Jason from Salsa was found hitting the brew early in the morning. The Salsa boys are always some of the friendliest, most enthusiastic folks around. He told me of some very exciting bike news to be revealed at the QBP Frostbike in February.

One of the neat products this year is the Gordo rim. It is a massive 35 mm wide yet weighs only 625 grams. Jason expects this to be the hot seller next year. We put it beside the big ole Delgado to truly appreciate it’s size.

The Salsa Mamasita continues to be a hot seller and it now has more top tube clearance.

And finally, some very nice, new clothing from Salsa

We saw some cool chains from KMC. The first are these X-SL chains. The construction is impressive and it weighs about 225 grams. That’s about 80-90 grams lighter than normal chains. The price is $85 for the 10-speed and $70 for the 9-speed. We see this chain on a lot of ultralight bikes. We’ll be testing them in the near future so expect a review soon.

Check out the RueGamer bike below. It is 8.5 lbs and sports an X-SL chain.

Another interesting chain were these colored Z410 singlespeed chains. They’re very affordable at about $6.50. They seem to do the job well and they add that special touch to your bike.

Z410 color chain (silver, gold, red, blue, pink, purple, white) – US$6.50

K710SL Ti Gold– US$29.00

K710SL Silver  – US$21.50

K710SL color chain (red, blue, white) – US$26.00

X10SL Super Light chain, CP or TI Gold – US$85.00

X9SL Super Light chain, CP or TI Gold – US$70.00

Cranks Bros had some new very trick wheelsets on display. They are going to come in 4 models, a 19mm XC, a 21mm AM and 23 mm Freeride and Downhill. The rims are very interesting since they have no spoke holes. The rims have a Y shaped cross section and the inner rim has has some drilled out holes that except small cylinders in which the spokes get attached. The spokes themselves are 2 piece design. One piece attaches to the rim using the cylinders and the other piece (its elongated spoke nipple) attaches to hub flange and they thread together at their midpoints. Adjustment is done with a normal spoke wrench on the nipple and spokes can be replaced without removing the tire. It will interesting to see the durability of the midpoint threading design since I am always banging rocks and branches into my spokes. Inherently the rim design is tubeless ready. They quick releases are an interesting spilt design for the levers. For example you use 5 lbs of closure on the first one and then 5 lbs for the second one. Should make for easier and more secure closure. No exact weights were given since they are still in development but they should be competitive with the Mavix and XTR wheelsets and they should be released early next year.

Garmin had some new toys for bike computers. The have the new 605 and 705, which are color version of the 205 and 305. Another new toy is needed! Ugh. They also have mapping abilities so that you can have a street or topo map as you ride. In addition its easier to get your coordinates. The only thing it didn’t sound like they fixed is that you can’t save a lap if you forgot to archive to your home computer, you still have to delete it to get a fresh one started. I need to ask for an enhancement request for a software update?

I never saw this cool tool from Ritchey called the Torqkey. Its a 4mm allen that has a preset torque thats just right for setting bolts (usually Ti) on seatposts, stems and other lightweight fragile parts. Very cool, need to get me one of those!

Specialized Carbon Stumpjumper. This is a pretty sweet bike, wonder how it rides? I was never a fan of the brain technology even though they have worked out some kinks in the system . I rode a Epic for a year so I do know the system pretty well. They do have more control over things now that they have their own shocks (not sure if they or someone else actually make them).

The Schwalbe’s Furious Fred’s don’t have much tread depth but they sure are light, much more of a hardpack tire for sure. The Racing Ralphs next to them have a new side know called the U-Block that are supposed to help with cornering. I love my Alberts! But man oh man are they the toughest beads to get on a rim. Its can take forever to get one on. My fingers get weak after strangling one on. Doing a Maxxis tire takes 30 seconds and no effort.

The Industry 9 wheelsets looked very sweet. The hubs and their spokes are very trick

I demoed one of the Iron Horse MKIII’s. It had a very nice ride, very much like my Ibis Mojo (not quite but close!) probably due to the DWLink suspension that they both share.

