It has been a wild year in mountain biking, but as always a host of colourful, confusing and downright crazy stories have helped us get through all the madness. Here are 10 of the best from a topsy-turvy year:
Spengle's $13,000 Gold Leaf Wheels
Mountain bikers are no strangers to high prices, but Spengle took that to another level earlier this year with its one-of-a-kind 24ct gold wheels. The process took nearly a year to complete as it was all done by hand and Spengle describes the final result as a rideable work of art.
Pius Brauchart, Spengle CEO said: “The bicycle wheel represents a unique visual canvas – kinetic art in its most pure form. Art and sport are both deep passion points and with Spengle Gold we saw an opportunity to blend these two worlds together. There’s something very compelling in mixing the traditional craftsmanship of hand-laid gold leaf with cutting edge materials science, and it has resulted in a visually stunning wheel.”
More info, here.
Pedal Powered Appliances
COVID sparked a boom in bicycles but we think some may have taken their pedal passion a bit too far this year. Kicking it off are the students of the Dalian Nationalities University, who designed the Bike Washing Machine.
A rider's pedalling causes the drum of the washing machine to rotate and, at the same time, the extra electriciy generated can be used to power the display screen or stored for future use.
Not to be outdone, Stefan Mueller converted his bike into a lawnmower so he could keep fit, do chores and obey lockdown at the same time.
More info, here.
Great-Grandmother Fights off Bike Thief
A 72-year-old Great Grandmother made headlines when she was able to fight off a 23-year-old bike thief who was trying to sell her a stolen Lapierre X-Control. The thief entered her shop hoping to sell the bike for £150 but Mari Parker had seen it was stolen according to a Facebook post.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, Mari said: "A couple of customers came out to help but I was worried about what would happen with them so I told them to leave it to me and that they should call the police. But I refused to let go. I knew a young boy was coming back for his bike and I couldn't tell them we didn't have it."
The bike was returned to Luke Hodson, 13. His grandfather said: "He is over-the moon to get his bike back. It is his pride and joy. He rides it everywhere. I think Mari was wonderful, for a 72-year-old to do that is so heroic. They could have had a knife or even pushed her over. she is so brave. My admiration knows no bounds."
More info, here.
The Single Sided, Carbon, DIY Linkage Fork
A new addition to our DIY Hall of Fame this year was Ashley Kalym with his 160mm-travel single-sided, carbon fiber linkage fork. Ashley doesn't have an engineering background, but spent three years learning CAD with online resources to bring his project to life. Kalym wanted his fork to offer anti-dive abilities, and to increase trail as it goes into its travel to stabilize handling, neither of which are possible when using stanchion tubes, so the Rocksled was born.
He has now updated the fork to include a four-way adjustable floating brake arm and has even built a frame around the fork to best showcase its abilities. More info, here.
Bill Murray's Jeep e-MTB Superbowl Ad
Jeep revealed that it would be entering the eMTB market after discreetly teasing a new utility bike during their Superbowl ad that featured Bill Murray.The dual suspension eMTB only makes an appearance for a few seconds of the ad that sees Murray return to Groundhog Day in Pittsburgh.
It was later revealed that the bike, which is made in partnership with QuietKat, is claimed to be the 'most powerful' eMTB ever produced and has a 750w motor. The Bafang M620 unit, which drives the bike, is claimed to be able to create 160Nm of torque, which is way more than you ever need for a bicycle. For reference, a Suzuki Hayabusa has 155Nm. Other than the seemingly powerful motor, the Jeep bike will also feature an inverted fork (despite the ad showing a more standard offering). Adding to the odd selection of parts are huge 4.8" tires.
More info, here.
Simon Cowell Break his Back and Reportedly Considers Suing e-Motorbike Company
Earlier in the year, mainstream media fell over itself reporting on Simon Cowel''s broken back sustained while riding a supposed e-bike. There was just one problem, this wasn't a 250 Watt pedelec bike but a 15,000 Watt motorbike with a top speed of 60mph. It's a shame that e-bikes got caught in the crossfire and painted as dangerous here but Cycling Tips did a great takedown of the media response that's well worth a read.
Since then, it has emerged that Cowell is now considering suing the brand that produces the bikes with a figure as high as £10 million being floated by legal observers to cover pain, suffering and lost income from missing several television appearances. More info, here.
