EUROBIKE II (and a half) – “tire round-up” by “c_g”

Hi folks, as had been mentioned already by your replies, there was some info missing to complete the tire picture – here it comes.

GEAX

The Italian manufacturer that just this late spring has revealed the cutting edge 29er tubular (under review with me here) is now adding their AKA tread to the 29er ringe in size 2.2. This tire features a multitude of trapezoid blocks distributed in a chevron-like pattern with two rows of side knobs for aggressive cornering. I have no doubt that this tread does bite well without digging into the ground and rides fast. The tire does come in a double compound tread and two 120 TPI versions – one tubeless ready version called TNT (which GEAX has believed in for long and has been offering most all their treads in) at 750 gm and one standard folding at 650 gm. There will also be a 26 TPI rigid version at 770 gm.

It has been confirmed by them that the NEW MEZCAL (central tread section of the current MEZCAL with GATO´s side knobs) and possibly more new sizes and treads will follow during the season. Let’s see how the expanding 29er market here in Europe will affect GEAX´s already strong commitment to 29er. I am curious … you?

CONTINENTAL:

The German tire manufacturer Continental is also modifying and expanding their tire range with two completely new designs. Like before, the top of the line BLACK CHILI compound or high count casings will be reserved for their elite 26er tire, but are not found in the 29er line. We may see that with higher demand this might well change. For now this is the 29er range:

The RACE KING will be available in 2.0 (new for 2011, 630 g) and like before in 2.2 (650 g) –

While maintaining the name MOUNTAIN KING this tire has received a complete redesign. This design that is said to be highly influenced from their PRO Team riders resulted in more differentiated central knobs for maximum grip while maintaining easy rolling and a pronounced line of side knobs to improve cornering. It will only be coming in 2.4 (the 2.2 is discontinued) at a claimed weight of 840 gm.

For a long time riders requested a tough Trail to All mountain riding tire and now for 2011 introduced to 29er is the TRAIL KING RUBBER QUEEN (in EUROPE, where it will be called RUBBER QUEEN). This open and aggressive tread has been highly successful in 26” and now is carried over to the 29″er range. By looking at the tread I fully believe Conti´s claims for a super tractable tire but am pretty curious about its rolling resistance which Conti says to be particularly low. Let´s see.

Last but not least we see a complete new introduction – the X-King (pronounced “Cross-King”) which is covering the gap between the Mountain King and the Race King. By being available in 2.2 (700 gm) and 2.4 (760 gm) you will get good cushioning from volume. The total of 6 rows of widely spaced and pretty minimal looking blocks (should be pretty grippy with good self cleaning properties) provide a full coverage with no transitional gap between central and side knobs – giving the X-King a rounded profile.

We are expecting a sample to hit us not too far into the future.

Mentioning tubeless ready to Continental I received a conservative: “It is and can be done but we don´t recommend converting our tires – we are working on a solution to carry over our high end RACE SPORT technology (editior´s note: it´s the high TPI, Black Chili Compound and tubeless ready verion by Conti) over into the 29er range but sales aren’t quite there to justify the move”.

HUTCHINSON:

No real news from them but the rumor was heard that their COBRA tread was going to be introduced soon in 29er format – of course for Hutchinson in tubeless ready.

OK this is all I have found at EUROBIKE 2010 in the tire sector wait for news on components, frames and bikes to follow the coming days.

RIDE ON,

c_g

Hi there. Anybody been wanting to hear more? Probably not, since we biker are not the anxious kind lusting for new product infos – are we?

Well for those few ones, who want to find out what news have been presented at Eurobike; here is the second part of the coverage. It is amazing how many 29er news and releases there are so please do forgive if I will not catch all of them. I do my best humanly possible.

OK let´s get started. There has been a whole new outbreak of interest in 29er here in Europe and I was surprised to see how many new 29er tires (or versions thereof) have been shown here.

SCHWALBE:

After the release of the racing tread ROCKET RON 2.25 (reviewed here) and the NOBBY NIC (under test right now) and announcing the tubeless readiness for their full premium Evolition line earlier this year, I was surprised to see here at EUROBIKE an even larger 2.35 version of the NOBBY NIC. While jumping on board with more trail oriented 29er treads (other than the RACING RALPH) a bit late, I have to admit that this step of yet another even bigger size NOBBY NIC has been done fairly quickly and comes as a bit of a positive surprise. Thanks guys!

I didn’t have an exact ruler with me but this tire (with quite the knobs on it) looks huge. It will feature the exact same technology as its “smaller” 2.25 brother, having a XC oriented triple compound tread (called “Pace Star”), reinforced sidewalls (“Snake Skin”) and 67 TPI casing. It will come in at a very reasonable ~725 g. More here soon.

KENDA:

Kenda is pretty unknown here in Europe and is trying to get a foothold in our market. I know in the US this is quite different. Anyhow, for 29″ers they have quite an assortment of new tires coming. (Beware, some pictures only show the tread but not the actual size tire as the real 29″er samples had not yet been delivered.)

Completely new is the KOMMANDO (available in 1.9 and 2.2 folding and 2.2 in tubeless ready). The tread is said to be dual directional – a dry condition tire in one way and a wet, muddy tire the other way, which I find a pretty creative approach to tire design. Whether it works, some tests by 29″ers will tell.

Completely new for 29er is the HAPPY MEDIUM, featuring minimal center knobs with aggressive and tall side knobs for aggressive cornering. Kenda claims the tire to be a universal design and not having ridden the tire I take their word but to me it sure looks like a tire that would favor dry and more hard-packed conditions. It will come out in 29 x 2.1 and 120 TPI casing.

Left: Also new to 29er are lightweight semi slicks KOSMIK LITE II (in 2.0, standard folding and tubeless ready, not shown) and the KLIMAX LITE (1.95, same two versions).

Below: To me the most interesting tread is the SLANT 6 as a design blending the aggressiveness of the NEVEGAL with the speed of the SMALL BLOCK 8 on hard-packed to intermediate terrain. The result is pretty promising looking. It has already been introduced in the US but not here and really new to the line is a tubeless ready version called (SCT – “Sealant compatible tire”) in 2.0There will be 3 versions available: 29 x 2.0 and by 2.2. No weights yet. The SMALL BLOCK 8 will also come out in 2.1 in tubeless ready.

