Since production of the Mobs at the S&M factory ceased, Black Market Bikes has not been able to find an alternate American frame manufacturer until recently. After a long quest, Carter Holland, owner of Black Market Bikes,finally found a US frame builder who could consistently build straight and true frames at a reasonable cost. While frames overseas can be be built in days and done correctly the first time, Carter complained that all of the American sourced builders wanted $400+ to weld a frame and they often produced bikes which had incorrect angles or where misaligned – and sometimes refused to return phone calls for months.

After all these trials and tribulations Carter finally found a worthy American manufacturer and is proud to introduce his latest creation – The Edit 1. At 4.9lbs/ 2.2kgs. it’s the lightest BlkMrkt to date…

We caught up with Carter a few weeks back at the Santa Cruz Mountain Bike Festival and had the opportunity to ride his personal pre-production  build.  (more…)

Three-time Tour of California champion and Olympic bronze medalist Levi Leipheimer would like to invite you, cycling loving friends everywhere, and fellow athletes to join him for a 30 minute webcast on Monday, May 7 at 4 p.m. EST / 1 p.m. PST.

Levi will answer your questions on everything from the ToCA to his recent car-bike accident to his Olympic dreams.  Tweet your questions through the Twitter hash tag #AskTeamCLIFBar, chat them directly into the webcast or post them directly to CLIF Bar’s Facebook page prior to or during the webcast.

Wondering how to tune in? There’s no sign-up needed to watch: click ‘more’ to find out! (more…)

Mark Weir needs no introduction; he’s a legend, so it was a real pleasure to catch up with him at Sea Otter for a quick Bike Check.  His current Cannondale Jekyll, which was raced in the first legal enduro race in Santa Cruz two weekends ago, differs subtly from the setup he would normally run while racing similar events in Europe.

The amazing thing about Mark is that he’s a true rider’s rider. When he’s not racing abroad he does all of his own maintenance, and while he may not be a stickler for weight, he is intimately acquainted with his equipment. In the short time we spoke he mentioned several methods he uses to keep his bike running smoothly.

For example, when he sets up the full length cable housing on his bike, he packs the cable ends with lithium grease, and then pushes the caps on. He then repeats the process once more and uses a floor pump to push the grease through the cables.

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At Santa Cruz’s launch of the Superlight 29 and Tallboy LT earlier this year, I had quite a bit of time to chat up Joe Graney, one of their engineers. Despite his laid back appearance and demeanor, he’s generally regarded as one of the smarter dudes in the industry when it comes to bike and suspension design. He also has a lot of funny stories to tell should you ever find yourself saddled up next to him for a beverage après ride.

BIKERUMOR: Who are you and what are you doing here?

I’m Joe Graney and I’m the director of engineering and quality for Santa Cruz Bicycles. I’m responsible for all the product development and making sure all the quality checks are done. I also set the quality standards now that most of our QC is done in Taiwan at the factory by our staff. We check every single front triangle and swing arm before its boxed to come to Santa Cruz. It keeps the factories honest.

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Among the most laid back people in the industry that we hang out with at the tradeshows, events and races is Seth Beiden, marketing manager at CamelBak. Besides hooking us up with sweet packs (thanks man!), he’s generally got a cold beverage and a smile on his face. Between the hula bar expo booth and his flip flop uniform, you’d be forgiven for thinking he’s just there working’ the booth. Turns out, he really does do some “hard” work, but he also shows just how much fun it is to work in the cycling industry…

BIKERUMOR: Who are you and what are you doing here?

SETH: I’m Seth Beiden from CamelBak and I manage PR and Marketing programs for Recreational (outdoor, bike, run, stand-up paddle, lifestyle) and Military/Tactical channels of our business. I cover anything from Chem Bio Reservoirs and Tactical Gloves to SUP vests and mountain bike hydration packs.

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If you’re looking for a job that encompasses virtually all aspects of industry workings, product manager at a large component company will give it to you. In this interview with Shimano’s Matt Robertson, you’ll see just how many points of the process you’ve got to keep up with, from product development, OEM spec, launch timetables, marketing and consumer preferences…and more. He juggles all the pieces to ensure you’re riding some sick components. Along the way, as you’ll see in the video further down, he gets to work with some of the world’s top cyclists to refine prototype parts in some pretty sweet riding spots. Here’s how he does it…

Who are you and what are you doing here?

My name is Matt Robertson, I am the MTB product manager for Shimano. I work in Irvine, CA, and I am involved in the development and marketing of mountain bike components and technology. I traffic in ideas and information. I am challenged to be an expert on the Shimano brand in order to clearly promote Shimano in the U.S. bike market and I am challenged to be an expert on the U.S. MTB bike market, in order to make sure that we are in tune with what riders are doing today and our brand is continuing to make riding more enjoyable everyday.

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While at Rolf Prima’s HQ, I had the chance to get an interview in with Brooke Bauer, who handles their PR and Marketing in house.  Brooke isn’t like most in the industry.  She didn’t cut her teeth working at a bike shop.  Instead, she started off in a sales job within the cycling industry, and racing bikes was the hook that kept her around. Read on for her story.

