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Following on the heels of their pro-level Fluid DH rig (which debuted at Sea Otter), Foes has released a privateer downhill race bike that’s ready to ship now.

Dubbed the Foes Racing Hydro, it builds on Foes’ legendary downhill mountain biking history but adds new versatility by (for the first time for Foes) being designed to work with a wide variety of rear shocks.  While Foes will still recommend you run it with their in-house designed and U.S. made Curnutt shock, it’ll work with any 10.5″ x 3.5″ shock from Rockshox, Elka (shown above), Cane Creek, Fox, Marzocchi, etc.

On top of all that, it’s also the most affordable Foes DH bike ever, and it’s still handbuilt in Pasadena, CA, USA.

Jump past the break for specs, pricing, build options and more glorious photos…

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Bontrager has unveiled a new line of road saddles called Affinity. Following their release of their new mountain bike Evoke InForm saddles at Sea Otter earlier this year, the Affinity line is geared toward the pavement crowd and runs the full range from Race, RL and RXL models. Compared to their original inForm road saddles, the Affinity line is for riders that sit slightly more upright than a super aggressive racing position, which Bontrager says is the largest segment of road riders.

We just received a black RL and white RXL in the post to test out, and they do look very nice, particularly the RXL. Each model is available in different widths with both men and women specific models. The deal with inForm technology is that it not only measures width of the sit bones to help you get the right saddle, but it takes into consideration the tilt of your pelvic bone based on the type of riding the saddle is intended for, too. That, combined with pressure relief zones, claims to make their seats extremely comfortable for long hours in the saddle. Bontrager (ie. Trek) dealers should have fitting mechanisms in their stores to help you get the right size.

Full press release, actual weights for RL and RXL and more photos of every model after the break…

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Rocky Mountain’s Altitude 29er was introduced last year, first shown at Sea Otter as a prototype and then at Interbike as a production model. It borrows heavily from its 26″ namesake, sharing the Straight Up Geometry, SmoothLink travel and enduro desires.

The Straight Up Geometry is at the heart of this bike’s handling. In essence, it starts with a very upright 76 degree seat angle so that when your account for sag, your sitting in the optimal position for efficient pedaling, and in particular, climbing. In fact, despite 115mm of travel and North Shore worthy frame, the Altitude 29er can claim climbing as a surprising strong points.

Remarkably, it does so without giving up anything in the way of big hit performance. We rode this bike on some of the best trails in Florida and Virginia as well as our local trails in North Carolina, whipping it through the limestone funnels and drops of Santos in Ocala to the long singletrack climbs and rocky descents of Carven’s Cove near Roanoke.

How’d it do? Read more for the full review…

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Taking advantage of the cycling industry in our backyard, we followed up our visit to Industry Nine’s factory with a tour of Cane Creek’s plant near Asheville, NC.

In addition to seeing how their high end headsets are made, we got a sneak peek at some of their new products that’ll be introduced anywhere from later this year to sometime in the next couple years. We saw how their Double Barrel shocks are dyno tested before being packed and shipped and the sad, empty space where their wheels used to be built.

Starting with their best known products, headsets, there’s a new Orange ano color headed your way. The photo above doesn’t do it justice, it’s really great looking in person, and it’s made right here in the U.S. of A!

Jump on past the break to see how they’re made and take a virtual tour of Cane Creek’s factory…

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Cross is coming. It may be hotter than Hades now, but that means Fall is just around the corner. If your current cross whip is clapped out like an off camber turn in the mud, or maybe you’ve just gotten bit by the cross bug, either way Giant may have the bike for you.

Hot on the heels of Tyler’s recent post, we now have all the official specs and pictures of the 2011 Giant Cyclocross line up. Obviously we have already touched on the fact that Giant now has a true full line of crossers with addition of the carbon TCX Advanced SL, and a cross bike specifically for women in the TCX W. It was pointed out after the last post that Terry ,not Giant, was the first bike brand to create a stock woman’s cross bike with the Valkyrie, which has been available for two years. Altough, Giant is the first of the bike manufacturers that makes both men’s and women’s bikes to offer a woman’s specific cross bike.

