So this may be a bit on the late side but seeing that most of this stuff still hasn’t hit the stores yet I thought I’d share these pics. What I have here is a compilation of my favorite photos from the show with some brief commentary so sit back and enjoy!

By far the coolest frame set I saw (next to the Banshee Legend) is the Intense 951 pictured above. I found myself just staring at this bike for far to long and almost missed my next appointment. Up close to this frame set you can see the quality work that went in to making this one of the most desirable DH frames around. With 150mm G3 rear axle spacing, one point five head tube, and over 8 inches of travel provided by an ohhh so nice Cane Creek double barrel rear shock this bike looked delicious.

Above, the same Intense 951 in red. Still nice, and this one was built up with Shimano Saint components and an Industry 9 wheel set with a Fox 40 RC2 up front and a DHX RC4 in rear. Can you say Sweet?!

Here is something that I personally want and not just for the red and orange anodized finish. The Ellsworth Rogue is a freeride bike with attitude. Not only does it look great but I had a chance to test ride one like this at Bootleg and it was super fun (the only down side - the run was too short). With 8 inches of rear travel and the Fox 40 RC2, this bike is a kick-butt machine.

It was hard to stop looking at Intense with all their models so close yet oh so far away. Here we have a pair of Uzzi frames. The Uzzi in blue has a Fox DHX Air 5 and the Red has the standard DHX 4 coil. You can also get this bike with the Cane Creek double barrel, at a cost of course.  For those who plan on taking big hits and hitting the park all day long you may not need look any further than the Uzzi.

This Ibis above boasts builds in the 25 pound range with 5.5 inches of DW link rear travel for those who want a quicker, snappier ride on a bike that won’t punish you too much after riding all day long. The Ibis can be ordered in various trim levels from Sram XX or X-9 group parts to Shimano XTR, XT or SLX.

I love cut-aways of bike stuff and there were plenty at Interbike to ogle. Here you can see a cut-away of the Fox RP23 with boost valve technology on your left, the new improved DHX AIR RC4 in the middle, and a 32mm F series front fork with Fit technology (borrowed from the 36 and 40mm forks) on the right. The Fit damper now allows the engineers to further save weight on the 32mm line-up by reducing the amount of fluid needed in that damper housing. Get close to a new 32mm fork and you will also notice that the engineers changed up the way the fork works as well by placing the rebound adjuster on the bottom (previous models placed the lock-out on the bottom). Check out FoxRacingShox.com for further information.

Walking around Interbike you couldn’t help but notice the Mavic display. Looking at the line up for next year they have really improved the wheels, especially for the trail and enduro riders out there. The new Crossmax ST wheels are even lighter than before, now at just 1615 grams. Mavic also changed up the graphics on the rims.

The new Deemax Ultimate at 1915 grams a set is absolutely crazy light for a full-on DH wheel set. These wheels come with all the bells as whistles to make them both strong enough and light enough for the demands of the DH circuit. The Deemax wheels also sport my favorite ITS4 cassette body and ISM (inter spoke milling with central spine) which reduces mass on the rim without loosing strength.  Check out Mavic.com for more info on these and the rest of the line up.

Here is just a random photo of the new carbon Ellsworth Enlightenment. What caught my eye here is the fine machine work on a part that just holds the brake and rear wheel. This attention to detail is second to none.

This bike was another one of those that you had to stop and drool over for a while. The Banshee Rune pictured here was shown in flat black and bright orange components. The Crankbrothers Iodine AM wheels along with Race Face AM cranks and bars (not shown) really made this bike and the components just added to the already awesome construction of this frame. You have to check out the Banshee website for more information on this bike as well as the rest of their line-up.

Hubba hubba… umm sorry. But just in case you have no clue what this is, this is the new aluminum version of the Dorado DH fork from Manitou. I am dying to do a review on this unit. This fork has everything a racer would want: high and low speed compression, rebound, and top-out and bottom-out control. To top it all off, these forks are assembled right here in the States. With 36mm stanchions and an inverted design this fork will take a kicking and keep on bouncing.

