Source: Tri-ride.com/Vimeo

Tri-ridedotcom have posted a “Short video of the new Blenkinsop’s bike” on Vimeo from the pits at Leogang.

Featuring the same style of ‘cut in’ shock mount and a high rear triangle, Kashima coated Fox and some interesting bottom bracket linkage.

Lapierre’s new dh bike spy video from Tri-Ridedotcom on Vimeo.

Designed by David Turner and Dave Weagle the new DHR frame is already a World Champion before even landing in the UK after Emmeline RAGOT claimed victory in Australia last September. Add to that a claimed weight of only 9.5lbs (medium), 210mm or rear travel and the race proven & winning DW-Link suspension system ordering your frame sooner rather than later will be key to swinging your leg over what is looking like being a legendary frame in 2010.

Specs
S, M, L, XL
Fox DHX RC4
1.5 in HeadTube
ISCG 05
Postmount rear disc brake caliper interface
Colours: Lime Green, Raw & Ano Black
SRP £2695 (Lime Green & Raw), £2749 (Ano Black)

Home favourite Gee Atherton (Commencal) blitzed his way to the win in a thrilling men’s downhill final at today’s UCI Mountain Bike World Cup round in Fort William, Scotland. (more…)

The Team

44Racing Team and 44Racing Talent Team are 2 separate teams, but also one of the same. 44Racing Talent Team is for riders with tons of potential who are receiving support to make it onto the scene. Where 44Racing Team is the unleashing of fury and established riders on the team.

44 Racing Team

44Racing Team

Christian “Hatch” Hatcher – 44Racing – Master Cat

Hatch just chilling

Owner/manager of 44Racing and the 44Racing Talent Team, raced Mtb’s at all levels since 1993, has competed in xc, dh, dual slalom, dual, 4X and endurance events in UK, Europe and Canada. Also has a big background in MotoX, Mini Bikes and Jet Skiing. 2010 results – 2nd Rnd 1 National Point Series 4X Masters 2009 results – ranked #2 overall in National Point Series 4X Masters Podiumed at every 4X race entered except for 2 NPS 4X rnds (4th and 5th) and Podiumed every dh race entered.

Hatch mid flight

Jake Ward – 44Racing – Junior Cat

Jake posing it up

Is possibly the fastest Junior 4X rider in the UK at the moment, has a great attitude and is an all round nice guy. Is an all round rider having podiumed in 4X, BMX and King Of Dirt comps. 2010 will be his first season racing World Cup 4X. 2010 results – 1st 17+ Mens 09/10 East Anglian winter BMX series, 2nd Rnd 1 National Points Series 4X Juniors, 6th 661 Mini Dh FOD Juniors 2009 results – Ranked #5 overall National Points Series 4X Juniors

Jake Ward getting some flow

Jono Jones – 44Racing – Youth Cat

Jono being Jono

Possibly the cheekiest 15 year old around (well apart from his identical twin brother Matt), but one of the funniest and nicest with it, have been mates with Jono for a few years now and spent hundreds of hours riding together. Has an amazing natural talent, but since getting his Last Herb Dh bike he has been owning Dh this year. 2010 results 1st Aston Hill Winter DH Youth (6th fastest time of the day)2nd 661 Mini DH FOD Youth, 3rd Rnd1 National Point Series 4X Youth 2009 results Ranked #4 overall National Points Series 4X Youth

Jono getting pinned into the berm

44Racing Talent Team – a grassroots team for up and coming UK talent.

44Racing Talent Team

Jack Hudson – 44Racing Talent Team/Spy Optics – Junior

Jack with his favourite can of pop

Possibly the most enthusiastic rider I know, I have helped Jack out with his riding for the past 18 or so months. He has a great attitude and is a bit of a Pinkbike star since his 60 Seconds With interview by John Lee.

Jack in full control over the double

Pete “Mop Head” Goddard – 44Racing Talent Team – Senior

Mop Head in full mop mode!

I’ve known Mop Head for years, he gets his name from his hair. If you know anything about UK 4X then you WILL know Mop. A top guy who spends most the time in his own little world, but is a really talented rider.

Mop getting his freak on!

AJ Boardman – 44Racing Talent Team – Elite

AJ chilling in the pits

I used to race in Seniors with AJ so we are old sparring partners, a really nice northern bloke with a huge amount of talent and drive. AJ is in his first season in the Elite cat and will be competing in all of the European rounds of the World Cup 4X. He was a last minute addition to the team, but this was due to not knowing he was up for grabs.