PANARACER

In their Cedric Garcia series there will be a really interesting tread design for 29er coming the CG XC29er. The XC oriented tire will be available in 2.1 (650 g) and 2.25 (850 g) with a 66 TPI casing and looks like no other tire I have seen before.

MAXXIS

Tire giant producer Maxxis is expanding their line of 29er tires by 2 models just after they had introduced the ASPEN 2.1 and the ARDENT 2.4 earlier this year.

One is the narrow mud specific BEAVER (I love that name for that purpose ) in 2.0 with “eXCeption” compound 120 TPI casing and 515g. This tire is a 29er only tire with no direct 26 inch counterpart but does have some similarity to the MEDUSA.

The next tire is the IKON coming in 2.2 in a standard folding version with “eXCeption” compound at a slant 520 gm and with reinforced sidewalls at 575 gm. Maxxis claims this race oriented tire to be fairly universal from dry to loose to wet and looking at the design I see the same blend there as with Kenda; here I´d say it is a “ardented Larsen TT” or vice versa if you like.

Also new is a UST version of the ARDENT 2.25 – not my thing as I believe in tubeless ready and in USt to fade out in the coming years but for some this might be very good news.

MICHELIN

The French company that has radically downsized their line of 29er tires in 2009/10 to only one tire- the all new Wild Race´R- now has done a full redesign of this one tread and will offer it as a grippy, fast rolling and aggressively cornering tread for 29er in sizes 2.1 and a voluminous 2.25. Though I should know better than to judge a tread by looks alone (I have neither ridden the 2010 nor the new version) – I must admit that the new design does make a lot more sense to me than the very linear looks of the older version. They will have a 66 TPI casing and weights are given at 670 g for 2.1 and 715 for the 2.25 size.

WTB:

From WTB, who already have introduced most of their tire and tread designs to the market earlier and now are strongly working to get more tubeless ready versions out, I saw only the BRONSON being “new” for us Euros. Not sure if or for how long it is available in the US but here it was a debut. (Editor’s Note: It will be unveiled here at Interbike) The tread does look pretty promising, but as it is already mounted on my short term test bike, the NINER AIR 9 Carbon, I will be able to give you more than just numbers and looks but some actual riding impressions later on when covering the bike. Bear with me there, will you?

OK so much for news on the tires. There would be more to say and I will probably add some additional info later on but I am dead tired now so I have to call on your patience for the days to come.

RIDE ON,

c_g

Eurobike Outdoor Demo Report: by “c_g”

EUROBIKE 2010 – First day (DEMO DAY)

Hi folks, here in Germany the first day of EUROBIKE, the DEMO Day is over and boy, those 29ers were everywhere.

I remember last year there were hardly any 29er bikes present and if they were, they were the least requested of the pack. This year it was completely different with new 29er bikes (many of which were by European companies) everywhere and there was a real run for them. SPECIALIZED for example was present with a total of about 70 test bikes with 20 of them being 29″ers, NINER showed their full range in various sizes, SCOTT had a decent fleet of 5 or six Scale 949s and Cannondale were showing some – and most of them were gone almost all the time – being ridden by some curious European wanting to find out what these BIG WHEELS were all about . In several cases where I had hoped to get a ride in, I only got the opportunity to take a quick shot or a “parking lot ride” before someone “plied” it out of my hands. All in all it was a very positive experience for 29er fans (and a bit scary, too because now the underdog status here has completely vanished.

See here some pictures of the European bikes shown. (in fact there were several others … that I just saw underneath some rider that I didn’t get a shot of nor ride – but I hope to get some info and pictures at the trade show) –To show how fresh the 29″er trend is here, many of the bikes shown and seen there had little written info with specs, prices and such available:

ORBEA ALMA 29er: This bikes has already been introduced by Guitar Ted here but it was neat taking a closer look at it – some really unique features.

Double tapering? No this unique head tube is “strangled” by an massive one piece cable stop where torsional forces are lowest and wider where bigger, The elegant seat stays are nicely sculptured and fairly beefy with good tire clearance.

NICOLAI – the German high end manufacturer has shown one new 29er called the Argon Ro (“Ro” stands for “Rohloff compatible” by special sliding dropouts and a split seat stay for Gates Carbon drive). Though not shown there I was told there would be a total of 3 29er introduced – the Argon 29er (same frame with standard rear) and a full suspension Helius 29er and the Argon Ro 29er (shown below)

The bike is a Nicolai typical approach with excellent workmanship and intriguing details though by my experience with the Gates and Rohloff I know the shown configuration with a 55 tooth front ring is limited in its trail worthiness.

FOCUS: Focus was showing the Redskin in its final version and specs – unfortunately it will not be available with the interesting rigid fork as it has been sighted at Sea Otter earlier. There was only one huge frame available so I had not been able to test ride it.

HAIBIKE: The European wide operating company HAIBIKE is introducing one new 29er hardtail they call BIG CURVE which will be available in two specifications, a higher end BIG CURVE RC (shown, estimated price € 2499.-, claimed weight 10,5 kg) and the mid-range BIG CURVE SL (selling for € 1699.-, claimed weight 11.5 kg). The frames are designed for 100 mm forks and nicely executed with triple butted tubing, tapered heat tubes (seems everyone has to have them ), ample tire clearance, through axle front and rear, and short seat stays at 435 mm !!

You can see that by trying to get the chain stays shortened there is little room left between tire and the seat tube on this pre-production model, a thing that will be modified by introducing a slight bend to the seat tube in the lower third of its length (see the ORBEA or RAGLEY for that feature) in the production version.

The bike was gone most of the time and so a short ride near the day´s end had to do but the first feel of the bike really made me anticipate a neutral and fun handling bike. Though the frames a Taiwan made the bikes are all assembled here in Germany. Good news for smaller and taller riders is that the bikes will be available in four sizes from 44 cm through 56 cm.

Ragley Bikes: A personal Highlight for me was the opportunity to test riding a bike I have heard much about but never ridden myself – the RAGLEY TD:1.

This Lynskey made titanium bike designed by Brant Richards wasn´t a new introduction but the idea of doing a 29er specifically for racing applications and with a 440 mm rigid fork and had me wanting to ride it for some time.

