Part deux of the Core Bike show repo from Ace McHardtail.
Words and Photos: Ace Woodley
Yes part 2. The day job has been rained/snowed off, so I can knock out another blog, you lucky lucky people. Part one maybe should have been left for a day, you see I started at 5am to get to the show for the 9am early start this year, due to a few more companies joining the Core show.
A gathering of a large chunk of big and small import houses covering all aspects of cycling. Aimed at trade and shop owners, the chance for bike shop staffers to get in and have a look at the latest product coming in. Also the chance to chat and give feedback to manufactures direct, not have a moan to the sales rep, talk direct to the people that make the gear. It’s a long day as press, even longer for those fronting there brands.
Normally I go on press day, the PR people are in for that. Due to the extended hours and more to see I blagged in on the Sunday to get maximum effect, there is a major difference from going on the last day. The show is designed for the trade, press are welcome extras, but you can’t always talk to who you want, it’s taken me three years to get to Pete Drew from Silverfish, and a few others. It’s a busy day and you can’t see everthing.
More pedal action. These cropped up in last years paperwork, expected late last summer. Nearly ready, this is the pre production sample, and they seem happy with them now, still a bit more testing etc etc. No price was mentioned and I didn’t weigh them. Possibly the thinnest pedals coming out, scary looking thin, super model thin, Tioga’s flatties are looking good.
Identi’s Mogul frame with Rockshox Vivid coil shock 7.5″ travel and £1099.00 also in more sedate colours. I have a mountain of paperwork around me now, I won’t shout too many prices as I don’t always get that information, I have found the Identi catalouge….. right, head angle is 64’o seat angle is 68.5’o claimed weight “from 2.9kg without shock, or 6.4Ilbs” ISCG05 and a 150mm rear axle. and S/M/L sizes with chainstays at 443.2mm. Believe they will be racing the BDS this year, so will keep an eye out for the first round at Coombe Syd, see if they let me ride one round the carpark so I can’t crash it 🙂
Continental Tyres, Shelley here, first hour of day 1 of a 3 day show….rumor was Ison Distribution are picking up the bar tab for overnighters as it’s their 20th birthday, Shelley and others won’t be as perky by day three. Had a good long chat/gossip and got to the bottom of the project Rammstein tyres. It tied up a story I heard a few years back about a Conti trip to a Rammstein concert and certain type of club, in short a new DH tyre has been in the works, some way off yet. Now the 29er issue. I am doing a DH race on a 29er, (trust me it will be messy) I spoke with Conti, Martin from Hotlines (who handle WTB) and Tim from Scwhable about this. I know several big bike brands have been playing with 29ers, I have seen Maxxis and WTB tyres on these bikes. There are no production DH spec tyres out there. I assume there are some proto-tyres. Martin is going to bounce my request to WTB see if they have anything secret lurking about. Conti don’t have a super duty tyre in the pipeline (yet) at the moment it’s Schwalbe’s Hans Dampf all mountain/enduro tyre in the lead. I got into a quick chat with Pat Campell Jenner and Tim from Schwalbe on the subject. In short I don’t think 26″ are obsolete for a very long time yet(if at all ever).
As yet no production DH tyres are out there, there are no production DH 29bikes (yet ?) I know last year JD Swanguen did some domestic races in the USA on a trail bike, and as many keep joking 650b may be better for DH, and theres even less choice in that size. If the industry never look and explore over options then how will things progress ? Still the first company to WC DH is going to attract a hell of a lot of interest good or bad it’s all PR. Anyway back to the Core and some 26ers 🙂
Pivot Phoenix in the rear, (scurries off to find the big upgrade book). Right a rummage and some info, no pricing, have to call about details, I didn’t get to speak to the Pivot chap, so going on what’s in the www.upgradebikes.co.ukcatalogue. Claimed weight of 38Ilbs and 36Ilbs for the race team bikes. Some specs 83mm bb, 150×12 rear axle, DW link with a Fox RC4 Kashima shock. I like this, interchangeable dropouts for wheelbase adjustments and adjustable head angle via CaneCreek Angleset, thats 0. and +/- 1/2, 1, or 1.375 degree settings.
The smaller M4X is more me, I could cane the living piss out of that down Fort William, it has a 142x12mm rear axle, DW link running a new Adaptive logic RP23 Kashima air shock, with custom M4X slalom/dirt jump boost valve and compression tuning…..so in short I could set it up like a hardtail, but not break my ankle when I hit the potholes down the motorway, getting old see, I could have a lot of fun on one of these (and I don’t have a clue how much they are) for more stats go to www.pivotcycles.co.uk
You know you want it! Found another piccy of the CCDB Air attached to a bike, thought you might like that (bet Jones will) where to next then. Odds and smalls I think.
Start with www.rwdbrakes.com, new into the mountain bike world, crossed over from motorsport and making pads for Brembo. Sintered pads are £12.99 and organic at £10.99 I got a pair of sintered Juicy 3 pads to play with and Tim the HTN mechanic got a pair of Hope M4 sinters to play with. I will report back on both sets in a later blog, they look top notch and well made, and have UK design and testers in north Yorkshire.
What next, the Gary Gauge from Cane Creek, more of a workshop gizmo for checking what headset you need and measuring things in that department, or get drunk and measure other things instead.
The Vincero Design water bottle Stratus 20 System. I was fascinated by this, and was having a play with the display ones attached to a bike, when I picked the bike up by the bottle some one came over to sort me out (I expected to get shouted at). Anyway I ended up with a tester. As I am writing this I have just found out how much they are ! Not so much a Dirt product (like the chain guide) but maybe if you use bottles and want a super light Enduro set up then this might do your weight weenies out there. Magnetic cage-less mount and bottle, the whole lot with mounting bolts is 97grams, my other water bottle I have handy is 80 grams and the alloy cage I have is about 50grams, so super light, super strong magnet, looks well trick and will set you back £33.99 at the show they had them hidden. I know why? I think they gave me one to stop me messing their display up. It would be rude not to give it a work out and see if i can shake the thing off, bit steep for a water bottle, then again i know people who drop £50 on a few Ti bolts to shed a few grams ? www.vincero-design.com
Now this brings me to the www.bionicon.com chainguide, this was on the Alva 180 coil sprung bike in the other blog and is available on it’s own. Again not a DH part, but it’s on a 180mm bike? If you’re into a light build Super Enduro racer, maybe this is for you, 39.90euros comes in at 18grams (just weighed it 🙂 ) I traded a pile of beer for it and think I did alright. It’s rebuildable, easy to fit and light. Sure I took a photo attached to the bike. Anyway not as good as a full chain device, then again if you only do Enduro’s and want lightweight, check the back issues of Dirt for the Megavalanche race bike weights. Every gram counts on Rene Wildhaber’s bike, so yeah weight weenisim to the max, think we will mount it on a trail bike see how it goes.
DMR Bolt, this is another frame I could go for, the catalogue describes it as like a full suspension Trailstar in character, made from 4130 cromo, massive bb pivot, so it can be run single speed with ease, the frame and shock yours for £899 how good is it? I watched Duncan Ferris cane it last year at Triscombe, about 2 seconds behind a Bos equipped top flight DH bike ridden by Ash Mullane. Duncan came second in a field of top flight DH bikes. If I was able to start from fresh and could only have one allrounder the Bolt would be very high on the list. 125mm rear travel, happy with a 150mm fork up front, swapout dropouts, to me it just says drop-ship, point downhill and bomb it, again I could see myself having a serious amount of fun with these types of sussers.
