Hi folks, this past weekend Toronto held its 24th annual bike show, this time at the Better Living Centre. The weather was perfect and as a result the show was full of local and US attendees.  This year also marks the first 24 hour spin marathon complete with a live band and heart-pumping music. All the stationary bikes were filled with riders of all athletic abilities and I have to say the whole thing was a massive hit.

I was impressed with the show this year compared to a few of the previous Toronto bike shows. For one thing the show seemed better organized with crowd-pleasing demonstrations and exciting races to watch. By the sounds of the cheers and ooohs and ahhhs, many people were really enjoying the 4X racing that was going on. Along with that there was a massive crowd around the trials area where riders were showing off their 40 inch+ vertical step up jumps. It never ceases to amaze me how much balance those guys have on the bike. Think about it: jumping from a rolling start onto a chain and riding along it. I bet very few can say they do that all day long.

I managed to hook up with a few folks from the industry at the show including Jon Wells from Hayes who was there with his BMX team. Jon came to Hayes after an eventful carrier in Pro BMX and now shreds up the trails whenever he can. It was fun to see the enthusiasm he had as he was talking about the new Circus DJ fork from Manitou and the new Answer bars and stems (which, by the way, I will be reviewing in the next little while.)

I also had a chance to meet up with Mark Summers (one of the owners of Joyride 150) and he was excited to talk about how well the indoor bike park is doing. He mentioned the great interest south of the border and the deal they recently struck with Hilton suites and Howard Johnson’s close by. Mark also filled me in on the constantly changing features that have been popping up at Joyride (many of which I am super stoked to give shot.) The new expert skinny area at Joyride is high in skill but low in consequences which makes it great for practicing your skills without worrying that you’re gonna snap an ankle or shatter your clavicle.

I also checked in with my good friends at Opus and spoke with Sylvain Bosse (Marketing Coordinator) while checking out the new rides for next year (I like to stick with one company for my test bikes). Although they didn’t have it on display, Opus is working on a DH bike for next year that hopefully I’ll have a chance to saddle up soon. Sylvain mentioned some key features on the bike such as the massive pivots (about 40mm) which will make sure that there is very little flex in the rear. The bike also features hydro-formed tubing with a VPP set-up which sounds very interesting. Now if I only had a photo…

The show also featured a large marketplace where you could pick up parts or even complete bikes for a great deal. Speaking with some of the retailers, they were also pleased with the show. It seems people are a bit more free with their disposable income this year and are more willing to spend some of it. After watching all the new bikes heading out the doors I quickly lost count!

Below are a few photos of the rest of the show.

I was in a total haze when I saw all these forks! Picture an entire wall of every fork you can think of. Imagine  the possibilities.

Well it was a great weekend in Toronto. If you’re around next year, stop by and check out the show, and while your here stay a while and enjoy the city. The venue is right in the middle of town so you can also catch a show or if you’re up for a small drive you can also hit Joyride 150.

Cheers!

Ever wonder how you stack up against best downhill mountain bike riders? The 2010 US Open of Mountain Biking is your shot at racing against the pros at the Diablo Freeride Park in Vernon, NJ May 27-30. The Pro/Am format is open to all comers, though registration is capped at 450 men for the downhill race and 175 for the slalom. Kenda is the title sponsor and the total cash purse is $25,000 (plus another $30,000 in product).

Aside from the racing action there will be dozens of vendors and exhibitors on hand for this east coast event. This is the 8th annual US Open of MTB and every year it seems to get bigger and better. Stoked!

via Dirt Rag.

How much would you pay to have a beer with a mountain bike legend like Gary Fisher, Ned Overend, Joe Breeze, or Joe Guy? Now, how much would you pay to have a beer with ALL FOUR? Trips for Kids held their annual Bikes, Bucks, and Brews fundraiser last weekend and an all-star cast of more than a dozen MTB pioneers were on hand for the festivities.

The press release we read said $3,000 was raised for this national non-profit which seems like a paltry amount for an event with such celebrity fire-power. Not only that, the $3,000 came from drink sales and a silent auction that included at least two brand new mountain bikes (a FS from Jamis and a 29er from Marin). Heck, we’re pretty sure the MTB legends themselves would have no problem running up a $3,000 bar tab in one night

For those who don’t know, Trips for Kids is a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization that “opens the world of cycling to at-risk youth through mountain bike rides and Earn-A-Bike programs.” TFK is based in Marin County, CA and was founded in 1998 by MTB Hall-of-Famer Marilyn Price.

So to answer the question at the beginning of this article, I’d probably be willing to pay a hundred bucks to have a beer with the guys next year. If just 30 others were willing to do the same, TFK could easily beat this year’s haul!

photo from Jill Valerius / Susitna 100. Is that a mountain bike or a motorcycle?

