In an attempt to really showcase their close relationship with pro cyclists in the process of developing new wheels, Mavic has released two videos that chronicle what is needed to develop a new road or mountain wheel. The video above obviously is focused on the mighty Thor as he prepares for this year’s Paris-Roubaix, which Hushovd will race on the new Mavic M40.

Clearly, the M40 was not born overnight, as many hours went into engineering, building, and testing the various prototypes. Mavic even states that their engineers build several visually identical wheels that are built to have very different riding characteristics, in order for their test riders to blindly test them and offer their thoughts on why one was better than another. As Mavic notes at the start of the video, they had thought that a tall profile composite rim would be too fragile to stand up to the infamous cobbles, yet testing of the M40 has shown otherwise. The M40 is a 40mm deep carbon tubular rim, with a wide profile, and 24 spokes, and according to Mavic is most likely shown in it’s final spec.

Jump past the break to see a similar video, but this time on Mavic’s commitment to the mountain bike side of wheel development.

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Photo submitted by Juan Jose Gonzalo, “Riding on desertic area in the north of Spain near of river Ebro.” Photo was taken in the Bardenas Reales de Navarra, about an hour and a half drive south from Pamplona, Spain.

To see more Pics of the Day, click here, and to submit your own photo to be shown to the world, go here.

Team Sky and Adidas have now made available to the public replica kit identical to that worn by Bradley Wiggins, Greg Henderson, Geraint Thomas and Edvald the Boss Hog.

Sky’s all-black, minimal kit seemed daring in 2010, but now, with many other teams seemingly going the same way (try telling Sky, Garmin-Cervélo and Leopard-Trek apart in helicopter shots on TV), the look has lost its freshness somewhat. Still, it remains good-looking, and everything from short-sleeved summer tops to bibs, winter training jerseys and caps will soon be gracing a store near you.

Adidas, like Nike, seems to have an ambivalent relationship to cycling apparel, often producing pro kit but only inconsistently making a full consumer range of goods. It’s a shame: both companies’ cleat-compatible trainers of a few years ago were a good value urban SPD shoe.

Check the full press release after the jump, or click here for more pictures and details of the range, including retail information.

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April 8-10 sees the world-conquering Bicycle Film Festival hit Liverpool, its second UK city. The 2010 programme will, at the end of its run, have been seen in more that 25 cities across the globe. The organisers have also just announced that the deadline for film submissions has been extended.

All of the films have been incredibly popular this year,” commented Brendt Barbur, the BFF’s founder. “Consistently, our Urban bike shorts program is a festival highlight, showcasing films from all around the world. Birth of Big Air, produced by Spike Jonze, a feature documentary about one of the most popular BMXers of all time has been hugely succesful this year as well.”

The Liverpool Festival will feature roller racing on the Friday night, a full day of films on Saturday, including a film-making workshop, and a screening of Paris-Roubaix on the Sunday. “We are lucky enough to be running the Liverpool festival the same weekend as one of the greatest yearly races of all time:  The Paris Roubaix,” said Laura Fletcher, the BFF’s UK producer. “We have secured a great pub in liverpool, Fly in the Loaf, to screen the race, and I look forward to the opportunity to watching it in a great atmosphere.”

The rest of the Liverpool screenings take place at FACT, a cutting-edge cinema and art gallery. “We have had a lot of demand for the BFF from around the UK, and consistently a strong audience from both Manchester and Liverpool at the London festival,” said Brendt. “We wanted to bring the festival to them on a local level, and we had an opportunity to work with FACT, a great Liverpool based venue.” For full listings checkhere.

He also welcomed the extended deadline, and urged film-makers to feature more female cyclists. “I would like to see more films that include women. The cycling world is dominated by men, and the BFF is a great opportunity to highlight the many strong, beautiful women who cycle.”

For those of you who feel Santa Cruz’s latest entry into the carbon 29′er hardtail market is too little, too late, perhaps you will be happy to see the Kona prototype we touched on awhile back is now undergoing some real world trail testing around Kona’s Bellingham, WA headquarters.

As expected the prototype 2012 King Kahuna Carbon retains all the tech features that many feel are necessary to be competitive in today’s market such as the 142×12 rear end, tapered headtube, BB30 or PF30 BB, and post mount rear disc mounts. Kona claims that the King Kahuna Proto is very light, weighing a mere 1240 g (2.73 lbs) for the frame only without the rear axle. Obviously, this is the lightest 29′er they have built to date, however Kona claims that it is still one of the strongest as well.

On Kona’s blog, their USA sales manager Kevin Noble was quoted as saying, “Seven more hours on the carbon Kahuna this weekend with great trail conditions. I love our Scandium hardtails but I have to say the ride of this bike is incredible. I’m really not sure how to describe it but I would say compliant without being flexy and snappy when accelerating out of the corners. To put it simply the carbon bike rides like a Kona but way lighter. The bike is plenty stiff in the rear end without being harsh. The geometry is spot on.”

