Single speed specific Inbred 29″er (Image courtesy of On One)

On One Revamps Steel Inbred Line Up: Recently in an e-newsletter, On One’s Brant Richards, (yes- he has come back to On One, in case you had not heard), announced that On One was not going to continue with the “Swap Out” design on their Inbred 29 inch frames. Swap Outs were a modular, bolt on drop out system which allowed conversion from single speed to geared set ups by removing and replacing the “swappable” plate drop outs.

From here forward, Richards says their will be three versions of both 26 and 29 inch Inbreds: A geared only, vertical drop out version, a “slot drop out” geared or single speed version, (for those who can not commit to one or another ), and as Richards says, “hearking back to our roots“, a single speed specific frame in white. Time for availability is said to be February.

Richards also states that new frames in steel will revert back to On One’s top tube routed cabling with full housing runs, which are typically seen on U.K. based companies bikes. Also, no more cantilever brake mounts will be seen on the new Inbreds.

In other On One news, the long awaited “Lurcher” carbon fiber rig, a longer travel carbon hard tail than On One’s “Race 29″, is now slated for a mid-March appearance with pre-orders scheduled for opening in mid-February. No word on whether the Swap Out design was held over for this model or not.

Proposed long travel 29″er full suspension design for Titus: (Image courtesy of www.shedfire.com)

New Titus Full Suspension 29″er?: Of course, Planet X, who is the parent company of On One and Titus, is wanting to get Titus back in full swing and has been furiously designing new things since the onset of their take over of the company. Now some of the first fruits of this are being teased here with this proposed “long travel” 29″er. Not much is known about details for this yet, but we’ve heard it may have up to 140mm rear travel and be compatible with 140mm travel front forks. A rather obvious tapered head tube appears in this rendering, along with a through axle rear end. The frame shows lots of hydro-formed tubing. We also noted the forward placement of the seat tube in relationship to the bottom bracket, which hints at shorter stay lengths. Interesting to see how the chain stay pivot placement is retained, which was always a feature of older Titus full suspension designs.

No news on geometries, availability, or final look, but so far, we like what we see here.

650B Long Travel For 2013?: We keep hearing rumblings from very credible sources about interest in 650B wheels for longer travel applications where 29 inch wheels seem to be a hindrance to designers. Is 650B finally going to find its niche in longer travel All Mountain type mountain biking? Apparently, some very big bicycle company, (or more), seems to think so. We’ve seen a long travel 650B specific fork from a major manufacturer slated for 2013 model year production. It wouldn’t exist if some bigger bicycle company hadn’t footed the bill for it. So, it is a very safe bet that sometime in 2012 you will start to see this fork and bike(s) with it showing up.

Interestingly, this fork hints at travel at and above 150mm. Is 29″er long travel suspension bike design going to see the 140mm travel as its limits? This new development seems to point to this. Maybe we’ll even see 650B become the long travel hard tail wheel size of choice. One thing is for sure- this fork is not an XC/trail fork!

Of course, tires would need to be developed to go with this, but we hear several new models are on the way to satisfy the big travel needs of these new rigs. Stay tuned for further developments.

Speaking Of Tires: We also have seen a new proposed design for 29″er tires from an unlikely source. These will be aggressive, trail type tires in 2.25″ and 2.4″ sizes. We can’t say who it is yet, but these tires should be pretty big and voluminous if the final production hits the target set by the schematics we saw. Stay tuned……

That’s it for now. We’ll keep our ears and eyes open for more on these and other stories coming your way soon.

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

The new Titus Rockstar (Image courtesy of Titus Cycles)

Titus Rockstar Bows Again: Back at Interbike 2009 we showed you the Titus Rockstar in its aluminum guise. A titanium version was also shown that year, both with carbon fiber rear assemblies. The full suspension bike was a highly anticipated model. Twenty Nine Inches was actually on the schedule to test one, but then things came unraveled at Titus, and with the financial difficulties, that proposed review, and Titus Cycles as a whole, was in limbo.