Besides the unique geometry this bike features strongly ovalized main tubes to optimize lateral stiffness and add some vertical compliance, a slightly bend down tube (for impact strength, not for fork crown clearance, I was told), a ring reinforced 1 1/8” head tube (for a change J) and a bent seat tube to avoid derailleur/tire interference. A nice feature for our climate are the easily removable cable guides throughout the entire frame (nice for people wanting the clean SS look plus geared function) for full length cable and brake hose housings (remember the bike comes from even rainier UK). A simple yet functional thing is the RAGLEY specific 3-finger seat stay bridge, providing extraordinary tire clearance and no muck build up whatsoever.

The trails around the EXPO had received torrential rain the last days and so were super muddy and slippery – perfect testing grounds for such a steed. I went into the ride without much introduction to simply feel the bike and WOW – that is some unique machine. I have hardly ever ridden a bike that made me want to hammer out of the saddle as much as the TD:1. Steering was super precise and quick like only some people will appreciate, the ti frame made for a laterally stiff yet compliant chassis, while the stiff fork and cockpit were on the harsher side. This bike defined agility to new levels without feeling overly nervous (though some probably would feel this way). The TD:1 requires an experienced hand and constant concentration by the rider – no cruiser at all but a pure bread racing weapon. While it may not be the bike I´d take on long alpine trip it simply made me want to go all out fast.

If you like to be on your toes all the time, go all out, and favor a rigid 29er – take a good look at the RAGELY TD:1. My bike was set up geared but the sliding drop outs made running it SS easy and I´d imagine the bike´s characteristic would make it to be a superb SS bike. The super short 50 mm stem on my demo bike made it feeling a tad too short and made the bike endo earlier than I had anticipated. I think a 80 or 90 mm stem (and possibly sliding the dropouts back a bit more) would alleviate that for me and make an exceptional climber.

I was promised a neat surprise at the show from Ragley (something that would suit the TD:1 well ) – so stay tuned for more.

Many US brands were present with their 29ers also (SCOTT showed a whole fleet of their SCALE 949 29er, CANNONDALE had several FLASH models for test, NORCO was demoing the SHINOBI and YETI showed their new 29er with alloy main triangle and Carbon rear, unfortunately no GIANT 29er L) but knowing that Guitar Ted and Grannygear will cover those in more depth during their time at INTERBIKE, I didn’t focus too much on them.

Niner Bikes: There was one bike though that I was particularly interested in riding:

The NINER Air 9 Carbon (in a rigid version).

Thanks to the great folks of NINER bikes (Brett, Steven, Chris and to Mauro, the Italian distributor of NINER) I ended up being lent the bike (with some pretty interesting components, too) for the duration of the show to turn the Demo ride into a “Short term test” and so I will leave you with only this picture of the bike with more to come soon – kind of mean isn´t it but I got to go and ride .

Stay tuned and RIDE ON,

c_g

Test Conditions: Dry terrain, loose gravel, sand, hard pack dirt and gravel surfaces, roots, and some tacky to muddy trail. The XR-1 is meant for dry terrain, and as such, I kept the tire to these sorts of conditions as much as I possibly could. These tires were used on single track, and on a gravel/back road event recently.

Notes On Mounting And Tire Pressure: While I must repeat that these tires are not meant to be tubeless, and are not part of Bontrager’s excellent TLR System, they did mount up and seal up very well. I used a Race X Lite rim with a TLR rim strip and a TLR valve stem. The sealant was a mixture of CaffeLatex, Slime Tubeless, and some “homebrew” latex solution. The tires required a bit of soapy water around the bead interface to aid in airing up and to set the bead properly. This was accomplished with a small air compressor. Riding the tires aided in keeping air pressures maintained, but I did note that these leak down a bit faster than a “true” tubeless ready tire does.

I tried the tires running at around 30-35 psi, but this resulted in a higher rolling resistance and a bit of flexiness side to side which indicated that tire pressure was perhaps too low. The 120TPI casings were also likely contributing to the feeling here. The higher thread count usually results in a more supple casing and would also point to a need to run a higher pressure. On the next ride, I bumped up the pressures to 39psi front and rear. This nominal change made a really big difference. The tires really came into their own at these pressures and I have continued to run them at 38-40 psi since then.

Performance Notes: Once I reached the pressures that started working the best with the XR-1, I could really feel a big difference in performance. The rolling resistance, which was higher than you would expect from a sub-two inch race tire, went away at the 38-40 psi range and then these tires felt very fast. Pavement riding was above average, but off road anywhere these tires really come into their own. As long as it is dry, that is, and as long as you don’t have some loose layers over hard pack. Mud isn’t part of this tires vocabulary and loose over hard pack will find this tire skating a bit. The rounded profile and skinny knobs just are not suited to loose over hard, in my opinion. I had to ease up in corners in those situations.

Where it does work fantastically well is on grassy tracks, gravel, and of course, anything hard packed or stone. I especially liked riding these tires on grass track where you had a Velcro-like adhesion to the dry grass and the supple casing just erased the small bumpy surface. Hard packed dirt was also a treat, and I railed these tires through twisty-turny trail at higher speeds than I was expecting to since the grip was so good. Again, the rounded profile and small knobs with the supple casing as a foundation were working well. Almost tubular like. I would suspect this pattern would be phenomenal in a tubular configuration.

Standing climbing resulted in great grip on sandy, gritty roads. I never spun a tire. Going over loose sections of deeper gravel and sand were met with a higher degree of float than I would have expected from a tire this narrow and this rounded. Tacky dirt that allowed the tread to bite in was also great, but I noted that the tires made a weird sound when hitting these tackier patches. Nothing bad, but noteworthy. Mud would instantly pack in the diminutive knobs and there wasn’t any traction at that point. I do not recommend doing a muddy course with these tires! But then again, they are not designed for those conditions either.

Finally, I noted that the tires were very consistent and predictable when breaking free, and drifting these tires a bit was not a fear inducing event. In fact, I almost wished for it in some cases. Laterally, these tires will drift into ruts or slip down off cambers a bit as well, so that is something to watch out for. Overall, wear has been low. I was looking for these tires to wear more quickly, being they are designated for racing, but so far, they have impressed with their ability to wear well.

