Sea Otter Report Six – Team Bikes and Precious Things

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How's that for a different take on the Yeti turquoise? Coloured graphics on a bare 303 frame. Tasty.
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So here's a 32 spoke Shimano Saint wheel. Tough and light-ish.
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And here's the new wheel on Gee Atherton's downhill Commencal. Note the gold, alloy nipples. This prototype saves 100g per wheel - and as this will be the year of the weight conscious DH bike, every little helps.
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Greg Watts gets custom graphics on his Roscoe stunt bike.
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Gold shifters too. Note the front brake hose through the headset cap - that's for barspins and tailwhips that is.
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Even the swing-link is gold... Tart!
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It's a new sight - a Tracy Moseley Trek but you'd better get used to it. She won the downhill at Sea Otter to add to her World Cup win.
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The new Trek World Racing houndstooth graphics are very striking. We think we like them. Probably.
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Here's the hardtail one...
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Never mess with a bored bike engineer. This is Ray Waxham's commuting bike... First you take a carbon Trek Madone frame...
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You create (and patent) a split, eccentric dropout that lets you install AND tension a Gates carbon belt.
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...you machine up your own toothed belt sprocket and chainring, stick on a pair of Bontrager Race XXX Lite wheels (modified to one-speed)...

 

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...stick on some light bits...
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...and use a pair of Crank Bros Joplin remote levers as multi-directional BRAKE LEVERS! Oh, and you make sure it weighs around 12lbs... Bonkers.
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Brandon Semenuk's jump bike. Most riders find the right gear for the course and then don't shift much, so by sticking your shifter out of the way, you don't need to worry about long cable runs.
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So how about fitting a new SRAM R2C return to centre time trial shifter on your downtube bottle mounts? (Oh, and Paul's Components DO already make a flat bar mount for thumbie fans...)
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Cane Creeks new AER headset - the lightest headset in the world. The cups are super light and machined out, but the clever bit is the top 'race' is no more than a Teflon conical washer - it's worked for pedals for years, so why not on a low-rotation item like a headset? It weighs 49g - and the integrated one comes in at 33g! Road only - though we know there'll be some mountain bikers who can't resist. Wonder if Liam Killeen's seen this?
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An Ibis Ti Mojo - enough to get the purists drooling.
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How do you get down to the Sea Otter? You drive your Speshed Up Mini with a couple of bikes (including the new alloy 29er Stumpy) on the roof. We think this is Mike Sinyard's own car. And on the subject of Specialized, we saw that Sauser was running taped-over SRAM XX brakes, but we can't tell you about them yet...
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It's Christoph Sauser's bike, well hidden in the pits, and what are those brake levers? They look like brand new Elixir CR Mags, only what's that bit of black tape doing on them?

 

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...wait - these levers are flip-flop, so let's have a look at the underside of them to see if there's a logo... Hmm, looks like 'XX'
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And out back, there's a very shiny caliper with full Ti bolt kit running on a minimal looking, spidered disc. And there's that bit of black tape again. You can tell it's Sauser's bike by the light alloy bolts holding the brake on. That boy does love saving weight...
Chipps Chippendale

Singletrackworld's Editor At Large

With 23 years as Editor of Singletrack World Magazine, Chipps is the longest-running mountain bike magazine editor in the world. He started in the bike trade in 1990 and became a full time mountain bike journalist at the start of 1994. Over the last 30 years as a bike writer and photographer, he has seen mountain bike culture flourish, strengthen and diversify and bike technology go from rigid steel frames to fully suspended carbon fibre (and sometimes back to rigid steel as well.)

More posts from Chipps

Comments (23)

    Good lord, I was at exactly the saame event and I didn’t see an 8th of what Chipps did! Conections are handy things, eh? 😉

    First class coverage of the event this year guys. Picture overload! Shiny stuff we like.

    I don’t care how impractical those Joplin brake levers are – they’re ace.

    And the split dropout looks like the first elegant solution to that whole ban’t-split-a-belt-drive problem. What sort of axle does the hub run on?

    Loving the Madone commuter, just what I need for my new job tomorrow.

    i want those grips on the commuter freak bike

    Grips are by Portland Design Works. Lovely!

    Disturbingly, that commute bike is probably one of the most interesting bikes I’ve seen pics of from Sea Otter, and it’s almost certainly never to be available to buy, maybe that’s the appeal???

    Alloy bolts holding a brake caliper on!!!!!!

    Best photo report so far. Lots of Oooos and Ahhhs.

    I believe Greg Watts’ Roscoe has been dubbed the ‘Watts-coe’. Really!

    I’d like to see the kid on that blingy gold POS spin his bars with those rear brake and gear cables attached where they are

    bring on the belt drive, its da future

    The Trek commuter is ace!

    as above, the commuter is brilliant.
    love the “any direction” brakes.
    how pointlessly ace.

    That tranny needs a split rear…. for a beltdrive

    As the downtube shift returns to centre, I bet shifting with your knee wouldn’t be too bad…

    However, on a serious note, are these companies serious about releasing so much sexy kit, at the same time as prices rocket and peoples available £ plummets? Can’t help but think that most of this stuff will never actually sell. Nice to see though. Maybe in 20 years?

    As the downtube shift returns to centre, I bet shifting with your knee wouldn’t be too bad…

    However, on a serious note, are these companies serious about releasing so much sexy kit, at the same time as prices rocket and peoples available £ plummet? Can’t help but think that most of this stuff will never actually sell. Nice to see though. Maybe in 20 years?

    quote,

    “However, on a serious note, are these companies serious about releasing so much sexy kit, at the same time as prices rocket and peoples available £ plummets? Can’t help but think that most of this stuff will never actually sell. Nice to see though. Maybe in 20 years?”

    i’ve just got off the phone with Moulton – they’ve got a 13 month waiting list for some of their more expensive bikes. and that’s Moulton, we’re talking Jeff Jones money and more, recession my arse…

    How long are you guys going to be stuck out there with this Volcano lark going on?

    You actually can buy a version of Ray’s Trek commuter bike. His bike was the prototype for what is now the District Carbon:

    http://www.trekbikes.com/uk/en/bikes/urban/district/districtcarbon/

    It doesn’t have the Joplin brake levers, since that’s not their intended use. It is the same frame as the version shown above, however.

    It’s a normal wheel axle, btw.

    And yes, Greg Watts’ bike is dubbed the ‘Wattscoe’.

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