Bit confused with the new treks, does the return of the top fuel mean there will be no more Superfly FS ??

The new Top Fuel is the replacement for the Superfly.

Does it? All I’ve seen is statements that it replaces the superfly “at the top of the range”, not that the superfly is canned.

MOAR XC PHOTO ORSUMZ!

Smith sponsored riders appear to be removing the straws from their helmets;

Or is that a new lid, I wonder?

Really good race to watch that, nice and close. Gutted for manual fumic not to hold on for a win. Great to see Dan McConnell have a good result.

Real shame Annie last punctured in the womens race

MOOOOOOOOOOOOAR!

http://www.pinkbike.com/news/world-championships-preparation-julien-absalon-2015.html

and MOAR!

Eek, that mech hanger!

Love these stays

What’s with the seat post?

What’s with the seat post?

According to the Pinkbike article it’s a homemade dropper 😯

Mathias Fluckiger’s home-designed and built dropper post is inverted in order to fit the frame’s 27.2-millimeter seat tube. The drop is only 4.5 centimeters, but that is more than enough to provide a handling boost in the technical sections of the course. It is said to weigh only 230 grams. Will be see a production version of this dropper in the future?

at least pinkbike are making an effort, STW’s effort at covering the Worlds, at least for the XC appear to be screen grabs of redbull.tv 😆

Must be pretty muddy there judging by the tread on that back tyre!

Thread resurrection time!

MOAR XC TWEAKERY!

Novel use of RS1 fork crowns for the aeroness!

Absolon running a short dropper for XC.

Mag wheels?

And….

Obligatory Nino Whip shot!

Source.

Mag wheels 🙂

Couple of guys round here ran them last year, they aren’t this year…….

I like that dropper, big money though

The advantage of electric gears? your can run a left instead of a right hand shifter.

Mag wheels?

Bike Ahead most likely. Sub 1.2kg wheels with a EUR 3k+ price tag.

I like that dropper, big money though

I have one going spare. I’ve had about 2 rides on it and decided it hasn’t changed my life enough…

The advantage of electric gears? your can run a left instead of a right hand shifter.

Is there a reason why?

DanW – Member
I have one going spare. I’ve had about 2 rides on it and decided it hasn’t changed my life enough…

30.9mm??

thisisnotaspoon – Member
Is there a reason why?

Broken / poorly thumbs, totally left handed?

thisisnotaspoon – Member
Is there a reason why?

Broken / poorly thumbs, totally left handed?
[/quote]

Or wanting the shifter next to a front/back brake? <delete as applicable to your preference and UK/Euro brake set-up.

MOAR TWEAKERY!

Spesh short travel dropper.

More of those MAGS from earlier.

http://www.pinkbike.com/news/cross-country-tech-world-cup-xco-2-germany-2016.html

That Haibike needs riser bars and bar ends to go full Euro. Also, no idea how they managed to make an SRM look so damned fugly

that is awful looking.

The advantage of electric gears? your can run a left instead of a right hand shifter.

Hang on, that makes sense 😯

The di2 mtb shifter is still awful though 🙁

This just looks soooo f a s t

my heart rate upped a zone just looking at it!

nice saddle position on Batty’s bike

^^ Open?

Why oh why do they have to have such a stupidly steep HA. Scott is only 90g heavier?

yer its an Open

and regarding the head angle, gerard says

It’s not antiquated at all, it’s the future. We have tested our geometry with a whole range of head tube angles and we simply prefer the steeper ones. What is interesting is that lots of people have the same feeling as you .. until they try it and then they are believers in our geometry. I prefer that over the reverse.

Also note that in general we ride our bikes with shorter stems, not the 100mm you speak of. Further note that we show the geometry in a sagged position, which is how you actually ride them on average, right. Many brands show geometry fully extended, which will make the headtube appear slacker. Until you sit and ride on it of course. That said, we’re definitely the steepest of the bunch, and also the best steering of the bunch.

Good seeing the xc coverage on pinkbike.

Evie Richards second in the u23. She’s having a hell of a good year so far!

