Reviewed by Brian Mullin aka Gram and MTBR.com Pastajet
http://www.gramslightbikes.com/

I have been testing the Syntace Vector 31.8 Carbon handlebars on my Moots Mooto-XZ 29er for 5-6 months now, and I am highly impressed. I have never used a set of carbon handlebars that had such a wonderful feel to them, and dare, I say they actually have a touch of the silky titanium property! They are not only bombproof, but they look good, have a nice sweep to themselves and are decently wide.

I needed some different handlebars when I converted my Mooto-XZ 29er from 100mm of travel to 120mm. The extra raise and slackness of the front end made it too difficult to use the old school layout that came with the flat bars and 100mm stem. To help alleviate the slackness and the stretched out feeling, I went with a 90mm stem and the Vector 31.8 low rise bars.

Syntace and their Testing
Syntace is located in Tacherting, Germany, near the Austrian border, and has been around a long time, and they manufacture excellent products in the usual highly engineered German fashion. What sets Syntace apart is their extensive testing of their products. They literally abuse their products to death, doing intensive corrosion, impact and hardness testing, along with a lot of detailed hand measurements to keep everything to their exacting standards. They test their handlebars with the VR-3, which is a spiffy computerized tester, that can simulate pushing and pulling loads, alternate those loads on either side of the bars, simulate light to hard impacts, and do those simulations in an iterative process over long periods of time. What that means is they can reproduce, in a short period of time, all the punishment that we would replicate over many years of use. Very real world testing!

Not only do you get an excellent and durable set of handlebars from this testing, and their QA/QC, but you get a 10 year warranty (albeit, bars installed and used according to the assembly instructions). I like how they state that the VR-3 performs a cyclical loop of torture.

Next -> Impressions

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Here is the summary data for the lights we have so far. We will publish our data and photos of each beam pattern in this article. In the coming weeks, we will produce a review and a video of each of the lights mentioned.

‘Claimed Lumens’ is the manufacturer’s claimed lumen brightness of their lights. It is usually not measured and is based on the best case scenario of the LEDs they are using. Measured Lux is mtbr’s light output measurement of the light. It is performed by bouncing the light off a white ceiling in a controlled environment. The measurements are consistent and are quite accurate in quantifying the light output.

First light photos are of the Ayup 2010 bar V4 Adventure System

Ayup 2010 bar V4 Adventure System
Price: $466 for the combined system
Claimed Lumens: 800
Measured Lux: 65

Ayup helmet light with narrow beam

Ayup bar light with wide beam

Ayup helmet and bar light combo

Next up is the Baja Designs Stryker light.

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Introduction:
The Formula Oro Puro redefined the disc brake category when it was introduced a couple years ago. Lightweight brakes have traditionally been less powerful and controllable. They required more setup and maintenance but that was the name of the game if you wanted to play with ultralight weight disc brakes or any other bike component.  The Formula Oro Puro changed all that by offering a lightweight brake that really worked. It was powerful and controllable and it was pretty too. Every rider I know who tried the Oro Puro quickly became a fan. It was a charmer of a brake that worked for a multitude of applications.
Enter the Formula R1. It was designed to unseat the Oro Puro as the best brake available. Read on and find out if it is up to the challenge.
Read the rest of this entry »

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Bike LED lights have come a long way. They have come from bike tail lights to affordable commuter lights to decent trail riding lights last year. Everything about them was better than halogen or HID except for light brightness. This year though, we heard that they are now brighter than HID. Brighter than HID? This we had to see for ourselves.

Beam Pattern Comparison is here: http://reviews.mtbr.com/blog/bike-lights-shootout-beam-pattern-comparison/

Our own light output measurements can be found here: http://reviews.mtbr.com/blog/lights-shootout-light-meter-measurements/

November 3 Update: We received a new crop of amazing LED lights. They will be added to this shootout in the coming weeks.

‘09 Updated Lights

‘08 Reviewed Lights

Read the rest of this entry »

By Kurt Gensheimer

Uppers:

Descends faster than the balance of your 401K
Magnesium frame = light, durable and shock absorbent
Handmade in Boulder, Colorado
Custom built down to the last chainring bolt
Gates belt drive is dead silent and bulletproof

Downers:

Low hanging bottom bracket = rock magnet
Hard to maneuver in tight, technical singletrack
Even though it’s light, still feels sluggish on climbs
Spendy
What, no seat tube water bottle mount?