AJ pushing it hard and fast

44Racing and the 44Racing Talent Team are sponsored by;

Last Bikes
Rockstar Energy Drinks
Freestylextreme.com
Fox Racing Europe
Funn Mtb
Funn Brakes
Twenty26 Distribution
Englishbayphotography.co.uk

Where will we be able to see your riders in action this year?
All Team – NPS 4X rounds and 4X National Champs
Jake and A.J – European rounds World Cup 4X Selected rounds European 4X series Various European, National, Regional BMX, XC, 4X, DH and endurance events.

44Racing bike info

4X – 2010 Factory Last Rufus, Funn finishing kit, Funn brakes, Fox suspension.
DH – 2010 Factory Last Herb DH, Funn finishing kit, Funn brakes, Fox suspension.
Endurance/Mini DH – 2011 Factory Last Herb FR, Funn finishing kit, Funn brakes, Fox suspension.

Bikes all lined up for the race season

Round up from the day-

It was an absolute pleasure hanging out and riding with this team all day – and I am a huge fan of brand trust for riders, and Hatch has only chosen to work with sponsors who provide the best kit for his team – and with this natural talent mixed with Hatch’s enthusiasm to see results, we can be sure that this race team will be here to stay for many years! Each rider is a good laugh and has a great attitude towards the sport which is great to see in the UK 4X scene! Have a great season lads it’s gonna be a great landmark one for all of you! Hatch – your Dad would be bloody well proud!

More Pictures from the day – huge thanks to english bay photography for the shots!

Rockstar in full support

A.J in flight before a sketchy landing!

Hatch in shred mode

Bike up close

Team shot

Peng!

Mophead getting his roost on!

Mates at the gate

More roost – loads!

36 180 Float

Model
- NEW FIT RLC2 180

Damper
- FIT

Stanchions
- NEW Kashima Coat

Weight (1 1/8″ steerer)
- 5.22 lbs / 2.37 kg

Weight (1.5″ steerer)
- 5.18 lbs / 2.35 kg

Travel
- 7.1 inches / 180 mm

External Adjustments
- Low-speed High-speed compression
- Air spring pressure
- Rebound
- Talus 2 Position travel is adjustable down to 100mm in 10mm increments

Lower Leg
- 20QR thru axle system, Post style disc brake mounting

Color
- White

Spring
- Air

NEW 36 160 Talas

Model
- NEW FIT RLC 160

Damper
- FIT

Stanchions
- NEW Kashima Coat

Weight (1 1/8″ steerer)
- 4.67 lbs / 2.12 kg

Weight (1.5″ steerer)
- 4.65 lbs / 2.11 kg

Travel
- 6.3 inches / 160 mm

External Adjustments
- Low-speed compression
- Lock force out
- Air spring pressure
- Rebound
- Talus 2 Position travel is adjustable down to 120mm in 10mm increments

Lower Leg
- 20QR thru axle system, Post style disc brake mounting

Color
- Black Diamond

Spring
- Air

40

Model
- NEW FIT RC2

Damper
- FIT

Stanchions
- NEW Kashima Coat

Weight (1 1/8″ steerer)
- 6.81 lbs / 3.09 kg

Travel
- 8 inches / 203 mm

External Adjustments
- Low-speed compression
- High-speed compression
- Coil spring preload
- Rebound

Internal Adjustments
- Hydraulic bottom-out resistance in damper
- Travel is adjustable down to 6.5 inches in half-inch increments

Lower Leg
- 20 mm thru axle system, International Standard disc brake tabs

Color
- Black Diamond
- White

Spring
- Titanium Spring

Feast your eyes on the new Santa Cruz Nickel and Butcher trail bikes.

The APP bikes get a shock rate similar to the VPP bikes, but in a more affordable, linkage-driven single pivot design. Check out the design and prototyping videos below with original prototypes dating back to 2005 and insight from the engineers during the R&D process.

Photos and Videos Courtesy of Santa Cruz Bicycles

NICKEL: $1350 with Fox Float R (complete bike pricing expected to start under $2k)
- Available June 15, 2010
- 125mm travel
- Patented APP suspension with angular contact bearings at the main pivot
- Hydroformed aluminum tubing
- Tapered head tube
- Cable routing for dropper seat posts
- 2 waterbottle mount locations

BUTCHER: $1350 with Monarch 3.3 (complete bike pricing expected to start under $2k)
- Available June 15, 2010
- 150mm travel
- Patented APP suspension with angular contact bearings at the main pivot
- Hydroformed aluminum tubing
- Tapered head tube
- ISCG05 tabs
- Cable routing for dropper seat posts
- Bottle opener on the derailleur hanger

Geometry descriptions from Santa Cruz
“Nickel – XC-ish tt and chainstay lengths, but more relaxed head angle than generally considered in xc world. 68-degree HA with 509mm axle-to-crown fork. We have no other bike that directly compares to this, so it’ll be one of those bikes that people will have to swing a leg over to understand. It’s a mighty good all-round trail bike.”