BIKERUMOR: Who are you and what are you doing here?

BAUER:  I’m Brooke Bauer and I handle pretty much anything related to Marketing for Rolf Prima. Whether it’s in person, at events and races, or behind the scenes on our social media, email, website, print ads and more, most likely you’ll find I had a hand in it.

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I recently took a day trip down to Eugene, and while there, I had the pleasure of stopping by Rolf Prima’s headquarters for a little tour.

For over a decade now, Rolf Prima has been producing high quality performance wheels. Their paired spoke design differentiates the wheels, and makes them really stand out on the bike.  I have had the pleasure to review both their P-Town single speed wheelset, as well as their ECX tubular cyclocross wheelset.  Both have held up very well, and after seeing how Rolf Prima builds and test their wheels, its no surprise either.

Make the jump to see the tour.

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Jack Fogelquist is a shredder, but most importantly, he’s just a local guy who loves to ride bikes with his friends. It just so happens that he and his friends are some of the most talented up-and-coming mountain bikers in the country, and if you ride in Santa Cruz, CA, there’s a good chance you’ve seen him throw some mind blowing tricks. For those who live elsewhere, Jack is the creator of an extremely popular web series, entitled Fogelsodes, which document his ever expanding trick list. These video clips usually feature big air, even bigger burritos, and classic rock soundtracks. They’re the kind of clips that get you amped to go and out and ride with your friends.

So how does one make the transition from gawky teenager to professional freerider?

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Fans of the classic lugged steel bike need look no further than Ellis Cycle’s booth. Fortunately for builder Dave Wages, he’s been near the front the past two years I’ve covered the show. His designs are traditional, but that hasn’t stopped him from winning for Best Touring Bike or doing some sick Di2 road bikes. And it doesn’t mean he can’t make things fancy when the customer has the budget…

BIKERUMOR: What have you been working in since NAHBS last year?

DAVE: Thankfully, this past year I’ve been working hard on orders I took at last year’s NAHBS! One of the newer styles of bike that I’ve been doing quite a bit lately is my DRB, or Dirt Road Bike. In most cases, this is very similar to my standard road bike, only with extra clearance for long reach brakes and tires up to 32c or so, but in some cases folks go with cantilevers or Paul’s Racer brakes so they can run extra fat tires or fat tires and fenders too.

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Given that SRAM already officially acknowledged forthcoming hydraulic brakes when they unveiled the new 2012 Red group, we thought we might see some leaked images. We just didn’t think we’d see them quite this early!

Did you miss them? Yep, we had some nice glossies up. They’re probably floating around a forum somewhere now, but at SRAM’s request, they’ve been pulled. Call us lackeys or whatever, but occasionally we have to make concessions to avoid biting the hands that feed us all the goodies we post here. Sometimes the leaks are forgiven, other times they need to be plugged. Rest assured, we don’t take these decisions lightly and try to balance the relationships with getting the news out first.

UPDATE: Apparently they’re willing to let some fuzzed out images slide.

In the images were both the hydraulic rim and disc brakes. The rim brake appearance is much closer to traditional road calipers than Magura’s new RT8TT center pull design. The key visual difference is the flip flop of the push/pull parts to the opposite side of a cable-actuated brake. Looks like a large quick release lever will make wheel changes easy, and a simple push piston to actuate the brake arms. Overall, it’s a pretty slick looking package.

The disc brakes are full hydro, fuzzy image after the break. We didn’t see any mention of a mechanical counterpart, but wouldn’t rule it out as a future Force level option. Hoods are slightly taller than the new mechs, but with the same new ErgoGrip surface texture. As they’ve told us already, 160mm and 140mm rotors will be on tap. If everything stays on track, look for a full launch in a couple months and availability in summer.

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Cane Creek is a small company with a big name. Like any other small company, their people cross over between roles to get the job done. Chris Strout is no different, juggling customer service -which means shops, distributors and consumers like us- with sales while also getting out in the field to promote the company at events like Interbike, Sea Otter Classic and smaller events throughout the U.S.

It’s a job that’s gotta get done, and like any other job in the cycling industry, it’s got some pretty sweet perks. His story also continues to illustrate the benefit of having a broad variety of life experiences and jobs outside of the industry before trying to “break in.” Here’s his story…

BIKERUMOR: Who are you and what are you doing here?

STROUT: I am Director of Domestic Sales and Customer Service at Cane Creek Cycling Components. I’m part of a a “new guard” at Cane Creek, a management team that has come on in the past couple of years and really paved the way for Cane Creek to be successful as we develop our future. Cane Creek has this amazing history and legacy that we want to preserve; our challenge is to figure out how to do that while moving forward and staying cutting-edge against the backdrop of today’s business realities.

My focus is to continue to strengthen our relationships at the distributor level while providing resources and education for dealers across the country. I’m also the “advocacy guy” here. Finally, my team and I are responsible for all customer service – and we have big shoes to fill in that regards, as Cane Creek has built an incredible reputation for service. It can be tough sometimes: Our staff isn’t very large, but we take our customer commitment very, very seriously.

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