Ruling: Regardless of the terrain you ride, Paketa offers fully custom, USA-made magnesium bikes with more build configurations than the dollars in our national debt.

There’s this dog in my neighborhood; a golden retriever. He’s psychotic. Every time I roll up the street on my way home from a ride, he hears me coming, leaps from his porch stoop, and sprints towards the fence. He either hears my fat knobby tires humming down the road, or more likely hears my under-lubricated chain and friction-ridded singlespeed chain tensioner.

At first he’s quiet, the only audible evidence of his presence is the jingle jangle of his collar, as he follows me along the fence line hidden by a thicket of oleanders. Then, just as the oleanders give way to exposed fence, he’s in full visible sight, and unleashes his ferocious barker. It’s not so much a bark as it is a frantic, high-pitched yelping which grates on your nerves so much that you want to reach through the fence and strangle him.

If the psychotic barking isn’t bad enough by itself, his snarling sonata grabs the attention of every other fenced-in dog in the neighborhood, setting off a cascade of angry barking which escorts me all the way home.

What does any of this have to do with a bicycle review? Well, the day I rode Paketa’s new belt-driven singlespeed magnesium 29er called the Wac Corporal, for the first time ever, my psychotic canine adversary never came to the fence; he didn’t hear me. Thanks to the Gates belt drive system, I had a quiet, peaceful ride up my street.

The Merits of Magnesium

You’re probably wondering who is Paketa, but more importantly, you’re probably wondering what exactly is a Paketa. Is it like a cheetah or a leopard or something? Or perhaps it means something in Pakistani? Or maybe it’s just someone’s last name? Don’t ask me, I have no idea. Whatever the meaning, Paketa is a custom bike builder located in Boulder, Colorado, and they specialize in only one kind of material – magnesium. Now for those chemistry buffs or air-cooled VW gearheads, we all know that magnesium makes one magnificent light show when ignited. But magnesium’s attributes go far beyond a juvenile junkyard twilight pyromania session.

It turns out that magnesium also makes a damn fine material to build bicycle frames with. According to Paketa’s website, magnesium is currently the lightest structural material in the world; 34 percent lighter than aluminum and 50 percent lighter than titanium. The test bike weighed in at a svelte 24 lbs. In addition, it has the highest known damping capacity of any structural metal, as much as 10 times greater than steel, titanium or aluminum. In other words, it won’t rattle your brain stem loose.

The next natural question would be ‘well if magnesium is so great, why isn’t everyone building with it?’ Well for starters, magnesium isn’t cheap. Then you factor in the difficulty of extruding perfect tubes and welding them in a way which doesn’t compromise strength, it makes for what you would call a niche frame builder market. And Paketa is exactly that, considering you can count on one hand the number of reputable frame builders in the U.S. currently using magnesium.

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UFO Plast Body Armor - Lightweight Elbow and Knee-Shin Guard

Reviewed by Brian Mullin aka Gram and MTBR.com Pastajet
http://www.gramslightbikes.com/

As I was wandering around 2008 Interbike Dirt Demo seeking some shade and cold refreshments from the beastly desert sun, I bumped into this small booth that was carrying biking body armor. UFO Plast is an Italian company that started out making body armor protection for off road motorcycles, and they have more recently broadened into body armor for biking and snowboarding. As I was talking with the exhibitors, I saw these intriguing looking elbow pads hanging on their tent wall. They are part of their Enduro series, which includes their Elbow guard and a Knee-Shin guard.

I had recently taken a nasty digger and left a good chunk of flesh from my forearm on an abrasive rock on a local technical trail (Palmer Park in Colorado Springs if you must know), and I was looking at some body armor to help alleviate that type of issue from happening again. The pads were very lightweight and had just enough padding to protect the elbow and the forearm. A lot of the typical body armor is made with beefy plastic pads, and it’s a bit much for slower speed All Trail singletrack terrain that most of us regularly rides our mountain bikes on. The pads have a bit of waffle foam padding that is placed right in the proper spots to protect the elbow and the forearm. The padding is actually comprised of a special layer of polystyrene with a Lycra band.

