Ahh, don’t you just love content systems that put the pictures in the reverse order… Anyway, we were going to finish here for the moment, but we’ll start here instead.
Race Face's cunningly named 'DH 3/4' shorts which are, as you might guess, 3/4s downhill shorts. They're made of thicker than usual fabric and now come with belt loops to hold them up when sodden. Ideal for the UK then.Race Face's Decadence crank - an offshoot of their Cadence road crank (geddit?) - this is a two piece crank intended for the fixie boys. A clever chainring arrangement allows four different fixie chainlines from the same bolts and ring.
Not that people seem to cut bars down any longer, but if you want to, Race Face's cutting guide also tells you how much weight you're saving. 40mm = 20gNo longer Deus XC, it's just Deus, OK? And it's still a top-end group from Race Face, just that you might want to use it for more than XC.That's how they do it? Mark quizzing Jon from Race Face with his Star Trek Tricorder.
If you've not heard of D3o, it's the hot new flubber-like material that's used in everything from tennis rackets to military armour. If you move it slowly, it's pliant and soft, but hit the ground hard and it immediately (though not permanently) hardens into a shell to take the impact. Race Face has been quick to adopt it and here is their new knee and upper-shin pad in D3oThis Race Face glove features D3o on the outer two fingers for tree-protection and back of the hand for flying branches.One of the most interesting bits so far - a chainring saver/bash guard from Race Face. It's called the 'Half Bash Bash' and you bolt it on whichever side is your favourite descending 'chocolate' foot. This saves your expensive outer ring from rocks while still letting you run a triple and front mech. We like. Oh, and that's their new 'Sixc' (pronounced 'Six') carbon freeride crank. Only 30g lighter than their NEXT Carbon crank - so right on XTR weight then.
Like them or not, colours are coming back and Race Face are bravely out there. Non-80s colours are also available.
Marmite anyone?
Giro DJ Glove. Affordable, relatively crash resistant and out now.
More proof that girls get all the good colours - the women-only Xena glove from Giro, the parther to their men's Xen glove.Chipps is currently regretting taking his hat off in the desert sun to try on some new Giro glasses. It was hot out there.
WTB are showing a brand new Wierwolf which Mark Weir refers to at the 'Receding Hairwolf' due to the redisigned, staggered side knobs which give extra traction in hard corners. It's available soon.
Chris King (the company) has been quietly making 'Cielo' road bikes for many years. There's now so much demand they're having a play with 'cross bikes and mountain bikes. This fork crown is completely machined, not cast...Even the little (untapered - nice!) seatstays are capped with machined mojos.The front of the Cielo mountain bike - how about that Inset headset and the polished ring reinforcements?If you're a Sycip fan, you'll probably recognise some of this handiwork.
And which mountain biker has been running a SRAM Red road cassette on his bolt-through downhill bike? The current DH World Champ, that's who. More of this obsessively tuned bike later.
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.)
So the RF Free Ride cranks are Shimano Style (bolts on the non-drive side) but the Deus stays silly with everything happening on the drive side. Will they ever learn?
Ano colours were early 90s, as any fule kno….
However, that half-bash thingy looks a great idea!
I wonder if that half bash thingy will have a fly wheel effect?
Oh and presume that Cielo are in the ‘if you have to ask then you can’t afford it’ price bracket.
Cielo: Chris King brakes = Pauls?
whats going on there then?
Liking the idea of the d3o stuff!
I remember that d30 stuff being on Tomorrow World or something years ago.
been waiting for it to hit mainstream for ages. great idea.
Liking the look of those gloves :) Very stormtrooper.
thixotropic-tastic.
you could make your own shin guards, just get a sturdy bag and fill it with a thick paste made out of cornflower.
How do you cut a bar longer?
That d30 beer-belly protector looks awesome. Finally someone serving the fat IT professional market with what they need.
chunkychew – longer, as in ‘not any more these days’ rather than ‘lengthening…’ :-)
Good to see the Jeycloth boy marketing for raceface……he always wanted to be a real Canadian!
So the RF Free Ride cranks are Shimano Style (bolts on the non-drive side) but the Deus stays silly with everything happening on the drive side. Will they ever learn?