(Image courtesy of Titus Cycles)
Fast forward to late 2010. On One Bikes/Planet X takes over Titus and revitalizes the company with the assistance of frame manufacturer Sapa Extrusions, a firm located in Portland, Oregon. This kept Titus’ heritage as a U.S. produced bike intact, and dovetailed in with On One/Planet X’s U.S. based offices which were local to the manufacturer. (More on that in a moment)

The designers at Titus did a re-think on the new Rockstar, which is now only offered with an aluminum front triangle/carbon fiber rear assembly, and tweaked the geometry in accordance with rider feedback garnered from the first generation Rockstar owners and testers. With slightly shorter top tube lengths, the hope is that the front end will be easier to pin down in corners. A higher bottom bracket was also called out for better pedal to trail clearances. Finally, the seat tube shape has been tweaked for better rear tire clearance and rear triangle clearance. Titus claims the rear suspension pivot placements and feel have been retained from the original design.

The bike is designed around a Rock Shox Monarch rear damper with 100mm of travel. Frame weight, including the shock, is a claimed 6.4lb/2,902.99gms. Head angle is at 70* while the seat tube angle is 73* with the recommended 100mm travel front fork length in mind. Titus Cycles has these frames for sale direct at MSRP $1299.00USD. (See Titus Cycles site)

U.S. Production?: Titus Cycles claims it is committed to having Titus bikes manufactured in the U.S.; however, Sapa Extrusions is going to cease production of bicycle frames soon. Sapa believes falling production orders are to be explained by consumers indifference to the origins of their frames production. Titus has frames produced for now, but is in the search process to find another U.S. based supplier. Titus says that as of now, newly started frame building company, Zen Fabrication, is the front runner to replace Sapa as Titus’ manufacturer.

However that all shakes out, the Rockstar is back, and looks great with the Iron Maiden inspired font and blue and white scheme. Stay tuned for a possible test/review on this full suspension rig.

Singular Cycles “Buzzard” short stay/AM hard tail proto (Image courtesy of Singular Cycles)

Singular Cycles To Add New Bird To The Flock: In keeping with Singular Cycles penchant for naming their models with avian monikers, this new, all mountain inspired hard tail 29″er prototype has been dubbed the “Buzzard”. The frame will be steel, (of course), and will sport the requisite short(er) chain stays and slacker head angles associated with this sort of bike. As of now the plans are to keep the chain stay length at 420mm, the head angle at 69*, (sagged measurement with a 120mm fork, but will be designed to accept a 140mm fork), and it will be designed to have a 31.6mm seat tube to accommodate dropper seat posts.

While the rest of the Singular range sport eccentric bottom brackets for ease of single speed/internal geared hub use, this proposed model probably will not sport such an arrangement in its final guise. Eccentric bottom bracket shells and such short chain stays relegate tire clearances to smaller sizes. Sam at Singular did not wish to have this, so it seems a 73mm bottom bracket shell with ISCG tabs is on tap for the final production version which has not been given a delivery date as yet. Sam is shooting for tire clearance to be good with a 2.4″ Ardent mounted out back.

Finally, the head tube is said to be spec’ed at a 44mm diameter, a move that will allow the use of straight 1 1/8th inch steer tube forks, tapered steer tube forks, and/or adjustable angle head sets. This should make the Buzzard a very versatile All Mountain hard tail choice. Stay tuned for any further developments…..

(Image courtesy of Lynskey Performance)

Lynskey Performance Brings Back Neon! Lynskey Performance is always sharing their newest creations online and this one is a stunner featuring a flat black and neon green scheme. Lynskey’s Don Erwin shared that while they can not do specific color combinations in their line up, they do have access to House Of Kolor’s neon palette and these can be applied with a flat black background to make for an eye-popping look on any Lynskey Performance model.

Furthermore; Don added that their painter has found a way to flat clear coat the Rock Shox suspension fork shown on this bike in the image here for a consistent flat paint look from stem to stern. The model shown here is Lynskey’s own Pro 29 VF and you can check out more details on that bike here.

We remember the “neon phase” of mountain biking here at Twenty Nine Inches with …..ah….some reluctance, but we must admit this does look pretty nice. Let’s just not over-do it guys, okay! (Ha ha! )

Czech Tires? Who Knew?

Czech tire manufacturer, Rubena, is coming to the U.S.A. with several new 29″er tread designs and by the looks of it, these will be some high tech tires featuring claimed voluminous casings and light weight.

Rubena comes from a heritage of tire manufacturing stretching back to the early 20th Century and is well known in certain parts of Europe for their designs in 26″er tires. Now they have set up a U.S. based office and distribution and will be trying to make their presence known with these newer 29″er designs.