If you’re still making excuses about mountain biking this winter, this should make you feel really bad: The Susitna 100 race starts tomorrow at 9am north of Anchorage, AK. Although it’s technically a “dirty century,” a more accurate title might be “snowy century.” Competitors can choose to bike, run, or ski the course through the Susitna River valley.

Last year’s bike winner took just over 16 hours to complete the course which works out to an agonizing 6 miles per hour plod. The second bike finisher took more than 19 hours and times basically go up from there…

Judging by last year’s results, the skiers have a slight edge over bikers in terms of speed while the runners take the longest (though some runners finished faster than the slower riders). There is also a shorter, 50K option which sold out this year. If you missed the Leadville cutoff this year, consider adding the Susitna 100 to your race calendar for next year!

If you’re bummed about being shut out from Interbike every year, the folks at Western Spirit in Moab have just the thing for you: Outerbike. From September 30 through October 3 this year, regular Joes can saddle up and demo the latest mountain bikes from big manufacturers like Kona, Trek, Santa Cruz, and Yeti (just to name a few). Perhaps best of all, the event takes place in a true mountain bike mecca, Moab, UT.

Putting on a large scale consumer event like this is an ambitious project but it’s one we’d like to see succeed. Interbike has experimented with opening Outdoor Demo East to consumers and the Sea Otter Classic in California has become the de facto consumer mountain bike show over the years but Outerbike just may have some legs of its own. Who’s in for 2010?

photo courtesy konaworld.com.

Kona is sponsoring a really cool and unique event starting Friday called “White Style” at the Kona Leogang Bike Park in Austria. White Style basically creates a DH/FR course out of snow to challenge some of the world’s best riders including Darren Berrecloth, Cam McCaul, and Sam Pilgrim.

Here are some course deets from Konaworld:

Kona Clump team rider Grant Fielder promises to present a course built out of snow that is even better than last year: A start section with two different parallel drops (a high one and a lower one with a kicker on it), followed by two massive doubles made completely of snow, but also featuring a second wooden kicker for the ones who prefer a shorter transition to throw down big tricks. The second half of the course begins with a decent step up to roller and kicker step down combination, just like a fruit bowl, which is not too big, but provides the perfect speed for a more challenging satellite dish step up step down combo that guarantees some more airtime for big tricks. The most spectacular obstacle is the final big hitter, which marks the end of the course: A huge snowboard big air style kicker shooting following riders into Leogang’s sky.

For those of us stateside, Red Bull will air highlights from the event on March 6th at 11:30 pm CET on www.servustv.com. Click below for last year’s highlight vid.

Words by Justin Mann, Photos by Allison Mann and Justyna Wlusek

I think that everyone can agree that the purest form of bicycle racing is the Individual Time Trial.  ITTs are elegant: one person, a bike, a specified course, and of course the clock.  There are different ways to approach an ITT and you don’t have to have a silly helmet or wind tunnel tuned parts. In fact, downhill mountain bike racing is a very pure form of ITT requiring tons of skill, fitness, and even luck, to ever approach greatness.  So if you were to sit down with some typical mountain bikers and invent an appropriate Cross Country Individual Time Trial, what would it look like?

The ideal course would be just long enough to really test the person’s ability to pedal as hard as they can and go really fast.  It would be just technical enough to create a chance for errors.  If an error was made then of course there would need to be a time penalty.  Ideally one would be able to eliminate external factors like course conditions and wind.  Add in a bunch of screaming fans, some jumps, berms, drops, maybe a bunch more screaming fans, and a whole lot of cowbell…  Sound pretty awesome?  It is!

The event

On January 16, 2010 a few top cyclists were invited to participate in the 2nd Annual Tri-Flow XC Indoor Invitational in Cleveland, OH.  For those who have not been, Ray’s Indoor Mountain Bike Park is the perfect venue for such an event with literally hundreds of lines and features to ride including jumps, bridges, whoops, skinnies, berms, and even climbs!  With equal payout, $5k in prize money, and killer unique “Leg” trophies this event is quite a show!

The course

The riders are allowed a rolling start and trip a beam to start the clock.  Once the clock starts the riders drop off the GT platform and onto the “Prologue” line with a tricky turn, some 10-inch high speed skinnies, through the “whoops,” 2 fast corners then out onto the “XC Loop”.  The “XC Loop” starts with a quick up, a tricky left, then a drop into a big left-hand berm.  Option lines abound on course as one can choose to ride a “plateau” with speed bumps or drop into a “Rock Garden,” then all lines go over a tabletop jump and up a ramp into the rafters.  Dropping out of the rafters the racers fly through left, then right-hand berms, over another tabletop, and into the “Beginner Room”.