DR, La Batty is teeny tiny, though.

I like steep HAs. The El Mar is 71 degrees – nice and quick. Just like it used to be.

DR, La Batty is teeny tiny, though.

She is a factory team rider though. You’d think they could make her a one off that fits and doesn’t look ridiculous.

Re the Open HA. Most others are heading the opposite way and my riding style definately prefers the slacker side of XC.

Choice is good (sometimes).

You’d think they could make her a one off that fits and doesn’t look ridiculous.

Unlikely, it’s got that springy seat tube, so loads of FE and special tooling etc. It’d probably make the UKSI track bikes look cheap and nasty after they’d paid for that little lot.

I wonder if the seattube bends the wrong way with the saddle levered out like that,

Good god those bikes look fast. Not keen on the mag wheels, although if they made a pair that looked like the old spin trispokes that would be a winner.

As long as they don’t ride like spin trispokes……….

I’m with Molgrips on this one. The El-Mar’s HA is 71, and feels a long way from steep. Could quite easily be a degree or two steeper without being on the titchy side.

Most others are heading the opposite way and my riding style definately prefers the slacker side of XC.

The downside of choice ‘most others’ can always be wrong, remember before 2013 or so we were always being told to ride long bikes for XC, short maneuverable ones for ‘trail’ riding. XC bikes haven’t changed, but I doubt anyone would even look at an enduro bike with a comparable top tube length to an XC frame, they’r all at least 2″ longer.

Give it 5 years and ‘long low slack’ will be something else.

Give it 5 years and ‘long low slack’ will be something else.

That not mostly to do with a slackening of the head angle and stems getting ever shorter? Can’t really get much shorter now!

Unlikely, it’s got that springy seat tube, so loads of FE and special tooling etc.

People always forget that making a one off isn’t very expensive (single use molds can be made of a range of things for example), especially when you have in-house production facilities like Trek do. The biggest issue is that you will never get a 29er to fit her and look normal and she’s got some odd quirks like the seat very far forwards so even on a smaller wheeled bike it’ll still look odd.

The downside of choice ‘most others’ can always be wrong

I think it is more a case of people (the average Freds) and the trails they ride changing so the bikes change to meet their *needs*/ required levels of compensation 🙂

Not XC, but on the long, low slack topic… Look back to Warner’s Giant back in Gawd knows when and the geometry is almost identical to the modern glory, 63 degree HTA, lower BB the works. There are some changes in that time like wider bars, better brakes and tyres but the requirements of fast people riding fast stuff hasn’t changed all that much.

XC bikes haven’t changed, but I doubt anyone would even look at an enduro bike with a comparable top tube length to an XC frame, they’r all at least 2″ longer.

XC bikes have changed quite considerably IMO. Same trend of longer, lower slacker in its own way. Compare even an F29 to an FSi and you have less stack, a cm more reach, more than 2cm longer front centre, slickly slacker HTA, over a cm off the chainstays… go back and compare them to a F26 and even factoring in the wheel size change (itself a big jump) and the geometry is pretty different again.

There’s usually ~1cm more reach on a comparable Endurbro vs XC bike (e.g. Nomad vs Highball). The difference isn’t as big as you think. Even within a company with fairly short reach XC bikes and reasonably long Endurbro bikes like Canyon the difference is 27mm (Exceed vs Strive Large example). The front centres are of course very different but it is way off to expect an XC frame to be 2 inches shorter than the bikes at the more gravity end of things.

People always forget that making a one off isn’t very expensive (single use molds can be made of a range of things for example), especially when you have in-house production facilities like Trek do.

In House doesn’t make it free.
You’ve still got a couple of molds to make, even if they are made from something disposable. Not even sure the OCLV process is possible with single use/prototyping molds, IIRC they need to be moderately solid. You’ve still got to work out the layup to make the flexy seatpost flex in a different manner to the original (it looks like she’d need a 75+ degree seat angle to get a 29er to work for her), you’ve still got to work out the new layup for a new frame size.

Maybe they should just invent a new wheel size for her, half way between 650b and 29er…..