The Sweetskinz stuff looked very cool, my 5 year old would love these tires! Not sure how they ride as a tire but they are lookers!

The Shimano XTR Shadow is very trick, very expensive and very light. I want one! I am always having issues with hitting the cable fixing bolt on my current XTR and then the shifting goes from bad to worse when the cable totally pops out. The new shadow design has the cable fixing bolt back on the rear of the unit. Nothing much else is new in the Shimano world. The XT also gets the Shadow treatment. I didn’t spend to much time at their booth, not enough time.

Show me your Shadow!

Azonic girl. Would you try out their helmet headphone?

Celeb John Tomac showing one of his bikes to the Interbike TV crew.

Fizik was giving away some Italian Gelato all day at the outdoor demo, thanks guys!

Celeb Greg Lemond signing autographs. Greg, so how is Floyd?

Celeb Deadly Nedly Overend, showing his Carbon Stumpy to the Interbike TV guys.

Another Celeb was Phil Liggett that I hung out with as a press junkie. Very nice guy. Kept bumping into him throughout the show. I would pass by and yell hey Phil! Hehehe. Fun! Met him with some Brits in the Press room on the first day at the Sands.

I also hung out with Alison Dunlap at the Maxxis booth one day and when she was signing autographs with the Luna chicks. She is a local rider here in Colorado Springs and I know her and her husband (Greg Frozley). A great couple and 2 world class riders.

Ergon green. That color stands for unique design and functional mountain bike products. They look a little different and the promise is that they work better for your body. Let’s put two of their products to the test.

The first product is the the Ergon GR2 grip. Now, I sought out this product out of necessity. About a month ago, I lost feeling in my left ring finger. This was then followed by pulsing pain down my forearm. After an x-ray and an EMG nerve test, it was determined that I pinched my ulnar nerve near my wrist. There was no accident but I suspect riding a rigid fork for over a year has a lot to do with this injury. The shock of the rigid fork traveled through my grips and compressed my ulnar nerve. It turns out this is a fairly common bike injury and is often called ‘handlebar palsy’.

So with that information, I figured out how to avoid the stress on my hands. Of course I put on a suspension fork on my 29er singlespeed bike. But I also found out about at Ergon Grip and glove system. The grips are made of soft rubber and flare out on the outside to distribute the load across a wider surface of the palm. Also, the GR2 model offers bar ends. Just when I thought the bar end was dead, it has resurfaced in a much leaner and more integrated form. The bar end on the Ergon grips seem perfectly shape with a curve on the outside following the curvature of the hand. Also the tips of the bar ends flatten out and make it natural to rest the thumb on it. Finally, at the bottom of the bar end are nice indentations where the tips of my fingers can rest and get a grip.

Ergonomic indeed but how does it ride? The first few rides are key since it is critical to get the angle of the grips right. These grips will force you to ride at the angle of the grips so you want them positioned at the natural angle of your hand. Once positioned, my hands felt very comfortable and I didn’t feel (or have the choice to roll my wrist up or down).

Riding on level terrain was a dream. My hands felt natural as the shock of the trail was muted as more of my palm was in contact with the bar. When climbing, it felt good as well. The bonus of the bar end was it gave me a couple of new positions. First was at the ends of the handlebars and then holding the bar ends themselves shifted my weight forward and gave me extra climbing leverage. In the singlespeeding world, it is often said that having bar ends is like having an extra gear. This is actually true as the extra reach allows you to pull on the bars a little easier and turn the pedals. In addition, just having different positions available allows you to distribute the load to different parts of your hand and prevent injury.

But how was it descending? Well here’s the compromise. Ergon grips don’t descend as well as normal grips. The biggest issue is you can’t wrap your hands around the whole grip. Thus, you get the feeling that your grip is not as secure. There is a bit of a learning curve as well and you should allow yourself a couple descents to get used to the new grip position. The bar ends actually help since they provided me more area to rest the ends of my hands and ensure I had a good grip on the handlebar. I think most XC riders will not have a problem descending with these grips at all. But downhillers and dirt jumpers will probably stick with standard grips.

