There are usually a handful of new products debuted each year that allow us mountain bikers to go either faster, further, up the game when it comes to reliability and performance, or just make our sport even more enjoyable than it already is. And as with anything new, there will always be those who put their tinfoil hat on before ranting about how it's all a big money grab from evil manufacturers, yet we don't see those same people out there aboard rigid steel mountain bikes with threaded headsets and bullmoose handlebars, do we? We're a skeptical bunch for a group of people who ride some pretty advanced two-wheeled toys in the forest, but it's good that things always move forward regardless of that cynicism. Sometimes it'll be small steps over a few years that add up to a better bike, and other times it'll be a single, giant game-changing leap in the right direction, but either way, don't forget that innovation is the reason that the bike in your garage isn't that steel beach cruiser with a coaster brake that our predecessors started out on.
This year's nominees include Yeti's clever railed rear suspension layout, a new carbon downhill bike from Specialized, Shimano's electronic shifting, Canyon's angle-adjusting Shapeshifter technology, and also Schwalbe's dual chamber Procore system. Of those five, Procore looks to make the most sense to take top honours. Unfortunately, we can't hand it more than an honourable mention given that we've still not been able to spend more than just a few days on an early prototype setup, meaning that we have no gauge as to the reliability of a production version at this point in time. Schwalbe might be out of the running, however, the win still goes to the Germans in our books... Innovation of the Year
Canyon's Shapeshifter TechnologyThis year's award for Pinkbike's Innovation of the Year goes to Canyon's Shapeshifter Technology that allows their Strive CF to switch between two different travel and geometry settings while on the move via a handlebar mounted lever. The general concept of doing such an action is not new - Cannondale has employed a different take on the idea for many years now - but Canyon's system is one of the first to not lock the rider into a proprietary shock that many find a bit scary. That's right, you can mount up any shock that's compatible with the bike. It uses a supplementary air actuator, hidden mostly out of view behind the rocker arm, that actually changes the location of the upper shock mount in order to alter the leverage. The upper mount moves by just 15mm, which doesn't sound like much, but it takes the Strive CF from 160mm to 130mm of travel, as well as raising the bottom bracket by 19mm and steepening the angles by 1.5 degrees. Canyon says that Shapeshifter adds a total of 200 grams to the bike, and that their team used the system throughout the 2014 EWS season.
| Out the saddle in XC mode, the bike sprints like an XC race bike, and you can quite imagine utilizing this system mid-stage in an enduro race to blast up a short climb or power through a flat section. - Pinkbike, June 11th, 2014 |
Having spent a good amount of time on the Shapeshifter-equipped Strive CF, I can attest to how effective it is at flipping the bike's personality between a well rounded all-mountain bike to a demon descender that will only encourage you to put on your big boy pants, but this first iteration has its foibles as well: the unweighting motion to switch it back into short-travel mode feels somewhat unnatural, and I found myself unable to get it done a handful of times. That said, it's ridiculously effective when it does work, which was the large majority of the time, and Canyon is only going to improve on the system over the coming years.
An EWS racer's needs to be aboard a machine that crushes the downhills but can then also be ridden back up with minimal effort should make for some pretty interesting bikes as things evolve further, and Canyon's Shapeshifter technology is one of the most promising developments of the bunch. Enduro racing may be the butt of a lot of jokes lately, but it's also going to be the reason that trail and all-mountain bikes that we'll all be riding in a few years will be so awesome.
www.canyon.com
Sure as an idea, it's similar to the shapeshifter but the execution was horriffic! Under braking it bangs around horribly, under pedalling it bangs around horribly, obviously pedal feedback on bumps was terrible. It never did it's job properly and was far poorer to ride than a properly set up standard Kona frame.
@Primodeelux I didn't actually own one (thank goodness) I rode the Coiler with adjustable spring preload on the Magic link.
"a step down from the Magic Link"? Beacuse of a cable? So something that gives the user a choice is a "step down"? Think of it this way, at least with Canyon's tech, you won't be bogged down with a half kilo (or more) of linkages and springs, that you will NEVER get completley clean. I know, 'cause I've tried.
I didn't say it was better or worse, just that its not innovative. Fox and RS both use bladders to keep air out of their dampers. Fox did it first, so its not "innovative" when RS does it next.
