Today we almost didn’t get to ride. An unusual storm system came through and dumped rain all late night and into the morning hours in the Las Vegas area, threatening to shut down the demo, but we saw the skies clear enough to allow riding by late morning.
The rain holds off for the rest of the day. View looking back at the expo area in Bootleg Canyon.
Trends: So far there are two distinct things going on and they mimic what we witnessed from Eurobike. Carbon hard tail bikes and dual suspension bikes were the things folks were after to ride. Fat-bikes were also running around all over with Surly and Salsa Cycles having full size runs of fat-bikes out for riding.
Every year we see more and more 29″ers at the demo, and this year was no exception. The difference this year was that the demarcation between 26 inch, big hit, DH bikes and 29 inch everything else was quite evident. 29″ers were seen more than just about anything else on the demo loops.
Yep! Another image of the Salsa Cycles Horsethief. We’re going to have an in depth report on this new rig, and today I rode it. Grannygear and I will both have detailed thoughts about this bike, and we also have some input from Salsa Cycles engineer, Pete Koski and Product Manager Tim Krueger to add to the story.
So, yeah…..but what did I think? This is a much better bike than the Big Mama, and a hoot to ride here. Stay tuned for more….
Santa Cruz Highball: So, they must like drinking at Santa Cruz….Tall Boy, Highball…well, if it is helping them to put out bikes like the Tall Boy and now this Highball, I’d be willing to buy them a round. This bike was fast. I’ll have more to say soon, but for now, “Cheers Boys!”
Yeti SB-95: The Yeti SB-95 was actually available for demo here, and in high demand. Grannygear stood in line for half an hour to grab one and get some ride impressions. We’ll also have a video with Yeti speaking to the technical aspects of this new platform. Stay tuned for more…..
Marin CXR 29″er Carbon: Here is the second down in the line in Marin’s 29″er carbon line. This bike was a 19″, which usually fits me well, but it seems a tad shortish. Oh well….it fit well enough, and I had a good ride on this one. How does it stack up? Well, I’ll be doing a comparo over the course of my ride reports, so stay tuned.
Fargo Gen II: Yes, believe it or not, but this is my first ride on a gen II Fargo, and I liked it. I liked it alot. I’ll get into the salient differences between the two soon.
Kenda Tires: The Kenda Tire booth was showing some new treads like this Signature Series 24Seven Race design. They also had a Kommando 29, Kozmic Lite 29, Kozmic Lite II 29, and an H Factor signature Hans Rey 29″er tire. I’ll have a complete tire and wheel report in the coming days.
Rumblefish: Grannygear hit up the Rumblefish and will report on his feelings about how this bike rode. By the way, this now has the Fox DRCV fork on it as well as the DRCV rear damper.
That’s it for the Outdoor Demo. Stay tuned for our Indoor Reports coming soon.
I love the H-Factor in 26″. Should be better in 29.
Last year the Kommando was the tread I was most interested in. Scaling up the cyclocross tread to mtb size make for a very unusual tire.
Interesting that they’re all Fox forked bikes. Will be interesting to hear your thoughts on the Highball and it’s low bottom bracket.
Doesn’t the Rumblefish also have another 10mm travel at the rear for 2012? (120mm total)
I saw on DirtRag’s facebook page that the “unique” (aka ugly IMO) Look hardtail was the only 26″ hardtail XC bike they saw at outdoor demo.
I wonder is Trek’s 29er Roscoe was there at the demo.
Nice, wish I had the opportunity to ride so many sweet bikes
SB-95 looks to be the bike to beat
@Anand: The Roscoe 29 is still being refined by Trek engineering. Look for it to be introduced sometime in 2012, (Most likely as a 2013 model 😉 )
Been running an H-Factor / Slant Six setup on my 26er since March. Very pleased.
And rocky mountain aint making 26″ hardtails anymore. What’s Kabush gonna ride as he said he would never ride a 29er, eh Bushy?
The “interesting” trends (carbon, fullys and fat bikes….. booooring!) are pretty much the least interesting for me. Was hoping for more even though I have no idea what that is.