Vouilloz and Moseley win it!

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…)

Hey all,

Here’s some pictures from the 2009 interbike show in Las Vegas.  I’m not in the bike industry, but was lucky enough to have a friend in the industry who could get me in!  I felt like a kid in a candy store.  Monday and Tuesdays were the outdoor demo days at Boulder canyon just outside Vegas.  Lots of fun single track, a downhill course (with shuttle), BMX track, and a few miles of freshly paved road.  Toss in most every bike you could think of from vendors like Specialized, Trek, Ellsworth, Cannondale, Santa Cruz, Yeti to name a few and you had cycle geek nirvana!  I spent most of Monday riding as many mountain bikes as my legs could handle around the trails. Not being much of a downhiller and watching as they brought down multiple “casualties” I didn’t get up the nerve to try a run….maybe next year.  Tuesday was spent riding the multi-thousand dollar road bikes and the assorted “other” breeds of bike like electric assist, elliptical, off road unis, incumbents, etc. Wednesday and Thursday was spent at the convention center at the Sands casino walking the indoor show.  Not as fun, but enjoyable non the less. Hope you like the photos!

Saint Bike - Looking an aweful lot like a Yeti 303 or a Knolly

http://www.flickr.com/photos/79804688@N00/sets/72157622336030863/

Theme Track: AC/DC – Shoot To Thrill

Minnaar and Jonnier take new DHI wins

There were two familiar faces on the podium for round seven of the downhill series in the Nissan UCI Mountain Bike World Cup presented by Shimano. Sabrina Jonnier (Maxxis-Rocky Mountain) took her sixth consecutive win in the women’s category, while Greg Minnaar (Santa Cruz Syndicate) took his third in the men’s, at Bromont, Quebec in Canada. Jonnier has now locked up the women’s overall title with one race still remaining. Sam Hill (Monster Energy-Specialized) retains the lead in the men’s series after finishing third, but Minnaar is only 16 points back, so this title will come down to the final round in Schladming, Austria, one month from now.

The off again – on again rain of the past week finally moved away overnight, with blue skies and bright sun appearing shortly before race time. The open sections of track dried out quickly, however, in among the trees the mud remained, forcing riders to carefully negotiate slippery rock gardens and rooted sections.

Women: Sixth consecutive win for Sabrina Jonnier

Junior World Cup leader Anais Pajot (Team Sunn) was the first to go below three minutes and 12 seconds in the women’s race, and took the Nissan Hot Seat. Jonnier was up only a few riders later, after an uncharacteristically slow qualifier that had her seeded fifth. The French rider obliterated the rest of the field, becoming the only rider to clock under three minutes. Floriane Pugin (Iron Horse-Kenda-Playbiker) took second, while Japan’s Mio Suemasa was third.

“I’ve been sick all week,” revealed Jonnier “and I had no energy. I was really disappointed with my qualifier, it was the worst that I have had. But the weather changes dried the track out and made it more to my liking. Even so, I was really surprised at how fast my time was.”

Men: Another win for South Africa Greg Minnaar

Mick Hannah (GT Bicycles), with 11 riders remaining, was the first to make a significant dent in the top time, taking it below 2:34. His time would hold until the young American revelation Aaron Gwin (Yeti Fox Shox) knocked a quarter of a second off the best time, to eventually take the fifth podium spot. World champion Gee Atherton (Animal Commencal) bumped Gwin, but Minnaar was only two riders later, and his time would prove to be the best, as the final two riders – Hill and number one qualifier Fabien Barel (Subaru) – could only manage the second and third fastest times respectively.

“The course was really tough after all the rain, many of the sections were just blown right out, and it was easy to make mistakes. I didn’t have a clean run; I don’t think anyone did, but I just tried to keep it clean and flowy, and be as smooth as I could. Definitely, this win is a confident booster, going into the Worlds, and I’ll be looking forward to having it all come down to the Final in Schladming.”

Mens
1  RSA MINNAAR Greg                   SCB 2:31.65
2  FRA BAREL Fabien                      SUB 2:32.11 +00.46
3  AUS HILL Samuel                        MER 2:32.28 +00.63
4  GBR ATHERTON Gee                   ANC 2:32.68 +01.03
5  USA GWIN Aaron                         YET 2:33.06 +01.41
6  AUS HANNAH Michael              GTB 2:33.32 +01.67
7  GBR PEAT Steve                            SCB 2:33.48 +01.83
8  AUS KOVARIK Chris                   CRC 2:34.44 +02.79
9  GBR BRYCELAND Josh               SCB 2:35.72 +04.07
10 GBR FAIRCLOUGH Brendan   MER 2:35.74 +04.09

Womens
1 FRA JONNIER Sabrina               TMR 2:58.28
2 FRA PUGIN Floriane                   IKP 3:00.92 +02.64
3 JPN SUEMASA Mio                                3:01.23 +02.95
4 GBR MOSELEY Tracy                  TRK 3:02.24 +03.96
5 FRA GROS Céline                          MLG 3:04.24 +05.96
6 CAN GATTO Micayla                            3:06.31 +08.03
7 CAN BUCHAR Claire                   CRC 3:06.75 +08.47
8 FRA RAGOT Emmeline               SCT 3:06.97 +08.69
9 SUI SIEGENTHALER Emilie     STT 3:07.55 +09.27
10 USA PRUITT Kathleen                      3:09.06 +10.78

Nice? I think so! ….and NO you can’t have your stuff like this (yet!)

By Ron Koch

Fox takes many of its MTB cues from the R and D on the truck, atv and moto side.

