Amongst the first things Matt and Jon spotted as they wandered around the Cycle Show was this mountain bike tandem at the JD Tandems stand. It’s the Ventana El Conquistador de Montanas (“The Mountain Conqueror”) and it’s got 4″ of travel at either end, using a faux bar design at the rear. There’s an EBB up front to tension the from chain and it’s all welded and finished as beautifully as you’d expect from a Ventana.
As well as the large disks front and rear (although other bikes on the JD Tandems stand had even larger 230mm+ rear disk rotors) you also get this thumblever controlled V brake for drag braking duties on road. We didn’t find out how many vertical road metres of drag braking it could take before the inner tube would explode with the heat, but JD Tandems have kindly offered to lend us one for a feature in the magazine sometime soon.
There was a brief argument between Jon and Matt over who was going to be the stoker, but Matt’s previous experience as tandem stoker during the Dyfi Enduro meant that he flatly refused to go on the back of one ever again and backed his point up with threats of violence, so Jon agreed to be be stoker. If you’d like to experience the simple joy/paralysing terror of tandem-ing, this one is available from just £3,600…
You might have already seen the video we made showing you the new SR Suntour forks, but here are some pictures for those amongst you who don’t have the width of internet-band to see that or just prefer good old fashioned photos. If you weren’t aware of it, Suntour make or have made forks for a number of mountain biking companies so they know what they’re doing and are currently offer a range of forks that are staggeringly good value for the spec. We look forward to getting some in and seeing if they can stand up to forks costing two or three times as much. First up we have the SR Suntour LOD 29″ which has 100mm of air sprung travel. Damping is hydraulic with lockout and there’s a15mm thru axle with Suntour’s rather neat QR thru axle system. Weight is claimed at 2000g and they will cost £299.95…
These are the SR Suntour Axiom RLD forks, again with 100mm of travel but in a normal 26″ wheel flavour. You get regular dropouts, air spring and rebound adjustable cartridge damping with lockout, all for £274.99.
The Epicon TAD XC forks offer an adjustable 100-140mm of travel via a dual chamber air cartridge in one leg with a lockout equipped hydraulic cartridge in the other. The magnesium lowers come in 15mm thru or open dropout variants and you can have a regular or tapered steerer. It looks like an excellent entry level trail bike fork and at £259.99 it’s very wallet friendly…
Have a look at the video HERE if you want to know more about the longer travel Durolux forks and Epicon and Durolux rear shocks. We’ll move on to Woodman Components now. They’ve been in and out of availability for years, but we mainly remember them for their headset that used two sets of bearings in each cup to separate radial and thrust loads, but we are massive, massive geeks. Anyway, they’ve got some good value and nice looking bits of kit available, with the golden coloured alloy seatpost with a bonded head costing £29.99 for example…
They still do headsets too, using their own custom made angular contact cartridge bearings…
…and here are a selection of multi coloured riser bars…
Here’s Matt in a Yakkay hat! We know it’s wrong but it’d be nice to have one of these to confuse people out riding. On a serious note it’s bound to be a good thing if these make more people wear helmets and making the styling less stereotypically ‘cyclist’ is a start. Just need something to sort out all the people who ride at trail centres with £2K plus bikes and no helmet now…
Lake had these MX170 shoes that have been given a going over for 2011 with an improved shape and fit . The sole is fibreglass injected nylon with rubber studs for grip in the mud. They use the Boa laceless ratchet system to snug them up and the upper is a mixture of ‘action leather’ and mesh, so it’s more summery shoe choice. We do have a set of Lake’s weatherproof and warm MX140s on test at the moment, so you can see how those fair soon. Anyway, the MX170s cost £115 and are available from the Today’s Cyclist website.
For the serious racer, Lake had these newer than new MX236 carbon fibre soled race shoes, looking very tidy with white full grain leather uppers with mesh venting. Again they use rubber mud studs and the Boa system with an injection moulded heel piece to keep your foot secure and transmit as much power as possible through the sole. All yours for £155…
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Jaunty!
WANT Woodman knuckle dusters
I *heart* that El Conquistador. Mmmmmmm.
Where’s the 20mm thru axle on those Suntour forks??? I have wheels with 20mm compatible hubs but nothing that’s 15mm compatible. Boo.
For a true comparison test against more expensive forks you should test the forks all wrapped up so the tester cannot tell (visually) which one they are testing.
Get the bin bags and duct tape out!
The Durolux range comes with 20mm thru axles. There is a travel adjust model that can be remotely changed reduced from 180mm to 140mm or 160mm to 120mm.