At the entrance to this room a high speed left hander leads to a ramp back up toward the rafters, then a treacherous downward sharp right hander.  A short sprint through a hallway leads to a sharp 90 degree right and a steep up onto a platform.  Dropping off the other side of the platform throws the rider into a right-hand berm and an option to jump the table top to the right or roll it to the left. Carrying speed, the riders fly through a hard right, then a left and sprint to a 180-degree uphill turn through a doorway.  After negotiating this speed robbing turn, the riders sprint off a 3′ drop into a right/left option.  The left-hand line is higher and takes more energy, but sets up the next corner with more speed.  The proper technique and a bit of risk taking can make the right-hand line very fast as well!  Another right-hand berm and then the racers face the horrible leg burning climb into the rafters.

The climb is tortuously steep and riders are forced through a momentum-destroying tight 180 switchback midway.  A narrow catwalk provides the racer with a moment to reflect on their new found max heart rate and the pain in their legs and lungs before dropping from the sky into a series of left-hand berms and high speed rollers and finally back to where they started.

At this point you might think the course was done, but indeed you have to make three complete circuits of the “XC Loop” and in between each one the riders are forced to ride 2 of the 6 “Technical Lines.”  These “Technical Lines” consist of bridges and skinnies and other obstacles that can be tricky when fresh, but when your eyes are blurred from sweat, and your heart is trying to jackhammer its way out of your chest (not to mention lack of mental function due to oxygen debt) it gets really interesting!  To make these lines even more treacherous, 15 precious seconds are robbed from your elapsed time for an “Incomplete Line”.  So a slip of a tire or a dab of the foot, or worse yet a full on yardsale crash, can spell disaster for a race run.  Now this is mountain bike racing!

The male contestants came in all forms including: Scott’s Aaron Snyder on a full suspension Scott Scale with an integrated seatpost (this alone was a feat of courage on this course); local neo-Pro and fast man Kyle Spisak on a Cannondale Scapel; and Trek’s Tyler Morland (Canadian National Downhill MTB Champion) and Giant’s Adam Craig (Olympian, and holder of both National and World titles!) rocking hardtail dirt jump bikes. A last minute addition allowed Rock N’ Road Cyclery’s own and yours truly, Justin Mann, to race with the big boys on a rental 26″ dirt jump bike courtesy of Ray.

Adam Craig

Kyle Spisak

Aaron Snyder

Tyler Morland

Justin Mann

Competing for the women, the only returning contestant was Lindsey Bishop, representing Mafia Racing and rocking a SRAM XX equipped Felt full suspension race rig.  She was up against some stiff competition though.  Also on a full suspension bike was Rock N’ Road Cyclery’s Allison Mann on a full carbon Specialized S-Works Epic and a fierce duo racing on hardtail dirt jumpers consisting of Lizzy English (Giant STP) and 15-year-old local ripper Lyndsey Prososki on a Gary Fisher.

Allison Mann

Lindsey Bishop

Lizzy English

Lindsey Prososki

Out of this mayhem the winners were awarded their $1,000 prize purse in $1 bills and a full mannequin human leg trophy custom painted for the occasion.  Adam Craig showed in dominating fashion how to rip up a course with skill and power and won despite a 15 second penalty (yes even the best make mistakes!).  His time without the mistake would have blown away the course record previously set by nearly 15 seconds!  Allison Mann showed off not only the power to speed to a winning time, but the skills to make a flawless run to the top of the women’s podium.

Race Results

Men
1 Adam Craig (Giant)
2 Kyle Spisak (Canondale)
3 Aaron Snyder (Scott)
4 Tyler Morland (Trek)
5 Justin Mann (Specialized)

Women
1 Allison Mann (Specialized)
2 Lindsey Bishop (Felt)
3 Lizzy English (Giant)
4 Lindsey Prososki (Gary Fisher)

photo courtesy BlueRidgeAdventures.net.

Over on the Facebook fan page we asked for 2010 mountain bike goals and many of the responses had to do with long format racing (anything over 6 hours) and endurance racing. Along those same lines I’m hoping to try a multi-day stage race in 2010 or 2011 so I started doing a little research. Mountain bike stage racing seems to be growing with new races popping up each year and in 2010 you can find races pretty much everywhere.

Here is a list of the 2010 MTB stage races I was able to find online. Feel free to fill in any I may have missed via the comment form at the bottom of the page.

Arizona Trail 300 (starts April 23): The AZT 300 isn’t technically a stage race (there are no checkpoints) and it’s probably the most low key event on this list with zero official support. Still, the 300 mile race covers the scenic and rugged Arizona Trail starting at Parker Canyon Lake. Last year’s winner took just over 2 and a half days to complete the race.

