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Photos and research by David
Ferguson (unless noted)
Decoded by Cam McRae
Brad Ewen demonstrates one potential use for the 420 pocket
in Sombrio's new
shorts.
Cove's
new 7" bike needs a name. Hooker, Peeler, Hummer, Stiffy, Shocker,
Sanchez are all taken. The bike has an un-interrupted seat tube and a
1.5" head tube to accommodate A Rock Shox Totem or zero stack height if
you want to run a dual crown.
Maybe they'll call it the Boner? The Sixty-Niner? How about the Reverse Oil Rig? The Fromby? Beaver? John Holmes? Ron Jeremy? Hedgehog? Cove is planning a contest to name the bike and I'm entering for sure. Whatever they call it - it looks Pimp. Hey - what about the The Pimp? That's it!
Dark Cycles gets the prize for freakiest looking pedals at the show. They look nice and slim but they also look like they'll hook on lots of stuff as well.
A new stem from Dark Cycles as well as another look at those sichter pedals.
Norco's flagship is always the Team DH. Everything Norco can muster goes into this bike year after year and the spec is second to none. How about an XO rear derailleur and shifter? A WTB ti railed saddle? It's all there as well as link plates and hardware that are much more refined looking - all through the line.
The unique head tube ensures maximum weld contact and it looks trick too.
There was a time when the A Line was a low brow DH machine - albeit a great value. The bike is moving up in the world with gucci spec like a SRAM X9 rear derailleur and shifter and an E Thirteen chainguide. The biggest upgrade though is the frame. This year's A Line frame is actually last year's Team DH.
Knolly presented Guerrilla style the last two years but they are now going legit with a booth that generated a lot of buzz. Nice to see a local start up gain some traction.
This V Tach was spec'ed for success with Magura Louise brakes,
an XO shifter, a Race Face bar and a nifty Chromag stem.
The Intense 6.6 is a bike I'd love to get my mitts on. Using the VPP patent they share with Santa Cruz, Intense, the 6.6 provides 6.75 inches of rear wheel travel and for 2007 the frames have a 1.5" headtube.
The Socom is part of Intense's FRO series. They aren't signing Simmons, Schley and Tippie - that stands for For Race Only. The Socom is a slimmed down version of their popular M3.
Foes bikes with their proprietary Curnutt shocks and low leverage ratio are among the most exotic bikes available. The 2:1 leverage ratio means the bike above (the new 2:1 XLT) which provides 5" of travel requires 2.5" of shock stroke. A bike with a 3:1 ratio would only need that much stroke if the designers were aiming for 7.5" of travel. The XLT also comes in a 4" travel model.
The Foes Fly isn't dramatically changed for 2007. Internal and external gussets were added to keep up with the increasing demands freeriders put on frames. The Fly is adjustable between 8 and 9 inches of travel and is available with a steel or Ti spring and the option of a floating brake set up to keep things active on the way down when your lever is depressed.
The 2:1 DHS Mono should be called the MoFoes. The rear shock has a huge 10" eye to eye and 5" of stroke. You'll need a custom Hadley 160mm rear hub and you may want the dual rate Ti spring. If you get both of those and the proprietary chain guide you are looking in the neighbourhood of USD$3400. The fork with a 30mm front hub and a Ti Spring will put a $2200 hole in your bank account. My cousin pointed out something useful to me the other day: mountain biking is less expensive than boating. You can add horse racing owning a helicopter to the list of hobbies that make mountain biking seem like an inexpensive diversion. Those are all expensive to do on the cheap and at the highest level they are inaccessible to everyone but the worlds billionaires. Just think you can own one of the nicest DH bikes ever made for the price of a used Civic.
David Ferguson provides the meat for this bad boy sandwich with the Dangerboy girls.
This Commençal "Supreme" comes in 6" + 7" versions. The cam adjustable head tube allows a head angle range of 68-73 degrees. The frame works well with Totem thansk to a 1.5" head tube and the rear axle supports both the Maxle standard and a conventional QR. The hydroformed top tube results in reduced weight and added strength.
I'm not sure I love the finish of this Commençal. While I realize it's not cheap it looks that way to me. I'm sure fans of chrome are lining up to get a better look though - each to his or her own.I like the Hello my name is Cédric sticker though.
More to come from Interbike 2006.
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