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BIKERUMOR REVIEW: We received a set of Continental’s Race King tires shortly after Sea Otter, just in time to get a couple of rides in before racing the BURN 24 Hour Challenge this past May.  Our official review set was the 26 x 2.0 Protection, but one of our testers also purchased the 2.2 Supersonics, so his comments are included in this review.

The key difference between the two models tested are that the Protection casing has a thicker casing to help prevent punctures and uses their standard rubber whereas the Supersonics do away with the additional casing protection and use Conti’s grippier Black Chili rubber compound.  Claimed weight difference is about 50g.

We’ve run these tires for seven months, and both of us were very, very impressed with the grip in a wide range of conditions, and they live up to their claims when it comes to speed.  So, are these tires right for you?  Was there anything we didn’t like?  Read on for the full review of the Continental Race King mountain bike tires…

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Norco Bikes is proud to announce the addition of Slopestyle rider Sam Dueck to the 2010 Norco Factory Team. Sam has come off a great season boasting fantastic results such as 5th at Crankworx Colorado and 2nd at Goat Style in Creston BC. For the 2010 competition season Sam will continue to compete at an elite level in premiere events on a 2010 Norco 4Hun and an Empire SE.

Norco is excited about the addition of Sam to the Factory Team. He will be a great representative of Norco on the Slopestyle circuit. Sam has the ambition and talent to be at the forefront of slopestyle competition and we hope to offer him the tools to move forward with his riding career.

You may recall the video where Niner Bikes co-founder Chris Sugai smashed their new carbon fork with a hammer. A few people posted comments about what the inside of the fork may look like, and Niner said that while it was structurally sound, it should be replaced if such damage occured. The point of the test was to show that even massive hits to the fork wouldn’t result in catastrophic, rider-flying-off-a-cliff, certain death failure. Well, it seems Niner wanted to see if the fork was rideable afterall, so they tested it. Here’s the results:

After abusing a carbon Niner fork with a ball peen hammer, we sent the very same component off to our testing facility and sent it through the same rigorous tests that our brand new forks undergo.

Niner forks are tested to the new European standards specifically designed for mountain bike use. To pass these safety standards the fork must undergo a load of 650 Newtons, both pushing and pulling on the dropouts for one hundred thousand cycles. Our hammer fork passed this test easily, so we kept going… and we upped the load. At 750 Newtons, the hammer fork passed another hundred thousand cycles, so we kept at it… and at it… In the end we were not able to get this fork to break until after three hundred thousand cycles! The Niner carbon fork tripled the most stringent bike product safety standard out there, after being beaten with a hammer! We would prefer that you didn’t do this to your fork, but it is nice to know how tough these things really are.

Also, they’ve updated their demo shop list, so if you’re looking for a local shop that has demo bikes in stock, hit ‘more’ to see the current list.  Oh, and you’ll see their sweet Niner Sigg water bottle…

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John Henry, the Steel Drivin’ Man, is the namesake for the latest bike from Siren Bicycles.

Handmade in the U.S., the John Henry is their first “standard handbuilt” frame.  So, you can get it off the rack (so to speak), but it’s still a handcrafted piece of art.  It’s available in five sizes, including their tweener “medium-large” size, and their signature bent top-tube improves standover clearance across the range.

MSRP is $995, and the specs, as described by Siren, are:

• US-made Paragon sliding dropouts- the undisputed best in the business. You can lay tracks with derailleurs, or hammer on one gear. John Henry comes with a derailleur hanger.
• Disc brake torque brace enhances braking power and boosts frame integrity in a high stress area.
• S -bend stays and a 73mm bb shell accommodate the fattest tires you can find, even in the “short” setting on the sliders.
• Tucked away brake line routing protects your fancy brakes in case of a crash.
• Frame weights are competitive with other high end steel frames, coming in a full 1/4 lb lower than the leading steel production 29er
• John Henry is true to Siren roots with a bent, premium quality top tube. Despite the added expense, we still believe in maintaining good standover clearance & enhanced ride quality.

Hit ‘more’ for detail photos…

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Intense Cycles just posted some photos of their new prototype 29er Downhill mountain bike on MTBR and had this to say:

Description from Mr. Intense himself: Something I have wanted to do for some time & topic of many debates. With a little help from Manitou / Sun & WTB we have the “2951″

• This first proto is in the medium range 23.5 effective toptube.
• G3 dropout & Head tube
• 14″ BB in middle, with 64.5º head angle @ 0
• Chainstay: 18.25″
• Wheelbase: 48″

Where do you start with this, so I went with tried & true and we have a bit of adjustability to play with.

• Travel is at 7.5 or 8″ with adjustable link.
• fork is reduced to 7″

So everyone who has thrown a leg over it is blown away in one aspect or another.
This is just a test project at this point & hope to get some team riders on real tracks in near future. Tires are the biggest issue at this point but if it pans out I am sure Intense Tires will step up for some racing rubber choices.
The 951 frame works well for this as there is alot of room for seatube tire clearance.

