The Bike Place

Hard hitting 29’er anyone? With 130mm of travel, a 67.5° head angle (they reckon that’s equivalent to 66.5° on a 26”), 150mm rear hub compatibility through swappable dropouts, and an overall burly build with cartridge bearings everywhere this frame is most certainly the strongest contender we’ve seen so far for that category. It’s going to sell for £1749.99 and we’ll get one on test as soon as we can…

Nothing new design wise on the Penthouse Flats (it’d be hard to improve on the Mk3’s anyway) but out goes the old ‘cammo’ finish and in comes this rather funky fade option. Judging by the number of ‘oooohs’ these caused at the show I reckon these will be pretty popular.

Kali’s Avatar lid was already the lightest full face lid we’d ever come across thanks to its unique ‘Composite Fusion Plus’ construction that uses cones of different densities to absorb impacts, but this new carbon version is insanely light at just under 800g! It still felt pretty solid and has neat features like the breakaway peak, plus it’s competitively priced at £265. The perfect enduro lid?

Kona are another company that are stepping up the travel in their 29’er selection, and we reckon this 130mm travel Satori is definitely worthy of a test. It’s super neat looking, has a bolt–thru 142mm rear axle, ISCG 05 tabs, and a head angle that’s leaning towards the slack side. Despite being a 29’er this bike somehow just looks right.

Every time I go to Eurobike I’m impressed with what I see from Liteville, but it’s only now that somebody has properly started bringing them into the UK (Evolution Imports). To say they’ve got an eye for detail is a massive understatement, they’ve even rubber coated the inside of the cable guides to keep the cables in place and chainstay length varies with each size frame. Also, as their name suggests, the bikes are light too. This 601 can be run with either 165 or 190mm of travel yet it’ll put many 120mm travel bikes to shame. Great geometry too.