Euro News II by “c_g”:

Soo … the Soccer World Championship is over and our clocks start ticking again. (Here you dont even need to be a huge fan to simply know all about it and be swept away by the hype.) But that part is past now. So lets look forward to what is coming up. We have kept our ear close to the wire and with EUROBIKE slowly approaching we are getting in more and more rumors on potential releases and hear news of products that will be. So lets get started with what there is happening in Switzerland:

DT-SWISS is the company known for their high quality and precision hubs, rims and shocks and more recently for their suspension forks (after acquiring Paces line of forks and doing a full redesign on them). After having pulled the famous RC29 rigid and suspension forks from the market we now have received the confirmation of their completely new XRR 470 Full Carbon 29er rigid fork and their first complete wheel set, M 1800 29er to be introduced this summer. It took DT-Swiss a bit of time to gain confidence in 29ers but now with the movement gaining more and more momentum here in Europe they are getting on board. Here is the promising info communicated so far:

XRR 470 29er rigid fork:PHO_XRR_rgb
• Full UD-Carbon steerer tube, crown and stanchions with carbon spigot
• Magnesium Postmount dropouts for disc brakes only, max. 185 mm rotor diameter
• Integrated cable guide for disc brake hose
• Fork offset of 41 mm
• Expander for Carbon Steerer tube included
• QR drop outs 9mm
• Max. rider weight 95 kg or 210 lbs

Available in: 445 mm length at 575 grams and 470 mm length at 595 grams
Suggested retail price: Euro 345.- (US msrp to be announced)
Available from summer 2010 on

Comment by c_g:
After SeaOtter10 where some spy shots of the fork have been shown it had become quiet around this new product and so we are happy to confirm its existence and release this summer. Looking at the pictures of the round diameter Carbon fork blades and the elastomer at the blade/crown junction, there is no denying that there is some resemblance to the DT-SWISS`s XRRs predecessor the PACE RC29 but looking at the weight, the All-Carbon crown, steerer and spigot construction alone, it becomes clear that there probably is more to it than only an updated version of the renowned Pace. I don’t know how you are thinking about it but to me it is a remarkable move by DT-Swiss to choose this design over the more and more popular monocoque-looking carbon forks of these days while putting an all out effort in the newest Carbon technology, thus getting a great weight while retaining the 185 mm max rotor size, which for our alpine trips is more than reasonable, 160 mm just don’t do. I find it particularly interesting to see a moderate 41 mm fork offset while many manufacturers opt for other geometries. At twentynineninches.com we look forward to a upcoming colder look at the fork. Stay tuned.

We hear of more and more companies doing rigid forks again, so expect some more news to surface
within the coming weeks.

29er wheel set:
(DT-SWISS first offering in complete wheel sets for 29er)
• Front wheel: 100 mm width QR (incl. RWS MTB in steel) or 15 mm / 100 mm Thru-Axle option
• Rear wheel: 135 mm QR (incl. RWS MTB in steel version)
• Star ratchet engagement system and hub design with 6-bolt IS brake rotor mounting
• Rims: 26 mm width& 19 mm height
• ETRTO: 622 x 19.5 mm
• 32-hole, 3-crossed lacing
• Color: black
• Weight: 1929 g per wheel set (in lightest configuration, without RWS skewers)

Comment by c_g: DT-Swiss first PHO_M1800_29_VR_rgb_20100707
complete wheel set after offering the X
470 29er rims with good success in the
past years, seems to be only a logical
step when taking 29er seriously. The
larger width of the rims and weight of
the wheel set alone seem to direct them
at the Trail-/AM rider rather than the
weight conscious XC crowd.
DT-Swiss has been offering all wheel
building components in all performance
levels and has been doing a multitude
of complete wheel sets for 26-inches
and road racing with these no nonsense
components for years now and so
adapting to 29” may very well be the
start of seeing more in the future.
When asking about other 29er news
like Carbon 29er rims or the high end XC-racing oriented XR wheels (spec’ed on the 2011 SCOTT Scale 29er) we were told that the XR will only be available by Scott with the Scale (no
aftermarket sales planned for now) while there were no plans to have another 29er rim in their portfolio for 2011.

So much from DT-Swiss – expect to see more Euro news as the big bike show EUROBIKE (30th of Aug to 4th of Sept) is approaching. Until then: Keep on riding!