If I were to design my coat of arms...

It might look something like this:

Gary Fisher - 29er maker, 29er racer

It's been said before that you have to respect a man who races a bike with his own name on the down tube:
For those of you who read Czechoslovakian, here's an article about Gary racing in the Šela Marathon.

Niner W.F.O. 9

Besides forks, I also got to see what's hot in dual suspension 29ers at the Niner booth.  TheW.F.O. 9 is a 140 mm travel bike and according to a Niner representative, one of the only two 29ers to accept the HammerSchmidt internally geared crankset.  What makes compatibility difficult?  Besides some mounting tabs, the suspension linkages have to be arranged to make room for the unit and the suspension must also be optimized to work with the chain constantly in a granny gear position.  The suspension on the WFO. is unique in that the Constantly Varying Arc that the rear wheel travels on results in no chain growth after sag.  This improves power transmission through the chain during full use of the suspension travel range.  According to Niner, the dw-link suspension just can't handle it.  You'll also notice that the bike features a tapered head tube and this model has the longest travel fork available for 29'ers, a Marzocchi that was a collaboration between Niner and the Marzocchi company.

Niner Forks

Niner had a huge display of 29" mountain bike forks in their tent at Sea Otter both rigid and suspended.  What's big in big wheels?  Tapered steerer tubes.  Note the conical steer tubes in the three suspension forks in the picture below.
As dual suspension 29ers are being developed, people are taking them places the big wheel has never been before, like downhill courses.  The larger wheel is ideal for rolling over obstacles at high speed but larger frames and longer spokes suffer from a stiffness problem that makes steering under load less precise.  A larger lower headset bearing is one way to stiffen the front end assembly of a bike and not something that is necessarily needed for the XC designs that have so far dominated the 29er market.  What might go good on an XC 29er though, is a compliant carbon fork.  Check these babies out:

That first one on the left is colored 'Tang' and matches the paint job on my Niner MCR.  Not that I would replace the fork, I'm very happy with my Rock Shox REBA.  Speaking of rigid, check out this carbon shell saddle.

The rails are an integral part of the shell making this one light weight piece of gear.  It was, however, stiff as hell.  Most saddles form a sort of hammock because you have a flexible plastic and leather shell supported at the tip and tail by the rails.  This allows for flexure in the middle.  The carbon saddle was supported right in the middle and the shell was stiffer than usual.   On a hardtail MTB no less.  Most cyclists don't have a ton of extra cushion in that region but maybe some people like the pain?  It would be perfect for this Rabobank rider.

Update on the new Rigid Ritchey

Some new details have come to light regarding the rigid Rithcey fork blogged on 4/19.  Someone @ Ritchey marketing is checking in on nippleworks and let us know the following:

 "Hey this pictured fork is actually the new PRO Mountian Fork. It will be available in 26" and 29" wit ha 445 axle-crown for the 26" and 485 axle-crown for the 29". IT has a 50mm crown diameter, forged hollow crown for light weight and full carbon dropout and disc brake tab - Ritchey Marketing Coordinator "

The distinction there is that the new fork is of the PRO class and not the higher end, WCS class (for which they already have a product).  With full carbon dropouts and disc brake tabs though, the PRO model is going to be very competitive from a weight standpoint.  The rigid 29er fork market is really heating up with this new offering from Ritchey and the much publicized Niner carbon fork (to be blogged about soon).

Calfee - Hemptastic 29er

I stopped by the Calfee booth drawn by the alluring sight of what looked from a distance like burled wood lugs on a bamboo 29" mountain bike. How did they do this I asked? No secret but hard work. Hemp fibers were run through resin, wrapped around the joint then polished, polished, polished until the tube connection looked like a piece of fine furniture. Few people can afford this sort of thing, but it's fantastic to look at and may induce larger companies to inject a bit of craftsmanship into their mass produced products like the Bianchi Dolomiti (bringing chromed lugs back in a factory built bike).

Gary Fisher's personal mtb

As seen on Gary's twitter page, here's his carbon fiber 29'er superfly with rare (in this country at least) Answer fork. I can't find that fork on the Answer-Manitou website, must be available only in Europe. It uses a linkage and shock assembly instead of a linear spring. Claimed weight is 1260 g which is significantly lighter than the 1698 g for my Rock Shox Reba. However, the price is $1000 which violates the liberal $/gram rule on road bike components.

Here's a link to the bike.


And here's a picture of the crazy fork:
Photo from http://mig-cycles.co.nz/products/offroad/suspension.html

Carbon 29er rim

Edge Composites seems to be coming on the scene hot and fast selling all manner of carbon fiber bike components. How many of you knew they were making a 29er mountain bike rim? How many people knew that anyone was making a carbon 29er rim? Scary light, but probably necessary for today's XC and endurance racers to stay competitive. I saw this model (it's the bigger hoop in the picture) at the Edge booth at the Santa Rosa stage finish of the Tour of California.

Would you like to be what you drink?