Twenty Nine Inches is slated to be testing a couple of these designs in the coming weeks, so stay tuned for further news on these (new to the U.S.) tires and we’ll see if their claims hold true. For further reading, see the Rubena 29″er page for the Scylla tire model here.

Okay, that’s all we have for this round of News And Rumors. Stay tuned for more Top Ten stuff coming your way soon here at Twenty Nine Inches!

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

Image courtesy of Kona Cog, Kona’s blog.

Kona Teases New AM/Trail Full Suspension Platform: This has been getting a lot of run on forums and internet sites lately. Kona has introduced the newest 29″er they have come up with dubbed the “Satori”. This bike features 130mm travel and Kona describes it as being an “aggressively oriented” full suspension rig. As such, we see several details that would lead us to believe the bike should perform as advertised.

Image courtesy of Kona Cog.

Here we can see the rear of the bike which will feature a 142mm X 12mm through axle, beefy drop outs, and the pivot location on the seat stay. We suspect that more companies will adopt the 142 X 12 standard for the rear axle on similar travel bikes as well. This should help make the rear of the Satori feel solid and flex free.

Image courtesy of Kona Cog.

Kona departs from the old “walking beam” type linkage to this “swing link” type linkage to drive the rear shock. This has become a popular set up on 29″er full suspension designs of late.

Image courtesy of Kona Cog

Kona claims this bike should be sub 30lbs in production trim, have a 68* head angle, and will be spec’ed with X7-X9 level components, and Easton Vice wheels. Look for the Satori to hit dealer floors in the fall. For more details, see Kona Cog.

Image courtesy of Vassago’s site.

Vassago Releases Details Of “Black Label” Frames: The long awaited “Black Label” model from Vassago has been revealed on Vassago’s site. The project has been teased for quite some time, but now seems to be reality.

Featuring a True Temper OX Platinum frame, sliding drop outs, and revised chain stay length, the frame is said to be a result of race team input. The Black Label frames are said to be built in the U.S.A. and are offered in three sizes: 16″, 18″, and 20″. Vassago says the Black Label frames are available now in limited quantities.

Image courtesy of Surly Bikes

Bigger Than Huge?! If you have never laid eyes on a Surly Pugsley, or any other “fat bike”, you might laugh, or stand in awe, (or both ) when you do. Fat bikes have that effect on people. Certainly, Surly has the legacy in these types of bikes, offering arguably the most recognized bike in this category to this day in its Pugsley model. Now we’re hearing that Surly may be in the process of one-upping themselves.

Rumors have been swirling for weeks amongst fat biking freaks that the Minnesota based company was going to announce a bigger tire than the enormous Endomorph and Larry models they already have. There were a few “leaks” of information, then Surly pretty much admitted something was going on in this blog post here.

What is it? Well, if rumors be true, we’re hearing that Surly is going to introduce a fat bike with tires that will purportedly be well over 4 inches wide! Yes, an entirely new, bigger than life, humongous bike reportedly to be dubbed “Moonlander“. (Which seems to be pointed at by the image on the aforementioned blog post linked above.) Stay tuned, we hear this crazy rig is possibly to be shown during the fall trade shows sometime.

Tire Delay To Improve Your 29″er Tires: We told you months ago that Continental Tires were to introduce some tantalizing new treads this year. So…..where are they? Seems that due to production issues with Continental’s contracted factories, where the 29″er line is produced, the tires have been delayed, and delayed again, and again. So many disappointments have seemingly resulted in a future benefit for 29″er fans of Continental tires.

Our sources say that since Continental finds itself “behind the 8 ball” in terms of tire production and availability at a time when 29″er sales are increasing remarkably, the decision has been made to move production of the 29″er tire line to Germany. This will also mean that all the higher end casing technologies that are only used for German made Continental tires will now be unleashed on the 29″er tires Conti makes in the future. “Black Chili”, anyone?

No word on how soon this may happen, but with all the “hub-bub” about 29 inch wheeled bikes going on now in Europe, this certainly will be on the fast track to reality.

29″ers Garner Acolades: The print magazine, Bicycling, has announced its annual “Editor’s Choice” awards and 29″ers show up well in the lists. (In fact, they get their own categories in some cases.) The editors gave “Best Value Bike” to Salsa’s El Mariachi, (image above), and “Best Of The Best” to Santa Cruz’s Tall Boy carbon full suspension device. Pretty cool. Look for the entire eight page feature with more bikes in the August issue which will hit news stands July 5th.

