In the past seven years we're hardly seen any clouds in Vegas let alone a full on rain storm. This little bit of action was captured by the guys at Diamond Back bikes as they set up for day two at the Outdoor Demo.
Diamond Back Bikes.One of the first booths you came to at the Outdoor Demo is the Yeti booth and it was so busy with folks clawing to get at an SB-66 that they brought in their own bouncer. Not gonna mess with this one!
Yeti CyclesAllsport Dynamics redesigned its wrist brace to be flush over the top of the joint. The carbon fiber brace is adjustable for range-of-motion from 5 degrees to nearly 90 degrees of upward bend. The brace prevents over extension and damage to the wrist without robbing lateral movement required for quick steering. We tried it on and it felt quite comfortable. The OH2 brace also can be ordered sewn onto your choice of glove via a special pad (shown) to eliminate the neoprene palm attachment of the standard model (and keep glove sponsors happy). $400 per wrist.
Allsport Dynamics.
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Building on the success of their proprietary Canadian carbon manufacturing program, Race Face has made some impressive expansions to the SIXC line of cranks for 2012. The addition of an 83mm spindle, 165mm length and removable granny spider make the 2012 SIXC a formidable DH race option coming in at a scant 650g (165mm, 83mm, 36T ring, including Turbine BB). This is a full 100g lighter than any other full carbon DH crank that we know of.
Race Face <Deleted photo>
Marzocchi's 888 showcases the Italian suspension maker's return to the forefront of gravity riding.<Deleted photo>
Marzocchi's 888 fork with its super smooth nickle plated stanchion tubes, has been redesigned with a new damping system called RC3 V-2, which provides more stability in the mid-stroke damping. Also new is a provision for four-bolt direct-mount stems on the upper crown. Weight: 2900 grams. Travel: 200 millimeters. Price: $1649 usd.
MarzocchiThis made me laugh and that is a good thing. Keeping track of so many demo bikes is tough for al the companies, but Giant had it on lock with their names this year and it was good to see that Chuck Norris even made an appearance.
GiantOakley collaborated with Troy Lee Designs on a series of custom goggles. The graphic treatment includes a tactile emblem on the side of the strap that everyone had to touch. This is the Piston series goggle, which should go quite well with a TLD helmet, Ya think?
Oakley<Deleted photo>
SRAM finally gives the nod to chain-guides for 2-by drivetrains, with the X-Guide. We are happy. <Deleted photo>
SRAM launched its X guide that is specifically designed to work with 2 by 10 cranksets. SRAM collaborated with MRP, and the exclusive element in the design is a quiet-running pair of derailleur pulleys that catch the chain as it moves from sprocket to sprocket. The lower arch is a sturdy plastic bash guard. X-guide models are offered to fit ISCG-03 and -05 bolt patterns and thread-on bottom bracket cups. Price: $150 usd.
SRAMSRAM brought its ten speed drivetrain all the way down to X5. What this means is that SRAM 2 x 10 and 3 x 10 drivetrains will be appearing on 1000-dollar mountain bikes. A short ride on X5 revealed that the parts shift well and ride smoothly (as expected). The Cassette has all steel cogs with an aluminum spider. The Crankset uses aluminum outer chainrings and a steel granny sprocket. The best news is that SRAM offers EVERY one of its gearing combinations on the crankset, so entry-level bike designers can spec X5 on everything from XC 29ers to all-mountain shredders.
SRAM 18 months in the mountain bike world, but making packs since the early 1970's, Osprey have come in swinging with highly technical riding packs for everyone. Some of the lightest packs we've ever tried, the Osprey designs bring year of back country knowledge into our two wheeled world.
Osprey Packs<Deleted photo>
WTB's Stryker all-mountain wheelset uses a wider 23-millimeter (ID) rim. which gives more volume to the tire and reduces the possibility of tubeless tires burping air. The wheelset comes with WTB's TCS tubeless system, pre-taped and with valve stems in place for 1000 bucks a set. Weight is 1725 grams depending upon quick release of through-axle options.
WTBGobandit's POV camera has a top-mounted on-off slider switch to make it easy for ham-fisted riders to record fuss-free.
Gobandit is new on the scene with a GPS-enabled POV video camera. The GPS HD camera is sealed well enough to submerge safely, although it is not capable of diving. The rear of the camera has a LCD display with mode, speed and memory readouts. The switch is a simple on-off on the top and its lens can rotate to establish horizon, although there is only a visual indicator on the lens. The GPS gives you a number of speed, altitude and distance readouts and download options feature a creative variety of video editing and information displays. Run-time is said to be 2 to 3 hours. Gobandit is revising its mounting systems to be more bicycle-specific. Presently, the mounting apparatus seems a bit automotive, but still quite functional. Price: about $340 usd.