To put the elbow pads on, you insert your arm into one end of the elastic band and wiggle your arm until the pre-bent elbow slot pops into the proper spot, and then you cinch it down with a Velcro closure located by your biceps. The inside periphery of the elbow pads has an open elastic mesh for ventilation, and provides enough tightness to prevent them from flopping around.

Next -> Impressions

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Introduction:

Gary Fisher invited a handful of journalists to Park City Utah to try out their new offerings. Timing was a bit odd with the event happening less than two weeks before Interbike. “They must have a story to tell.” I thought.

And there is a story indeed. It is one of development and racing. The folks at Gary Fisher have been very busy refining their full supsension 29er line. Using technology they learned from the development of the 26er Roscoe bike and from Trek R&D, they sought out to continue the work Gary Fisher himself started back in 1999.

What they came out with are three new products, the Superfly 100, Rumblefish and the Superfly Singlespeed. The star of this trio is definitely the Superfly 100. It features a carbon full suspension frame that was designed to redefine cross country racing.

The Racing Story:

In July, Matt Pachocha of Velonews boldly proclaimed the death of the 26-inch hardtail in XC racing (http://velonews.com/article/95579). It’s certainly a controversial claim and Matt is still impressed at the volume of hate mail he continues to receive. But there to relate their experiences to us were 2009 National Champions, Jeremy Horgan-Kobleski and Heather Irminger. Willow Koerber who placed 3rd in the 2009 Worlds had a 29er story to share as well. All of them started using the Superfly 100 in mid-season and achieved stellar results.

So it is always difficult to to get an honest evaluation of a bike from a sponsored racer. By definition, sponsored racers do not say anything negative about a bike. So in this case, we’ll let the statistics and results do the talking.

Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski (Height: 6′1″)
2009 XC Nationals - 1st place - 6:47 ahead of second place
2009 Marathon XC Nationals - 1st place – 12:26 ahead of second place

Heather Irminger- Height:5′4″
2009 XC Nationals - 1st place
2009 Marathon XC Nationals - 1st place

Willow Koerber - Height 5′1″
2009 XC Nationals – 2nd place
2009 Worlds - 3rd place

Kobelski Interview on CyclingDirt at Marathon National Championship
http://www.cyclingdirt.org/videos/coverage/view_video/235299-2009-usa-marathon-national-championships/191901-jeremy-horgan-kobelski-wins-marathon-championship

Heather Irminger Interview
http://www.cyclingdirt.org/videos/coverage/view_video/235299-2009-usa-marathon-national-championships/191906-heather-irmiger

And one thing interesting about these results is these racers are not youngsters and they are having the best results of their careers. Something is clicking and the Superfly 100 seems to be part of that formula. The other curious note is the height of these racers does not fit the ‘tall rider only’ stereotype of the 29er full suspension rider.

The bike:
So I only got to ride the Superfly 100 for three solid days in the trails of Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah. These are first impressions only and I hope to ride it a lot more on my local trails in Santa Cruz, CA.

As I mentioned in the video, the highlights of the bike are:
Frame - 2200 grams or 4.85 lbs in size medium with the rear shock and all the hardware.

Short Chainstays - chainstay length is 451 mm or 17.75 inches. This is the hallowed ground of full suspension 29ers as short stays deliver quick handling and better rear traction. The seatstay had to be pushed forward in front of the bottom bracket to achieve this. This also resulted in a short wheelbase of 1114 mm.

Repositioned pivot point - The pivot point was repositioned lower to the rear axle to deliver better rigidity. The suspension was tuned as well to have better small bump sensitivity and ramp up later in the 110 mm of travel.

ABP and E2 technology - These Gary Fisher and Trek technologies were incorporated to give better suspension action during braking. E2 enables a beefier head tube design to deliver greater steering accuracy without adding much weight.

G2 Geometry - And finally, the bike is finished off with the proprietary 51 mm fork offset to deliver quick steering without a steep head angle.

The ride:
The ride was natural and telepathic. That’s what you want to hear on a fairly short test ride session right? It was very easy to get used to as the position seemed natural and not to high off the ground. Acceleration was awesome and traction seemed like it was always there.