The complete line looks great and truly offers everyone a bike no matter what their dedication to riding in the slop tends to be.

Read on to see pictures of all models with full specs.

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First introduced in 2004, Fox’s Terralogic created a true, physical platform for mountain bike suspension forks. While the design did provide a firm, virtually locked out feel for climbing and sprinting, it suffered from a noticeable delay on initial impact, which translated into a lack of sensitivity on small bump performance and some harshness when first coming into a bumpy section.

In 2007, Fox pulled Terralogic back to the drawing board and removed it from it’s lineup.

Queue up Sea Otter 2010 and Fox debuted a totally redesigned Terralogic internal for their 2011 model forks. The new version has been getting some good remarks from other media, and our initial test rides on it left us very, very impressed. We’re getting a long-term test fork this fall, so we’ll have a full review eventually, but in the meantime we really wanted to know how it worked.

I sat down with two of Fox Racing Shox’s outside tech guys at PressCamp and picked their brains.  Click ‘more’ to see internal diagrams and a full explanation of how Terralogic works…

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We took our trusty Park Tools scale with us to Specialized’s dealer week and weighed just about every bike they make, road and mountain. Here are the actual bike weights for virtually their entire mountain bike line, from cross country to trail to freeride to downhill, including all of the Evo models.

Studio photos and details of the full range of new bikes are posted here, and we’ll cover many of these models in more detail in separate posts. This one’s dedicated to the weight weenies. Unless noted, all models weighed are size Medium. For the ones that were weighed indoors, they’re the show bikes and the weights may not include sealant in the tires for those running tubeless (they might, but we didn’t get an absolutely clear answer). As far as we know, all are production versions and not prototypes.

Above is the Stumpjumper HT (hardtail) S-Works 26″ model. It weighs in at 18.01 lbs.

One final note: The ones weighed indoors were done with their Ultimate scale, which displays in decimal points. Our Park scale displays in pounds and ounces. Check out the rest of their line after the break…

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First seen at Sea Otter when Carl Decker used the matte black prototype to win the first race he ever rode it in, it’s no surprise that the Anthem X 29er is now official.

Introduced at the Downieville Classic, the Anthem X 29er’s frame will work with both 2×10 and 3×10 drivetrain options, and it’ll come with Giant’s 29er wheelsets (which, if they’re the same as the ones on the XTC 29er, should be pretty solid) and 100mm of travel front and rear. Claimed frame weight with shock is 5.28lbs (2,395g, including all paint and hardware). Other specs on the Allux aluminum frame are Giant’s Overdrive tapered headtube and a “Powercore” pressfit bottom bracket which we sincerely hope is just marketing speak for a stiff BB area and not some proprietary standard. Full details are limited at the moment, but we’ll update as soon as we have more.

Fox shock and fork and Maxxis tires round out the basic spec, and the frame is able to accommodate up to a 2.3 rear tire.

Check out the 2011 Anthem X, Trance X and Reign 0, all of which shed some grams from their frames, after the break…

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The Knog Beetle is a stealthy (in black, anyway) little bike light that comes with either white or red dual LED bulbs. It’s available in eight shades (Black, White, Translucent, Red, Magenta, Orange, Sky Blue, Dark Grey) of rubbery, strappy silicone coolness, and it’s highly durable to drops, kids and foul weather.

I’ve ridden mine through rain and snow, freezing temps and hotter ‘n hell days, and they’re still flashing just fine. They’ll blink in fast, slow and police modes, with the latter alternating pulses between the two bulbs, or just shine solidly for fun. I say for fun because they’re really not bright enough to light your path at anything above a crawl, but for flashers they’re plenty bright enough to alert motorists and pedestrians within a couple blocks’ distance.