Alutech's Grim Clonut
The Grim Donut definitely caused a stir when it broke cover in January. While we made you all wait a while for part 2, Alutech made its own version to see just how effective our geometry experiment was.
The bike's geometry was pretty close to the Donut's dimensions - even the 500mm reach number is the same, although the Pinkbike machine still has a steeper seat tube angle at 83-degrees and longer, 450mm chainstays. Jürgen Schlender, the owner of Alutech, promised a ride review although we haven't yet seen one on his social media. He probably turned his attention to [L=https://www.pinkbike.com/news/alutech-releases-16000-emtb-with-cncd-frame.html]€16,000 e-mtb projects instead[/L].
More info, here.
Magura's (Almost) External Cable Free Bike
The MCi Conceptbike from Magura had one of the cleanest cockpits we've ever seen with no handlebar cables and only the only visible cable on the bike being a front brake cable emerging from underneath the stem to route down the fork.
The MCi uses a cylinder in each end of the handlebar that includes the piston and the reservoir. Cables are then fed down the handlebar and into the proprietary stem. The front brake hose drops through a hole in the stem and down the fork leg to the caliper while the rear brake hose goes directly into the frame from the stem via a headset bearing. Gearing comes from SRAM AXS and Magura's own Vyron wireless dropper post completes the build.
More info, here.
Zip on Tyres
It was always going to be in here, right? ReTyre's zip on tyres claim to solve a problem that doesn't really exist and offer the ability to change your tyre tread on the fly. The base tyre is a slick road tread and then different treads for different conditions can be zipped over the top to change the handling of the bike. ReTyre say: "the zippers are specially developed to handle extreme and harsh environments and have the same life expectancy as the tyre" and that they have been placed specifically so there won't be high forces loading on them.
Still intrigued? You can read more about them, here.
Bougie Baby Bikes
Mondraker bought e-mtbs to toddlers for the first time in 2020 as it released its Grommy strider bike. Mondraker have designed a 250W brushless motor with a throttle input with three power modes - ‘Balance’ (max speed 8.1km/h, 5mph), ‘Fun’ (max 12.1km/h, 7.5mph) and ‘Advanced’ (max 17.7km/h, 11mph). Mondraker has tried to make the bikes as light as possible and, using mostly components designed in house, these bikes tip the scales at 8.5kg (18.7lb) for the Grommy 16 and 7.5kg for the Grommy 12 (16.5lb).
Grommy will be available to buy from regular Mondraker dealers starting from an estimated retail price of 749€ and comes with a 2-year warranty.
Specialized also got in on the action with its $999 carbon Hotwalk bike. This is the lightest ever bike Specialized have produced at 4.63lb (2.1kg), and also its cheapest ever carbon bike too.
The frame, fork, handlebar and wheels are all carbon and the Rhythm Lite tires have also been redesigned for lightness on this bike with the aim of making it as maneuvrable as possible for young shredders. Specialized has also spent some time desigining some kid-specific features on this bike including handlebars that have a 38% smaller diameter, a handle under the saddle for parents to use to carry the bike.
More info, here.
Spengle's $13,000 Gold Leaf Wheels
Mountain bikers are no strangers to high prices, but Spengle took that to another level earlier this year with its one-of-a-kind 24ct gold wheels. The process took nearly a year to complete as it was all done by hand and Spengle describes the final result as a rideable work of art.
Pius Brauchart, Spengle CEO said: “The bicycle wheel represents a unique visual canvas – kinetic art in its most pure form. Art and sport are both deep passion points and with Spengle Gold we saw an opportunity to blend these two worlds together. There’s something very compelling in mixing the traditional craftsmanship of hand-laid gold leaf with cutting edge materials science, and it has resulted in a visually stunning wheel.”
More info, here.
Pedal Powered Appliances
COVID sparked a boom in bicycles but we think some may have taken their pedal passion a bit too far this year. Kicking it off are the students of the Dalian Nationalities University, who designed the Bike Washing Machine.
A rider's pedalling causes the drum of the washing machine to rotate and, at the same time, the extra electriciy generated can be used to power the display screen or stored for future use.
Not to be outdone, Stefan Mueller converted his bike into a lawnmower so he could keep fit, do chores and obey lockdown at the same time.
More info, here.
