who currently ride and love their Nomads.  The new version looks more refined and includes the many improvements that were introduced with the new Blur LT, namely: grease ports, revised linkages and suspension ratios, new frame design with a reduction in the top-tube “hump”, 5mm less travel (160 instead of 165mm) and a few other changes that will likely come out over...
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Salsa Cycles has been one of those fringe manufacturers for years. yeah, you’ve likely ridden a bike with one of their quick-release seatclamps, but you’ve likely never seen a Salsa Cycles bike on the trail–I know I never have.  All that is about to change with the introduction of the new Salsa El Kaboing trailbike for 2009. Coming in January 2009 (frame-only available September 2008), the Salsa El Kaboing looks to be a stellar trailbike with some interesting features. One of the first things that caught my eye was the post-mount rear disc brake bosses. Yeah, I know… a funny thing to notice.  But, here’s the point.  Most fork manufacturers have switched from the International Standard brake bosses to post-mount...
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There are many variations on the two of the most common suspension designs: Horst-link (owned by Specialized) and the standard 4-bar. Both camps have some major players with Specialized, Ellsworth, Norco, Titus and others using the Horst-link design and Kona, Turner, Jamis, Transition, Ventana, Rocky Mountain and others using variations on the standard 4-bar (which is really a single pivot with some extra linkages). What’s the difference, you might ask?  Well, boiled down, it is as subtle as the rearward pivot location… seatstay or chainstay.  The Horst-link places the pivot and brake mounts on the seatstay, thus removing braking and pedaling forces from the suspension movement while the standard 4-bar places the pivot and brake mounts on the chainstay, which can...
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Back on the scene with the likes of Chris Davenport and Hugo Harrisson driving product development, Kastle Skis is introducing a new fattie for the upcoming season. Yeah, I know it’s June, but it’s never too early to bring on the stoke for the white stuff–even if I’m in singletrack mode right now. Kastle skis are built rock-solid, but they do come with a hefty pricetag. It’s the price you’ve got to pay to play, I suppose. This is a no-nonsense big mountain ski that’s built to handle pow, crud and just about anything else you could throw their way. Available in fine ski shops this fall, look for the MX108 to garner some serious attention by...
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I just got a sneak peak at the 2009 Fox Racing Shox catalog and boy are there some great new innovations they are packing into their already-strong lineup of forks. New crowns, new steerers, new sealed lockout mechanism, and entirely new TALAS 32 and 36 models that include a 150mm travel 32 TALAS and oh yeah, a new little thing called the 15QR. I’ve long been a detractor of the current 9mm quick-release standard and have exclusively ridden 20mm thru-axle forks since my first Marzocchi Z1 in 2001. The difference in torsional-rigidity between a 9mm quick-release and a 20mm thru-axle is huge… so much so that I simply don’t consider the standard 9mm dropout to be an option. Not...
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I’ve been a big fan of Intense Cycles for a long time. The love affair dates back to 2001 when I rode the long-retired Intense Uzzi SLX at the Interbike Outdoor Demo. That bike displayed advanced climbing and descending characteristics for its day. There’s no doubt that it goes down as one of the pioneers in the 6-inch travel trailbike world. Then, in 2005, I rode the first version of the Intense 6.6 trailbike. Utilizing the heralded VPP suspension design, the 6.6 showed me what could be done with the VPP design in a real-world trailbike. I’m talking something that you’d want to pedal uphill all day, then unleash the hounds as you scream...
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I’ve been impressed with what I’ve seen thus far from Pivot Cycles. Building all their bikes on the successful DW-Link suspension design, every bike in the line is guaranteed to be plush and efficient–the holy grail of suspension design. Complementing the Pivot Mach 4 and Mach 5 is the all-new Pivot Mach 429. Why 429? Well, because it’s a Mach 4 that’s been re-engineered around beautiful, trail-smoothing 29-inch wheels. I’m a believer in the 29-er revolution and apparently Chris Cocalis and the crew at Pivot are also. It is currently in prototype stage, but I’m sure it will be production ready come this fall when the Interbike Outdoor Demo rolls around again. One cool thing that Chris mention...
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Showing off some eye candy, Yeti Cycles is displaying two prototype bikes to the public to generate some buzz. Well, it certainly worked for me because these bikes look amazing! No, they aren’t for everyday riding on the local trails, but as far as big hit, park and slopestyle riding, these new bikes look to expand on Yeti’s innovative Zero Loss rail system used for several years now in the current 303 DH. Full specs are forthcoming as these are purely prototype bikes. But, they look pretty darn refined for prototypes. I’m guessing they are tweaking angles here and there to get things just right. Looking at the function of the Zero Loss Technology and imagining the wheelpath, it...
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