Descending on the bike seemed really easy as it carved through the singletrack of Park City with ease. I never locked out the platform suspension yet the steep pitches that surprised me were never an issue. The only real problem was my lungs not quite ready for the 9000 foot elevation!

It was easy to forget that this was a 29er since it rode very similar to a 26er. But when the going got real rough on rocky fire roads, the trails did seem smoother than they looked. And at the Wasatch Crest trail, as my guide Photo-John coasted in front of me on his 26er, I had to grab a handful of brake to avoid ramming into him as I was coasting too.

Like I said, these are just first impressions and I hope to ride it more. But color me impressed so far.

Photos:

Gary Fisher Superfly 100 Specifications:

MSRP: $5600
Frame: OCLV Co-molded carbon main frame and rear swingarm, G2 Geometry, E2 headtube, ABP, topswing carbon link
Fork: Fox F100 FIT RLC 29, 100mm travel, custom G2 Geometry 51mm offset crown, E2 steerer, lockout force adjustment, FIT cartridge damper
Brakeset: Avid Elixir CR hydraulic disc, 160mm rotors front and rear
Wheels: Bontrager Race X Lite Scandium 29 Disc, tubeless ready
Tires: Bontrager XR1 Team Issue 29×1.9, 120 TPI, aramid bead
Headset: Cane Creek Frustrum E2 1-1/8″-1-1/2″, semi-integrated, cartridge bearings
Crank Set: Truvativ Noir Redwin Carbon, 44/32/22
Front Derailleur: Shimano XT Direct Mount
Rear Derailleur: SRAM X.O Redwin
Shifters: SRAM X.O Redwin
Cassette: SRAM PG990 11-34 9spd
Handlebar: Bontrager Race Lite Big Sweep, 640mm width, 12d backsweep, 31.8mm
Stem: Bontrager Race X Lite OS, 7d rise, 31.8mm
Saddle: Bontrager Race Lite, superlight hollow cromoly rails
Seatpost: Bontrager Race XXX Lite Carbon OCLV, Carbon Shaft, infinite adjust Carbon Bontrager head
Color: Carbon Smoke / Gloss White
Sizes: SM (15.5″) | MD (17.5″) | LG (19″) | XL (21″) | XXL (23″)

www.fisherbikes.com

Talk about it on the MTBR 29er forum

Talk about it on the MTBR Gary Fisher forum

Introduction -

After the ‘09 Norco product launch, I asked Norco if I could spend more time on the Fluid LT. At Whistler last year, I was able to spend about 30 minutes on the Fluid LT 1. I took an easy ride around the Lost Lake XC loop after a few days of bombing the rest of the Whistler trails on Norco’s bigger bikes. I was keenly interested in getting more saddle time on the Fluid LT for two reasons: first, the 30 minute pedal around the lake was just too short a time for this fun a bike, and second, I had just finished reviewing a similar long travel all mountain bike that I was less than thrilled about. I needed to know if I really did have a substantial distaste for this genre of bike or if it was just that particular bike. I’ve been pegged as a ‘downhiller’ and it isn’t unfair to say that when I look at a bike with over 4 inches of rear travel I am mostly interested in how well it will handle going downhill. I personally see very little reason to have 5 or more inches of travel on a bike if it is only good at going uphill. Although to peg me purely as a downhiller isn’t a complete picture of my bicycling character. I do enjoy putting in the time and effort in a good long pedal uphill. I enjoy the physical challenge and the accomplishment of ascending to a mountain’s top. But I can get that same feeling of accomplishment on a road bike. So for me, a bike with suspension has to perform best with the nose pointed down the trail. With this knowledge of my riding style I hope this review will help you decide if the Norco Fluid LT 2 is a good bike for you. Ask any question you like in the comments and I’ll try to answer them as best I can.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Reviewed by Brian Mullin aka Gram and MTBR.com Pastajet
http://www.gramslightbikes.com/

