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About two years in development, Giro has finally pulled the cover off their new cycling footwear line. Debuting across the pond at Eurobike, the new line includes road, mountain and women’s shoes plus their Supernatural Fit Kit, an adjustable footbed system to customize the fit.

Pro Levi Leipheimer has been running them this year in several races to test them (including the Tour de France), and Giro used input from Retul founder Todd Carver to dial in the fit.  Some models feature Easton carbon technology (Easton, Bell and Giro are all owned by the same company), and uppers include premium materials like Tejin, X-Static and custom fasteners. The last is completely designed from the ground up by Giro.

They’ll be available in January 2011 in about 500 U.S. dealers, plus dealers in Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, Benelux, Scandinavia and the UK.

Pricing and a photo of the top-of-the-line Prolight SLX road shoe after the break…

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So far this week, you’ve seen the details on all of Felt’s Road and Mountain lines, and we’re rounding out this series with their Cyclocross, TRI/TT and Track lines. Of course, don’t forget that Felt also offers a great line of beach cruisers, cafe bikes and BMX bikes, so head over to their website to check those out as well. See the details on the race-ready F15X, pictured above, and the rest of today’s lines after the jump.

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So far this week, we’ve given you the details on the Felt F, AR, Z and ZW road bikes; today we’ll be taking on their full MTB line.  The Edict LTD, shown above, is their no-holds-barred 100mm travel full suspension bike. Using the same manufacturing technology as the carbon road bikes keeps the weight down and stiffness up and it comes fully outfitted with SRAM XX components, including the Rock Shox SID XX World Cup, and Mavic Crossmax SLR wheels. Check out the price tag and rest of the 2011 Felt mountain bikes after the jump and remember to check back tomorrow for the last of our series; Felt’s cyclocross, track and time trial/triathlon bikes.

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Yesterday, we showed you Felt’s F and AR Series road bikes, and today we’ll be continuing with the full Z and ZW Series road bikes. Borrowing much manufacturing technology from their pure-bred racing F-Series siblings, the Z offer a taller headtube, for a less aggressive riding position. At only a superlight tube’s weight away from 15 pounds, the Z2 pictured above comes with Shimano Di2 and RS80 wheels for $6,499 (for those keeping track, the Di2 kit alone costs close to $3,000). Check out the rest of the Z bikes, plus the women’s specific ZW bikes, after the jump. For all the mountain bikers, we’ll have their full MTB line tomorrow!

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Last month, we showed you an overview of Felt’s 2011 lines, focusing on the new additions and big changes. Felt’s lines really shine all the way thru, and you find some impressively spec’ed bikes at a great value, which benefit from all that technology you see in the models above them. Over the next couple of days, we’ll be showing you the detailed lines, complete with photos, specs and MSRPs. Check out the F and AR Series bikes after the jump, and stay tuned all week for details on the other lines.

The sub-14 pound F1, shown above, is the flagship race bike being ridden by Garmin Transitions. Spec’ed with full Shimano Di2 with Mavic Cosmic Carbone Ultimate wheels, it retails for $12,499. A Team version will be available with specs from the team’s sponsors, with a TBA price.

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I took a little tour of Rockshox’s Colorado Springs, CO, facility yesterday and had Sander Rigney, RS’s product manager, run through their Motion Control compression damping system for me. If you recall, we posted a tech article on how Fox Racing Shox’s Terralogic works recently, and it’s really cool to see how different companies use completely different mechanisms to accomplish a similar end result (and by similar, I’m not comparing performance, just the fact that all suspension brands want damping, etc.).

The parts above are what make up the Motion Control for their XC oriented forks. Motion Control DH is a little different and we didn’t take a look at that on this visit (update will come if we can get photos of that system, but I’ll explain how and why these versions are mainly for XC use versus DH).

For XC / Trail / All Mountain type riding, you have two options depending on how much you wanna spend on your fork: Motion Control and Blackbox Motion Control. Technically, you also have XX Motion Control, but it is essentially the same as Motion Control without the adjustable compression damping. Again, this is explained better in a sec.

Jump past the break to see how they work to control the compression…

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Introduced last year at Interbike, Moots’ Vamoots RSL was built as the Colorado company’s flagship road bike, meant for battling the peloton.

The RSL is an extremely lightweight titanium frame that’s stiff enough to make most racers happy while still offering the lively ride that titanium is known for. With the RSL, Moots has created a lustworthy bicycle that’s now firmly rooted at the top of my personal wish list. We managed to extend our test period quite a bit, and if it were up to me, we’d still have it.

With a frameset price of $4,425 (with fork) the RSL doesn’t come cheaply, but it should last for many, many years. For that coin, you get a 3/2.5 Reynolds titanium tubing with custom 6/4 sections and features, plus some extra machining internally and externally to save weight. You also get a custom Alpha-Q full carbon fork, but no headset is included. For $5,200, you get all that with a Moots ti stem and seatpost that’ll match your frame perfectly. Yes, they’re expensive, but they ride super nice and really complete the package visually.

We put a lot of hilly and mountainous miles on the RSL and all of us were very impressed not just with it’s performance (it’ll haul!), but also with it’s road manners. The RSL is that rare combination of race bike that’s all day comfortable.

Read on past the break for the full review, photos, specs and weight…

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Tyler's shot of his group just before weighing in.

