Mythic Rune test - MBR magazine

I'll let the test do the talking.... all images / text copyright MBR magazine

cheers!

Rob c

Interbike - Viento

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I had all but a few minutes to bang these out before it had to go in a box and get shipped to Canada. I think it looks great… Keith is meh. I guess it different tastes for different people so we’ll have a couple other options available. The blue like the Black Rune with the orange links will only be available as a complete package so will be very limited and be pretty rare to see on the trails. I wish i was able to get a weight on this bike before I shipped it out but it was light… like around the 25ish area but i’m thinking it might even be lighter… I’ll try to get it weighed within a few weeks. Ok its not stupid light but its also not an XC race bike either and can handle trail and most all mountain applications.

Technorati Tags: banshee,viento

Why Doesn’t Anyone Make a 29er Downhill Bike?

A little interview I did for BikeRumor.com 

posted by Editor - July 13, 2009 - 10pm EDT

After watching footage from the first few UCI World Cup downhill races this year, we’re sitting around the office blown away by the speed at which the riders could seemingly fling their bikes over some seriously gnarly roots, rocks and drops.  We also noticed that some of the rocks and root “cavities” (the gullies between big roots) seemed to occasionally be just a hair too much for the bikes, forcing the riders to navigate around some obstacles rather than bomb over them.

Not being big downhillers here, we got to wondering why no one was running a 29″ wheel on a downhill mountain bike…at least on the front.  As we all know by now, a 29er’s larger wheel rolls over stuff easier, and some of the bits on the World Cup downhill courses were seemingly just beyond the capability of a 26″ wheel to get over (even with 8″ of travel!), but could have been tackled by a 29er.

So, in typical Bikerumor fashion, we called the experts.  Lots of them.  We wanted input from big brands and small, global companies and boutique DH specialists.  We also wanted a dedicated 29er brand…so we went overkill and interviewed the folks from Specialized, Foes, Banshee, Norco, Santa Cruz and Niner and asked them the following three questions:

1. Why don’t downhillers use 29″ wheels, at least on the front?
2. Has your company or any of it’s factory riders ever tested or prototyped a 29er or 69er downhill bike?
3. Anything else you could add on this topic?

Read the rest of the article here…

Mythic Rune wins MBR test with 9/10

We've just had the great news that the Mythic Rune we put up against a Morewood in Mountain Bike Rider (MBR) magazine here in the UK won the test with a healthy 9/10

I have not seen the magazine yet as only subscribers have a copy (and the Freeborn Horsham guys) but should get a copy from the newstands next week

I did meet the guy who tested the Rune for MBR at my local skatepark last weekend, and he was raving about the bike, so I'd imagine the test is full of praise!

I do know they installed the K-9 1.5" angle cups which apparently slacked the head angle to 65 degrees for the MegaAvalanche race...

more info coming soon, with some scans from the mag

cheers!

Rob c

Juride vids and a party invite

Julien my European distributor just sent me a couple vids that he wanted to share. Check'm out.... I really want to try his bike park... looks like fun.

A teaser for our bike party wich will happen in two weeks, The last edition it was 2500 persons on the place!

The rider is Sakoline too with his scythe!

A very funny trail we built in our mountains, riding in those little stones is like powder skiing ;) riders: Zwo and Sakoline( scythe and WC)

Alan on Pink Bike – spoiledgoods blog

http://spoiledgoods.pinkbike.com/blog/alan-hepburk-bike-check-2009.html

A cool little feature

Technorati Tags: banshee,rampant,alan,hepburn

My Paradox

Ok so I don’t have much experience riding 29rs but I do have a lot of riding experience and this weekend racing my Paradox in what i thought was an AM race only to see my competition in full face helmets, chest and leg armour on bikes such as Trek Sessions and M6’s made me scratch my head a little.

I hadn’t seen the course so me and Ryan took a ride up – ok Ryan pushed his bike while I rode since he was on a full boinger and hadn’t made the mistake of bring a knife to a gun fight.