NOTE: Tires are a very personal thing, and they are hard to be subjective with. Tires are very dependent on the conditions and terrain they are used in and the riders riding style. When reviewing tires I had access to a very large swath of tires and could make many comparisons on the same exact terrain, making A/B comparisons much easier. Out of all the products I have tested, you need to carefully read the review and take everything with a grain of salt, just because I find a tire lacking somewhere does not mean that you the reader will have the same findings. “I’m a god. I’m not *the* God… I don’t think”

I have been using the Schwalbe Albert series of tires for many years, and have always had a special fondest for them. I had predominantly used the Albert snakeskin version (26×2.25), which rolled well, had bombproof sidewalls, good traction, decent weight and was easy to set up tubeless. The original Albert series came in the Fat Albert (26×2.4), the Albert (26×2.25) and the Little Albert (26×2.1) versions.

At the Interbike 2008 show Schwalbe had a couple of new tires on the market. One of the most interesting was the revamped Fat Albert. They come in a 26×2.25 and 26×2.4 size, and in a front and rear specific version. The newly revamped tire has their new U-Block technology and their new Triple Nano compound. The filler particles for the Triple Nano have been changed in size from 200 nanometers to 10 nanometers. This means reduced internal friction, which lowers rolling resistance and smaller particles mean more surface area so grip is improved.

Rear on left and Front on right, rotation to top of page

The front is tweaked for handling and braking while the rear has been optimized for traction and curve control. It still retains the classic Albert series tread pattern and come in a Snakeskin, Performance, Double Defense (only in the 2.25 size) and Tubeless versions.

Hey hey hey! It’s Fat Albert!

Next -> Testing Spec & Impressions

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Article Originally Found On Mountain Biking by 198
Review by Robb Sutton
Original Article: Kona Coilair Supreme Mountain Bike Review

The Kona Coilair Supreme is a controversial mountain bike. With the Magic Link “6 +1″ suspension that automatically changes from 6″ of rear travel to 7.4″ of DH glory, the Kona Coilair is marketed as a park bike that can be ridden to the top of your favorite hill without the need of a lift assist but still bomb the DH like you would be used to on a 7.4″ travel rig. With statements like this from Kona…

“For the discerning free-crosser, that soldiered soul who climbs to the huck-and-hold goodness of advanced mountain cycling, the Kona CoilAir Deluxe does everything good. XC one day, dirt jumps the next, shuttle-descents on Thursday to mega alpine assaults all weekend long, thanks to our Magic Link technology, the CoilAir has the instinctive ability to change geometry, suspension performance and length of rear travel depending on your type of riding and the terrain at hand.”

…the Kona Coilair Supreme is going to have some big shoes to fill in its quest to be the do-it-all rig.

The Build

The Kona Coilair Supreme comes nicely spec’ed with some of the best from Fox Racing Shox, Shimano, Race Face and Mavic. The Supreme was Kona’s top build for 2009 and for around $5,799 retail, you get a bike that has some of the best components in the industry. This build weighs in around the mid 30’s range which puts it right in the fight for DH capable all-mountain bikes.

Highlights:

• Fox Racing Shox Talas RC2 w/165mm Travel and Tapered Steerer Tube
• Fox Racing Shox RP23
• Race Face Atlas Cracks setup 2×9 (32T/22T)
• XTR Rear Derailleur with XT Components Rounding Out the Rest of the Group
• Mavic Crossmax ST Wheelset
• Race Face Bars, Stem, Post

The bright orange and white definitely gives this bike a unique, in your face look that might not be for everyone. If you are looking for a bike that will not go unnoticed…this orange will do the trick. Within the front triangle, you will see the nuts and bolts of the Magic Link suspension setup. Each Kona Coilair comes with a detailed manual on suspension setup as you have many more variable to deal with than normal. Luckily, this rig came setup for my riding weight, so all I had to do was make sure that each of the adjustments equaled the correct sag and ride quality. In total, there are 5 adjustments to the rear suspension based on your riding weight.

• Fox RP23 air pressure
• Secondary shock spring rate (replace per riding weight)
• Secondary shock spring preload (turning preload collar)
• Secondary shock elastomer stiffness (replace per riding weight)
• Secondary shock position (based on rider weight)

With everything setup correctly on the Kona Coilair Supreme, I was ready to hit the trail to see how this bike was going to perform while climbing and in the rough stuff.

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