Answer is back with all new products this year. New thin and stout pedals, super wide 780mm DH bars, and 720mm AM bars are also available. The bars will come in two versions: a one-inch and two-inch rise for the AM Bar and half-inch and one-inch rise for the DH bar. A direct mount stem for the Dorado allows you to change the reach from 45, 50, 55mm while providing a strong grip to the bar with its wide face plate.

Sun-Ringle has totally revamped the line-up with new hubs, rims and colors that promise to impress everyone. The hub shot above gives just a taste of what you can expect to see in 2010. Straight pull spokes, anodized hubs and aluminum cassette bodies.

What’s not to like about the new Hayes Stroker Ace look for this year? Now in jet black with bronze-ish piston covers, this is one great looking, high performance brake set. Along with the Stroker Ace the entire line up now boasts new graphics and now the Stroker Grams come in all white.

Well that does it for my list of favorites from Interbike - hope you enjoyed the pics!

Swinging by the very impressive Easton / Bell / Giro both I met up with a good friend of mine, Sean Coffey, marketing brand manager for Easton, for a tour of the 2010 goodies. For starters all the bars, stems, and seatposts received face lifts with fresh graphics and hot colors. The new Havoc stems sport wrap around graphics and are offered in white and the EA70 bar and stem now come in white as well. Speaking of bars, here are a few of the Monkey lite carbon series below, now in 750 and 711 mm widths.

Now while walking around the booth I also came across a truly awesome gem of a product which is the Haven all-mountain wheel set. You really have to see these wheels up close in person to truly appreciate the beauty. First off, the over-sized graphics on the side of the rim along with the bronzed gold color really make these stand out. The Havens also mark the first UST wheel set for mountain biking from Easton. The Haven, like the XC One and the Havoc, also use straight pull spokes to keep uniform tension and increase wheel performance.

When you have a chance, take a visit to the Easton website and check out the products for yourself. If all goes well I should have full reviews of these fine products very soon.

Cheers!

Sometimes it can be tough to cut through the noise at Interbike to find new and interesting products from smaller companies. I found one such product, call Bike Armor, in the new exhibitors area at Interbike and it’s one of those things that I can’t believe no one thought of before.

Bike Armor is basically a self adhesive, clear, thick plastic-like material you can wrap around your bike frame to protect it from nicks and scratches. No more ugly chain stay guards (or in my case discarded inner tube wraps) - just slap a Bike Armor chainstay cover on your bike and the cover practically disappears. In fact I had a hard time photographing the stuff - only the watermark logo gives away that it’s even there.

Bike Armor also offers to custom cut a full set of decals to fit any mountain bike for $79.95 - down tube, shocks, top tube, crank arms, and chain stay. You know - all the spots where rocks and dirt tend to fly! I’m told the decals come off only when you want them to and are easy to install yourself. With more and more carbon fiber and custom paint jobs on the trail these days, Bike Armor seems like a good investment. Plus it won’t cover up your sick graphics!

For those who are looking for an affordable hydration pack that doesn’t suck, take a peek at what Hydrapak has to offer. I spoke with Dax Kelm at Interbike and he showed me some of the new and improved hydration packs. The pic above shows the redesigned Laguna which is now even more comfortable. The Laguna features a 100 oz bladder, a new 45 degree angled surge valve, and a cool new clip called the Quantum which prevents your hose from flopping around after you have taken in water. The Laguna is also expandable when you need it, growing from 500 to 850 cubic inches of storage.

Hydrapak also revamped the Big Sur with a new back panel for improved ventilation and an intelligent layout of the gear compartments including a tool pouch accessible from the bottom of the pack.

The Morro is an interesting new pack (unfortunately I forgot to take a photo) with 800 cubic inches of storage designed for those long day rides. This pack has a 100 oz bladder and rip stop materials to tie the whole thing together.

Hydrapak has also expanded a little product that I personally use and love called the Softflask. The Softflask is basically a refillable reservoir to hold your favorite energy gel and it’s made from the same material as the larger bladders in the Hydrapaks. With the Softflask you can save money on bulk gel purchases and help the environment by not generating any more trash from your wrappers.

