Okay, so c_g has put the bar for reporting from Eurobike very high here at Twenty Nine Inches. Are we up to the task? Well, whether we are or not, ( 🙂 ), here we go! Our first report comes to you from Outdoor Demo In Bootleg Canyon, near Boulder City, Nevada.
Carbon Hard Tails: Eurobike had tons of examples of the carbon hard tail 29″er on show, and Interbike has its fair share as well, if the Outdoor Demo is any indication. Of course, major players like Felt Bikes, Trek/Gary Fisher, and Specialized, amongst others, have been putting carbon hard tails out for years now. So, what could be so new? 😉
Origin 8 Paladin 29
On some bikes we will have some detailed things to speak to, like the Origin 8 Paladin 29 Carbon hard tail above. A rigid fork, hard tail at Bootleg Canyon? Yup! And it was a demanding ride. 🙂 Hopefully we will be getting this on more appropriate terrain after Interbike. We’ve been promised that will happen, so stay tuned for a longer term test here. I will say that the full carbon fork on this bike was working hard to mitigate the chatter, so it may well prove worthy on smoother terrain. Again, detailed write ups are coming later.
Raleigh Talon Carbon 29
Yes…..more carbon! The Raleigh has a different take on construction, using the same modular head tube/down tube single piece mold technique, mitered tubing that is laid up size specific to keep ride characteristics similar across different sizes, and internal cable routing. But how does it ride? Well, I like the way it handles here at Bootleg Canyon. We are promised a test rig, so I’ll not get into that any further yet, but stay tuned for detailed ride report.
Perhaps the surprise of the demo, (for me at least), was this Nuvinci hubbed fat bike that Origin8 brought to the show. They only just got the bike a few days ago from Taiwan and put it together, so details were a bit scarce. It also was interesting from the standpoint of the tires, which are by Vee Rubber and will be sold through J&B Importers after market. A wire and a folder of the same tire will be offered at suggested retailed prices that will be far less than the current offerings. (No exact MSRP available at posting) Stay tuned for a ride report…..
Bontrager has informed us that the 29-4 and XR-1 have been redesigned and re-named. We will have more information soon. In fact, we will have some test tires soon. The lowdown here is that the tires have more sizes available from XC size to Trail size, (in the case of the new version of the XR-1, it will just have more XC sizes available), and all but the entry level wire beaded versions will be of Bontrager’s excellent TLR system. The tire shown is the 29-4 replacement. More details coming soon….
c_g brought you the news on the BMC 29″ers from Eurobike, but at the Outdoor Demo, we could actually ride them, and I got on this BMC Trail Fox bike. It’s a “short link” full suspension rig, and has a very Taril/AM sort of feel. I’ll get the details of my thoughts together soon.
Grannygear got a ride on the Horsethief from Salsa Cycles. He will have a video and ride impressions coming soon, but I think it is safe to say he really liked this bike.
Breezer unfortunately did not have a rideable sample of the new Lightning 29, but they did talk to Grannygear about the details on the frame, and the intentions behind some of the choices on this bike, which are unique for sure. More details and a video later.
The Rocky Mountain Element 29 was previewed by both myself and test ridden by c_g, but Grannygear wanted a crack at this fine looking rig, and so he will write his impressions soon. Let’s just say I noted a very wide smile on his face when he told me about this one! 🙂
Grannygear also ran the Moots YBB 29 through its paces. Unfortunately, there were no rideable samples of the new full suspension rig around, but this was an interesting bike for us, since it is one of the first titanium 29″er designs and still available today. Is it old skool, or still relevant? Grannygear will say his piece on it soon.
We’ve had some requests for a ride impression on a Pivot 429. Well, stay tuned, because your answer is coming folks. Grannygear will share his thoughts on this short link design soon.
Commencal walked this 5 X 5 travel aluminum full suspension which they just flew in from Eurobike. We don’t have many hard details for you since the individual we spoke with was not well informed, but we’ll see what we can come up with here.
Interesting ports for the internal cable routing.
Floater shock mount type suspension.
The model here is said to be based on the 26 inch Meta AM, and carries the same name.
The brake mounting is eye catching. Interesting and nice looking.
A few years ago, the industry scoffed at long travel 29″ers. We’re betting there are more where this came from.
Stay tuned for another Outdoor Demo Report tomorrow!
ok, lets all take votes on how long the rear shock seals last on the Commencal meta !
My vote. ah.. lets say 3 weeks to a month from brand new. 🙂
@professed: easy fix with a small dirt catcher, though. But maybe it is in place for production?
what’s up with the horsethief? holy wheelbase, batman!
Curious about the Meta 29 myself.
Took me over a year to get my 29-4’s, w/o a review, they’re already obsolete. Maybe the new one’s will be available this time next year. They’re heavy (expert’s) with lots of traction and a big footprint, could have been named Bulldozers. The weight is an okay trade off for predictability.
Looking forward to all the reports, how about multiples per day for us info starving readers. Writing is as much fun as riding, right?
Full thrashing and write up on that Rocky Element, por favor. Better yet, put it head to head against the Horsethief to address the wheelbase thing alluded to above.
@ m.e stop stealing my username! 🙂 But I agree with you- that Meta 29 looks very well put together and could be a whole lotta fun . . . . G.T., I’m guessing they only have the one and they aren’t letting people test ride it???
@Me- Those are my intials, I can’t help it.
Not sure what Niner brought but would love a Jet 9 RDO Ride report from Interbike if possible.
@maheoway: Will be busy for a bit, but hang on….we’ll be multi-posting per day soon. Ride reports take longer, but stay tuned. We’ll get to all of it soon. 🙂
@Grant B: We’ll have ride reports on each bike, and maybe full tests coming in the future, so keep checking back.
@Me: That guess would be spot on. 😉
@Shane: Niner Bikes is not at Interbike this year. 🙁
That Commencal look pretty sweet!
Those look like some pretty fancy bikes!