What started off with a ti Yeti 575 customization has become a full blown titanium upgrade option from French framebuilder Ronnie Calvet and his company, Skyde.

Shown here is the latest version mated to an Engine Labs 120mm rear end, which is an updated version of the NRS design used on older Giant mountain bikes. The new front end replaces the alloy triangle with cold worked, double butted 3/2.5 titanium. All machined parts are 6/4 ti, and it’s made to exactly imitate the geometry and even the look of the original in this case.

Skip though for more pics and all the trick details…

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Building on their basic electrolyte replacement formula, GU Brew, their new Roctane Ultra Endurance Energy Drink adds some of the performance ingredients found in their Roctane gel varieties.

Upgrades include Taurine, White Tea extract, Beta Alanine and Histidine to buffer acid and the BCAA’s Leucine, Valine and Isoleucine. It’s designed for rides and workouts lasting more than 90 minutes.

Full PR with pricing and sizes behind the break, and if you order through GU’s website, they have a special that includes eight FREE Roctane gels with purchase…

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Ellsworth Bikes’ demo sale is back in action. They’ve got an assortment of mountain, cyclocross and triathlon bikes that have been used for demos, testing and sometimes just showroom decoration. Check the full size and price list here.

Fyxation just added two bullhorn bars to their urban goods arsenal – the Rodeo and the Rodeo Pursuit.

The Rodeo and the Rodeo Pursuit are both bullhorns, but each bar welcomes a different style of riding.  The main difference is the Rodeo Pursuit gets a 40mm drop, giving you a bit of extra power for sprints while the basic Rodeo bar is a good all-around city bar.

Click more to see pictures, specs and opinions…

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Avid readers may remember Kirklee more for their $8,000 full carbon kid’s tri bike (here and, amusingly, here) or the faux wood painted carbon road bike from last year’s NAHBS that got quite a bit of attention. This year, it looks like they’ve been busy doing some more detailed custom paint jobs and are broadening custom offerings to include updated standards…

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

BRAD: It has been a busy year. As you may know about two weeks after NAHBS I had my personal KirkLee’s stolen out of my home (none have been recovered so keep your eyes peeled), which was strange to go from daily rides to nothing. The good out of the situation is it forced me to think about what I want on my bikes. Out of that thought process, expect to see a new KirkLee mountain bike in 2012. The road bikes will receive small tweaks as the year goes on; with my personal road bike being a test mule for some of these changes. It is exciting times for a bike company right now. There is talk of disc brakes on the road, 130mm or 135mm rear spacing, and customers are asking about BB386evo.

Business-wise it is like you sometimes fall in love all over again. This year we have done quite a few repairs, but in 2012 we will only do a few each month to make more time for the KirkLee’s, which have always been our first love. Since last NAHBS we have brought more tooling into the shop, and have been prototyping molding for new bike designs and our existing bikes. It is an arduous process, with many late nights talking about design, tooling, and molding. We could order it or have it made for us, and we all know that sometimes it would be easier, but we love building KirkLee’s.

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See all of our Project 24.2 posts here!

There are certain things that we do as we get older that aren’t necessarily cool or exciting.  Grownup stuff, like telling people who aren’t your mom where you’re going riding and when you expect to be back.  Like packing enough water and food for a ride.  Like keeping your insurance current.  Road ID fall squarely into that category.  As important as carrying a some form of ID, if things go horribly wrong most identification doesn’t really doesn’t contain all of the information that emergency responders want- or need.

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Photo from the collection of Jeff Archer of First Flight Bicycles. If you think you know what this is, post your answer in the ‘comments’ section– the correct answer will be posted there on Tuesday!

To send in your own Mystery Pic to be considered for the Monday feature, click here and attach your photo with all pertinent information.

As the lead mechanic of one of the most successful World Cup downhill mountain bike teams, the Santa Cruz Syndicate, Doug Hatfield is an incredibly accomplished mechanic. He’s wrenched for world champions in both cross country and downhill racing while traveling all over the world. How does a normal guy go from being a mechanic at the LBS to working on some of the most lust worthy bicycles in the industry? Read on to find out.

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

My name is Doug Hatfield, and I have worked for Santa Cruz Bicycles for almost 10 years now, and have been in charge of team support for the Santa Cruz Syndicate race program going on 6 seasons now. For the past 5 seasons I have done the team equipment orders, helped with planning and worked as a mechanic for the riders. We do a lot of races during a season and our main focus is on DH World Cup racing. Sounds simple, but a huge amount of time and effort goes into this job.

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Photo submitted by Zach Chatelain, “January in Northern Utah is supposed to be snowy. Who would have thought you could ride dusty trails in the 50′s in Northern Utah in January?”

To see more Pics of the Day, click here, and to submit your own photo to be shown to the world, go here.

In our 650b post below, eagle-eyed reader craigsj noticed what could be a new front axle standard in the 2013 RockShox Revelation’s specifications.  Or a typo.  Is wider better, or do we already have enough hub standards?  Hit the “comment” button to weigh in…

Image via Bicycling.

We’ve heard tremors of some major (read: top four) bicycle brands coming on strong with 650B mountain bikes for 2013, and this screen grab from Rockshox’s internal OEM ordering website shows that they’ll be supporting manufacturers with the boingy stuff up front.

The pic comes from an excellent, extremely in-depth article over on Bicycling. They’re reporting that many of the brands who’ve invited the middle child wheel size to the party before are bringing him back for more, including WTB, and Schwalbe. More importantly, many major brands are apparently jumping into the fray with a less than timid range of products. Expect 650B forks from Fox, Rockshox, DT Swiss and X-Fusion being spec’d on bikes from a wide range of manufacturers large and small.

Locally, we’ve seen a few unofficial mods on Specialized’s full suspension bikes with 650b wheels crammed on them, but Jamis the most aggressive brand reliably pumping out bikes with the mid-sized wheels recently. What’s looked like a losing battle could now propel them to a leadership position if they play their cards right, but it’s looking like they’ll have some stiff competition.

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Now we know why Zdenek Stybar likes his bikes as lightweight as possible. Photo: TDWsport

Earlier this week, Specialized sent out some pics of Stybar’s custom painted pink Crux cyclocross bike and many media took the bait. This is one of four matching custom painted bikes he was provided with, actually. Being that we don’t really cover racing so much as what’s being raced on, our inquiries led to some good discussions about why he wasn’t racing the Crux Disc model.

Introduced last fall, the Crux Disc uses essentially the same frame save for the obvious sections needed to modify it for disc brakes. Both are alloy, Specialized ceased offering a carbon version for the 2012 model year, so presumably one would want the benefits of disc brakes, right?

While we weren’t able to get quotes directly from Stybar, we did get some paraphrased bits from his, uh, handlers:

“As for the disc/no disc thing, there are a few factors – one being that the team’s wheel sponsor, Zipp, does not yet make a disc wheel for ’cross.”

True enough…

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