This is from Dale Plant, one of the fastest riders in the company:
“I want to call it the Ali because it floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee (sorry, it just kept coming to mind). Laser Guided Missle was constantly coming up as well. The bike feels incredibly fast (FAST Pat would approve…hmmm, only one letter away from FAT)…anyway, stiff as hell, responsive, accurate, and sexy all in one. This thing is going to kick serious ass when unleashed on race courses.”

At this rate, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see one of these at Sea Otter in a few weeks with Top Secret written in Sharpie on a piece of notebook paper, taped to the handlebar (confused? Check out this post, clearly Kona has a good sense of humor).

Our apologies in advance to the builders, but we’re starting to compile several into a post to make sure we get it all up before too late. Here we have Herbie Helm’s beautifully lugged steel bikes with custom racks and some nicely integrated mounts, lights and other features. At left, the headtube on this touring bike had the most intricately and ornately cut lugs of any bike we saw at NAHBS this year, which is saying a lot…and wait until you see the back end of this and his other bike! Click the pic to enlarge. Jump past the break to see those and Cysco’s wild looking twisted square tubes on a 29er, road bike and track bike, plus Groovy Cycleworks’ head-to-toe custom mountain bike with internally geared hub and bright green paint job…

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Riders left the start line at 9am this morning in St. George, Utah. In front of the racers lay 50 miles of some of the best desert singletrack the U.S. has to offer.

Unfortunately, temperatures were well below the normal for this southwest desert town and after less than 30 minutes of riding the skies opened up.

As the rain descended across the red sand and clay outside St. George, racing and trail conditions quickly turned treacherous. The heinous mixture of grit and clay teamed up to wreak havoc on drivetrains and brake pads.

Hoping to continue the race, directors were scrambling to reroute sections of the course away from particularly thick muddy sections. Despite their best efforts riders were being forced to abandon with broken chains and derailleurs. Victims to the thick tacky mud that clung to every surface of the bike.

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You’re gonna have to pardon the all-Santa-Cruz-all-the-time theme we have going on here at BikeRumor! today, but there just happens to be a lot of Santa Cruz bicycles-related news coming out of the press camp in St. George, Utah. Zach told you about the Highball carbon 29er hardtail, Tyler told you about the new longer travel Blur TR, and now I’m here to tell you about the new aluminum version of Santa Cruz’s immensely popular Tallboy full suspension carbon 29er. This “lesser” incarnation of the Tallboy shares the same VPP suspension and geometry of its pricier-carbon-counterpart; it’s just slightly heavier and a lot cheaper.

What exactly is that geometry, and just how cheap and heavy is it? Well, you’ll find that out after the break (after you finish looking at all the huge clickable photos).

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Zach just posted the first images of the new Santa Cruz Highball carbon hardtail last night, and now we’ve got photos of their new Blur TR, a “trail” version of their popular Blur XC and LT that comes with 5″ of travel (127mm).

Built on their extremely well-performing VPP platform (we have a Blur XC carbon in our test stable and love it), the Blur TR is a half way point between their XC offerings and their longer travel AM/FR bikes, including the Blur LT with 140mm travel. The top tube is a bit longer than their gravity loving rigs, but the head angle is a bit slacker than their XC ones. The result claims to offer climbing prowess with stable descending. I’ll be on this bike for some solid miles this week.

Jump on in for more pics, specs and notes…

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Mavic sent over their Galibier road shoes and Razor mountain bike shoes for us to test out, and they are very, very nice.

Marc tested his out during a 24 hour race, and I’ve raced a six-hour in mine. The Galibiers have seen their share of road miles, too, since we received them a couple months ago. Both models are in the upper-midrange of Mavic’s lineup, but they give top-end shoes from other brands a run for their money in both features and weight.

Jump past the break for our first impressions, details and weights…

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Photo submitted by Todd Young, “Overlooking the Pacific Ocean, with Catalina Island in the background. My wife, on her Knolly, enjoys warm temps and chunky single track.” Check out his photography and design website here.

To see more Pics of the Day, click here, and to submit your own photo to be shown to the world, go here.

While everyone has known for awhile that the boys at Santa Cruz have been working on a new 29′er, specifically a carbon 29′er, everything has been prototypes and speculation. Until now.

Meet the Santa Cruz Highball. 2.45 pounds of carbon hard tail 29′er goodness. While Santa Cruz might be a little late to the carbon hard tail party, they tend not to release a new bike before it is full and ready, and I’m willing to bet the final product will sell pretty well even if it isn’t high tech by today’s standards.

Better than me making speculations about it, Tyler is actually en route to Gooseberry Mesa as we speak to get some real life saddle time aboard the new whip. Look for his posts with close up photos, and first ride impressions soon.

In the mean time, jump past the brake for a lot of close up detail photos (click on any image to enlarge), detailed spec, and full geometry!

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