The Plus sized bikes really dominated the show so far. It was what was for lunch and dinner, so to speak. The thing was, it was all a bit fragmented as to how to get it done and no one seemed to agree on what it will all look like once the dust settles. It is no fad though.
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Gravity, a part of the FSA guys, is re-focusing on aggressive trail and Enduro riding, but at a budget price. Introducing Grid, a mid level cost, all alloy parts group. All bars/stems are 35mm clamps and a typical bar/stem combo would be priced at $59.00 for the bar and $69.00 for the stem. The crank here is hollow forged alu, with the Megatooth 30T ring. 350g. The ISCG mount chain guide has a trick pin release system that allows you to rotate the guides up and out of the way for chainring swaps and crank/bb servicing without unbolting the entire mechanism. Cool. Nice looking stuff and well priced in a world gone mad with $10K bikes.
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The Panaracer Fat B Nimble tire shown here in the 29×3.0 (really a 2.8 according to Panaracer…wow, honesty) is sporting a minimalist knob and light casing so this is a claimed 780g tire. Not tubeless ready officially. 120TPI. They are calling it a 3 seasons tire, not for heavy rocks, etc.
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We got a close up look at the new Shimano M8000 XT 11 spd stuff. I love the smaller. minimal looking bar clamps…very tidy, very XTR-ish. That is a serious looking cassette and while undoubtably heavier than a typical SRAM 11 speed version, it is not near the cost. The top cog is Ti, not alloy, so it should not wear faster than the other cogs unlike when the top cog is aluminum. The derailleurs are all new, in fact everything is all new…so the rear der has an easily (externally) adjustable clutch setting if you like a lighter shifting feel or it can be tweaked for need max chain retention. XT is the enthusiast working man’s gruppo.
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The Specialized Fuse and Ruze, his and hers 27+ trail hard tails. Slack at what I recall to be 67° head tube angles with shorter stays, the drive side chain stay is very clever, allowing chainring room. All models are dropper post equipped and IIRC all are stealth routed. These are M4 level alloy frames. The Ground Control tire was quite beefy on the Roval Traverse Fatty carbon rim.
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More random pics of the Trek Stache 9.
