Ibis’s new bike is a 160mm 26″ Mojo HDR. No, wait. It’s a 130mm (or 150mm) travel 27.5″ Mojo HDR. It’s both?

Built as an evolution of the Mojo HD, the HDR in 26″ mode has the exact same travel, geometry, and suspension but the ability to add 650b wheels is new. As Scot Nicol pointed out, you can have it both ways. The HDR is more than just a new wheel size though, as the frame has received quite a few updates to make it lighter and better in many ways.

Go both ways on the HDR next.

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Calfee is a very interesting brand. For some, it immediately conjures images of bamboo bikes. Others, high end lugged carbon bikes. And then there’s the ultralight molded carbon fiber tandem bikes always on display at NAHBS.

Superficially, it’d be easy to just say Calfee makes some really nice, really interesting bikes. That would only scratch the surface of what they do at their La Selva Beach, California facility. The building itself is fairly massive, and it was rebuilt to resemble its original function as a tank factory. Which is why they have a 5 ton sliding lift in the middle. It comes in handy for moving around pallets and their flying gyrocopter.

Our tour will be broken up into three parts because, well, there’s just so much to see. We’ll touch on that ‘copter separately, along with all the various bikes we saw while there. Part One will show you how they make their frames, components, tooling and everything else…

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While it’s been 27.5″ this, 650B that, and general tweener fever everywhere , today the original wheel debate instigator just struck back. Wagon wheel marketing fervor may have died down in the wake of the mid-wheel wonder child, but the sales numbers don’t like. 29ers are extremely popular and the original 100mm travel Santa Cruz Tallboy helped popularize them.

Four years ago the Tallboy changed the game and pushed the limits of what many riders thought a 29er trail bike was capable of.  So whats changed?

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If you think you know Fuji, you might just want to think again. When Fuji contacted us about the Altamira SL for review, I wasn’t exactly sure what to think. My parents had Fujis – beautiful old lugged steel road bikes they still have today. Though even just a few years ago, Fuji didn’t seem to be a brand that was high on most consumers’ radar. First introduced in 2011, the original Altamira was part of Fuji’s design renaissance as many of their bikes received major overhauls led by road product manager Steve Fairchild.

It seems times have changed, and the Altamira SL is among a new crop of impressive bikes from the 113 year old Fuji.

See how the Altamira SL stacked up after the break.

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It looks like a Bandit, it smells like a Bandit, but it’s not a Bandit. Get up close and you won’t notice anything different until your eyes glance down at the tires. The difference between 26” and 27.5” wheelsize is subtle but the burly tires are clearly emblazoned 650B.

We spoke at length with Lars Stenburg about his cleverly camouflaged test mule and personal setup. Drop past the break for the details. READ MORE ->

David on the beach after EWS Puta Ala

When David first pinged us with an offer to feature his bike as a Reader’s Ride, what seemed like just another Di2 equipped mountain bike turned out to be anything but. It just so happens that not only is David half of the enigmatic BlackCatBone, but he is also the same David I have been following on forums talking about his electronic shift system that he has been using to race enduro.

We’ve featured some of BlackCatBone’s work before with their Lucy single sided, rigid fork, and their electronic grip shift prototype, but it turns out there is much more to BlackCatBone than meets the eye – like their very own electronic drivetrain currently in development, code named – Rollìa.

Check out electronic shifting, suspension control, radical road bike geometry and the evolution of the bike, all from BlackCatBone’s point of view after the break.

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It seems like not all that long ago I was first hearing about fatbikes – bizarre creations with huge tires designed to go where no bikes had gone before. In no time at all, the fatbike arms race is on par with any other category of bikes with a rush to lighter, stronger, and faster bikes and the inevitable carbon fiber. Companies anywhere from tiny NAHBS type builders to fatbike giant Salsa have shown carbon fatbikes, so what is a new fatbike company to do? Jump right in with a carbon bike of their own, of course.

That is exactly what Borealis plans to do with their all new Yampa carbon fatbike which owes its name to the Yampa river in Colorado. The new company is the result of collaboration between Adam Miller and Steve Kaczmarek, with design help from Pete Basinger. Adam cut his fatbike teeth working for fatbikes.com and 9:zero:7, while Pete has more than a bit of experience both with Fatback, and as a champion Iditabike racer. Combining their skills, the resulting Borealis Yampa enters the market as one of the lightest fatbikes around.

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When it came time for BMC to revamp their pro-level race bike, the Teammachine SLR01, they faced a big challenge. The previous Teammachines have quite the pedigree of victories in the past decade, so in order to stand as the new flagship of the brand, the new SLR01 had to be something special. As more and more of the industry seems to be turning to FEA, rapid prototyping, and wind tunnel testing for taking designs to the next level, so too has BMC. Claiming an industry first, BMC replaced traditional prototyping with an all new Advanced Composites Evolution (ACE) computer modeling program that allowed for a staggering 34,000 possible frame configurations before the first prototype was made.

By focusing on the frame’s structure, tube cross sections, and carbon layup all in ACE’s modeling programs, BMC believes the new SLR01 is the result of a perfect combination of weight, stiffness and vertical compliance. A combination that will continue to lead their teams to victory.

More details, models, pricing, and availability next.

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Photo Credit: Colin Meagher

It’s been over a decade since mountain biking was simply mountain biking. Somehow, in the intervening years, cycling has become segmented into dozens of niches. From cross country to downhill, the variety of bikes and accessories for every specific occasion has swollen.

Get past the marketing haze and it’s obvious that cycling technology is outpacing Moore’s Law. The products keep getting lighter, stronger, and cheaper, and maybe (just maybe) you can have it all.

This year, Fox is introducing two new suspension products targeted towards the trail/enduro market that should straddle the happy medium of weight and performance, so you can have your cake and it eat too. Drop past the break to find out if they delivered.

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Hot on the heels of their four new women’s bikes and first 27.5″ trail bike, Santa Cruz Bikes is launching the all new Solo trail bike. A 125mm tweener wheeled trail slayer guaranteed to put a smile across your face. It’s snappy, it climbs, and it will be available in both carbon and aluminum starting very soon.

Drop past the break for the dirt… READ MORE ->