Trans-Sylvania Epic (May 30 - June 5): This is the first annual Trans-Sylvania Epic and the race will take place in Central Pennsylvania in the area around State College, PA. Over 7 days riders will complete stages from 10-60 miles in length.

Tour Divide (starts June 11): Tour Divide is the world’s longest mountain bike race and covers 2,745 miles in a single stage. Racers start in the Canadian Rockies and ends in badlands of the Mexican plateau. All riders must be completely self-supported.

BC Bike Race (June 27 - July 3): This is the mack daddy of mountain bike stage races and covers some of the best mountain bike trails British Columbia has to offer from Vancouver to Whistler.

Trans Rockies (August 8-14): Trans Rockies is easily one of the most well-supported mountain bike stage races and like the BC Bike Race, this one takes place in British Columbia (Canada). Solo riders may compete in the 3-day race while teams of 2 are welcome to compete in the 7-day event.

Trans Wales (August 14-21): Sponsored by Gore Bike Wear, this is the fourth annual event and is limited to 300 riders. If you’ve never been to the UK this could be a great opportunity to explore.

Pisgah Mountain Bike Stage Race (September 14-18): This is just the second annual event but if the 2009 race is any indication, this will be a quality race. Pro riders Jeremiah Bishop and Sue Haywood competed last year so get your entry in early to secure your spot!

Checkpoint map from a recent trail nav competition. Courtesy trailbreak.co.uk.

We wrote about mountain bike orienteering a couple years ago and noted that it was a mostly UK phenomenon involving navigating a course using just a map and compass. Trail Break, a UK-based mountain bike event promotion company, has updated the concept with a new GPS-friendly race format called “Navigator Dual.”

Here’s how it works: riders download a GPX file with numbered checkpoints onto their GPS device. In Stage 1 of the race, riders have to visit each of 8 numbered checkpoints in order, #1-8. After checkpoint 8, riders try to hit as many of the remaining 20 checkpoints in any order they wish - just as long as they get to the finish before time is up. It’s not clear how long the overall race is but riders must hit the first 8 within 3.5 hours. Most checkpoints / shortest time wins.

This definitely sounds like an interesting idea and one we may see here in the US as more and more mountain bikers begin using GPS on the trail. Forget MTB Geocaching - Navigator Dual is the next big thing in MTB GPS!

Tri-Flow and Ray’s Indoor MTB Park are holding the second annual XC Indoor Invitational Jan 15-17 at Ray’s in Cleveland. The race is open to pro riders only and after qualifying rounds on Friday, the top riders will compete in a time trial around the XC course. No word on how long the course is or how many laps the riders will complete but I’d say to qualify as an XC race it should be at least 10 miles long.

Pro mountain bikers including Jeremiah Bishop, Nick Waite, and Sue Haywood will be competing for a piece of the $5,000 cash purse. On Sunday the public is invited to meet some of the pro riders and maybe even sneak in a lap or two around the course.

If that isn’t enough indoor MTB action for you, check out these videos. The first is a 1990s indoor mountain bike race that appears to take place on a BMX track. The announcer says the riders will complete 40-something laps for a total of 12 miles!

This next video was shot during the 2007 Red Bull Ride the Sky challenge. This has to be the most creative indoor MTB course ever constructed.

Who would have thought riding mountain bikes indoors was so common and established?

If you live in the northern hemisphere, today and tomorrow are officially the shortest days of the year. At first that fact might seem depressing but the good news is the days are only getting longer from now until June!

Even though the days are short and cold there are still plenty of opportunities to ride - you just need to be a little more creative. If you’re lucky enough to live within driving distance of an indoor MTB park like Ray’s or Joyride 150 you can ride no matter the weather or the daylight. For some of us weekends are the only chance to ride in the sun but that doesn’t mean you can’t go mountain biking after work - just strap on a set of lights and go.

Indian Creek trail photo posted by singletracks member Funrover

If cold weather is keeping you off the bike then the only thing you need is a little mental adjustment (and perhaps some warmer clothes). Singletracks members Funrover and Outdoornut have been posting pics of their snow rides proving that even a foot or more of the white stuff can’t stop a determined rider. For me the only (valid) excuse not to ride is wet trails or rain.

So tomorrow night I’m starting a new tradition of my own and going for a night ride on the shortest day of the year. Cheers to longer days!

Hey everyone, just a quick reminder that Joyride 150 opens tomorrow. In case you didn’t read my previous post, Joyride is Ontario’s (and Canada’s) first indoor bike park with something for everyone inside the 90,000 square foot mega-complex. Pack your bags and your bikes and get out there for some fun!

Bob_the_builder and I will be out there ASAP. The courses are well thought out and expertly built and this is the place where you can ride to your heart’s content all winter long. Check out the Joyrides website and get details. I’m sure once you check out Joyride you will be as stoked as I am!

Cheers