Great-Grandmother Fights off Bike Thief
A 72-year-old Great Grandmother made headlines when she was able to fight off a 23-year-old bike thief who was trying to sell her a stolen Lapierre X-Control. The thief entered her shop hoping to sell the bike for £150 but Mari Parker had seen it was stolen according to a Facebook post.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, Mari said: "A couple of customers came out to help but I was worried about what would happen with them so I told them to leave it to me and that they should call the police. But I refused to let go. I knew a young boy was coming back for his bike and I couldn't tell them we didn't have it."
The bike was returned to Luke Hodson, 13. His grandfather said: "He is over-the moon to get his bike back. It is his pride and joy. He rides it everywhere. I think Mari was wonderful, for a 72-year-old to do that is so heroic. They could have had a knife or even pushed her over. she is so brave. My admiration knows no bounds."
More info, here.
The Single Sided, Carbon, DIY Linkage Fork
A new addition to our DIY Hall of Fame this year was Ashley Kalym with his 160mm-travel single-sided, carbon fiber linkage fork. Ashley doesn't have an engineering background, but spent three years learning CAD with online resources to bring his project to life. Kalym wanted his fork to offer anti-dive abilities, and to increase trail as it goes into its travel to stabilize handling, neither of which are possible when using stanchion tubes, so the Rocksled was born.
He has now updated the fork to include a four-way adjustable floating brake arm and has even built a frame around the fork to best showcase its abilities. More info, here.
Bill Murray's Jeep e-MTB Superbowl Ad
Jeep revealed that it would be entering the eMTB market after discreetly teasing a new utility bike during their Superbowl ad that featured Bill Murray.The dual suspension eMTB only makes an appearance for a few seconds of the ad that sees Murray return to Groundhog Day in Pittsburgh.
It was later revealed that the bike, which is made in partnership with QuietKat, is claimed to be the 'most powerful' eMTB ever produced and has a 750w motor. The Bafang M620 unit, which drives the bike, is claimed to be able to create 160Nm of torque, which is way more than you ever need for a bicycle. For reference, a Suzuki Hayabusa has 155Nm. Other than the seemingly powerful motor, the Jeep bike will also feature an inverted fork (despite the ad showing a more standard offering). Adding to the odd selection of parts are huge 4.8" tires.
More info, here.
Simon Cowell Break his Back and Reportedly Considers Suing e-Motorbike Company
Earlier in the year, mainstream media fell over itself reporting on Simon Cowel''s broken back sustained while riding a supposed e-bike. There was just one problem, this wasn't a 250 Watt pedelec bike but a 15,000 Watt motorbike with a top speed of 60mph. It's a shame that e-bikes got caught in the crossfire and painted as dangerous here but Cycling Tips did a great takedown of the media response that's well worth a read.
Since then, it has emerged that Cowell is now considering suing the brand that produces the bikes with a figure as high as £10 million being floated by legal observers to cover pain, suffering and lost income from missing several television appearances. More info, here.
Alutech's Grim Clonut
The Grim Donut definitely caused a stir when it broke cover in January. While we made you all wait a while for part 2, Alutech made its own version to see just how effective our geometry experiment was.
The bike's geometry was pretty close to the Donut's dimensions - even the 500mm reach number is the same, although the Pinkbike machine still has a steeper seat tube angle at 83-degrees and longer, 450mm chainstays. Jürgen Schlender, the owner of Alutech, promised a ride review although we haven't yet seen one on his social media. He probably turned his attention to [L=https://www.pinkbike.com/news/alutech-releases-16000-emtb-with-cncd-frame.html]€16,000 e-mtb projects instead[/L].
More info, here.
Magura's (Almost) External Cable Free Bike
The MCi Conceptbike from Magura had one of the cleanest cockpits we've ever seen with no handlebar cables and only the only visible cable on the bike being a front brake cable emerging from underneath the stem to route down the fork.
The MCi uses a cylinder in each end of the handlebar that includes the piston and the reservoir. Cables are then fed down the handlebar and into the proprietary stem. The front brake hose drops through a hole in the stem and down the fork leg to the caliper while the rear brake hose goes directly into the frame from the stem via a headset bearing. Gearing comes from SRAM AXS and Magura's own Vyron wireless dropper post completes the build.
More info, here.
Zip on Tyres
It was always going to be in here, right? ReTyre's zip on tyres claim to solve a problem that doesn't really exist and offer the ability to change your tyre tread on the fly. The base tyre is a slick road tread and then different treads for different conditions can be zipped over the top to change the handling of the bike. ReTyre say: "the zippers are specially developed to handle extreme and harsh environments and have the same life expectancy as the tyre" and that they have been placed specifically so there won't be high forces loading on them.
