More stuff, more walking, more yakking. Here we go again from the Sands Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. This time we’ll visit more bikes and components for 2010.
Say hello to “Larry”. Surly has introduced a knobblier fat bike tire that should satisfy the cravings of the “fat front” fans out there with its laterally grippy but smooth rolling knobbage. A problem with using the Endomorph in non-snow conditions as a front tire seemed to be its desire to grip too much ground, making slower speed handling, well….a handfull! Also, Endos seemed to want to wash out in corners due to the lack of lateral grip. Larry solves these problems and has a rounder profile to boot. Add in a 120TPI casing on Larry, (and also on the Endomorphs now) and you have a quality fat bike tire. Look for Larry to be rolling thunder on your trails by late in the year.
Surly also showed these new handle bars. Really wide and swept in a rise and no rise version. Now the Surly guys are real nuggets of wisdom and in light of this, they dubbed these the “Open Bar”. Kinda makes me think of urban cruising and night time shenanigans! Anyway, these are pretty cool bars and with Surly’s reputation for rugged goodness, they should do well on anyone’s “alt bar” rig out there.
White Brothers showed this dual crown fork on one of LenzSport’s new “PBJ” rigs in their booth. The fork is compatible with 29″er wheels with no modifications and has seven inches of travel. It looks pretty mean on the front of this long legged beauty here.
In other White Brothers news, they have moved all 29 inch fork offsets to 48mm. That’s right folks! Big offsets here. It should make slacker head tube angles on any 29″er more lively and may be a good choice for a G2 geometry bike that somebody is looking to stabilize a bit more. Options are always good.
Velocity showed the new Kirk Pacenti designed P-35 rims for 29″ers here and they look pretty sweet. 35mm width, decent weight, and colors! Velocity reps told me to expect the P-35 in the full palette of colors that Velocity offers. (And they have a boat load of color options available too.) Also, I was told that they are recommending Stan’s strips to convert these to tubeless usage.
We’re hoping to get our mits on a pair of these to test soon when they become available later in the year. Early reports are encouraging on the build quality and stiffness.
Sun Ringle’ showed these “Black Flag” 29″er wheels with some really sharp graphics and cool anodized gold hubs. The trend away from the all black look continues and I, for one, am happy to see it. One thing I did see a lot of was straight pull spokes, which seems odd, but time will tell if it is a good way to go or not.
We showed you the Sun Charger wheel set from the Outdoor Demo, and here is the next step up in the range, the Charger Pro. It will be compatible with Stan’s tubeless rim strips and has a nicer, lighter weight hub than the entry level Charger. Expected MSRP is about $650.00 for a set.
More coming! Stay tuned for Report #4 coming your way soon!
Might want to change the type on the Sungle Ringle rims
meant typo not type….hahaha
Is the Velocity P35 replacing the Velocity Blunt? Or will they run both in their lineup?
Probably also want to change “Black Fag” to “Black Flag” as that is what is written on the rims of the wheel set. I initially thought that either some had some real balls calling the product with such an incendiary term, or that they were foreign and it was lost in translation. Instead, it was a late night vegas blog post after Ted spent to much time at the craps table. I do appreciate the reports!
amazing work GT thanks for all this
can someone smarter than me please tell me they truly think there is a place for 29 in the DH world? I appreciate innovation. However I do not see or hear any top rider pushing this innovation at the pro level.
Re: 29 in DH world. Do a search for Mike Curiak or mikesee in the 29er or DH forums on MTBR – could prove informative…
all white brothers forks? including rock solid in 48mm also?
anyone gonna make a rigid carbon fork with the tapered steerer? is it worh it? seems to me if your frame is tapered compatible you might want the fork to be too?
man, my banter from late-2005 almost seems prophetic now… looks like it is 29er DH time. it didn’t even take the five years I predicted it would (at the time). funny how many people told me i was crazy…
… and yes, i know mike curiak.
I’ll second what trainwreck said. And while we’re at it, how about a 15QR rigid fork?
@Glancing Aft: Velocity will continue the Blunt. The Blunt is 28mm wide. The P-35 is 35mm wide. So there is a place for both in the line.
@trainwreck @EJ: See my Niner Post from Day One and look closely at the orange Carbon Air 9. Tapered carbon fork there! And yes, they have it available separately.
Through axle rigid forks are not as necessary, but I suspect there will be one or two examples coming soon. I know of one possibility for sure.
By the way, thanks for the kind jabs about the typo. I got it taken care of.
GT- What is the width and sweep on the Surly Open Bar??
@Nitrousjunky: Oh c’mon! Ya gotta know the width!
Surly makes all their bars the same width- 666mm 
They listed “angle” as 53 degrees. That is probably about right. The pic above is a bit misleading if you look at the top bar. The one below it in the pic is closer to reality.