More cool stuff at hydrapak.com.

I know, I know - by now some of you are sick and tired of hearing about 29ers. I promise this is my last 29er post from Interbike and I plan on taking a self-imposed vow of silence on big wheel bikes until October. Hopefully by this time next year we’ll just be calling 29ers “mountain bikes.”

Judging by the showing at Interbike, Niner continues to push the 29er envelope with bigger travel, interesting frame materials, and killer design. The Niner guys weren’t at Outdoor Demo this year - probably because they were absolutely mobbed last year - so I didn’t get to ride any of these rigs. Instead, here are some pics and comments to whet your appetite.

See that little paper label where the head badge should be? That says “Prototype” and it’s why I love going to Interbike. This frame looks very similar to the AIR 9 Carbon and sports the new Niner carbon fork. Big wheels came from the road cycling scene so why not borrow carbon forks as well? A fully rigid, single speed mountain bike isn’t for me but I’m sure someone is drooling over the possibility of this bike right now.

Internal cable routing on the AIR 9 Carbon frame. Beautiful.

The Niner S.I.R. 9 is actually an acronym meaning “Steel Is Real” and after riding a couple steel 29ers at Outdoor Demo I have to say I’m sold. Niner uses Reynolds 853 steel which is the same stuff in the Raleigh XXIX and it’s smooth as butter. This bike is a hardtail but apparently no one told MTBR (pic below) - they gave the S.I.R.the nod for “Best FS 29er Mountain Bike.” Steel is definitely more springy than aluminum but I wouldn’t quite call it full suspension

The mega popular AIR 9 also comes in scandium tubing which seems to be catching on more and more these days. Scandium is lightweight and not super stiff like aluminum or (sometimes) carbon. Niner continues to experiment with different materials and frame configurations and remains on the cutting edge of 29er technology.

Close-up of the Niner Bio-Centric bottom bracket. You can get all the details about the technology here but one of the advantages of an eccentric bottom bracket system is it makes perfect chain tensioning dead simple.

I didn’t get pics but also check out the Niner W.F.O. 9 - a 5.5″ rear travel 29er mountain bike. Sick.

Sorry about the title - I had to do it. If you have some time to browse, check out Straitline components - hopefully you’ll be as impressed as I was. I spoke with Greg Parish from Straitline about their products and, being a tech weeny, I have to say I was really interested to learn how the company got involved in producing MTB products.

Before the guys at Straitline started making components they were like you and me and purchased stuff from others. Eventually they got tired of that and weren’t really happy with the same run of the mill stuff. So seeing that they had a state-of-the-art factory and were already making components for NASA, they decided to make their own high quality MTB parts. If you manage to take a close look at Straitline components you’ll be able to see the quality and precision firsthand. Can you say moving art? Every part Straitline makes has been painstakingly maximized for strength, beauty, and weight.

Straitline has direct mount stems available in 28 and 50mm reach and a pinch stem called the SSC in both 1.125″ and 1.5″. They also make superlight headset spacers, seat collars, flat pedals,  and a bash ring and chain guide. The even make bar ends and brake levers for that custom look on your ride.

All  the stems, seat collars, brake levers, spacers and bar ends are made from 6061 T6 aluminum and the chain guide is made from 7075 T6 so you can expect that these products to take a pounding.

Here are some more pics:

Check out more at straitlinecomponents.com.

At Interbike on Wednesday I just had to check out THE and ITS. If you remember a while back I wrote a few articles on the ITS tires as well as THE’s INK helmet. At the show I talked to Pete Dylewski and Toby Henderson, both super nice guys, and they walked me through the entire line up of whats new and exciting. I have to say there is going to be some super cool looking stuff coming from THE this year. With 10 new helmet graphics and revamped gear and armor offerings, the 2010 line up is going to be something to watch for.

Introducing the INK2, now in carbon and the CELTIC in composite.

Here are the TIKI and the BIOTIC, both in carbon.