But back to my main point: even if this works well, it isn't innovative. Bionicon, Scott (and now Cannondale), and even Trek (with their talas on the rear shock of their Liquid bikes) have made travel adjust rear shocks that worked. Yes, they required proprietary rear shocks, but Konas approach didn't. If the Manitou Mattoc introduced travel adjust next year it no doubt would be a good product, but not worthy of "Innovation of the Year"
The problem was that the system was never fully refined/developed, probably because they didn't sell. The Geometry on the bikes never evolved past 2008. If the cadabra came back with the air-link, geometry as close to the process it would rock.
I think the main problem with the whole concept is that any bike can be made to pedal decently with just a flick of the propedal lever.
I believe the Canyon here has an 'air actuator' that only moves the shock's upper mount location, and this subsequently changes geo, travel, shock rate, etc... that is, it's not an extra shock.
The Magic link was different in that the lower mounting bolt of the shock had an extra link with a coil spring(later models air spring) that was an active shock. Kona's design used chain tension to isolate that auxiliary shock so it pedaled kinda well, but descended (at speed) like an alligator in a boot factory (?). Slower, technical trails were the weakness. i owned 2 cadabras & I agree on extinct geo @hamncheez
But anyways, canyon is cool because you dont need to disassemble your linkages to effectively 'flip the chip'.
is that good or bad? lol
That my friend, is the new benchmark. The best timed and constructed pun 'one-two' I have ever seen. Strive for a better pun? Lets see if anyone can..
That ProCore thing looks f*cking excellent!
Yeah, i reckon it'll be the biggest game changer in a long time.
Yeh man me too. Definitely the most exciting thing this year.
Well, yeah except its not actually out yet is it.
True, I want one tho, you reckon its gonna be worth the ÂŁ160 or should I wait till they iron out all the issues first and the price comes down a bit.
Yeah probably wait, ÂŁ160 is a bit steep for essentially a pair of inner tubes and tyres....
Good call on giving it a miss this time I reckon PB
The whole point of tubeless is weight saving over anything. Or running silly low pressures?
That is effectively adding a tube back in thus adding more weight. With how good and easy tubeless has become I honestly don't see where the struggle in tubeless setups comes from? I run 2 getto tubeless setups on 2 different bikes and each time it was dead easy to pop on home made rim strip (cut bmx tube) and add sealant. If it doesn't sit first time, just add the original rim strip under it and it will. So what exactly is the procore trying to achieve?
Procore should allow for even lower pressures, while reducing tyre squirm and eliminating rim damage and burping. You should also be able to run a lighter sidewalled tyre, which will help balance out the weight added by the procore system. Basically its a win-win-win. If it lives up to my expectations anyway...
@gabriel-mission9 - No worries, the system is all sorted and tested, the dummy was probably a sample that he received at Eurobike to explain the way it works, when we didn`t had enough prototypes for all the reps, yet. We will have a working set at London Bike show if you`re coming.
@sebb427 - We didn`t competed in the Design & Innovation Award, as we have to buy in and pay a fee which is not our idea about an award that honors an innovation. The Pinkbike award does not charge anything. We first knew, that we were nominated, when it appeared on the site. Too bad they didn`t had enough time to ride and test it. The article from our February test camp was quite positive: www.pinkbike.com/news/Schwalbe-Double-Chamber-System-first-ride.html With giving Pinkbike the chance to test it on a long term now, we`re looking forward for the next innovation of the year award!
Why, why, why ?
hint: innovation award 2016: clean that mess up!
Not a lot of people were riding 650b when you had to buy stitched together tires from Pacenti. Now, everybody's running them. XX1 took off once XD drivers were available for other hubs. suspension forks weren't common until they started coming in standard lengths that frame companies could design around.
I'm certainly hopeful that I'll have several brands to choose from with on the fly variable geo in a couple years.
Now it's a dropper, suspension changes F/R, GPS for Strava, etc with all the extra maintenance and weight
I say just learn what you are riding for ALL conditions
Which makes me think actually, did raceface license out the narrowwide thing? Or could they simply not patent such a thing? Or was it not even their idea? Just a question. Sorry for my patent ignorance.