Nickel Geometry based on 509mm axle-to-crown fork
SIZE: S, M, L, XL
TOPTUBE: 21.8, 23.0, 24.0, 25.0
SEAT TUBE: 16.1, 17.0, 19.0, 20.5
HEAD TUBE Length: 3.9, 4.3, 4.7, 5.5
HEAD TUBE Angle: 68-degrees, all sizes
SEAT TUBE Angle: 72.5-degrees, all sizes
BB HEIGHT: 13.6, all sizes
WHEELBASE 42.2, 43.4, 44.4, 45.5
CHAINSTAY: 16.7, all sizes
STANDOVER: 28.1, 28.3, 29.0, 29.6

“Butcher – Heckler with a degree slacker head angle and way more awesome overall bump compliance. people r gonna dig the shit out of it.”

Butcher Geometry based on 529mm axle-to-crown fork
SIZE: S, M, L, XL
TOPTUBE: 21.5, 22.5, 23.5, 24. 5
SEAT TUBE: 16.1, 17, 19, 20.05
HEAD TUBE Length: 3.9, 4.3, 4.7, 5.5
HEAD TUBE Angle 67.5-degrees all sizes
SEAT TUBE Angle: 72-degrees, all sizes
BB HEIGHT: 13.8, all sizes
WHEELBASE: 42.5, 43.5, 44.5, 45.6
CHAINSTAY: 17.1, all sizes
STANDOVER: 28.2, 28.4, 28.9, 29.6

The Syndicate Bikes – handbuilt one-offs, using bits of both frames, but Nickel rear ends. Basically slacker head angle than Nickel (which is 68 degrees with a 509mm axle to crown fork, lower bottom bracket. It would probably be very easy to make something very similar by going with a shorter rear shock.

The Story of Santa Cruz APP, Design

The Story of Santa Cruz APP, Prototyping

125mm Nickel

150mm Butcher

We got a few of the new Doubles air shipped for the team riders for Sea Otter so we decided to share some pics.

The main shipment is on a boat and will be here right when we get back from Sea Otter middle of this month. Here is the low down on the new frame and how we were able to increase the awesomeness by 27%.

For the 2010 Double it was all about refinement and taking an already dialed frame to the next level. We looked at every tube, yoke, cnc’d bit and hardware to come up with the cleanest and trickest frame we could imagine. The result is a stronger and lighter Double that is more capable for a wider use of disciplines.

1. New proprietary formed tubeset for the front triangle. Internal headtube gusset and tube shapes that mate up perfectly to the tapered headtube for increased strength.

2. Adjustable travel via our new flip chip in the rocker arm. Travel options are now 80 or 100mm.

3. Internal chainstay cable routing for the rear derailleur.

4. Trick new custom pivot bolts that are our own design that match up nicely to dials on Fox forks.

5. 3 new colors to choose from, Raw, Lemon Lime Green, Cyan Blue.

Jill Kintners Team Build Double

Internal tube gusset on our new formed tubing. Super clean.

New rear end with internal chainstay cable routing.

New adjustable travel rocker with chamfered edges and new pivot bolts.

For more info, visit www.transitionbikes.com.

ABOUT TRANSITION BIKES
Transition Bikes is a bicycle company located in Ferndale Washington and is focused on creating trail and gravity oriented mountain bikes. Our philosophy is simple, Rider Owned for Life since 2001. It is not a slick marketing slogan but something that defines who we are as a company. Connecting with our dealers and customers from a rider standpoint is our number one concern. Through outstanding and responsive customer service, and unique niche product design, we create and build relationships with our customers that are important to everyday riders and forgotten by larger companies. When you buy a Transition product you can be assured it has been tested in real world conditions by the same people that design them. We don’t believe in using Catalog designs; everything is designed in house by us. Our goal is not to become a huge corporate brand but rather a company the average rider can believe in. Our customers are our family and we get immense joy from seeing them progress their riding to new levels right beside us.