A lot has been said regarding mountain bikes and the advent of the 10 speed mountain bike group. Some are for it, while others are adamantly against it. Let me be the first to say that when SRAM first introduced 10 speed MTB parts, I (like most mountain bikers I have talked to) have been quoted as saying “10 speed is so stupid, it’s pointless and I don’t need it on my bike.” Let me also be the first to tell you that I have no problem eating my words, so pass the butter and salt.

We’ve already gone over weights and product specs, thanks to Tyler, so now it’s on to installation and first ride impressions. I was fortunate enough to receive an advance set of Shimano XT Dynasys 10 speed, and admittedly I couldn’t wait to get it on my bike.

Pictures, installation tips, and more after the break.

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The Session 88 was a bike that really announced that Trek was here to play in the competitive DH world. It was a no nonsense race bike right out of the gate, yielding on of the lightest complete bikes at the time. While the performance was stellar and hard to beat, the frame featured an extremely thin flat downtube that resulted in dented tubes for a number of consumers. I personally had an 88 for a season and never had a problem, even after riding in some very rocky areas with audible rock strikes to the downtube, but that’s not to say it didn’t happen to others.

So Trek had a little work to do when it came to redesigning a bike that already rode perfectly. So they looked into what they thought was the next logical step: aerodynamics.

See all the closeups and breakdown of the new features after the break!

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Riding is fun…riding with a bunch of new friends is more fun…taking home some sweet, sweet schwag from some of the best companies in the cycling biz makes it all even better!

Come join us for the first ever Bikerumor Schwag Ride this coming Monday, August 16 at Burns Park in Little Rock, AR.  Our buddies at Orbea are kind enough to mark out a course for us and provide a little onsite support (along with some demo bikes…click past the break to reserve one), and we’ve got more than $1,000 worth of awesome bits and pieces from Giro, Camelbak, Maxxis, Competitive Cyclist and Orbea to give away!

Here’s the deal: Show up at Burns Park between 5:45pm and 6:15pm, sign up to get in on the schwag and be ready to roll out at 6:30pm sharp. We’ll be parked at the parking lot with the boat ramps, don’t be late. The kind folks at Chainwheel and Arkansas Cycling & Fitness will be rolling with us, too, and afterward we’ll meet up at Vino’s for some pizza and local beverages (that part’s a Dutch Date). Click here for a map, showing both the ride location and Vinos.

Check the list of available demo Orbeas after the break…

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GT’s 2011 mountain bikes are broken down into three categories: Gravity, All Mountain and Endurance.  Some of the bikes in this post actually cross the border into All Mountain (the Sanction), but we rode them like freeride bikes and they’re totally competent in that realm, so they’re bundled in with the pure gravity bikes like the Ruckus above.

The Ruckus is a new 7″ travel (180mm) performance freeride bike made for things like lift served bike parks and North Shore style trails. Shown at Interbike last year as a prototype, it’s finally going into production as a 2011 model. The frame is made to be easily user serviceable, which is good because it’ll let you do the kinds of things that break parts. There’s also a Ruckus DJ bike that we covered here.

Also new for 2011 are the Sanction and Distortion, two sweet bikes that come in a little lighter and shorter travel than the Ruckus, but have the spec to tackle many of the same trails. Lastly, there’s the new Carbon Fury Team that gets an adjustable headset. Covered in this post are the Ruckus and Sanction. Distortion and Fury are in Part Two.

Check them all out after the break…

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This is what greeted you on your way to the demo trails.

If you ever have a chance to check out Trek’s factory in Waterloo Wisconsin, you should jump at the opportunity. Trek’s facility is an amazing factory with an awesome workforce, state of the art equipment, and an extremely progressive working environment. Better yet? It is only a 5 minute ride from some of the best MTB trails you will find. From dirt jump to down hill, skinnies to singletrack, the Farm and Jim’s Trails have it. With so much opportunity for real world testing at their fingertips, I have to imagine that a lot of development and innovation has occurred in and around these hallowed trails.

I find it fitting then, that this was the location for which Trek chose to showcase 3 concept bikes that may or may not ever see production. The bikes included the Broadsider (which Tyler covered just before the show), a single speed version of the to-be-released Sawyer 29′r, and a Fisher (collection) steel hardtail dirt jump bike dubbed the Gutter.

While the Sawyer is obviously closer to production, since it is basically what you can do to a stock Sawyer with some new parts, the other two bikes showcase the imagination and dedication of Trek’s designers.

Closeups after the break!

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I posted a couple of items’ weights the other day, but here’s the whole enchilada. All 2011 XTR components weighed individually.  I haven’t added it all up, but Shimano’s folk said the entire group comes in about 70g heavier than SRAM’s XX, mainly due to the cassette (above). This weight compares just parts available from both groups, but XTR also has pedal and wheels in the group, and when you add all of those up, the new group is substantially lighter than the prior 9700 series XTR.

Shown above is the 11-34 cassette at 254g. There’s also an 11-36, and the unofficial word is that there’ll be a 32T version offered in the future. Without further ado, jump on past the break to see the real weights of every piece…

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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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Here at the official 2011 press launch for Shimano’s 5th generation XTR group, we’re among the first to get hands on and on-dirt time with the Japanese brand’s totally redesigned top end group.

For our rides, we’ll be kicking the tires on their Trail setup with the triple chainring and their new XTR wheels, the XC double crankset stuff hasn’t hit our shores yet.  At the first little round up, they had some prototypes of the new group, shown above as a pile. Perhaps the most wild concept was in the brake levers. They also had a small assortment of final production spec items, which we weighed and photo’d.

UPDATE: The full group was weighed and posted here.

Jump past the break to see close ups of the guinea pigs and new items on the scale…

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