Outdoor Demo Day #1 LenzSport PBJ, WTB Dissent, and more…
Outdoor Demo Day #2 Titus Rockstar, Crank Bros. wheels, and more…
Indoor Report #1 Niner, Intense, and more….
Indoor Report #2 Van Dessel WTF, Salsa Woodchipper, and more….
Indoor Report #3 Surly “Larry”, wheelsets, and more…
Indoor Report #4 Ellsworth, Origin 8, and more…
Indoor Report #5 Tubeless wheels and new tires.
Indoor Report #6 More new tires, Rawland Cycles, Turner and more..
Interbike Best Of Show
Interbike Hangover Report Left overs from the show!
Interbike Hangover Report: Jamis 650B B2 FS
Interbike Ride Report: Santa Cruz Bikes Tall Boy 29″er FS
Interbike Ride Report: Jamis D29 Carbon Hard Tail 29″er
Interbike Ride Report: Specialized S-Works Stumpjumper Carbon Hard Tail 29″er
Interbike Ride Report: Raleigh XXIX Pro
Interbike Ride Report: Gary Fisher Bikes Rumblefish II
Interbike Ride Report: Specialized Epic Marathon 29″er
Interbike Ride report: Kona Hei Hei FS 29″er
Interbike Ride Report: Scott Scale 29″er
Interbike Ride Report: GT Bikes Sensor FS
Interbike Ride Report: Cielo Single Speed
Interbike Ride Report: Salsa Selma
Interbike Editorial: Grannygear shares his thoughts on the 2009 Interbike and trends.

Twenty Nine Inches - 29er Bike Reviews, Rumors and News

Despite the vocal minority that is clamoring for more and more travel in the 29er world, the sweet spot for 29er full suspension may indeed be 4”. I have felt myself drawn to thoughts of 120mm forks and bigger travel rear suspension bikes for the future but the Epic, the Tall Boy, and although it is a little outside the 4” range, the Rumblefish, showed me that 4” may well be the magic number for a 29er XC/trail bike. In my opinion, unless you do a lot of drops and hucks, for rolling down the trail and UP the trail as well 100mm of travel is enough for 90% of the FS riders out there.

Some manufacturers just don’t get it when it comes to 29er stuff like wheels and rims. Yeah, I know that we want light rims, but there is a lot of interest in a wider rim that allows for a straighter sidewall with fat tires, like 2.2” and up. One new offering from a respected wheel maker not only passed on a wider rim but decided not to build them with a single speed only hub that they offered before. Ahhhh…marketing guys, do you spend any time at all on the 29er forums and chat rooms? And seriously….make it tubeless ready. A conversation with a pretty big tire company went something like this: “Hey, have you improved the casing on the ‘Schwarma’ tire to work better with tubeless conversions? There have been issues with the sidewalls being porous and requiring gymnastics to get them to seal-up”. Deer in the headlights look by product guy, followed by a lecture on setting tubeless tires up properly and how the tires don’t need any changes. I say, “Well, I have read this from many tire users…must have some truth to it.” More blabber about this and that but no honest response on the issue and no interest in knowing about it…and…apparently no changes to the tire although I walked away a bit mystified.

Carbon can be an amazing thing on a mountain bike frame. The few rides I had on the Stumpjumper, the Jamis, and the Tall Boy were eye opening. Stiff in all the right places, yet still less than abusive…man, it rocks as long as rocks don’t ‘rock’ the lovely layers of composite goodness. Besides the cost, carbon only needs to rise above the specter of fragility and the tide will turn in a big way.

But, don’t count out beer can technology. Hydroformed aluminum may not be as sexy as carbon, but it is cheaper, can be shaped, peaked and tweaked like no simple butted tube could dream of, and as I found out when I rode the Scott Scale, can give the carpet fiber bikes a run for their money.

I have had mixed feelings and experiences with Avid brakes recently. I found the customer service of SRAM to be impeccable, but the Juicy 3s I had were problematic and I am not alone here. However most of the bikes I rode at Demo Days were equipped with one version or another of the new Elixir brake. Every one was superb in modulation feel, stopping ability, and best of all…NO NOISE, NO Gobbling. Turkey gobble, exit stage left. And, besides that, the pads now can be changed through the top of the caliper. Yay!

Electric bikes were all over the place at IBike. Who is buying them? Why are they here and what will they do for cycling that non-Ebikes won’t do? I hope to find that out soon when I dive into the world of electrons and spokes.

Are the days of a non-DW/VPP/CVA linked bike numbered? Well, maybe not for pure XC racing or AM/DH but in the wider world of the XC trail bike, I think they are. Propedal is fine for a very digital type of riding experience. By that I mean, turn it on, climb for a long while and then switch it off for the descent. Or crank the Propedal up and leave it on and accept the loss of suppleness and potential travel like a pure XC race bike. But when you are looking to cover the countryside over all kinds of terrain where flipping a Propedal lever all the time is not fun, the new gen of bikes like the Santa Cruz Tall Boy come out and just rule the day. I was beginning to think you cannot have it all, but you can now. The Specialized Epic Marathon 29er gave me the same epiphany, but with the platform Brain shock making the magic happen. Soon no one will accept the spin from companies saying how their traditional 4 bar bike can do it all with Propedal and buyers will be shopping elsewhere for a XC/endurance/weekend bike ride.