I’ll be back with a Final Review in a few weeks to a month or so. Stay tuned!

Note: These tires were purchased by Guitar Ted for test/review. Twenty Nine Inches is not being paid, nor bribed, for this review. I will strive to give my honest opions and thoughts throughout.

A Clydesdale Wheel Build: By Lacemine 29: by Grannygear

It ain’t easy being a clyde mtn biker. You stress frames, torture cranks and chains; brakes get hot, tires need to be big, and the wheels suffer most of all. Typically 29er wheels for a 250 pound class rider need to be pretty burly. Forget about lightweight race rims like a Stans Crest. Better check the Flows box on the order form. Spoke count? 36 perhaps? Maybe even an MTX 33 or Salsa Gordo rim.

Hubs get pushed to the limits as well. Blown free hubs, stripped pawls, cracked hub shells, etc, litter the garages of powerful, heavy, and aggressive riders.

For instance, Jeff-J aka ‘circus bear on a bike’ runs around the high side of 255 lbs and is 6’6” tall. He will never be fast uphill but get him on a flat or downhill grade and watch those big legs push some mass down the trail. Jeff is a smooth rider and as an older guy, does not get too much air under his tires so rims last him pretty well. But hubs, well that is another story. Being a budget rider kind of guy, Jeff typically runs a Shimano hub. That ended up being a bad idea as several free hubs on his STX and XT level hubs went **ping** when Jeff put the power to them on steep grades. An upgrade to a FH-M629 free hub courtesy of Shimano has lasted so far, but there is always that tip toe up the trail feeling that doom is indeed impending.

Then, a conversation with one of the premier 29er wheel builders, Mike Curiak of Lacemine 29 ended up getting around to a hub suggestion for Jeff-J. But more than that, it morphed into a discussion on what are the limits of a Clyde’s wheels? How light can you go? Do we need a high spoke count? A freeride/AM strength hub?

And the end result was a bit of an experiment in building a wheel set for Jeff-J that may even be flirting with, well, maybe not disaster, but maybe the limits of good sense. Mike C. would build them and we would turn him loose and say, “go pedal fast and hard, big guy…cuz you deserve it” and we would see what would happen.

This is what Mike had to say about the build:

“If you’ve ever looked at the info form on my site, you’ll see that I ask for basic stuff like height, weight, and how long they’ve been riding. That’s the foundation, and right there I’ve already got a good idea of what rims to use for this person. Spoke gauge(s), lacing pattern, and tension balance are critical on every build, but the rim is really in the driver’s seat as it’s width/weight/relative whippiness dictates most of the performance/durability/reliability characteristics of the wheelset. But then I dig a little deeper and find out about what bike the wheels will be going on, rigid or suspended fork, etc… Another piece of the puzzle there—if they’re riding rigid they’ll probably be interested in a wider rim so that they can run lower pressures. If they’re a clyde they’ll have concerns about durability of the wheels as well as the drive mechanism. If the bike is a SS I can build the rear a lot lighter than most are expecting, merely because dishless wheels are so much more durable than dished. You get the idea—lots of different people with vastly different needs, and every scenario is unique. In Jeff’s case, he’s a lot larger than the average bear but, somewhat surprisingly, he doesn’t have trouble wadding up wheels so much as destroying freehub bodies. It was immediately apparent that although he didn’t want to spend the $ for a bling wheelset, he needed ‘more’ in the freehub durability department than 98% of the rest of us. Based on his experiences, we immediately ruled out pretty much all hubs other than King, Hadley, and DT Swiss. I’ve had excellent success using all three manufacturers hubs for clydes and even tandem 29” use, so in a way it was a tossup. What ultimately pushed us over the edge toward the DT 240s hubs was their relative underdog status. Ask any ~300# cyclist what hubs will hold up for them and chances are good they’ll answer either King or Hadley, and nothing else! In over a decade of riding, racing, and building with the DT hubs, I’ve found the DT star ratchet mechanism to be at least as durable as those others, yet I’ve also found that the DT system is not only easier to maintain but far less likely to need maintenance.

And so it began. The order was made and the boxes arrived soon enough along with these comments.

Hey Guys-

Cheers,

MC

The scale showed a 907g/1004g F/R weight with out quick releases. The front hub was a 15QR and was weighed without the QR axle. Both hubs were Centerlock type DT Swiss 240S hubs.

And now the riding begins. Will it be a happy relationship? We shall see. Stay tuned as Jeff-J hits the trails on his new wheels.

I started out with parts off another review frame, (to be revealed soon), and put them on the Scout to get something rideable going right away. The fork is a 120mm Reba Team with the 20mm Maxle Lite, and the wheel set is the Gordo/Hope Pro II set that I have been using as a test mule set for sometime now. This yielded a set up more towards the aggressive side of trail bike. In this configuration, the head angle is slacked by about a degree, (depending upon how you set your sag), and the bottom bracket gets closer to 13″, (again, un-sagged). The build went together without incident, with the exception of one minor detail. The tires and shortest chain stay length did not quite mesh.

The idea was to “max out” the settings to see if it was possible to run the shortest chain stay length possible with the widest knobby tire on a 35mm wide rim. Granted- this may not be the design intent, but I felt that this frame set with the listed specs might tempt someone into trying this out, so why not me? (Ha!) Chain length was determined and it worked out without a half link, the wheel was set in place, but it cleared by only a thickness of a sheet of paper on each side, so……no go! Perhaps someone with a less aggressively knobbed 2.4″er might have luck with dry conditions, but I needed to move the wheel back to get the bike going. The image here shows the resulting clearance after adding a link and attaining a chain stay length of approximately 17 3/8ths”. Pretty good, but not in the territory of some of the upcoming AM hard tails which we’ve been hearing of.

One more thing to think about here: It is also necessary to allow for a bit of forward movement in regards to the axle in the drop outs to make removing the chain easier in case of a flat tire. The horizontal drops require a bit of forward leeway, so getting that shortest chain stay length is a bit of a tough thing to do. In most folks “real world” use of this frame, the shortest chain stay setting will likely be about 17″, which I may have achieved if I had used a half link in my particular case.