GobanditOne Ghost Industries is headed up by long time Pinkbike user
oneghost.pinkbike.com and they are taking things into their own hands for how they want their bikes to look and be unique. The 203.8mm travel Musashi is David's own DH racer and it's looking promissing.
One Ghost BikesDT Swiss is on track to the future with its EXC 400 rim. The inside diameter of the carbon fiber rim is a full 28 millimeters wide. Presently, it is featured on the EXC 1550 wheelset, or available separately in a 32-hole configuration. Why get excited about a wide carbon rim? Well, rims weigh far less than tires, so a wide rim adds volume and stability and it allows the use of the next smaller size, with equal volume - so the wheel as a unit is lighter, faster and more stable in the turns. The rim is 400 grams and the wheelset is 1550 grams. Light for all-mountain, well, light for cross country too. Wide rims are the future. You heard it on Pinkbike.
DT SwissThis stealthy looking trail bike is the Element 70MSL from Rocky Mountain Bikes. Its 120-millimeter-travel chassis looks to tear up the single track from Boulder City to the North Shore mountains that it was bread in.
Rocky MountainGeoff 'Gully' Gulevich for 2.5 Minutes at the Outdoor Demo:
We have plenty of mingas mate, don't worry about that
You're 16, my mom would own you
Not saying the performance is the same, but marzo's claim is bogus...
35mm sounds really good, it was a very disturbing sight for me at my friends workshop, so many bikes left for service with really fat tyres with 21mm or narrower rims. I have 28mm wide XTs and 2.25 NNic's which already feels a bit unstable. Tried the same NNs on my wives mavic XC717s - it was hellish, and I'm not a guy that can put some proper power down in the corners. I saw a bike that had the same rims with 2.4" even thinner RRons! fk...
The moves that last chick in the video is doing
I wouldn't even bother pitying those who do buy up that opinion and argue in favor of it. Sounds like an idea a weight weenie who looks to pro DHers and their setups to tune their lighter everyday trail machines would come up with. Do some more research before making such statements please. It wouldn't hurt to have more in-depth knowledge of the primary contact point to the ground is and spend more money in improving your ride here, rather than spending so much of it on blingy wider & lighter handlebars, pedals, stems, seatposts, and minor anodized bits which have a much smaller impact on your ride in comparison. Meh, I ended up ranting anyways.
Are you trolling or are you agreeing with this author idea that pairing a lightweight wide rim with a narrower tire, with a focus on weight savings, is a good idea?
If you're simply trying to argue how a wide rim increases a tire's volume, compared to a narrower rim, you must not be aware of the compromises [and how those compromises are made even worse with such a combo]. There's 35mm width rims on the market--trying 2.2 tires on them make the tire profile look more akin to a car's tire with a flat tread profile and vertical sidewalls. It requires a lot more pressure to prevent pinch flats and it provides almost no control going over gravel, thick mud, deep sand, etc, even though that tire may perform as well as other tires in those types of terrain on narrower rims.
Did you miss that I noted that the width was incorrectly reported? The sticker on the side of the rim clearly displays that the rim has an inner width of 21mm. ISO/ETRTO = (bead seat diameter) x (inner width). The reported 28mm may mean outer width, but the DT site says 29.4mm (www.dtswiss.com/Products/Components/Rims/EX-rims/EXC-400.aspx). The specs on that sticker are the important ones.
The author seems to have gotten excited over a misunderstanding and his lack of technical expertise on this subject. Wide rims are not new and combining narrow tires with a wide rim has been tried and if it were discovered to be such a magic combination, word should've spread by now. On top of all that, the DT site's images of the rim's profile shows that it has a sloped bead seat, which isn't tubeless friendly. Enve AM rims are 28mm wide (23mm inner), 405g, and have a solid track record (including use on the pro WC DH race circuit).
As for misleading details in the article - I really couldn't care less.
I also think its worth noting that the majority of trails I ride are nothing like your stated poor conditions for a square profile setup.
Hes in the dessert for god's sake.
An sb66 is a good enough compensation
like the fork though, and the goggles look nice, would love to see them on a helmet.
maybe i misinterpreted it?
The reason I'm a fan of the QR for a DH bike is simply for doing work on the trail (flats). Like I said, I love Fox's system on my 36 but I do realize it's heavier than the pinch bolt style. Just my opinion though.
Love the constant updates from you guys!
2) Bought snow goggles (cant remember which ones). After 1 WEEK, they permanently fogged up between the lenses. NOT WARRANTY because "that shouldnt happen under normal use". Of course it shouldnt!!!!! Thats why I thought they should be warranty!!!!!....but no, apparently not. I switched to Smith and have never looked back.
BTW, love your shots from Retallack!!!