Ergon BD1 Backpack

This backpack is big and it’s meant to carry big loads. That is its strength and weakness. If you like to carry a 10 lb backpack with water, food and tools to rebuild a bottom bracket on the trail, then look no further. The biggest problem with big packs is they tire your shoulders and they interfere with your nimbleness and maneuverability.

Ergon tries to solve this in two ways. First, the BD1 takes the load off your shoulders and onto your hips. Second is they’ve integrated a pivot-ball shoulder mount so the pack stays straight even as your upper body goes through all kinds of singletrack-induced contortions. Fitment is critical so the pivot-ball can be adjusted up or down to ensure that the shoulder-straps are in the ideal position in relation to the waist straps.

The pack itself weighs 2.33 lbs when empty. It has a nylon frame and has an assortment of straps. There is stretchable sleeve inside that can take differerent sized water bladders. Also, there is a helmet retention cover on the outside that can be removed when not in use. It’s a nice feature but can get in the way of accessing the inside of the pack.

Does it work? Oh, yes. I’ve ridden with it and there was hardly any tension on my shoulder straps. When properly adjusted, the weight is really carried by the hips. And riding through twisty descents, the pack was not a bother at all. It just felt centered back there with none of the usual weight shifts and flopping around of a heavy pack. I was liberating. Another bonus seemed to be that the pack was lifted off my back a little bit by the pivot-ball mechanism. This allowed more ventilation on those hot days.

And who’s it not for? If you don’t carry a lot of stuff and prefer a 5 lb water carrier, then look elsewhere. Also, this can get rather pricey at $140 and that’s without a water reservoir. If you are bothered by a big waist strap, there is a possibility you might not like this pack. So load it up and test-ride it first to see how you like it.

Handlebar Palsy - http://www.hughston.com/hha/a_15_3_2.htm

Ergon - http://ergon-bike.com/

The friendly folks of Wicked Racin showed up in a well-done booth to display their Dualrailleur chain guide. This product is a full fledged chain guide with a trick up its sleeve… it can shift to the granny ring. Remarkably, Mark from Wicked Racin was able to figure out how to make a chain guide that shifts between two front chainrings. This is very timely as downhillers now want lighter bikes, bikes with extended seatposts, and perhaps even a granny ring. When the shuttle is not available, it would be nice to be able to pedal to the top of the mountain.

Does it work? Luckily, we’ve had an opportunity to use the Dualrailleur guide for the last three months. It works like a champ! We haven’t dropped a chain yet and it’s pretty darn quite on those rocky downhills. On the Santa Cruz Nomad, it shifts between the middle ring and the granny with no fuss.

Originally, I didn’t want a granny on my 33 lb Nomad. I can turn those cranks, I thought. But now that I have it, I’m using the granny ring almost daily! I’ll take on any hillclimb or wall without hesitation and I rarely need to walk my big bike these days. It really makes the bike a lot more versatile. Also, I’ve been able to put a bigger ring in the front since I know I have the 22-tooth granny close by.

So it’s a great product that I thought I didn’t need. And it looks cool.

Look introduced the Quartz mountain pedal. It is light, stable and offers a large platfrom or contact area. It’s a very simple design with no spring thus allowing maximum mud-shedding ability. Also, it offers the Look quality seen on the Road Keo pedals. These pedals spin on bearings too for maximum performance.

Three models are offered:

Quartz - 230 grams a pair at $99.

Quartz Carbon - 230 grams a pair

Quartz Carbon Ti - 198 grams a pair at $399

The specs seem to be the same on all the pedals so it’s really a gram shaving game when going from the $99 Quartz to the Quartz Carbon Ti.

At the outdoor demo, a few folks got to try the VTT Look 986. Weighing in at 1200 grams, the frame claims a smooth ride and excellent steering and tracking.

And finally, look introduced the Look 586 which retails for $3699 for frame, fork and seatpost. It weighs in at 940 grams or 2.07 lbs. It was designed to have a more compliant ride than the Look 595.