These are only 4 of the 10 helmets and the other six are just as nice.  The armor also is worth taking a peek at - check out the full knee and arm protectors below. They even have pads for the little ones in the family.

For those of you who need even more protection, THE offers full upper armor; here is the new Storm upper body armor.

THE even offers MTB saddles.

ITS has revamped the entire line with new graphics and tweaked tire compounds. In 2010 ITS tires will be all black instead of the familiar grey and black. ITS also simplified things a bit by color coding the hot patch on the side of the tire: red for XC, blue for AM, green for FR and gold for DH. This new color system will help riders choose the right series of tires at a glance.

For XC, ITS still offers System 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. For AM, FR, and DH you have the Edge, Invader (formally DH), 909, Intruder, Zero and Spike.

Check out more cool stuff from THE and ITS at vsiproducts.com.

Suvacrew mentioned that he wanted to hear about the Pivot Mach 429 and on Thursday I got a chance to talk to a Pivot rep about the newest addition to the Mach lineup. The Pivot 429 has been on the scene for about a year now and there haven’t been any major changes outside of new colors and paint options - which means Pivot got this FS 29er right the first time.

The Pivot naming system is pretty easy to wrap your head around: the Mach 4 gets 4-inches of travel while the Mach 5 rocks 5″. The Mach 429 is a 29er with 4-inches of rear travel and is currently the only 29er Pivot sells. I asked if we can expect a Mach 529 anytime soon and the rep I spoke with didn’t think so. Of course there’s some argument about how well the geometry will work for 5″+ rear travel 29ers and the fact is there still aren’t many on the market today.

For 2010 the Mach 429 will be offered in 3 annodized colors (red, black, and white) and a painted version in blue and white. The cool thing is that all the Mach 429 parts are compatible with the other Mach bikes so you can purchase the Pivot “lunchbox” to trick out your linkages, headset, etc. in one of several color combinations. The Mach 429 comes configured your choice of with several component groups including the new SRAM XX (but expect to pay big $$ for this one).

The Mach 429 also sports the signature Pivot curved seat tube and although I didn’t get a chance to test ride one it looks like a pretty agile bike. Like the other Mach bikes, the 429 makes use of a patented DW-link which many riders prefer (minimal pedal bob, great climbing traction, and a smooth vertical path).

Things were a little hectic at Interbike last week but somehow we still managed to push out more than 20 posts - and there’s more where that came from! Look for posts covering Pivot, Scott, Niner, Hydrapak, THE, Straitline, ITS, Bike Armor, and an interview with Leadville 100 women’s winner Rebecca Rusch later this week.

New cycling GPS from Garmin. The Edge 500 seems like it’s mostly a roadie GPS but it does have some cool features and sports a smaller enclosure than the Edge X05 units. Aside from the regular speed/distance/elevation stuff, the Edge 500 also tracks temperature and has a built in alert that warns you if you’re moving but the timer is off (I could certainly use this). The Edge 500 features ANT+ which means it’s heart rate monitor and power meter compatible.

Stella 300 light system. This two light system from Light & Motion is lightweight and gives you both a spot and flood light in one package. The Stella 300 is all about the threes: 3 hours of battery life, retails for $300, weighs 300 grams, and packs 300 (total) lumens of light. Now, guess how long it takes to charge? Trick question, it takes 5 hours (but that’s still pretty darn fast!).

Introducing Morpheus carbon mountain bikes. This is a brand that just launched this year with some beautiful carbon mountain bikes. Like most companies, Morpheus sources its frame construction from Asia BUT parts like linkages are machined right here in the USA. This means super tight tolerances and beautiful machine work. The carbon fiber and paint are impeccable as well - these bikes are almost too pretty to ride This year Morpheus is offering a FS rig called the Oracle and a hardtail called the Cyclops.

Cove mountain bikes. At Interbike you see a lot of cool stuff but you don’t expect to see it in the hallway outside your hotel room. The guys from Cove were doing some last minute assembly on Wednesday morning when we snapped this pic. I’m thinking someone was sleeping with bikes in his bed the night before

Monkey light - how’d they do that? Ok, so this isn’t something you’ll ever see on the mountain bike trail (I hope) but it sorta blew my mind. Keep in mind that the words you’re seeing are illuminated on the spokes of a wheel that is spinning. I didn’t get the lowdown on how this works but it certainly seems high tech for bike bling.

