Many people think that tyre compounds are just based around how soft or hard a rubber is, but as these Schwalbe balls proved rebound is just as important. Think about it, if your suspension has too fast rebound it sucks, and the same goes for your tyres. Schwalbe actually use up to three different compounds in a tyre and the softest one basically didn’t bounce at all. Sadly though it still seems like you won’t be getting the magic Danny Hart compound any time soon.
SDG’s mud beating Storm seat has proved to be a great bit of kit in certain situations, but up until now it was only available to fit an I–Beam post. Well, as you can see here, that’s no longer the case. Mud loving conventional seatpost users rejoice.
Aside from getting our heads around the ‘it’s just not cricket’ side of 29’ers the biggest problem we’ve had with them so far is the weak wheels so we definitely want to give these a try. Why? Because they’re based upon our favourite Stan’s Flow rims, just in a bigger size. Will they prove to be as bombproof? Only time will tell…
Iron Horse Sunday anyone? £3600 buys you this new UMF (Merida) DH bike, which as I am sure you guys can tell looks nothing like a Trek (one for our website followers) but looks a whole lot like a Sunday. Not that that’s anything to be sniffed at though.
Yeti have been busy. First up is the carbon version of the 6” travel SB–66, and as we’ve come to expect, lighter and stronger are the key words. 1 1/2lbs lighter to be precise, and so strong that the Yeti test rigs couldn’t even break it. On the SB–66 side of things there’s also a new SB–95…that stands for 29” wheels and 5” of travel. The overall design is the same, but don’t expect to get a carbon version of that…well not for the time being anyway. The one bike that is completely new though is the 303WC which looks a whole lot neater thanks to the slider system being mounted up the seat tube rather than horizontally like the previous 303RDH. It gives the bike a better axle path and when combined with tweaked tubing saves nearly a full kilogram. The integrated fork stops and replaceable ISCG mount are nice touches too, but with the word on the street being that Yeti will have a prototype carbon DH bike at the first round of the World Cup will this bike be old news before it’s even got going?