They come with two button cell batteries that are good for about 35 hours of constant steady use, or 160 hours of flashing, and they retail for $21.99 and weigh just 22g. You can stick them pretty much anywhere on your bike, and they dismount in a hurry if you’re worried they’ll get taken…but they haven’t come loose or fallen off accidentally during my entire test.

They’re cool, they’re cheap and they work well in crappy conditions. Good buy if you dig their style. More pics after the break…

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In the third installation of this year’s Atherton project, the fly on the wall documentary shot by Clay Porter, we see Dan, Gee and Rach racing at the UK nationals in Wales before heading to the Sea Otter. As always it’s interesting to see the races from behind the scenes.

“Le tour de France: Grand start 2010 Rotterdam” by timvdl.

This year’s Tour de France starts in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Rotterdam is the largest seaport in Europe and a significant port for worldwide trade and travel. Click here for a map of the start, and click ‘more’ for a view of the port (with the new Norwegian Epic cruise ship in the center–it’s so huge that if you stood it on end, it’s larger than the tallest buildings in Rotterdam!)

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2011 Trek Madone 4.7c

Utilizing the 2010 Tour de France Grand Départ from Rotterdam, Netherlands as a venue, Trek has shown their hand when it comes to the hottest bikes of 2011. Building on the already immensely popular Madone line, the newest models boast lighter weight, more features, and a wider range of pricing.

While the biggest news is the release of a new 6 series SSL model which is over 100 grams lighter than the previous 6 series, there are big changes to the 5 series, as well as an additional fit geometry that are not to go unnoticed.

Check out Trek’s new carbon, all the changes to the 5 series, and the most upright Madone ever after the break!

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Introduced earlier today via live video from Rotterdam, the Scott F01 will be the bicycle of choice for Mark Cavendish, Bernard Eisel and a few other lucky HTC-Columbia riders in this year’s Tour de France.

Now, finally, we’ve got some good hi-res photos to show you.

The Project F01 bike’s goal was to take the lightweight and stiffness of the Scott Addict, the one that Cav’s been racing on, and make it more aero like their forthcoming Plasma 3 TT/triathlon bike that debuted at last year’s Tour.

The result is an 840g road bike that claims to be one of the most aerodynamic frames on the road. Tested in the Mercedes Benz Gran Prix wind tunnel, the tube shapes use an aero leading edge with a virtually flat trailing edge. Scott graphed this design as reducing drag of the rider plus bike by 20 watts at 45 kph (28mph) between a 0º and 20º crosswind, which translates to 20% to 30% less drag than conventional tubes.

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We spotted a prototype of this at Sea Otter, and now Race Face has finalized the design and gone into production with the Single, a single chainring for fixies and singlespeed bikes, both road and mountain.

It’ll come in 32, 34 and 36 tooth sizes with blue, black, red and gold color options. The 36T size weighs in at just 38g, but, thanks to it’s extra width, remains stiff. The Single is machined from a 4mm plate, versus 3mm for most rings, which lets them have a slightly wider outer area that leaves a lip on both sides of the teeth. U.S. retail is TBD, but it should be available by August.

Check more pics after the break…

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We saw a sneak peek at the new 12omm long travel SID fork (right) at Sea Otter, and now it’s officially official along with an all-new 140mm Reba 29er suspension fork (left).

The SID will come in several variations including a World Cup model (shown) with tapered carbon crown. In fact, the WC model will only have a tapered carbon crown option, no straight steerer will be available at that level. For the XX, RLT Ti and RLT models (Rebound/Lockout/Threshold..aka, Floodgate), you’ll have the option of straight or tapered alloy crown/steerer tubes. All models will have the option of a 15mm Maxle Lite thru-axle or 9mm QR. Like the other SID forks, they use 32mm alloy stanchions with magnesium lowers.

If you think the travel difference and 15mm axle options are the only things new about this fork, you’re way wrong. The long-travel SID introduces several other new technologies that are already making their way to other forks and are a vision of the future. Check out the details, and that new 140mm Reba 29er, after the break…

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