Is this the world’s least expensive complete 29″er? Is it really a 29″er at all? What exactly would it be good at? Townie? Hmm……….Interesting and kind of odd, this Sun cruiser/townie/29″er was shown in the J&B Importers booth.

I saw this big wheeled trike roaming the halls of Interbike and had visions of crushing cars and smashing through large recreational vehicles, so I had to take a picture! (Maybe I’m watching too much Monster Jam on the Speed Channel!) At any rate, I saw this same guy cruising the scene at the criterium races down the Strip at the Mandalay Bay. Wonder if he had any brews in that basket of his…………

One part alien space craft, one part down hill bicycle, and one part snowboard. It’s Lenz Sports Alpine Brawler!

One One bike equipped with a Rohloff hub in “sand” and black? Oh yeah! I really liked this rigs look. Found it on display at the Rohloff booth. I’m going to have to try one of those some day…….

This Wound Up fork will soon be available as a 29″er rigid fork for disc brake use only. Check out the will-o-wisp drop outs and the windows milled into the sides of the fork crown. It also had one of the most minimalistic disc brake mounts I have yet seen on a 29″er carbon fork. Cool looking carbon lay up, that’s for sure!

Well, that’s all folks! See around on the flip side for Interbike ‘08!

I had heard rumors at the show that I had to check out the “gold plated 29″er” over in a certain distributors booth. It turned out that Voo Doo was showing this blinged out single speed 29″er with lots of gold anodized bits, but no real gold. Rats! Anyway, I noticed that this frame can also be geared for those so inclined.

If you could get past the gold bits, you would have noticed these slick sliding drop outs. Notice the set screw type tensioner. Seems like there are about as many solutions to the single speed/disc brake/tensioner conundrum as there are single speeds!

While we’re on the subject of titanium: Here’s a look at the front end of Niner’s proposed TSL 9 model. The titanium duo shown at Interbike, (one geared and one single speed) both sported these suspension corrected 26″er forks from DT Swiss. The TSL 9 is not designed for a suspension corrected 29″er fork, so Niner chose these to grace the front ends of their prototypes. Interestingly, These DT forks are sleeved with a titanium inner core wrapped over with structural carbon. Somewhat similar to what Bontrager does with their Switchblade fork. This DT Swiss fork was a result of the total overhaul of the previous Pace carbon fork, which DT Swiss aquired when it purchased Pace earlier in the year. No word on what, if any, rider weight limits would be imposed on the forks, which will also be available in a 29″er model.

Here’s a look at the long awaited Origin 8 Scout which we first showed you a year ago from the Interbike show floor. (I rather liked the original design myself) The frame has been tweaked to accept today’s larger 29″er tires in the rear and still has the removeable canti studs, and the ability to run gears. It is also reported that Origin 8 plans on a complete single speed model to be released for sale sometime this coming year at a retail price of around $800.00. Stay tuned for more info on this one.

Here’s a reminder that snow is coming soon! Vicious Cycles had this stunning snow rig parked in the back end of their booth as if it was the red headed step child. Gorgeous paint graces this fat tired utility/specialty bike in the fine Vicious Cycles style. The booth was also crammed with several other beautiful rigs and tons of folks drooling over them. Getting a chance at this shot took several minutes!

I had a chance to meet and chat with Jeff Jones at the show. He gave the demonstration of his vertically compliant and laterally stiff frame with the special fork made to withstand backwards flex that is part of the overall package available. Available? Yes! If you haven’t heard, there is no longer the need to wait for umpteen million years to get your hands on one of these 29″ers. Jeff has collaborated with Merlin to boost output capacity and make these frames available to all who might desire one without the years wait on Jeff to get to your order. Jeff says the first test run of bikes was every bit as good as anything he could do and that he was super pleased to present these for sale to the public. Interestingly, I noted that Jeff had one of his rigs set up with an Endomorph 3.7″ 26″er front tire in the back of his booth. Since the effective outer diameter of the Endomorph nearly attains that of a 29 inch tire/rim combo, it didn’t look all that weird. (You can see it in the backround of the photo above)

Here’s the Marin Hamilton, billed as an “urban/29″er” bike. This bike is budget priced at a sub $400.00 level and has plenty of clearance for 2.1″ rubber. It’s got a cool stealthy flat black paint and mono-chrome applique type badging. Simple and effective track ends and linear pull brakes make life easy if you need to remove the rear wheel, tension the chain, or switch out rear cogs. Speaking of cogs, you get a fixed and a free one with the Hamilton.

At first glance I thought I was seeing a Redline here. Turns out it was the new ‘08 color for SE Racing’s Stout 29″er. Another bike that takes the traditional, simple solution to a single speed set up. The tubing on this bike certainly looked like it fit the name of this model!

Okay, I’m a sucker for checkerboard stuff, so this Diamondback Overdrive Comp’s graphic caught my attention. So did the price tag. For about $650.00 you can get a fully geared, front suspended 29″er. This is a great example of where I think the 29″er market needs to go. I rode the higher spec’ed Overdrive at the Outdoor Demo and the frame on this Comp model is the same. Nice, stiff, and efficient.

Before there were 29″ers, there were bikes like Ibis’ Scorcher and Willits many 28″er models. In that vein comes the new Voo Doo 28″er. And believe me, there is only room for about a 45mm tire if that in this bike. Looks like a fine scorcher or townie bike though.

Look for more Interbike tidbits later.