More Evidence That 29″ers Are “Big”: We’ve been talking about this subject in the past, and now comes another chunk of evidence that 29 inch wheeled bikes are re-invigorating the retail mountain bike segment. This story, recently published by trade magazine, “Bicycle Retailer and Industry News“, again points out that 29″ers are the only thing growing in sales numbers for local bike shops mountain bike sections.

Front suspended 29″ers have increased in sales by a reported 142% and full suspension 29″ers a triple digit increase of 118%. These figures were referenced from a report by the Bicycle Product Suppliers Association in the “Bicycle Retailer and Industry News” post linked here. This seems to be a pretty significant increase in the face of the other categories declines in sales on the mountain bike side. It was also noted that 29″ers seem to be cannibalizing 26″er sales, which we felt would be a reason many mountain bike companies would drop 26 inch wheeled hard tails, (at the least), from their line ups in the near future.

That’s about it for this edition of “News And Rumors”. Stay tuned for more soon…

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

(Image courtesy of Brant Richards’ Twitter feed)

The cycling industry is just wrapping up its annual trip to Taiwan for the industry showing of new bits, baubles, and shiny things that may end up as spec on 2012 bikes and beyond. Control Tech, who are a component brand, showed what was described as a “29″er specific component set. While handle bars and what not are hardly 29″er specific, it is said that they did show a crank set for 29″ers. No word on gearing for the crank set, but we suspect it would have to feature a 20T granny and a 30T middle ring to “qualify”.

(Image courtesy of Brant Richards’ Twitter feed.)

Ragley Bikes, who showed a carbon rigid fork at Eurobike, is still coming out with this fork at some point. Note the through axle interface. No word on what, if any, options for axle to crown or offset might be at this point. Earlier Brant Richards of Ragley Bikes had hinted that this would be a shorter axle to crown fork made to work for either 26 inch or short, “British Geometry” 29″er set ups. (My term, not his, referring to the non-suspended geometry, short axle to crown and short offset forks that Ragley and On One have put forth recently for 29 inch rigid XC oriented bikes.) Speaking of Brant Richards, he also designs for the revitalized brand Vitus, and word is that there will also be a carbon hard tail 29″er coming from the brand soon. (I know…..everybody is coming out with a carbon hard tail 29″er these days! )

Image courtesy of Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski’s Twitter feed.)

Bike Radar ran a tech story last week about a possible 29″er “Sid-like” fork from Rock Shox. Checking out some other race photos reveals that something seems to indeed be in the works from Rock Shox. It wouldn’t be a surprise to us here at Twenty Nine Inches either. While many of the readers here are pining away for a longer travel, beefier fork, it seems that the suspension fork companies are all looking at racy, XC applications for the newer forks slated to debut soon. (See our Frostbike report for more specifics)

Why would this be? That’s pretty easy to figure out, actually. With all the new interest from Europe in the 29″er market, manufacturers are looking at attracting the European rider who seems to be more interested in lightweight, shorter travel, efficient suspension. Longer travel, heavier, more ponderous forks and bicycles will not be a very big seller across the pond, and we’re hearing that manufacturers are seeing more potential in wooing the European market with shorter travel, XC type equipment for 29″ers. We expect to see more racing Pros jump on the big wheeled bikes along with this push into the XC market. That’s not to say there won’t be a big, single crown fork or two in the offing, but we think the most progress will be seen on the XC side of things. Stay tuned…..

Tires: Speaking of “big”, we’ll again mention that we know of a big, meaty, very popular 26 inch model tire that will be making the jump to 29 inch size from Maxxis. That should satisfy a lot of folks, but that isn’t all. We also have just been made aware that Geax is prototyping the “Sturdy” tread pattern for 29 inch size. (Some of you may have seen that glimpse of a Sturdy proto on the front of Banshee’s new Prime FS prototype recently) Look for this to be a 2012 product.

Also in the tire area, we have heard there will be some big news coming soon about Bontrager tires. Already making progress with their complete makeover of their 29″er tire line, which has been in progress for a few years now, they are hinting at some other big changes. Look for some more hints on this soon.