The other thing that gets a bit complex is the actual wheel removal. Plan on having a 2mm Allen, a 5mm Allen, a rag, and possibly another 6mm or 8mm wrench if you have bolt on hubs, (or a 15mm box end wrench, if you run a nutted axle) Oh yeah, and plan on being in that spot to fix the flat, or whatever, for a long time! (Reminiscing about the Karate Monkey days here.) The screw adjusters have to be backed off to allow for the axle to move forward to get the chain free from the cog. Then you need to loosen up that disc brake mount to swing the caliper out of the way to finally be able to get the wheel outta there. A bit complex, but then again, this is a sub-200 dollar frame we’re talking about here. Some futzing isn’t out of line when it is looked at from that perspective.

Riding Impressions: The ride of the bike was different with the short wheel base, and with the rear wheel tucked up underneath you a bit more, it was really easy to loft the front end up. The steeper head angle, (nominally 71 degrees as I had it set up), in concert with the short wheel base also made for a quicker steering bike than I was expecting with this long of a fork. The front triangle felt torsionally stiff enough. Nothing exceptional, but very good. The bike’s ride feel is hard to discern with this set up. The front fork and big, voluminous tires would smooth out many a bike’s feel, but that said, the bike didn’t feel overly stiff. I’ll save a final judgment for after I have run thinner rubber and a rigid fork on this frame, which will be coming up next.

As I said, the bike didn’t feel at all sluggish, even though the bottom bracket height is higher than spec, and the front end slacker than spec due to the Reba Team fork. I felt I could gather it up well in turns when the front wheel began to push and standing climbing was fun since the rear wheel stayed pinned to the ground. No doubt a factor of the shorter rear end. This is a fun, snappy feeling rig, even though the final build weighs 29lbs! It sure didn’t feel that heavy out on the trail, but there it is.

One thing that was a problem with such a big tire, (Specialized Purgatory 2.4″), and wide rim, (Salsa Cycles Gordo), was that it magnified the asymmetry of the seat stays and actually rubbed on the non-drive side as I stood and climbed. Of course, this is an extreme set up with the widest rims and tires, and this is an inexpensive, lower quality frame, with a price that reflects that fact. Still, I was a bit disappointed that even though things were spot on with the chain stays, the one flaw in the seat stay/drop out attachment would not allow me to run this tire and rim combo without interference. (Note: It appears that one of the drop outs is welded slightly higher on the seat stay than the other causing this asymmetry.) I will be running smaller tires and rims for the rest of this test, but this kind of thing should be noted for those who are thinking about building up one of these with bigger rims and tires. (Note: Asymmetry in seat stays and drop out asymmetry has been noted in far, far more expensive hand built frames by myself and others, so it isn’t an issue exclusive to mass produced, inexpensive products like this Origin 8 )

Next up: I’ll set the bike up as a rigid rig and with a different set of tires and wheels. After that and some more riding, I’ll be back with an update.

Note: This frame was purchased by Guitar Ted for test and review on Twenty Nine Inches. I am not being paid, nor bribed for this review. I will strive to give my honest opinions throughout.

The Jabber had caught my eye as a budget replacement that was perhaps one rung up on the ladder of refinement over the KM. The KM costs around $465.00 retail and the Jabber sits at $490.00 suggested retail. Owners of the Jabber seemed to be very happy with the ride and geometry of the frame. Vassago is pretty proud of their vaunted “Wet Cat” geometry approach: a lower BB height, a longer chain stay, a slacker head tube angle, and a longish top tube. That is a bit of a twist from the KMs set-up.

The Jabber was built up with the parts from the KM: the RST M29 fork at 80mm, the DT Swiss wheels (7.1TK/Onyx), a 180mm Shimano HTII crank and Octalink BB, etc. I had rim brakes on the KM, but went to Avid BB7s on the Jabber.

I dropped a tiny bit of weight compared to the KM as the Jabber frame was 5oz lighter, but I picked that back up in the porky Avid BB7s compared to the rim brakes. I gained a great deal of stand over, about a 1/2” of cockpit length, and better geometry over the KM. It ran with these parts until recently until I upgraded the wheels and changed the brakes to some used Juicy 5s that dropped a 1/4 pound compared to the BB7s.

The current weight on the Jabber is right at 25lbs 14oz.

So, how has the Jabber been to live with over the last year? Is the Wet Cat geometry all that and a box of cookies? What about the ride? The value VS. cost?

Right…off we go.

As I had mentioned, what I was looking for in the replacement for the KM was a different handling bike and a smoother ride. I got that in the Jabber. I immediately preferred the way the Jabber rode and turned. It felt smoother and was way better at speed in ruts and looser conditions compared to the KM. I think some of that comes from the slacker HT angle, 71* compared to the 72* KM. The longer chain stays, longer top tube, and the way the steel tubing is spec’d added up to a nicer ride on trail. I also noticed the 18” chain stays, the low bottom bracket, and the steeper seat tube angle in a bad way. Getting the front end up on trail took a lot of effort compared to the KM, which typically was set at a 17.5” (or slightly shorter) chain stay length in SS mode. How a bike responds on the trail is one part science and one part black magic, but a long front center, a low bottom bracket, and 18” chain stays may bring a ton of stability and a nice ride to the day but not a ‘flickable’ feeling bike.

After a lot of miles and hours on the Jabber, I have some strong thoughts and impressions. The Wet Cat geo lends an easy-to-ride-all-day feel to the bike. I would not look to this as a pure XC race SS bike (although it has won its share of races under more talented riders than I), but if I was shopping for an single speed to ride something like an off road 100 miler or endurance based stuff, trail ride, or bike-pack SS style, the Jabber would be great. The steering is not quick, and compared to some bikes I have ridden lately, the long-ish chain stays and slower response may not be the best thing for tighter trails with lots of blind turns. In the more open trails of So Cal, it is good enough, but it takes some deliberate effort to turn it. Still, once you dial into the timing, it will get ‘er done. There are quite a few fully suspended riders that have felt the breath of the Jabber on the back of their necks on the local single tracks. It pedals quite well and the bottom bracket does not sway and twist up at all. The track-ends approach to the way of tensioning the chain may not be as cache’ as sliders, but it has never slipped with either a Shimano XT QR or the bolt-on White Industries ENO hub I use now. I can remove the wheel easily enough without any brake rotor interference although I have to release and re-set the tensioners each time, something that I would rather not do in a race situation, but no biggie as a trail rider.