On Wednesday I stopped by to chat with Jay MacNeil, operations manager / Bike Guru for Banshee mountain bikes. Jay was a wealth of information, giving me the low down on the Legend and the up and coming Legend MKii DH frame set, a frame set that I personally can’t wait to ride. The Legend is a Virtual Floating 4 Bar (VF4B) linkage which basically promises a stiff rear triangle with great pedaling performance.

The photo to the right show a running Legend Mki which gives you a quick look at the massively strong frameset as well as the attention to detail. All aspects of the build are there to keep the weight as light as possible - plus it also looks super cool up close. Another sweet feature on this bike is the ultra low center of gravity with the rear shock cradled within the lowest possible spot, just above the 83mm wide bottom bracket.

Banshee has some other great bikes like the Scythe, a freeride bike using a Turner 4 bar linkage with 7-8″ of travel in the rear and a OnePointFive head tube that is compatible with any long travel single crown fork out there.  There’s also the Wildcard which is kicking it at 5-6.5″ of travel, also with a OnePointFive head tube. The flat black, tough looking RUNE sports 6″ of travel in the rear and the same VF4B as the Legend. The RUNE also features a OnePointFive head tube meaning this all-mountain bike can take just about anything you can throw at it.

The Scythe

The Wild Card

The Rune

These are just a few of the great bikes that Banshee is offering up for the up and coming season (read trek7k’s test ride report of the Spitfire as well). For even more info, check out the Banshee website.

While walking around Interbike I had to swing by Formula Brake and chat with Christoph Vogl about this year’s line up. It looks like they did so well on improving the line last year that there are no major changes this year other the introduction of the new RX series brake which is great for all types of riding (except DH). At about 351 grams the RX brakes are nothing to sneeze at and with 22mm pistons these will generate some serious force.

I was especially interested in learning more about THE ONE, a brake set designed for everything from enduro to DH. As far as the Formula line is concerned these are just awesome brakes - super powerful with 24mm pistons and a low weight to performance ratio. (just 308 grams, lighter than many XC brakes you may be familiar with). What makes these brakes special is that both the master cylinder body and the caliper are forged, allowing the engineers to remove unwanted material while creating a stronger brake.

If all goes well I’ll be performing a full review on one or two of these brake sets in the near future. In the meantime, check out formula-brake.com for more info and details on other great brake sets.

Cheers.

Walking around at Interbike you get to see a ton a great stuff up close. Yesterday I chatted with John Valera from X-Fusion about a few of their newest products. X-Fusion has already been around for a few years and has a pretty full line-up for 2010. The Velvet RC is an XC fork with 32mm stanchions and your choice of models with 80, 100, or 130mm of travel. X-Fusion’s all-Mountain fork, the Vengeance, has 36mm stanchions and 160mm of travel for the more adventurous rider.

X-Fusion also offers a wide and extensive range of rear shocks that will take care of just about anyone from XC to hardcore DH riders. All the shocks in the product line are of high quality and construction without any proprietary mounting hardware needed.

John introduced me to the Vengeance front shock and some of the technical features are perfect for those who want to do a bit more. This fork basically includes everything a Fox does at a lower cost of about $799.99 MSRP. The Vengeance sports independent high and low speed compression controls on the lower right stanchion of the fork and a rebound toggle on the top of the right leg. The air spring pressure is also adjusted at the top of the right leg and the best part is that this fork weighs just 4.9 lbs.

The Velvet weighs in at 3.25 lbs and boasts different travel options, an external lock out, and rebound control.

The Vector HLR rear shock really caught my eye. This piece kicks it with an optional Ti spring (element 22 on the periodic table ), independant hi and low speed compression circuits, rebound adjustment, bottom out air pressure adjustments, and a bottom out volume control. Can you say NICE?

Check out the full product line and all the options at x-fusion-shox.com.