The Paradox rocks on the tech uphill and the seating position was just as i hoped. Centered in the saddle for all but the steepest quick bursts where you could just nose up a tad but not as much as other bikes I had ridden. The 2.3 WTB stouts felt great and I never felt any loss of traction. The conditions were dry but not dusty and the ground was not loose for the most part but was gravely with some uphill rock gardens that you had to pick your lines. I love the way the Paradox gets over stuff on the uphill when things get chundery.  My XC background was mostly riding the North Shore where one of our fun things was to see who could get up the technical stuff. We’d slam it into the lowest gear we had and just giver into what we thought would be the line that would give us the best traction and the greatest chance of throwing ourselves up and over what would be technically a drop if you were going down.

I wish I had the Paradox back then, and I can’t wait to get it back to the Shore to try some of my old lines and see what happens. The 29 front really helps and the momentum that it carries keeps the bike moving into these tech sections. Long story short it was welcomed on the tech uphill sections.

So on the downhill that was another eye opener. I’ve ridden a 26r Scirocco for a long time. I commuted on it for 2 years back and forth everyday from my home to the office and had it in the air; dropping the Aline and GLC at Whistler at its most extreme. There was nothing I wouldn’t hit on that bike that I wouldn’t do on a full suser. So while I think Whistler will be a bit much for this bike i was pleasantly surprised that it did give me the confidence that I used to feel on the Scirocco. The only part that I think I’ll need to get used to is in 2 corners where i nearly blew my line because I wasn’t use to pulling the front wheel over on this size. I was in the first portion of my DH run and the bike was running hot… I suppose the centripetal force was more then i was used to and I didn’t compensate. It took me but fractions of a second to correct but it was something that wouldn’t have happened on the 26 front.

The 120mm fork felt like a 160mm. It really was amazing to get the same feeling from the front end as what i’ve previously experienced running a 6” fork. The back end was super sweet… it tracked precisely, I felt very comfortable leaning it over in the corners, and it felt like a softtail as the backend was much softer then what i’ve experienced riding through the chundery braking bumps on Aline [Whislter] with the Scirocco.

I’m still a little sketched out catching air on this bike. I think i’ll try to keep practicing on it to see if i get used to it but my gut tells me all but the straightest lines jumping will be hard. I don’t think i’d be comfortable hipping or transfering this bike but a straight lined drop and maybe even a small kicker will be pretty sweet. The backend is short enough that when i did a slower speed jump i was able to pull the front end up and not nose in to the landing. Having a bike you can “wheelie” is of benefit especially if you want to hit some small air drops. This truly is an AM style bike if for no other reason that its possible to do this.

I have to say its going to be a fight getting this thing away from me. I thought I was done with hardtails after riding the Legend last year, but just as I found new love for riding with the Scirocco, I am now –even after riding bikes for so long- finding the fun that I had only experienced when i had first started riding. I’m so stoked on this bike and want to visit all my old haunts again to see and compare… hell you may even seem me at Whistler on it!!!!

Technorati Tags: banshee,paradox

Rain Rain …

For the first month we had nothing but clear skies and warm temperatures. Three weeks ago I went to Ontario to visit family and it was cold and rainy the whole time I was there. I got back to Fernie a week ago and it has been cold and wet for the past week. We have been riding in the rain for the past week, but have not been taking any pictures. There was a break in the rain yesterday so we took my brother’s truck, the camera and our bikes to session a couple of jumps on a trail called Dopamine.

      

James has been building a couple of jumps just off of Dopamine. Here is a shot of one of them. They are a work in progress.

Check out the sign on the stump underneath this little jump. “Mushroom Head”

Enjoy the pictures.

Rob

Interbike – Paradox [Oh and its my personal bike!!!]

UPDATE: So I've been getting some questions about when the Paradox will be ready for the public to get their hands on. We'll the good news is they've already been shipping to customers for 2 weeks now so if you want one then its no problem getting one

Yeah this is my keeper as I gave my green one away. I don’t think its gonna be pretty for the show as I plan to ride it home tonight. Who needs pretty bikes at the show anyway… if its beat up a little you still get the general idea of what it’ll look like in the store right?? Besides how am i gonna walk past this bike everyday knowing I could be riding it? I’m only human and a weak one at that so really its not my fault and can’t be blamed.