If I could change anything, I would like to be able to run a shorter chain stay than the Jabber allows. With a 1/2 link, running either a 32/20 or a 34/21 combo, I was able to get to a 17.8” CS length. I have ridden several bikes now that are in that 17.3” range and it brings with it a bit of playfulness that the 18” length does not allow for. I would add that bit of length we cut out of the chain stays and pop it into the top tube to make an XL version. I find that, with a 90mm stem, something I really prefer on this bike, that I am juuuuust a bit cramped when standing and climbing. Would that be a Wet Cat geometry still? Not sure. Which brings up a question: What do you do when your copyrighted geometry may not be all that current anymore with the latest trends? I suggest that Vassago adds a “Hot Cat” option and tightens up the bike just a bit. That may be too much for a small company with limited resources, but it is a thought. Still and for now, it is what it is and that does make for a very fine all day trail bike in single speed mode. If I were riding trails that required a lot of wheelie drops, etc, it would be a chore with the Jabber’s geometry, but I will take that over the 72* head tube angle, high bottom bracket settings, AND longer chain stays of some of its competition.

Vassago was already ahead of the curve in slacker head tube angles and longer top tubes as well as lower bottom bracket heights, something you are seeing in more and more 29ers these days. But, as I mentioned before, if what you are making is not what folks are buying because things do refine and change over time…whaddya’ gonna’ do? Is it a bad thing to center your marketing plan/design ethos/whatever around a particular geometry? Gary Fisher did it with G2 but that has been tweaked over time too. What I suggest really is a small refinement. Give me the ability to go shorter on the chain stay if I want to with a solid 17.5” setting. I will buy that. This is not a bike that is targeted at the AM/Trail bike, rock-hopping, log-dropping crowd. Maybe the upcoming Vassago Chupacabra will be that bike. There are good reasons to NOT have really short back ends on a 29er and in this case, one size does not ‘fit all’. Still, give me a wider range of adjustment. Give me a true XL top tube length with about a 1/4” stretch over the current version. In my opinion, a 25” effective length is about right for an XL. Not too many folks like a greater than 100mm stem on a 29er these days (at least from what I have seen).

On another note, Vassago is introducing the Black Label line of frame sets featuring a nicer tube set and hand made in the States construction. Due in late 2010, prices are up in the custom frame range but the weights should be down a bit to compensate! Will the geometry change as well?

The Jabberwocky has weathered well and the powder coat has been pretty tough. I have a feeling that it would continue to provide a reliable ride experience for years to come, something that steel is very good at doing. It is really hard to beat a decent steel frame for an SS bike. It is not the lightest or the snappiest or the blingiest or the whatever-est, but it just quietly gets the job done ride after ride for relatively little money. I am moving over to a new SS bike for a bit as the SS ‘Hopper gets going but I will keep the Jabber around. Maybe I will try rigid on it! Or maybe I will do some more SS bikepacking. If nothing else, the Jabber will always be ready for a few more hours of trail time. I even still like the orange color!

I think that, at least in this case, steel is a real value in the Vassago Jabberwocky.

AMERICAN CLASSIC 29er tubeless wheel set – Riding impressions: by “c_g”

Since my intro (here) I have ridden the AMERICAN CLASSIC 29er tubeless wheels day in day out on my home trails and some alpine tours. Mostly it was run in a geared set- up but recently I have also used it in a belt-drive SS version. I will continue to use it and get back with more observations. Up until now the test of the wheels has been positively incident free
and without anything seriously negative to report. Here some observations:

APPEARANCE:
The white coloured rims with red and black graphics and the bright red hubs somehow really grew on me. The white spoke pointing to the valve (a feature I initially viewed by me more of
a gadget) has actually proven a nice thing, especially on night rides it really does ease finding the valve. Another thing I find positive is how easily the white powder coated rims can be cleaned and made look like new.

RIM CONSTRUCTION:

I found the 26 mm width of the rims to be a superb compromise between tire support, stiffness and weight (the rims alone are not available but are said to weigh 420 g only). The construction made tubeless conversion very easy and provided a secure bead locking action as well as easy inflation on a multitude of tires. Keep in mind though that the rims are on the larger side. Just like with NOTUBES rims this may make fitting of some UST standard conforming tires difficult or impossible. All standard folding and many tubeless ready tires though do fit nicely on the rims.

In my testing I found that the system does work: Every standard folding tire I own was easy to inflate by floor pump and the special design of the rims shoulders made for a very secure
locking at any pressure. Even when completely deflated the tires needed an extra push to the central groove to be dismounted … these rims show they were designed with this in mind.

BUILD:

The wheels are well built and up to now there has been no need for re-tensioning or truing, despite using them for more than just tame XC riding. They seem to bee seated nicely right
out of the box and I have no reason to suspect the builder behind these wheels do know their job. Besides if something happens (which in our sport of mountain biking can happen regardless of how well the component is executed or assembled) then AMERICAN Classic made sure each and every component is easily replaceable by mainstream parts that are commonly available when original parts are out of reach. Smart, I think.

Riding impressions – STIFFNESS & POWER TRANSFER:

The wheels feel very nice and stiff under riding conditions. The low weight of the wheel set is instantly noticeable and I really enjoyed them. These wheels are not the stiffest laterally due to the narrow flange distance (thus small triangulation), which I found only matters when running ridiculously low tire clearance configurations.. On the other hand this controlled flex did create a bit more forgiving ride in the rough which I found to be rather positive. I am wondering whether this lateral flexibility wouldn’t be more of an issue for those riders hammering much out of the saddle and throwing their bikes around (thus my temporary test set up as a SS) but so far I have not found any negative effects of it.

Also for specific SS use or those seeking greater lateral stiffness there is a SS specific rear hub with wider flange spacing available – which can easily be converted into a 5/6 speed set up if desired. Other than that the wheel feels direct and stiff in terms of power transfer, so I never thought there was any energy wasted on the wheels.

