Sea Otter Classic Report

The Sea Otter Classic is one of the largest cycling festival in North America, which represents the start of the cycling season. 2005 celebrates the event 15th anniversary! People from all over the world come to the Laguna Seca Recreational Area in Monterey - almost 59,000 athletes, spectators and media from 15 countries attended this year’s festival. The vendor participation was also up 15-20%.For many teams, this is where they get to show off their new bikes and riding kits for the first time. Days before the event I was scrambling trying to get a DH bike ready in hopes of racing DH, but that never panned out. So, having not registered for any of the events it was hard for me to only watch and not ride. I went to the Otter with the intention of staying there all 4 days, but after the first two days, I decided to come back home Friday night so I could go ride Saturday & Sunday.

Venue
In a way, other than the racing, the Sea Otter Classic is kind of an outdoors version of Interbike. While I was there, the weather was un-Sea Otter like, with not a cloud in the sky! Let’s hope this nice weather is here to stay!

Many of the people and products are the same, but if you look closely at the pro bikes, you sometimes get see new things. Honestly, I didn’t make it a mission to scout out all the new bits, but I did take a few pictures, met cool people and attended a few press briefings.

First appearance at the Sea Otter Classic for Five Ten. Not only was I stoked when they brought the Impact shoe back to the market, but I was equally happy to find a Five Ten tent manned by Eric Odenthal and Steve DeLacruz. You’ve already read my reviews about their shoes, so I won’t get into too much detail about how great they are for riding. Having been in contact with these guys for a while, it was nice to finally get to meet them. Since bringing the Five Ten Impact back, 5.10 has secured sponsorship deals with the MadCatz/Iron Horse and Santa Cruz Syndicate teams.

Tyler, Steve and EricGot Sticky!
SRAM held a press launch for their new 2006 products. News to me was the announcement of a new Avid Juicy Carbon brake. Avid Juicy's just got even juicier! Paul Kantor, product manager for brake systems at SRAM, gave us the run down of this new brake.


• Carbon lever and reservoir cover
• Titanium clamp and caliper bolts
• Full stainless hardware
• Split clamp design
• Index reach adjuster
• Aluminum pad contact adjuster knob


Paul said the Avid Carbon Juicy’s were designed to go hand in hand with the new SRAM Carbon X.0 Triggers and rear derailleur. You will see a few SRAM sponsored rider rocking BlackBox version of these puppies – but the Carbon Juicy that you and I will be able to buy won’t have the same polishes finish, but a nice Silver color. Very trick!!


Santa Cruz Bicycles had a new bike on display called NOMAD. From what I was told the Nomad is a 6.5" VPP bike made out of the same hydroformed tubing as the V10 and Jackal.



You've heard about it and probably already saw pictures of it on various forums - new DHX Air 5.0. Thanks to Brady Owens of www.hcor.net for the picture.


New Rear Maxle standard for bicycle frames is already being adopted by some manufacturers. Here you can see the rear maxle on Nathan Rennie's Santa Cruz V10.


Flashy and custom!! Check out the new Marzocchi shock, machined link and his name cutout in the frame.


The bike looks very cool and uses a Nexus hub for the transmission. I hear GT already built a handful of IT1's and they should be ready for the masses very soon.


Yeti 303 rail DH bike for you Yeti fans out there.


Such a sweet bike! Looks like Intense also struck a deal with E13 Components this year. Also check out the new Dorado DH fork. All of Kovarik's bikes were there, but not sign of him. Word on the street is that he couldn't get a visa.




Guess Lapierre cycles is trying to penetrate the US market since they were at the event. Nicolas Vouilloz was also there to promote the bikes. Lapierre had some very nice LP/Vprocess bikes on display!

452 Black DH
444 Red Lite
Team Honda Turner always shows up at the Sea Otter with trick gear and bikes. Anka was on a Turner DHR made with round tubing, just like the Turner 6-pack. The bike also had a Pushed Fox DHX with remote reservoir - very nice!


Green with envy! Pictures don’t do this paint job justice…


Looks like fluorescent colors are in for 2005 - from Cedric's Orange accents, to Sam Hill's green bike: I now present you Steve's Yellow/Black Orange


Friday Thule/Sportworks held a brief presentation to explain the acquisition. Eric Stobin, Sales Manager at Sportworks, also gave us the run down of their new T2 quick load rack - which I've been using for a few weeks now. Initial impressions are good - you can tell it's much stronger than the Transporter. Keep an eye for a long term review later in the season.

Starting in 2006 expect to see Sportworks racks re-branded with the Thule name.


Another nice thing about the Sea Otter Classic is that you get to meet, in person, individuals that you've never met before (other than maybe via phone or e-mail)! A good example of this is suspension tuner extraordinaire Tim Flooks of TF Tuned Shox. I've been in contact with Tim for at least 4-5 years now, but never had a chance to him in the flesh! But this year I got to finally meet him - he's as nice, if not nicer, in person than he is on e-mail..haha.

Suspension experts Tim Flooks & Jeremiah Boobar
I also got to meet our very own Tyler Maine from Pink Bike! We've been partner in crime for a while, but since he's working out of the Pink Bike headquarters in Chilliwack and I'm in California, we hadn't met yet.

List of other peeps I was fortunate enought to meet:
• Aaron Lutze from Match Video
• Chipps Chippendale from Singletrack Mag
• Steve and Eric from Five Ten
• Matt Timmerman, Kevict Yen & Mike Johns from Progressive Suspension
• Josh McGuckin from www.cameracourage.com
• Jonas and Rick from E13/Evil Bikes
• Few members from www.RideMonkey.com
• Jerry Kasai of SDG USA
• Marty Walsh from SIC Components
• Ollie Thomas from FUNN
• Cam McRae from www.nsmb.com
• JD from www.dylandeandesigns.com
• Doug Heiser from the Honda/Turner team

and I'm probably forgetting someone – if so, sorry about that!

• Paul Skilbeck @ Media Director Sea Otter Classic
• Peter Hollingworth @ Planet-X
• Matt Timmerman, Mike Johns and Kevict Yen @ Progressive Suspension
• Jeremiah Boobar @ RockShox
• Dave, Jonas, Rick, Michael, Heikki @ E13/Evil bikes
• Tyler Anspach @ SDG USA
• Eric Odenthal and Steve DeLacruz @ Five Ten
• Todd Seplavy and Sean Heimdal @ Iron Horse
• Tyler Maine @ Pink Bike
• Doug Heiser @ Honda/Turner
• Eric Stobin @ Sportworks
• Leif Erickson @ Michelin
• Entire SRAM crew

Matt Timmerman busy at work
DS course