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Technorati Tags: Banshee,Paradox

Here are pics of Kurt on his XL tearing it up at the 24hr race in AB Canada.

Big thanks to Sean for the photos. He’s got some other ones here of the other racers.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/seanbirch/

Armstrong, Bauer top podiums at Snowmass mountain bike races

by Catherine Lutz, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer
Monday, August 10, 2009

While a certain seven-time Tour de France winner was celebrating his first fat tire victory in Snowmass Village on Saturday, Aspenite Rachel Bauer was steadily defending her lead on the dusty mountaincross course.

A few rounds later, Bauer edged out five other pro women to take first place in the Blast the Mass mountaincross finals — one of two pro-level racers with an Aspen address to earn the top spot in the four-discipline mountain bike event.

“I wasn’t the strongest rider, but I had the best descents,” said Bauer, who got fourth place in the pro women’s downhill on Sunday. “I was able to defend the lead and hold off the other girls.” (Jackie Harmony of Tucson, Ariz. and Martha Renn of Avon took second and third places, respectively.)

The other Aspen racer was Lance Armstrong, who smoked the field in the pro cross-country race with a time of one hour, 51 minutes and 18 seconds — completing two laps of the course which entailed 11.4 miles and 2,346 vertical feet of climbing.

Along with some local cross-country pros, Armstrong had spent a few days before the race riding the course to familiarizing himself with it, said a race organizer.

“And he was familiar,” said Keith Darner with Bigfoot Productions, which puts on the Mountain States Cup race series. “On the road climb from the start/finish to the singletrack he was at probably double the speed of the next pro.

Darner said Armstrong has visibly improved his technical riding since last year, when he placed second in the Leadville 100 endurance mountain bike race.

“I thought this race would be considerably closer because he’s a roadie,” said Darner. “This course had some challenging technical climbing and descending.”

Armstrong finished a little more than three minutes ahead of Jay Henry of Avon, who is the points leader in the eight-race Mountain States Cup.

Len Zanni of Carbondale finished third, nearly 6 minutes off Armstrong’s time.

Darner said an estimated 300-500 people thronged the start of the pro cross-country race, and about 450 people stuck around to see Armstrong receive his award.

“Normally you can hear crickets at a cross-country start,” said Bauer, “but it was lined on both sides. Lance brought people out.”

Far from feeling overshadowed, Bauer said it was boost to the semi-obscure sport of competitive mountain to have Armstrong show up at a regional race.

“He’s definitely brought a lot of people to the sport and to the weekend.”

Darner credited Armstrong with being gracious for staying 45 minutes after the awards ceremony to sign autographs and talk with fans.

“All we can say about Lance attending our event is that is was very positive and his sportsmanship was amazing,” said Darner.

Several other locals had podium finishes in the weekend events, which also crowned the state champions in cross-country, downhill, super D and mountain cross.

Snowmass Village’s Bryce Gordon won the 15- to 18-year-old division men’s category 1 cross-country race, and Mike Scanlon of Snowmass Village took the top spot in the men’s category 1 40-49 class. (Categories denote levels of skills, with category 1 corresponding to the old “expert” class. Category 2 is the former “sport” class, and category 3 is beginner.)

Jason Lapointe of Carbondale and Joel Mischke of Basalt took second and third places, respectively, in the cross-country race for category 1, ages 30-39. Lauren Ziedonis of Aspen took second in the women’s 19-29 category 1 race. The podium in the women’s category 1 40+ race was dominated by locals: Aspen’s Anne Gonzales in first, Aspen’s Pam Seidler in second and Carbondale’s Jacqueline Wood in third.

Steve Valenti of Basalt took first place in the mountaincross category 1 race for 30- to 39-year-olds. And Aspen’s Christen Boyer took second place in the category 1/2 women’s division for mountaincross.

Full downhill results were not available on Sunday, but no locals placed in the top three spots in the pro division on Sunday afternoon.

lutz@aspendailynews.com