The front wheel is tracking nicely with no issues at all – a 15 mm (and upon request even a 20 mm) TA version is available for even more steering precision.

HUBS:

So far with all the nasty weather and no maintenance, both hubs are spinning really smoothly. The industrial bearings seem to keep out the elements well while spinning freely. The engagement system has been performing flawlessly as well – absolutely unimpressed with the regular mud wrapping and creek crossings I exposed it to. So far I have nothing to report about in this section other than that it works like intended – but time will tell whether this will remain on the long run.

The AC specific engagement system with 6 twin point pawls has been hassle free and is working flawlessly so far. Engagement is swift and secure with no complaints whatsoever.

COMMENTS:

So far the AMERICAN CLASSIC 29er tubeless wheels have performed admirably with not issue whatsoever. These wheels are a good example of components that not only look hot but perform and feature quite an assortment of innovations that do make my riding enjoyment a better one. Wait for more riding impressions to come in the course of this season.

Note: “c_g” is a freelance contributor to Twenty Nine Inches from Europe and is not paid, nor bribed for his opinions and thoughts.

If there was any 29er full suspension bike that had the rumor mills buzzing with excitement this last year, it most likely was a big wheeled version of the Anthem X with Giant’s Maestro short link suspension. Then, once it truly was revealed and seen by spy lenses, etc, it made an appearance at Sea Otter under the control of Carl Decker and won the Super D. If that was not enough, Carl followed that up with a win at Downieville in the Combined AM event, where you need to finish well in both a 27 mile XC course and a 15 mile DH course on the same bike.

Now, the Anthem X 29er 1, 2, and 3 are hitting dealer showrooms now. We took a drive over to Giant North America HQ and spoke to Andrew Juskaitis about the new bike. Remember that I wrote an opinion piece that put out the thought that 100mms of front and rear travel was the sweet spot for 29ers. That, IMO, is an excellent balance point that, depending on the build of the parts and the angles of the bike’s geometry, you can have a bike that would perform very well in a huge percentage of the world’s riding terrain under nearly any rider.

The intended venue of the Anthem X would be an XC, endurance, race, 24 hour, light to medium duty trails situation. The Maestro suspension has a very loyal following and if Giant did their homework translating that around the bigger wheels, and I imagine they did, then this bike should be a winner. The medium size of the Anthem X 29er 1, with a bottle cage and no pedals (it was a demo bike) with the Maxxis Crossmark 2.1s F/R was 26lbs and a couple of ounces extra. Not bad at all really, considering the price.

There have been some doubts cast on internet forums about the long chain stays (18.2”). If this were a hard tail, I would agree that it would be a deal killer for me, but on an full suspension bike…well, I give that some grace as things are a bit different there. And, in any case, you do need to take the entire bike as a whole before too much judgment gets passed.

I shot some pics of the rear tire clearance, which is quite generous. You could run a pretty good sized tire back there. This is a Crossmark 2.1 in the photos.

The front rotor is 185mm across all 3 models, something that I have come to appreciate on 29ers, especially ones that can go as fast as this bike will.

The hubs are now a DT Swiss based hub as DT Swiss is the new ‘hub partner’ for Giant. That is also a good thing. I was told that the rear hub is compatible with DT Swiss parts for upgrades, etc.

The rims are a new Giant branded item, the P-XC29 2. I was told it was tubeless capable with Stans tape, etc, but I have not confirmed that with Stans. The last time that was quoted from Giant regarding the rims on the prior test bike, the XTC 29er-1 hardtail, turned out to be a bit off the mark, but those were a different extrusion.

The shaped rocker is a really good looking and the polished frame on the Anthem X 29er 1 is very shiny-shiny and looks great behind the blue accent pieces of anodized aluminum in the pivots, seatposts, etc. I was told the polishing is done by hand.

We are slated to be riding one version or another of an Anthem X 29er by the time Interbike is over, so stay tuned.

MI-TECH Tyke 29er RO EX -
Out of the Box and Riding Impressions: by “c_g”

The company Mi-Tech is not unknown to many Germans, outside Germany they are still fairly unknown (thus the site www.mi-tech.de is available only in German language). The company has existed for some 15 years by now (beginning with the name of COCCOON focusing on high end road and triathlon bikes) but only the last 5 years under the name of MI-TECH. The company is producing bikes one by one, doing mostly custom jobs, only recently have they gone to producing “standard” frames in small batches besides their custom offerings. They always been heavily involved in designing and building prototypes for other companies (many widely known brands have had their protos built by Mi-Tech), so be sure they have lots of experience in individual geometries.

An interesting thing, J. Militzer, the head of Mi-Tech told me was that starting this year 29″ers are requested like crazy (while they had been slow before) and up to Mid Year they had already built and sold over 70 29″er units from an average yearly production of about 450 to 500 bike frames (all sizes and types). No word on the percentage as the general sales at Mi-
Tech have been high this year anyway.

FRAME specifics:
My test bike comes out of such a “standard” run but the number of individual modifications kind of tells a different story:
-Internal cable routing
-Rigid fork specific geometry
-Split right seat stays for GATES Carbon Drive
-ROHLOFF OE1 drop out and cable guides for the Speedhub 500/14
-27.2 mm seat post (31.6 would be standard)
-White powder coat (these and many others can be added to your personal frame to create your desired configuration in a standard geometry or in a full custom geometry)

Should you be interested in a Mi-Tech bike, be sure to discuss your future bike with them as they will do anything for your bike, down to the smallest details – and all that is 100% German manufacture. Knowing that the asking price of € 699.- for the frame (without the extras) seems fully justified. A full custom geometry would sell for € 849.-.

I received the bike mostly built so I have no individual weights but the claimed weight of 1650 g for the frame (incl., and thick powder coat) sounds about right. The BUSHNELL EBB adds another 150- 160 g.

Here come some visual impressions of the bike:

Left:Front section: The massive heat tube holds the semi-integrated headset nicely creating a very low stack height: The brake cable enters the TT while the dual shifter cables
from the Rohloff Speedhub enter on both sides of the down tube. Right: The Rohloff shifter cables exit the down tube near the Bushnell EBB, and run in their housing to the external gearing box – as recommended by Rohloff.