Hey there, I have a YAWYD steerer tube cap / beer bottle cap holder from Niner bikes. You can use it to put the lid of your favorite long neck (or short neck if it's Negro Modelo) right on your bike and give you a little motivation to finish the ride.


They sell for $12.99 at Niner, but I'll ship it to you for $10 with postage. Email me and we'll work something out. paul (at) nippleworks (dot) com

*This product can not be used to hold the champagne cork from a fine bottle of Belgian beer.

Fatties really do fit fine

No, I'm not talking about the national obesity epidemic, I'm talking about the Surly frame geometry.  When I bought my Pacer frame (currently for sale), I read about the ability to fit large tires and/or fenders on the road frame (ie Fatties Fit Fine).  That was pretty cool I thought, particularly because it didn't negatively affect the bike in any other way.  I wondered - why don't all non racing frames come like this?  (The answer is probably industry laziness)  I didn't really test it though, using tires no wider than 25's on that bike.  However, I did meet one guy who was testing the limits.  He had a Surly 1x1 (which is a 26" frame) fitted with 29" wheels and cyclocross tires.  Plenty of room left over for a thick creamy layer of mud.   He raced it too.  Do the guys at Surly know about this versatility?

Lance related, but 29er inspired

As a regular reader of the Aspen Daily News (the finest news source in the Roaring Fork Valley), I came across an article this evening regarding Lance racing a local, 10 mile MTB race. That's awesome. He apparently did it because a local cycling club made him an honorary member. Read the article here: Cycling Legend Wins Local Race
Make a bunch of friends, get your message out, inspire some folks, sweet.

I'm interested in what he was riding, since according to VeloNews, he tested the Gary Fisher Superfly 29er hardtail bike in preparation for his Leadville 100 win. Read that article here. The pictures from Aspen make it look like he was riding his double boinger Trek though. It would be kind of cool for him to race the 29er, as the cycling industry is still very much "race it on Sunday, sell it on Monday". That would certainly raise the profile of the 29er platform and maybe broaden the available product base.

But, any news about bicycles is good news, as long as it isn't about Lance riding a 650b. That's a post for another day.

All hail the Fargo

Cyclingnews.com and their coverage of Eurobike 2008 have brought to my attention the Salsa Fargo. It's not particularly light or fast, it doesn't have 6 inches of suspension travel, and none of the materials it is made from have ever been launched into space. It is so boring it's exciting.

-29er wheels (so it might not be for everybody)
-tons of braze-ons
-disc brake tabs
-huge fender/tire clearance

Ride it on trails, ride it to work, ride it from the Pacific to the Atlantic, put a trailer on it and ride your kids to preschool. Have a set of road and a set of off road wheels and you could make do with just this one bike for everything.

Fan-fargo-tastic.

picture from salsacycles.com

The ultimate downhill road bike

On some recent ride up to Skyline and down highway 84, I started thinking about what would make a great descending bike. The right geometry, the right rubber, the right brakes. Then, I let my imagination roam a little bit, and considered what might make the ultimate descending bike. No, not a downhill mountain bike, or even a road bike, but something purpose built for carving up road descents. What's out there already? Some companies in Hawaii used to truck people up to the top of Haleakala and then send them down with a jumpsuit, motorcycle helmet and modified cruiser bike.

Fun, but you'd sweat buckets pedaling it up hill, or even across a flat section. Plus, the position is probably too laid back to be fast and what's with 26 inch tires? Anyone who's ridden their mountain bike down a screaming road downhill ala Super Walker knows that it works pretty well, if not for cornering on those sketchy tire knobs. So, start with that platform and begin perfecting.1

Here's my dream component list for a downhill road bike:
-Disk brakes to save your rims from failing and your tires from exploding
-Brakes accessible in an upright riding position (on flat bars or bar tops)
-700C wheels for the best selection of road going tires
-28-34mm smooth wheels for the perfect combination of low rolling resistance and pavement imperfection absorbency
-Aluminum (or otherwise lightweight) frame
-Some flavor of gearing for uphill, flat and downhill riding
-Maybe just maybe, an adjustable seatpost to drop for the downhill

So, I thought about how to build one.
-Start with a Niner Air9 Scandium frame. Light weight, 700C, upright position.
-Put a carbon disc brake fork on it for light weight and smooth riding (like the On-One Superlight Carbon)
-Any available drivetrain with a nice wide range
-Some hydraulic or mechanical disc brakes (not sure what rotor diameter would be the best)
-Michelin Dynamic 700c x 32 tires
-Nitto alloy mustache bars
-Maybe, just maybe, a Maverick Speedball Seatpost

Then, it got sent to me in yet another Performance bike mass marketing spam-0 mail:

The Mongoose Sabrosa Ocho commuter bike. Ok, so you need to dump that coffee thermos, but it's got everything. The disc brakes, the big fast tires, and a Shimano Alfine internally geared hub with a nifty dropout adapted attachment. Then, when you're done riding the railway up to some fantastic Swiss mountain pass and bombing down on your bike, you can throw your panniers back on and roll on down the road.

Anybody got any other ideas?

Pics purloined from www.buzzhawaii.com, www.performancebike.com