Spot Brand bikes showed off their first-ever aluminum bike, the Acme (above), which was designed by Avid’s original founder and Spot owner Wayne Lumpkin. Besides being Wayne’s first frame design, it’s also the first frame Spot has done that was concepted and designed first in 3D to get the shape and style they wanted rather than relying on stock tubesets.

The result is a shapely bike that has cyclocross geometry for quick, go anywhere handling. This one’s $2,000 with a Shimano Alfine 11-speed internally geared hub. There are two models underneath, one with Belt drive and one with a a chain, both with Alfine 8. The chain one can be swapped to belt drive. $1400 and $1700.

Like that fork? It’s a carbon-with-alloy-crown design that they’ll be selling on it’s own as a disc-brake cyclocross fork (yes, this bike has 700c wheels). Both the fork and bike are available at the end of May.

As for Spot itself, I had a chance to have their managing director, Andrew, run me through what makes a Spot a Spot. Check it out after the break, along with some prototype Shimano hydraulic disc brakes…

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Knowing I’m a 29er fan, Ritchey/Syncro’s marketing and brand guys Sean and Angelo called me over with a big smile on their face, and that upside down frown was well justified. Syncro’s new FL Carbon 29er wheels look really, really good on paper and in person, and with a sub-1500g weight and a price about half of Easton’s EC90 29er carbon wheelset, they may just be the “everyman’s” carbon wheeled option.

And for those that said Ritchey should go big or go home, well, they’ve gone big. Roll past the break for all the details…

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Out of college, jobs weren’t forthcoming, so Alex Webster just started building up some really light wheels for friends and local racers. Now, he’s selling a fair number of hoops each month under his Hermes Sport brand and building a sales rep base.

His latest “stock” wheelset is the Ritual GG (he says “GG” is an acronym in German for lightweight). They use Tune Superspoke, which is made by Sapim exclusively for Tune. They’re butted 1.8/1.4/1.8 that, he says, end up being 20% lighter than a CX Ray but having a 20% longer fatigue life by concentrating the stresses more at the ends of the spokes.

They use Tune’s Mig 45 front and Mag 170 rear hubs. Rim is 23mm wide, he said they’ll work with Hutchinson’s tubeless conversion kits. Retail will be $1500. Wheelset weight is about 1270g, and they should be available now. In a nice move, these are the wheels that’ll be spec’d on the new Calfee high end build kits for bikes like the dragon fly. More pics after the break…

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Next to the new mountain bike and TT/Triathlon/Cyclocross parts, FSA had some new carbon road wheels and a redesigned chain to go with their forthcoming Metron road group.

Shown above are the new T42 carbon/alloy wheels and TC42 carbon tubular, all of which get a new wider 23mm rim that FSA says adds strength without adding weight. The T42 is new wheel that’s half way between a full aero wheel and road wheel that has a carbon rim shell with a thin aluminum brake track and rim.

Their existing SL-K Wheels also get a wider 23mm rim like the T24 to better match current tire profiles. It’s 1480g with 50mm deep rim. The Team Issue wheels have house-made hubs that they say are super smooth and a similar carbon rim shell with an alloy brake track. 1400g.

Check out more, plus their new Metron chain, after the break…

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The new Ellsworth freeride bike, originally shown in prototype form at Sea Otter, is now being introduced to the world at the Method. Shortly after the bike was unveiled to the public, Ellsworth announced that they were holding a contest to name the bike. Name it, win it, ride it.

Obviously, Method was the winning name, but jump past the break to see what Rick B. from Washington had to say which won him the very first Method after the break!

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FSA brought out a lot of updated and new mountain bike products for Sea Otter. The colorful polycarbonate-capped headsets above grab the eye first, but it’s the all-new Orbit Option adjustable angle headset that has the technical features we love to see.

There are also new cranksets, updated (read: wider) handlebars and seatposts for XC, DH and everything in between. There’s also a new direct mount stem to mount those bars to. Jump past the break to see it all with weights and details…

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FSA had a ton of new stuff at Sea Otter, so we’re breaking it up in to a couple posts. The new K-Force Cyclocross Brake, above, uses two separate 50mm carbon fiber sides and can be set up in either a wide or narrow stance. The design (more pics after the break) incorporates a barrel adjuster so you don’t need to run one on the cable hanger, making for a cleaner overall bike appearance.

They also had new Energy ‘cross brakes, and some slick new aero goodies for time trialists and triathletes, all shown and weighed after the jump…

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At this point in the technological history of mountain biking we currently have hydraulic disc and rim brakes, hydraulic fork lock outs, and hydraulic dropper seat posts, so why not hydraulic shifting? That seems to be what Acros is thinking as they are reincarnating Christophe Muthers’ 5-Rot hydraulic shifting system that was first debuted at Eurobike in 2006.

I remember seeing photos of the system, wondering how well it would work, but sadly, the concept never made it to production. Until now.

Acros has picked up the design and made a few necessary changes to make it broadly compatible with today’s mountain bike drivetrains. The first run of production will be extremely limited, as Acros is only planning to manufacture 250 complete sets world wide, which surprisingly are all ready starting to be pre-sold despite the nearly $2000 price tag here in the US.

Check out the A-GE system details, pricing, and whether or not you can find a set after the break!

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Geax showed off a new 29er version of their Sturdy freeride/DH tire alongside Vittoria’s updated Open Corsa high end road tire.

The tread blocks are big and tall on the Sturdy, with a large gap between the center tread and side knobs…a design that’s become popular with the pros as it allows the tire to slide out a bit into the turns before biting in when leaned hard. It gets their TNT (Tube No Tube) tubeless ready casing and some pretty sticky feeling rubber. This one’s a 29″ prototype and featured new ramped central knobs, a double compound tread and is a full 2.3.

More after the break…

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Pivot Bikes brought out their new M4X four-cross mountain bike just for their sponsored riders to race at Sea Otter. Not only did they test it out through the slaloms and jumps, but Kyle Strait raced his to a 12th place in the downhill.

The new bike uses their DW Link suspension design with 4″ of travel. It has a much much shorter lower link than the DH, but about the same as the Mach4. Because there’s no front derailleur, Chris Cocalis, Pivot’s founder, could really box section and overbuild the front of the rear triangle and linkage. Lower link bearings are set really wide and double row like the new Pheonix DH bike, and the tubeset is same as the Firebird.

More pics and specs after the break…

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Diamondback’s had the Sortie full suspension mountain bike out for a bit, heading up their trail bike department. For 2012, they’ll add a 29er version, shown above pretty much as it’ll be in production. It uses their Knucklebox suspension design with 100mm in the rear and built around 120mm in the front. More pics and info after the break…

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Foes Racing showed off the Shaver, a work-in-progress trail bike with 5″ to 5.5″ of rear wheel travel that’s adjustable via different shock mounts. The pivot placement and leverage ratio have been adjusted to give it a hard candy shell for efficient acceleration and controlled bottom out with a creamy center for plush performance in the rough stuff. Specs include a tapered headtube, optional ISCG05 mounts and 142×12 rear axle dropouts, triple butted hydroformed 6061 aluminum tubes. All standard coil-over and air shocks will work with the frame. Pricing options after the break…

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