We've got enough gear news left over from the Interbike and Eurobike shows to take us into the New Year. So here's some more goodies you may wish to add to your Christmas list
Ellsworth Dare and new wheels
Ellsworth's new Dare is essentially a DH specific evolution of the freeride Rogue, The mainframe uses a hydroformed clamshell top tube with 66 degree head angle and a 13.5in BB for high speed stability while the heavy duty 8 inch travel ICT rear end is shared between the two bikes.
Ellsworth is another company launching their own wheel range too, but there's some proper thought here not just re-badging far eastern catalogue kit. The new Dare wheelset uses a massive 40mm wide rim on the basis that you get the same contact patch but greater stability on a wide rim with a lighter 2.1in tyre as you do with a narrow rim and 2.4in rubber. Meanwhile the new carbon All Mountain wheel uses a 29mm carbon rim, quad butted spokes and still comes in at 1600g even with a super stiff hub.
Rawland 650B
Rawland is a tiny new company based around 650B wheel size all rounder bikes. The two very traditional steel bike designs have beautiful biplane fork crowns and super sweet smooth welded or fancy lugged junctions. Cantilever bosses, Brooks saddles, pump pegs and constant curve fork legs complete the old skool charm.
Funn F1
Extreme equipment legends Funn are thinking about stopping. No don't worry, they're definitely carrying on with cockpit gear etc. but now they're doing brakes too. The F1 is the first full carbon unit we've seen while F2 (all alloy) and F3 (semi composite) will be right in the thick of the mid priced all rounder anchor brawl.
Rennen
Rennen design group were showing some really nice singlespeed kit. Buttressed cogs and chainrings look ready for the toughest use and long crank leverage while chunky tensioners should keep everything locked down tight.
Formula Mega brake
Formula's Mega brake delivers exactly what it says on the calliper; Mega power. Tweaked Oro lever pushes out more hydraulic leverage to the new 'One' calliper and there's an alloy centre 220mm rotor option too.
Marzocchi
Marzocchi have gone all Austin Powers with new psychedelic graphics throughout the range range. Meanwhile International man of little mystery Cedric Gracia had his own name stamp so he didn't have to sign stuff with his busted in Fort Bill wrist. The injury didn't stop the one armed bandit from making off with Niki Gudex on his motorized cool box though.....
MRP G2 XC/AM chainguard
MRP had several new pieces including this carbon chainguide with new lighter rollers for minimal DH mass and a totally new G2 XC/AM chainguard. The lower quadrant also acts as a tooth saving skid plate with a polycarb top guide to keep your transmission on line however far off piste you go.
Easton XC2 wheels
Easton were only showing their new CNT carbon road chainset but an MTB chainset is in the pipeline. They launched a new lower priced XC2 wheel, as well as some bearing changes and a bolt thru axle switchover on the Havoc AM wheelset. A 32 spoke DH wheel is coming on line too once the rim extrusion is finalised.
Carver 650B
The 650B wheelsize is a new one to us, but it sits between conventional 26ers and wagon wheel 29ers and aims to deliver the best of both. Multi wheel size lovers Carver where one of several builders to show the new size in both wheel and rear or front wheel formats, but do we really need to visit another dimension?
Fizik
Fizik have a complete new range of saddles with distinct profiles and performance designed to key into different travel bikes from XC to DH. Rest arse-sured we'll have a full set on test ASAP.
Manitou
Manitou were showing a much slimmer line up on the Hayes stand, but the very good new is it's looking beautifully built. There's no sign of any of the previous trouble causing IT or QR axle features on this old skool bolted 20mm axle Minute either.
Crank Brothers wheels
We saw their ingenious extended nipple wheels at Eurobike but Crank Brothers also had cutaways of their hubs showing the tapered axle assembly they use to increase stiffness. They also confirmed the wheels will have an interchangeable axle facility and that a broader rimmed DH wheel is imminent. We got a set of the updated Mallet platform pedals to come home and play with too.
Fulcrum Red Metal wheels
Fulcrum has a seriously comprehensive 'Red Metal' MTB wheel line up ready to hit the market. Seeing as they've had Absalon aboard for a while and the road wheels have been a huge success, they look likely to be one of the biggest intro lines of 08.
Cove
Cove still haven't decided on the name of their new bike yet and this proto had a different sticker on each side. It will have a lightweight 6in-ish frame based around the STD linkage though. One version will be lighter, steeper and air sprung, the other slacker and coil sprung. We can't wait!
Race Face Next crabon crank
Race Face had a new 15g lighter Deus XC stem but pride of place on the scales went to the proto versions of the new Next carbon crank. The fibre wrapped alloy armature design drops weights below 750g to put it right into the XTR/FSA region.