Left: a, About 2/3 down the right seat stay you find the splitting device that is secured by 2 screws. Since the GATES Carbon Drive belt is not splittable like a chain this is necessary to enter the belt into the rear triangle. Right: A huge box section yoke creates the stiffest possible BB section while maintaining huge tire clearance and decent chain ring clearance. Can you say “MASSIVE” and “STIFF”? – the Tykes rear triangle is built to the maximum accuracy and stiffness; a absolute requirement to have the belt drive work flawlessly. Tire clearance is above standard as well.

The frames dimensions are as stated on their website for an 18” frame:
605 mm eff. TT,
480 mm ST, 110 mm HT,
71,5° head angle and 73° seat angle,
60 mm BB drop and fairly long chainstays at 450 mm.

Though not unusual in its dimensions the 29er Tyke had been a bike where I needed several attempts to get the seating position dialed in correctly – not the bikes fault but it was peculiar. In the end I felt best with a short 70-80 mm stem (or in my case a 100 mm stem run with the Jones H-bar) and a straight post. It was a bit of a hassle getting the brake lines through the TT and bled but the clean looks easily made up for that. Internal routing is a nice thing but not if you like to swap components much and in my case I decided to just leave the shifting routing on the bike when I ran the bike in SS mode with my AMERICAN CLASSIC wheels (thanks to UNITED Transmissions, Europe for providing me with the extra SS cog for
this). So consider carefully what type of rider you are.

BUILD SPECIFICS & RIDE IMPRESSIONS:
MI-TECH has been super helpful in putting this test bike together and made a huge effort to get it to me before their summer holidays. You can find a short run down on the bikes components here. Due to a temporary unavailability by GATES my rig had a 50 tooth “chainring” mounted (about equivalent in diameter to 44 standard chainrings) and the chain stay fit was very tight: below 0.5 mm. Despite limiting my climbing abilities, this set up gave me a good baseline for testing the frames stiffness. By looking I would have judged the bike unrideable but I was taught differently –despite my best efforts I only managed to create a tiny scratch in the powder coat from the “chainring”,that is how stiff the frame is near the BB. I unashamedly would say this is the stiffest BB section I have ever encountered in any fame I had tested so far.

The BUSHNELL EBB takes a bit of getting used to when adjusting (read the instructions here to understand its function) but it worked just fine on the Tyke. With a 115 tooth belt in the combination of 46 teeth front and 20 teeth rear, thats how I was running the Speedhub, the EBB was near its farthest position (2 or 4 oclock looking from the drive side). When running SS I could run the 46 tooth front and a 24 rear cog, without having to swap the belt. This time having the EBB near its closest position (9 oclock). Keep in mind that the tooth distance on the Carbon Drive is shorter so Id guess the BUSHNELLs capacity is somewhere between 3 to 4 teeth with a standard chain. No creaking, loosening or other negative traits to report on so far.

The test rig was run as is for the most part of the test – with modified cockpit and seating. The Tyke is the very first Alloy 29er I have ridden for a very long time and it comes as no surprise that coming from a long travel steel hard tail it took some time to re-adjust. At first I felt a bit beaten after my usual testing rounds from what I consider a super stiff frame. This sensation has faded with me (re-) adjusting but the bikes superior stiffness remains. Not only in the BB area but overall – this fame is built to be the most direct connection from you to the ground.

For one this is necessary for the long tern function of the belt drive (I will meet the GATES folks at EUROBIKE and discuss with them – so await some in depth coverage on the Carbon
Belt drive then) but the entire frame is as stiff as can be. Beware, this means super direct and unaltered propelling energy but also an unusually direct response from the ground conditions – once again I was happy for having a 29er underneath me with large volume SCHWALBE Nobby Nics. I also swapped the alloy seat post to a nicely compliant 3T carbon Post to get a bit of compliance ☺; unfortunately the original ROHLOFF shifters don’t work with Carbon bars and so I resorted to Ti H-bars to give me a bit of compliance in the rough. The stiff DT-Swiss fork did add even more stiffness and directness to the ride – a combination I’d consider one of the stiffest I have ridden in a 29er – maybe not everyone’s shoe, but some will just love it.

The bike is an exceptional climber but not much of a playful bike. I rode it on all my usual trails and it rode nicely in any terrain but somehow I felt like standing climbing wasn’t the Tykes favorite. While in SS mode, pushing up the climbs I always felt like I was slightly working against the geometry; same for sprinting out of the saddle (despite its superior power transmission). Mind you I am not the most finessed SS rider so other riders experiences might differ. But when pushing up long slopes in a seated position and climbing steadily, the TYKE really shone. There was no end to its traction on steep or technical climbs and endo-ing was a thing unknown to this bike. Where others were swaying heavily the Tyke just paced though.

I have not taken the bike on long alpine tours yet (a good vacation is planned already ☺) but Id guess this is where the bike would ride like few others. Downhills and technical sections were both bliss and curse: the extreme stiffness of the chassis made for super precise riding/steering but also a bit of an unforgiving ride. The bike felt very stable and sure footed, despite its directness, which sometimes required me to clear rough sections at a slower than usual pace. Technical downhills – when taken at the correct speed – were mastered easily with absolutely no tendency for twitchiness or wandering.

When asking the manufacturer about how they intended the Tyke to ride it was the touring and endurance riding that they pointed out as the strongest field for the Tyke and so far I
confirm this.

MID TERM IMPRESSIONS:
The Tyke 29er frame is a superbly executed frame built specifically for ROHLOFF and GATES CARBON drive – thus it features maximum precision and stiffness (only few frame builder are
capable to produce such frames) and carries some interesting touches. The combination of this frame and a stiff rigid fork might be a tad too direct for some but sure provides the most
precise ride imaginable (a supple seat post and seat are a must in my eyes). While not portraying much playfulness my test bike is an exceptional climber and confidence inspiring descender. But keep in mind that MI-TECH does make each frame to customer specifications so any ride characteristic can be realized.

The GATES Carbon Drive will be covered in more depth in an upcoming post. Just this much: When integrated into a bike of this caliber (and set up), it gets me very close to the dream of a (almost) service and maintenance free mountain bike. (Remember, I called this test series “SIMPLE but SOPHISTICATED and so far this title fits like a glove)

RIDE ON,
c_g