From Dirt Issue 121 – March 2012

CORE BIKE SHOW

Kiwi brand Avanti have now landed on these shores thanks to Paligap, and although their main bread and butter seems to be on the roadie side of things this 135mm travel 4–bar Torrent clearly shows that they love a bit of dirt too.

Bionicon have always liked to do things differently with their on–the–fly adjustable geometry, and it works, but it has to be said that it’s never been the neatest or prettiest system. This new Alva 180 seems to have put an end to that though, it’s a whole lot neater, how the system always should have been. As for their multi–award winning chain device…had the judges forgotten about the DCD?

Tweaking seems to be the name of the game over at Cove this year. This shocker has a new seat tube, downtube, and dropouts, which all combine to make the frame significantly lighter than before. There’s also a new 1.5” headtube and Silverfish will now be offering complete builds. It’s a very similar story with the STD too.

So hot off the DMR machine that it doesn’t yet have a name is this new stem, which has a knee friendly internal clamping system. Unlike other similar designs that we’ve seen in the past this one is square so that it stays aligned when assembling, and the wedge can’t fall out either. Also new from DMR was a magnesium version of their superb Vault pedals. Weight with a Ti axle will be just under 300g, but expect to pay at least thirty quid more for the privilege.