New Product @ Crankworx – Part 2

By this point, I was hitting a bit of a wall. I’d been walking for what seemed like hours, but there was still so much more to see. I grabbed what had to be my fifth coffee of the day and soldiered on in search of more new product. And it wasn’t long before I was rewarded for my efforts…

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RaceFace components are a staple on the Shore and at Whistler. Some of the biggest names in the business ride, or have ridden, RaceFace parts. This year, black parts take a backseat to a veritable rainbow of new colours for bars, cranks, bashguards and other parts.

Like leg warmers, bubble skirts and other things from decades gone by, coloured cranks are back. Thankfully, they’re not nearly as tragic as other fads from the past. And if Brett Tippie is endorsing them, they can’t be all bad, can they?

RaceFace had a whole bunch of cool new things in their little expo display. One of them was this new Atlas direct mount stem, which can be run in the standard orientation (left) or flipped over to lower the bar (right).

Carbon lovers will be chuffed to hear that RaceFace is making a whole new line of all-mountain and XC carbon parts. These new AM cranks (pronounced “six”) come with a bashguard, but there are three-ring options as well. There’s also a matching bar. Price? “They’re carbon,” said Julian Coffey of RaceFace with a wry grin. Translation? Not cheap.

RaceFace recently expanded its line of protective gear. There are several models to choose from, including the Zero lightweight pads (top left), Dig knee pads (top right), the Rally DH and FR pad (middle), the women’s DIY pads (bottom left) and the Protekt youth pads (bottom right).

Rocky’s Flatline long-travel bike is a popular choice in these parts. The ’10 World Cup version gets a fancy copper paint job, and the complete bike will no doubt have equally high-zoot parts.

If the copper colour doesn’t do it for you, there are plenty of other options to choose from, with both single and double crown forks.

Gravity has rolled out a new chainguide as part of its Gravity Light line of components. The body of the guide is made of a high-tech plastic that is flexible and is supposedly much quieter than Gravity’s metal-backed single ring guide.

The Gravity direct mount stem is clean, well made and won’t break the bank.

Pro is Shimano’s line of non-drivetrain / brake bike components. It includes bars, saddles, stems and grips for mountain and road bikes. It isn’t widely spec’d at the moment, but that may change if bike makers can realize some benefits from spec’ing Pro parts and Shimano components.

Once I was done in the pits, I had to fight my way back to my hotel room to get some much needed food and camera gear before the Slopestyle event started. And when there were this many people in the village, it was a fight at times…

After the Slopestyle competition was over, I headed over to the Fox / Camelbak party in the Pan Pacific hotel. There was a bunch of new gear on display, including these new Camelbak packs. Buh-bye, staid designs and old logo. Hello, bright colours and a whole new look.

Fox also had a bunch of gear on display in the suite, including several helmets. The Flux AM helmet gets these new graphics for ’10…

… as does the all-new V3R carbon full-face lid. Fox modelled this helmet after its V3 motorcross brain bucket, but made it lighter for the freeride world.

Sometimes it’s hard to know what clothes will look like until you see them on someone. Thankfully, Fox marketing honcho Greg Lenac was kind enough to model the new 360 short sleeve jersey and Ultimatum shorts (left) and the Demo shorts and 360 jersey (right). Modelling clothes isn’t quite as amusing as it may look, though. Greg was ambushed by one of the Fox crew just as I was setting up for my shot. What I ened up getting was an explanation – in very creative terms – of what he was going to do to his attacker.

So there you have it – some of the new product at Crankworx 2009. See anything you absolutely, positively can’t live without? Think that Manitou should be spending more time on long-travel single crown forks instead of a cheaper Dorado? Go. To. The. Boards.