On day 2, when asked about the coolest product of the day,
it seemed tough to pick one out. Today it was a veritable cornucopia of coolness.
We had a bit more time to cruise some of the booths and check out the eye
candy, and it was sweet to say the least.
Fetish objects; Fox's new supportive gloves and innovative
elbow pads (which have an amazingly secure and comfortable, cinchable crossed
strap pattern).
We started out at Fox Racing, where Chris Gagan (formerly
of RaceFace) walked us through some of their latest and greatest soft goods.
They brought him on to bring some Shore flavour to their offering, and the
results are positive. Their 911 leg pad has a hard shell outer and feels
like it will stay firmly in place; it’s also nice and light, and could
be a great option for lighter duty shore riding as well as ripping the Whistler
bike park. The Extreme elbow pad has a terrible name, but is the best fitting
elbow pad we’ve ever felt. They’re offering a glove with a wrist
wrap – similar to those used for waterski gloves – which should
help alleviate wrist fatigue on long days, as well as add some support and
protection. We will be testing this stuff, as well as some of their clothing
(which also looks good, and some of it less moto in styling than in the
past).
Marshall Cant - the new messiah of freeride componentry?
|
Nobody is more excited about the re-birth of Syncros than we are. Fans
of the old school BC brand will be happy to see that you can still get
your hands on one of the original seatposts. Marshall Cant has been
busier than Siegfried & Roy’s plastic surgeon, cranking out
new designs. As a longtime product manager with Rocky, Marshall was
frustrated with the lack of products that met the demands of the serious
freerider. Leading the design Syncros has developed new bars, stems,
grips, seats, posts, tires, rims, headsets, and soon, pedals and hubs.
It’s a hell of a re-entry into the marketplace, and the best part
is that the new stuff looks like it’s been designed in the tradition
of the original brand, which were some of the most lusted after bike
bits in their time. Pippen Osborne - one of the founders of the original
Syncros and now at the helm at Banshee - was very impressed with the
new product line. |
 New
headsets from Syncros that look like the old headsets from Syncros. There
are aluminum, stainless steel and chromoly models and no detail has been
overlooked. |
Marzocchi always has something sexy to look at in their booth.
The forks are appealing, too. We previewed their 04 line earlier this summer,
and, not surprisingly, the new 888 has been spec’d on lots of bikes
for next year. One cool thing they had in store was the DJ Street, a 75-80
mm travel fork for 24” street bikes. It is stiff, strong, and heavy
- the kind of product that really shows that Marzocchi has been listening
to riders. They had just arrived, so we don’t have a price yet, but
they will be available this year. Provision for pegs was automatic but the
fork also has phat grind plates to add a little spark to your riding and protect
the fork. Street on mountain bikes is finally on the radar of a few select
bike companies and Cannondale, Banshee and Specialized all have entrants.
The P Street pictured below comes with a gyro for bar spins as well as pegs.
The Specialized P Street equipped with pegs, a gyro and Marzocchi's
new DJ Street.
| Randy Spangler and Gareth Dyer have pulled
off their capes and are now flying solo. It will not be the end of the
Superheros, however. New ‘heros include NSMB Bulletin Board frequent
flier Andrew Cho and young ripper Cameron Zinc (I think that’s
with a “c”?), who was apparently embarrassing the locals
at a Vegas BMX park by repeatedly back-flipping over their box . We
didn’t see Gareth, but Randy has had success as a free agent,
continuing his deals with Santa Cruz, Marzocchi, and Oakley, which will
make it easier to work with several filmmakers in the future, including
old pal Neil Sanders. As for the next generation of Superheros, they
have big shoes to fill, but their collective potential makes me think
they’ll pull it off, leaping over a tall building near you in
the near future.
|
 Randy
Spangler with the new Marzocchi girl. She rides, knows where the North
Shore is and can't wait to get back on A-Line.
|
The new Norco Fuse; Hayes brakes, a deore rear shifter controlling
a Saint Rear derailleur and a SRAM gripshifter taking care of the front shifting.
Notice the ODI lock-ons that come standard. Norco used a 150mm formula hub
with a custom axle to mate with the Saint changer.
The entire Norco line looks better than ever, with new standouts
like the Six, and the Fuse, which is spec’d with SRAM, Shimano and Hayes
all on the same bar! The new Team DH, Team Shore, and A-Line also look amazing,
each sporting the Marzocchi 888 (it seems like the easiest way to get your
hands on one of the new 888’s this year will be to buy a new bike that
comes with it). They listened carefully to a rider survey, and have made some
changes to their bikes as a result. There was a strong demand for the ability
to change the height of the bottom bracket on the Team DH without changing
the travel…done. It’s a tubed frame now, too, which allowed them
to lower the standover height and offer more sizes. It’s also said to
be a quieter ride, so you may have to put your bear bell back on your bars
rather than simply riding a Norco in the backcountry to keep the grizzlies
away. The Team DH comes with gold Hadley hubs front and rear, a SRAM XO rear
changer and a Chris King Steelset - very sexy spec. It’s always great
to see Norco stepping it up and leading the charge. You can see the new 04
line at
Norco.com.
The new Norco Six.
|
This was Dakine's first time at Interbike, so we popped in on Chico,
the Sales Manager, and were pleased to see they’ve got some great
additions to their line for 04, including a rad new pack designed to
carry a full face helmet and a set of leg pads, as well as their usual
attention to the other details, like a lined sunglasses pocket. Cam
will be using it to hold onto his paparazzi gear while scrambling around
the hills at the Red Bull Rampage, and then strapping the gear to it
and riding up and down Fromme all day long when he gets home. Also new
from Dakine is a great new winter glove, which looks like the real deal,
rather than something that belongs in a photo shoot for Vail. They’ll
have a new site out soon, complete with a section for their MTB line
– get the goods at Dakine.com. |
 Dakine's
new freeride inspired pack. Designed with input from pro riders like Wade
Simmons and Andrew Shandro. |
The new Rocky Mountains had us drooling. New for this year
are three signature framesets, one each for Wade Simmons and Richie Schley,
as well as a jump frame with Tarek Rasouli’s name on it, the proceeds
of which will be used to help him in his recovery from a spinal cord injury
– a very classy move by Rocky Mountain. The new RMX platform looks amazing,
and while we’ve spent a bit of time on one, we’ll be looking forward
to a longer test later this year. We’ve mentioned some of the changes
before, but we can reiterate that they have taken great pains to correct the
torsional flex of the Thrust Link design, and the RMX has been performing
well despite the Rocky team’s abusive tendencies. They have three new
levels of trim – the top of the line RMX Team, followed by the Pro,
and the RMX, as well as a Switch Pro, new for this year, which might well
have been the sexiest bike at their booth, as well as one of the nicest looking
bikes at the show this year. See the rest soon at
bikes.com.
The Completely redisgned Rocky Mountain RMX. A longer stroke
shock, lower leverage ratio and vastly improved stiffness are a few frame
highlights.
Swooping lines and beautiful welds had everyone drooling over
the VP - Free. A gorgeous ride wasn't enough for
Santa
Cruz - they also had to make the bike beautiful enough to hang in the
Guggenheim. The Variable Pivot Point design is said to be vastly more complicated
than any other suspension design from an engineering standpoint but it took
only a few seconds for us to calculate our eagerness to test one.
Good god - what a beautiful bike.
We have more to say about what we saw at this year's show.
Today we cross the border into the land of 3.5% beer to dive into the glorious
madness of the Red Bull Rampage. Stay tuned for updates from Bender's backyard.
Pete Roggeman
Cam McRae