Fox Racing Shox took us to a motocross track to show its 2010 mountain bike line for a reason. They wanted to show first hand how technology crosses over and influences the Fox brand as a whole. It was an eye opening experience since we got to sample all the goods including Ford’s new Raptor off-road truck in the rolling hills surrounding Santa Ynez California. It has also been home to some pro mountain bike races at the nearby Firestone Vineyard so it is an ideal location to test the new mountain bike suspension line.

Over the years, Fox has been steadily making refinements to its product and this time the 32 line gets serious attention with a closed cartridge damping system used in the 40 and 36 line. The FIT (Fox Isolated Technology), RLC, and RL dampers replace the previous open bath system and come with various advantages. Not only is it lighter by a claimed 71 grams (RLC) because of its reduced oil capacity, but since the cartridge is purged of air the oil cannot become aerated so performance will remain much more consistent. Since it’s a closed system, room must be made for both displaced oil and heat expansion. So Fox chose a simple bladder system, which in theory produced little if any friction unlike a floating piston would. Inside the cartridge is a new shimmed rebound circuit that Fox says offers a more speed sensitive rebound for better wheel tracking and overall control.

While Fox was reworking the internals they moved the rebound knob from the top to the bottom of the right leg and relocated the lockout threshold knob on top where the rebound used to be. That’s a smart move since rebound is something you rarely if ever change mid ride, but the lockout threshold is something you might adjust on the go for changing trail conditions. As in previous years compression damping is updated and refined with particular attention paid to the low speed circuit.

A cutaway of a 2010 Fox fork.

All of Fox’s air forks receive revamped air spring curves that should make it easier to utilize all of the fork’s available travel, and TALAS forks receive a larger and more ergonomically friendly travel adjust lever. 36 and 40 FIT RC2 forks receive tuning updates for 2010.

Since the chassis was just updated last year, few changes are made to the system. However, the tapered steerer is now available on all 32 models including 29er versions and so is the 15QR thru axle system. And that’s right down to the 100mm travel model so it’s possible and likely we’ll see a XC bike with tapered steerer and 15QR setup in the near future. The 36 line will have the option of 1 1/8″, tapered, or 1.5″ steerers and have 20mm thru axle dropouts (just like in the past).

Fox claims that with all the changes the 2010 F100 RLC will weigh under 3.19 lbs. The old R level forks disappear from the aftermarket lineup and are replaced by the RL – so last year’s open bath rebound and lockout adjustable fork becomes Fox’s entry level offering.

Updates to Float Line and Rear Shocks

Big news in the rear shock department is the addition of Fox’s Boost valve technology in the Float RP line. The position sensitive damping technology has been used for quite some time now in the gravity oriented DHX line. Unlike the DHX boost valve which comes into play in the latter third of the stroke for bottoming control, Fox designed the Float RP’s Boost Valve to effect more of the beginning of the stroke to achieve pedaling efficiency in the ProPedal setting. Fox brings the DHX RC4 shock that we saw in prototype form last year to the public for the first time. The new shock has high and low speed compression adjusters as well as Boost valve technology.

The 2010 Fox RP23 with Boost Valve.

Since Fox and bike manufacturers can only target an average rider weight, ability and riding environment, a lot of folks can get more out of their suspension with some custom tweaking. Fox will be offering a new program it calls ProTune that will allow Fox product owners to send in their suspension and have it tuned and or upgraded to more current technology – exactly how current is still to be decided. Exact details are being figured out so keep an eye on Fox’s website for detailed info on this exciting new program in the next few weeks.

Like in past years, Fox set us up on the current, in this case ‘09 suspension and sent us out on a test loop that consisted of a mix of Firestone’s XC and downhill courses. Then they changed the suspension on the Yeti 575 and sent us out on the exact same loop. The only difference was the new suspension and the consistency of the cow poo that changed from the flinging type to more of a tire and ground clinging consistency.

The verdict: the 2010 32 TALAS 150 FIT RLC fork was immediately noticeable with its greatly improved range of low speed compression damping. You can now crank it up and get a real platform feel that nearly negates the need for a lockout and keeps brake dive at bay. Unlike the ‘09 model there is no harshness on bumps with high levels of low speed damping dialed up. It’s almost as if the lockout circuit and low speed circuit overlap in function since you can achieve similar results with the either. It’s really nice having the lockout threshold on top of the leg too. The RP23 shock is just as noticeable if not more so on the 575 since you now ride with ProPedal on all the time. Instead of setting ProPedal in one of the tree available settings and turning it off for the descents I was now leaving it on all the time.

And a cutaway of the DHX RC4 shock.

Instead of blowing open with harshness, the Boost Valve equipped model transitions smoothly even in the most aggressive #3 lever setting. It really transformed the 575 giving it more active climbing traction and a wallow free feel. It seems as though you’d now use the ProPedal settings and open as a rear end attitude or ride height adjustment for the descents instead of just opening it up for every downhill. It was just a short ride on one bike so look for a more detailed review as we gain more experience on the new suspension but the first impression is a very good one. Expect the new 2010 fox product to start showing up in shops around June.

After the test ride we got to sample the motocross bikes, quads, side by sides and a fast lap in Ford’s new limited edition Raptor F150. Although the smaller toys were a hoot the truck is really something you have to experience to believe. Its Fox suspension let the professional driver hit things at 80 MPH that would easily damage a stock truck. Look for more on the Ford Raptor and new Fox suspension in the pages of Mountain Bike.

Now this is a down hill bike! Time to save those pennies… £4700 fully built.

Check it out as well as the complete 2009 yeti range HERE