Still intrigued? You can read more about them, here.
Bougie Baby Bikes
Mondraker bought e-mtbs to toddlers for the first time in 2020 as it released its Grommy strider bike. Mondraker have designed a 250W brushless motor with a throttle input with three power modes - ‘Balance’ (max speed 8.1km/h, 5mph), ‘Fun’ (max 12.1km/h, 7.5mph) and ‘Advanced’ (max 17.7km/h, 11mph). Mondraker has tried to make the bikes as light as possible and, using mostly components designed in house, these bikes tip the scales at 8.5kg (18.7lb) for the Grommy 16 and 7.5kg for the Grommy 12 (16.5lb).
Grommy will be available to buy from regular Mondraker dealers starting from an estimated retail price of 749€ and comes with a 2-year warranty.
Specialized also got in on the action with its $999 carbon Hotwalk bike. This is the lightest ever bike Specialized have produced at 4.63lb (2.1kg), and also its cheapest ever carbon bike too.
The frame, fork, handlebar and wheels are all carbon and the Rhythm Lite tires have also been redesigned for lightness on this bike with the aim of making it as maneuvrable as possible for young shredders. Specialized has also spent some time desigining some kid-specific features on this bike including handlebars that have a 38% smaller diameter, a handle under the saddle for parents to use to carry the bike.
More info, here.
Must Read This Week
131 Comments
Magura Engineers - Nein! We have more important things to do!
Pretty easy once you know how brittle it is. Finger tight plus a little bit. Their premium offering should have a billet master though. Mt7 is a ripoff. Mt5 over xt any day though.
So it is not about being "ham fisted" but about a retarded solution of simple enough problem.
Stop being offended on behalf of the product. Such well deserved customer criticism is how products improve.
I admit I don't really know what paradigm shift the cultural norm underwent specifically in 2010, nor do I see myself as an adult...
I actually bleed my brakes myself and indeed most of my magura bleeds were successful. But ive seen enough mechanics who botched bleeds on magura (and formulas, for that matter)
With mine it seems like there is a ton of air that gets trapped in the master because I can push pull all I want but as soon as I pull the lever there are a million little micro bubbles that take forever to get out completely. It's definitely a bit of faff but there aren't a whole lot of options in the same price range.
I bled 2 magura brakes in about 10 minutes total in my kitchen last night.
1- Soya boys filming while a grandma fights a thief.
2- Wealthy middle aged men who buy dangerous toys, then sue when they get hurt.
3- The mere idea of working on a 'external routing free' bike.
PUAGH
#gavinnewsomesucks
www.youtube.com/watch?v=pj_AdpH_d-8
A whole new take on embarrassment.
They were ridiculously heavy once you added some rim protection and a tyre and they didn't look as cool in person as I had hoped.
One of the guys exploded the rear wheel whilst riding in the peaks but this failure was attributed to pre production model being used.
Newer wheels are more sturdy supremely but I can only imagine that's more weight
German traffic statistics show that only about 5% of all bicycles are E-Bikes. But if you ride an E-Bike, statistically you're over 200% more likely to have a fatal accident on one, compared to regular bicycles. Generally, the number of fatal traffic accidents in Germany declined in 2019 - in all vechicle categories except for E-Bikes, in which the number of fatal accidents increased by 32%.
2): "There’s something very compelling in mixing the traditional craftsmanship of hand-laid gold leaf with cutting edge materials science, and it has resulted in a visually stunning wheel"
Maybe. But I still don't want 'em.
3): I want to mow the lawn now!
www.instagram.com/p/CJGuYM3BxNQ
Definitely a bit envious of those quick connectors though, so cheers guys!
What a dufus!
I mean, aside from the idiocy here on it's face, just quoting Nm figures to make it seem like it's as powerful as one of the most powerful production motorcycles ON THE PLANET, is some bullshit. Like grade A, grows the best tomatoes, type of manure.
But what interests me is how they reacted after the war, the spirit with which they faced difficulties, the desire to create, produce, even to enrich themselves but not only for themselves.
My point though was about complacency- dont think it wasn't a part of human nature back then, possibly even more than it is today. Men didnt just stand by and watched an older woman confont a mugger, you had thousands standing by as infants were shot and gassed...
As i said, perspective...
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