Click any image to enlarge.  Hit ‘more’ for additional photos and links…

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Having a cool cycling calendar photo to look at in your cubicle might just be the ticket if you need inspiration to make it through the work week. In addition to the Ladies of DFL Outlaw Urban Cyclocross and the Prohab Helmet Society Ladies 2010 calendars out now, one of our contacts, Sheldon Attwood, has put together a mountain biking themed calendar available for pre-order now until Nov. 30th. Above are the shots used for the cover (top left), January (top right), February (bottom left), and April (bottom right). Click on his name above to see the other months on his flickr site.

All the shots were taken by him in various places around the UK and Europe. The calendars are £10 plus £2.50 postage and packing (if shipping to the US then it’ll be around £7, which equals roughly 28 US dollars for the calendar and shipping). Email Sheldon to pre-order by November 30th, sheldon*dot*attwood*at*gmail*dot*com. Payment through Paypal is preferred.

Help support Southern California scholastic mountain biking and be entertained by Bob Roll, Pua Sawicki, Brian Lopes and Sid Taberlay at Cyclefest 2009 this Saturday, November 21, 2009. Check out SoCalDirt.org for ticket purchases and more info.

Here’s the poster for the 2010 North American Handmade Bicycle Show, this year held on the East Coast (yay!) and pretty close, relatively speaking, to Bikerumor’s office.  We’ll be there covering all the sweet bicycle goodness from the growing list of exhibitors.

Who’s exhibiting?  Well, just click ‘more’ and you’ll see the current list as of Friday, Nov. 13…

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INTERBIKE 2009 - Scott had a full range of mountain bikes on display, from their transforming Genius full susser to the hardtail Scale 29er and Voltage dirt jump and freeride bikes.

The Genius, above, comes in a range of trims and price levels, from $2,199 up to $9,899, with four carbon and three aluminum models.   The trick with the Genius is its rear shock.  It’s a twin-chamber magician that goes from 95mm to 150mm of travel without altering the quality of suspension.  How?  The Dual Air Equalizer shock has the same amount of travel per chamber, but when one’s closed off, the reduced air volume limits travel to 95mm.  Open it up, and you instantly have the full 150mm travel ready to work the bumps.

Shown above is the “20″ model ($5,499), which comes with a Fox TALAS fork (so you can adjust the front end to match the rear’s travel) and special edition white DT Swiss XR wheels.

Hit ‘more’ for specs, details, weights and info on the Scale and Voltage…

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Makes me want to get on the bike and go jump things.  Video from Kona.

Doors open at 10am at the Cow Palace next Saturday, November 21st for an all day Expo of all things bike related. Come to see 2010 bike products from tons of vendors, participate in the bike swap, watch the BikeStyle fashion show, be amazed by the BMX stunt show and AT’s Showdown, check out the low rider competition, view the custom and vintage bike show, test your skillz on the SF Urban Riders Triple Feature, join in the track stand competition, watch a performance by the Bay Area Dérailleurs, and stay late for the after party!

There’s definitely something for everyone! Come and enjoy the sights and maybe even get in a little early Christmas shopping (for yourself). Children 12 and under are free (!), everyone else is $8 pre-show or $10 at the door. Click here for more info.

Geax Tires has completely revamped their website (it looks pretty good, easy to use) and to celebrate, they’re letting you download the full video of Aaron LaRocque’s What’s Next freeride mountain bike movie in HD, SD or iPhone versions.  The movie features riders like Andrew Sherry, Alan Hepburn, Brendan Howey, Casey Groves, Dylan Sherrard, Dylan Dunkerton, Eric Lawrenuk, Frankie Vass, Jarrett Moore, Luke Fulton, Mark Matthews, Strahan Loken, Taylor Leigh and Wink Grant.

My download’s already queued up, and here’s what it said when I first hit GO:

…and that’s just the iPhone version.  The HD file is over 600 MB.

Pro Downhiller Gee Atherton bares it all for the December issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine in the UK (we haven’t checked to see if the U.S. version has this, too).  The strip down is to raise awareness for prostate and testicular cancer charity Everyman.

If you’re not one of delicate sensibilities and want to see more of what makes him so ballsy on the bike, hit ‘more’ to see the full monty…

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Raleigh Bicycles will tip its hat to its history by reintroducing its historic Heron head badge on all 2010 and beyond bikes.

BikeBiz quotes Mark Gouldthorp, MD of Raleigh UK, as saying: “Returning to the traditional logo is the best way to show the company’s pedigree and its historic commitment to Nottingham.

Brodie’s 2010 lineup carries over a lot of the models we liked from 2009 (like the Section 8), but they’ve spread some updates across the range.  Here are the changes:

The Remus, above, takes the same butted Chromoly steel tubing from their used-to-be-a-cyclocross bike Romulus and welds it into a simple single speed road bike.  The Remus comes with a flip-flop rear wheel, so you can run it as a fixie or keep it as-is.  For $699, you get the complete bike with Chromoly fork, Brodie-brand seatpost, bar and stem, Tektro brakes, Suntour cranks, Wellgo pedals and Formula hubs laced to Kore rims with Kenda tires.

Hit ‘more’ to see the rest of the new stuff…

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