That’s it for this edition. Stay tuned……………

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

The new Rawland Cycles rSogn 650B bike.

Rawland Cycles Re-introduces A 650B Model: Rawland Cycles first made its name as the 650B mountain bike company from Minnesota. Now re-located to Austin, Texas, Rawland’s Sean Virnig hooked us up with this information on the re-designed rSogn 650B bike. Here’s a bit from the press release:

Following the success of the Rawland Sogn, which finally made a true fat-tired, production road bike available to the cycling world, the re-issued Sogn, or rSogn, shares the core design principle of all Sogn models: a frameset that has true road geometry including a steep head angle, low-to-mid trail fork, and moderate chain stay length – paired with the ability to fit tires up to 2.5” wide. This design has become a favorite for both daily commuters and long distance cyclists who appreciate quick handling bikes that climb well and encourage exploration of all paths less-traveled.

See Rawland Cycles site for more information.

Our View Is that even though you could opt to set up the rSogn as an off-road bike, as shown, it seems that the press release is suggesting this is more of a road bike in the classic French Touring sort of way. We at Twenty Nine Inches wouldn’t at all be surprised to see that most rSogns end up being purposed this way, and in fact, we believe this is where 650B will end up going in the long run.

Trek Does Big Wheeled DH?: Images have flooded the web recently stemming from a Trek hosted media tour of Trek’s HQ where several photogs got an unintended sneak peak at a rolling test mule Trek engineers are toying with. You can see an image here on Dirt Rag’s Facebook page, or here on Pink Bike’s site. Twenty Nine Inches inquired about the bike and was told that there were no plans for the bike to be put into production as it is, but that several ideas were being explored with the concept. While a down hill 29″er sled may not become a reality from Trek anytime soon, there are hints that something with a bit longer travel will be coming later. There are some rumors floating about concerning this and Trek as well, but according to our sources, nothing is set in stone as of now. Stay tuned…..

Going Long (er): Back in September we introduced you all to our Rock Shox Reba 140mm travel fork, (here), and this is going on our Project Long-Legs bike now. As of now, it is the longest travel 29″er fork that you can get from Rock Shox. As of now……….

That won’t be the case soon, as we have it on good authority that a new model 29″er fork, a single crown fork, with up to 150mm travel, is on the doorstep. This shock exists in 26″er format now. Let the guesses begin……….

French Carbon Hard Tail Introduction: We were tipped off recently to another, (yes- another carbon fiber hard tail, but take a look- it’s different! ), from France that is being offered by Chiru Bikes and has a specific design goal of being a great endurance bike platform.

Chiru Bikes founder, Pierre Arnaud, tells us that “The specifics of a Chiru bike is Comfort, Power transfer, and Reliability. We have specifically worked on the comfort of the PULSE, the seat stays design enables to filter high frequency vibrations from rugged trails.” Here are some bullet points on the frame….

-Asymetrical chain stay for optimum power transfer
-Carboflex 50 seat stay for high frequency vibration filtering.
-Multistandard bottom Bracket- (Fits 68 mm Bottom Bracket, fits GXP, BB30, PRESS FIT, Excentric BB for single speed)
-Tapered Headset compatible
-Handle bar protection plate
-Anti derailling device (This device is under development, the eyelet to fit it can be seen on the down tube )

Following are some more images from Chiru Bikes of the Pulse 29″er. Geometry specs follow afterward.

Asymmetric chain stays.

A look at the bare frame showing some of the unique shaping in the seat stay area, seat tube/top tube junction, and the top tube handle bar and chain stay protection plates.

Bottom Bracket inserts for different bottom bracket standards. An eccentric is also available for single speed set up.

A look at the unique rear triangle shaping said to absorb vibrations for more comfort on longer rides.

The geometry of the Chiru Bikes Pulse 29″er is pretty standard fare with a 72 degree head angle, 74 degree seat tube angle that matches up with its 440mm chain stays. Sizes offered run from Small to XL with top tube lengths starting at 585mm, then 600mm, 622mm, and 640mm for the XL. Tire clearances up to 2.35″ are here with a post mount rear brake, (160mm rotor max), and an anti-slip finish for front derailleur mounting. There is also an optional rock deflector available for the down tube. For more information, see Chiru Bikes website.

An interesting take on a carbon framed 29″er.

That’s all for this edition of News And Rumors. Stay tuned for any further updates.

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