It may be time to throw another log on the fire and reach for that wool blanket because it is too cold for a ride, but the news and rumors are as hot as ever! Here are some tidbits to keep you dreaming of fresh dirt and rippin’ trails. Read on!

Soul Cycles Plans To Release A Carbon 29″er Fork: Soul Cycles, whose Dillinger 29″er frame Captain Bob reviewed recently for Twenty Nine Inches, is planning to release a carbon fiber rigid fork for 29″ers, but not just any ol’ carbon fiber fork. Nooo! This one is going to have some unusual features.

Besides the requsite forged aluminum crown, Soul Cycles is tapping Edge Composites, whose rims we picked in our Top Ten 29″er Products of ’08, to do the legs and steer tube in carbon fiber. But the fun doesn’t stop there. Soul Cycles is going to anodize the crown and color match the legs with the use of an outer fiberglass layer. This type of decorative wrap is common in the “white carbon” components seen in roadie circles. But hold on, there is more! The drop outs will be available in a sandard 9mm quick release type or in the new 15mm through axle type being pushed by Shimano and Fox Racing Shox. Finally, as if that wasn’t enough, Soul Cycles tells us that they are going to add some “fiberglass layers to the carbon wrap and liquid damping additives” to reduce vibrations.

Also, Soul Cycles is still working on that full suspension platform, dubbed “Vegas”. It is a planned 5 inch travel platform and if the prototype shown on Soul Cycles website is any indication, it will be a single pivot, unified rear triangle type rig.

Whoa! We can’t wait to see what all this is going to add up too. Stay tuned!

Sinister Bikes To Develope A Full Suspension 29″er? We have also learned through one of our East Coast moles that Sinister Bikes, home of mountain bike legend “Frank The Welder”, is going to be working on bringing a 5 inch travel full suspension 29″er to market in ’09. This would be the companies second 29″er model alongside the all mountain hardtail “Simon Bar” 29″er which was introduced last year. No other info is currently available at this time, but we will stay on top of this story.

Please Pass The Fork! We reported in an earlier “News And Rumors” post that a 29″er specific tianium fork was in the beta test mode and would be released in 2009. We are currently making a request to obtain the “mystery fork” to get a review/test on this site for you all. Stay tuned for any further updates, but we are not expecting anything to come out in the open for at least a couple of months yet.