2X9 (or 2X10) shifting set ups are very cool. I have been running a traditional 3X crank with no big ring for quite a while and it works for me. I rarely miss the big ring and I like the shorter chain length and snappy front shifting. It is either up or down. No up-up or down-down. So on several of the more race oriented hardtails, I came to appreciate the 2 ring front set up. In the ‘Big Ring’ you can still get all the cassette if you need it and at Bootleg, I never even got into the small ring at all. Would I like it so much in the long, steep climbs? Not sure. With the debut of the 12-36 cassette (and the 10 speed 11-36), a 26/39 equipped crank is pretty low and on a light race bike and under a fit rider, would likely do it all.

That’s a wrap on Interbike 2009. (Really! We promise!) Thanks for checking out our coverage and we hope you all enjoyed it. Guitar Ted

Twenty Nine Inches - 29er Bike Reviews, Rumors and News

Salsa Selma: Well, you know I have to ride at least one single speed for the weekend and I chose the Selma, a sirens call of seductively shaped Scandium and pinstripes. As I was flying around the XC demo trails, doing my best to not run over the pokey and plodding geared and linked up bikes on tour there, I was thinking…”OK, I know this is supposed to be a racy SS bike and it is certainly a light and fast scooter, but Salsa really nailed the handling and the over sized down tube and shaped Scandium made for a precise and smooth ride. It even was easy to get the front end off of the ground, something that is not always so on the longer and slacker SS frames that are out there.

Could I tell that the shaped chain stays and seat stays were working for me? No, not really. Give me one without that feature and let me compare. Was it brutally rough like those stiff and unforgiving aluminum bikes we read about and secretly fear? Not at all. Trail bike SS? Ahhh…maybe not compared to a nicer steel ride with smaller tubes, etc. But there are trade offs to everything and as I cranked hard over the steep climb in the trail, that Scandium frame jumping forward with every pedal stroke as I passed a rider on the left, then smoothly carved a graceful arc and dove into the gully that followed, I was thinking, “Could I get off of my Jabberwocky for this?” Yeah, I think I could. Nice job, guys and gals. Salsa gets a lot of kudos for getting the handling right on their 29ers and I see why. The Selma is a fast traveling girl and a great dancer.

Twenty Nine Inches - 29er Bike Reviews, Rumors and News

Interbike’s Outdoor Demo isn’t exactly the place one looks for a custom hand made 29″er. That would be more the realm of the North American Handmade Bicycle Show. But here I was, having Jay Sycip setting me up on the Cielo and sending me off with a warning of “Don’t fall in love with it!”

The bike is a single speed, of course, and stomping on the pedals resulted in great acceleration. The bike was much like the Raleigh XXIX Pro. Great steel ride, only refined,if that makes any sense. The frame had the S&S Couplers, but to be honest, they were never noticed while riding the bike. That’s a good thing, by the way.

Of course, the bike was set up with Chris King components including the new Inset head set which was surrounded by cool stainless steel high lights. Nice! But you would expect nice touches like that on a high end steel rig. The parts all did what they were supposed to do, and the geometry was great with nice, neutral handling and a rear wheel that stayed planted during out of the saddle grunts.

I have to say that the bike got some heads turning out on the trail too, which was fun. I was certainly priveledged, since there are probably only four Cielo 29″ers in existence at the moment. One thing is for sure, there will be alot more of them once folks find out how sweet these rigs ride.

When I came back, Jay asked, “Well, did ya fall in love?”

I am a single speed nut, and I love steel single speeds, so you know I fell for this bike hook, line, and sinker. Jay said, “I warned you!

Yes. Yes he did. But I don’t regret riding that Cielo one little bit!

Twenty Nine Inches - 29er Bike Reviews, Rumors and News

GT Sensor 29er: It is not often that I come into a bike test with no preconceptions. In a world with Tweets, FaceBook, Blogs, and Forums, word travels fast, but here was the Sensor, a 2010 5” travel 29er that I had never even heard of. The iD (Independent Drivetrain, the refinement of the iDrive set up) has always intrigued me but that was about all I knew. Kinda’ cool actually, to just go ride something and be surprised. Was I? Yeah, actually. The iD system really is effective.

I turned ProPedal on, even though later I was told it is not necessary…oops…well, I thought it was. It was a pretty heavy bike, probably the heaviest bike of the weekend and I could feel that when I stood to pedal. And, I was getting tired. So, I sat down and pedaled instead. Ahah! Now the sorta’ heavy but really well balanced 5” trail bike came alive in that I could ride up nearly anything I could keep pedaling up. Traction was always there, it was supple, but never sunk into its travel and wallowed. It was dead simple to loft the front end and even…gasp…wheelie the 29er like a circus bike. Well, OK.

On the bobsled runs of Bootleg it was a smile inducing ride but I noticed something in the rear of the bike that felt like flex. Then the rear tire was starting to rub the inside of the left chain stay. Turns out the rear QR was loose…real loose, and it was letting the rear wheel walk around. It did point out the lack of tire clearance at the BB junction. The Nevegal was real close to the metal down there and I understand that will be addressed by GT. As it was, I really came to like this bike. In mud, forget it for now till there is more room down there for goo, but besides that, the 120mm of travel was all good and, if it was lighter, I would have been even happier. I have to wonder if a 4” version with a 100mm fork and lighter components would not be a killer entry besides the Epic Marathon and the like. iD is OK in my book.

Twenty Nine Inches - 29er Bike Reviews, Rumors and News