Here are a couple of interesting tidbits. One from Eurobike, one from the good ol’ U.S. of A.

Intense Cycles Releases New 29″er Tracer

Grannygear, our correspondent based in California, files the following report on Intense’s newest wagon wheeler shown at eurobike:

tracer29
Tracer 29er as seen at Eurobike

This pic is making its way around the net as I write this. 4.75″ to 5.75″ of adjustable rear travel is the buzz. It will be interesting to see how they tweaked the much debated front end geometry that the old Spider 29er had. I imagine this will be quite a bit slacker and I would bet they stiffened up the rear triangle on this one as well.

I’ll add that for the uninitiated, the “much debated front end geometry” was the very steep 73 degree head angle. Jeff Steber, owner of Intense, said back in the day when they were developing the Spyder 29″er, that he wanted it to handle like his 26″er did. Well, at that time the offset on suspension forks was locked in at 38mm. Now with that figure more in the range of 44 to 46mm, it is obvious that Intense will need to accommodate for the new fork offsets. I fully expect the head angle on the Tracer to be relaxed by at least two degrees, but time will tell.

hooligandillingerforkg3
Soul Cycles has their Generation 3 forks ready to be painted. (pic from Soul Cycles blog)

Soul Cycles New Forks

Soul Cycles has released information on its Generation 3 forks for its Hooligan and Dillinger frames. (The Hooligan is a 26″er model, but the forks would work for 29″ers and 650B) The new forks will be disc only and devoid of any rack and fender mounts. The geometry has been changed to reflect the newer fork offsets, but axle to crowns remain the same. Here are the pertinent numbers along with colors that will be available:

Hooligan Fork:
– 455mm axle to crown
– 42mm offset
Colors: Pearl White, Pearl Root Beer Brown, Gloss Black, Gloss Clear

Dillinger Fork:
– 485mm axle to crown
– 45mm offset
Colors: Pearl White, Pearl Root Beer Brown, Pearl Midnight Blue, Gloss Black, Gloss Clear

For more info see Soul Cycles.