Despite the date, this is no joke: Santa Cruz will offer their Nomad all-mountain bike in carbon fibre from this summer.

The last revision to the Nomad came less than two years ago and focused almost solely on the bike’s suspension design. That bike went on to garner acclaim from the industry as well as scoring an excellent 4.5/5 stars on BikeRadar.

The mk2 bike will remain in the line but Santa Cruz will add a new version, the Nomad-c, that takes all they have learned building the new Blur XC, LT and Tallboy in carbon.

Carbon fibre frame

The new carbon chassis chops a whopping 1.25lb off the weight of the aluminium model, while at the same time, according to Santa Cruz, increasing strength and stiffness by large margins. Keep in mind, the aluminium Nomad isn’t exactly a porker and has proven its strength for the past year-and-a-half. Early production Nomad-c frames are weighing in at a claimed 6.1lb with RockShox Monarch 3.3 shock.

“Before anyone calls foul about using a light shock like a Monarch for a hard hitting bike like the Nomad, add a third of a pound for a Fox DHX air or just over a pound for a DHX RC4 coil,” said Michael Ferrentino, the brand’s marketing manager. “Then go compare …”

VPP suspension

The suspension on the Nomad-c is the same found on the aluminium Nomad. It features Santa Cruz’s latest generation Virtual Pivot Point design with 160mm of travel. VPP is defined by a pair of counter-rotating links that offer a falling to rising shock rate, along with instant centre migration traits that minimise chain growth and maintain lively pedalling with a designed-in degree of anti-squat.

The shock rate allows for plush, compliant suspension behaviour in the early part of travel, letting the shock react quickly to trail debris and smaller impacts. Then, as the shock rate flips to a rising rate later in the travel, it offers progression to resist bottom-out near the end of the stroke.

Santa Cruz pay special attention to the hardware they use within their VPP suspension system. The lower link is aluminium and equipped with a pair of grease ports to ease maintenance. The upper link is moulded carbon fibre. The pivot axles are 15mm diameter aluminium rods that thread into the frame on one side, with locking collet heads on the other. This allows them to tighten down and correctly preload the angular contact pivot bearings.

By threading into one side of the frame and then locking into the other, the pivot hardware plays an important part in maintaining the stiffness produced by the carbon front and rear ends. The axles are designed to allow for easy removal for service and there isn’t a need to remove the cranks or disassemble the bike around the pivot hardware.

Frame construction

Santa Cruz say that by laying up and curing the entire front triangle as a single piece, instead of assembling or bonding pieces together during the process, less material can be used to achieve the same end. Suspension pivots, disc mounts and ISCG05 tabs are all moulded into the frame in this process.

“We overbuilt things in critical areas,” said Ferrentino. The underside of the down tube features five layers of uni-directional fibre, two of Aramid fibre and one layer of 3k weave. This is all in an effort to ward off all things sharp and pointy. The chainstays have extra layers of material for the same purpose.

The one-piece layup and moulding allows the use of continuous fibres throughout the frame, which is said to allow the structure to more widely distribute loads and absorb impact energy. A proprietary manufacturing process allows Santa Cruz to precisely control both the outside and inside frame shape while compacting the laminate layers, which in turn results in superior stiffness and strength while eliminating excess material.

“We don’t have any fancy acronyms for this, but it is unique – nobody else is making carbon fibre mountain bikes this way at this time,” said Ferrentino. “And, while we don’t have the selling power of a carefully focus-grouped nickname behind the process, the results are pretty enough that we are proud to show off what the insides of our frames look like. You’d be surprised what you might find inside some of the other frames out there.”

Details, and stuff

Alongside the carbon fibre makeover, the VPP suspension and solid pivot hardware, Santa Cruz have added an impact absorbent protection strip underneath the down tube and along the drive side chain- and seatstays. There’s a metal plate to protect from chainsuck and you’ll find cable stops for telescopic seatposts integrated into the frame.

An ISCG05 chainguide mount is moulded into the bottom bracket area during layup, as are the disc brake tabs and dropouts. Up front, there’s a 1.5in head tube since Santa Cruz believe this bike can take more abuse than most tapered-steerer forks are intended to see. “You can have it any colour you want, so long as it’s white with black decals or a matt carbon colour with gold pinstripey decals,” said Ferrentino.

The Nomad-c will be available for delivery from mid-June, in all the usual build options per the Santa Cruz website. A Nomad-c page is still in the works. Prices start at US$2,499 for a frame and Monarch 3.3 shock (approx £1,650 – direct currency conversion).