A while back I posted an article about how local schools in Marin County want to introduce Mountain Biking as a school sport. Well apparently some folks don’t want it…and it makes sense.
I urge officials in all our public schools to eliminate mountain biking as a school-sponsored sport. They instead should promote activities that teach youth to tread lightly upon the earth and give it the respect it deserves.
Read the whole story HERE.
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SRAM too is celebrating an anniversary, its 20th year as a company. To celebrate this milestone, SRAM has redone the X-0 Rear Derailleur making it more compact, stronger and lighter.
Here’s Velonews on the new X-0 Rear Derailleur:
The new X.0 rear derailleur has a cage modeled after the Force road rear derailleur and will be able to accommodate the new BlackBox ceramic pulleys (the older style X.0 derailleurs will not).
The outer half of the pulley cage is made from carbon fiber, but the inner half has been replaced with 7000-series aluminum. The update is said to bring stiffness to the lower cage along with more chain control. SRAM also claims that the impact strength of the cage has been increased by five times over the previous all carbon version.
The new hybrid carbon cage will also be found on the long-cage X.0 derailleur. Historically only the short and medium cage lengths were made with carbon. An outside vendor made the old composite cages, while the new design relies completely on SRAM’s own carbon technology.
The B-bolt is anodized gold and laser-etched with the 20th anniversary logo. Regardless of cage length chosen, the new X.0 rear derailleur will cost $230.
X-O Rear Derailleur
Also new for SRAM is Rock Shox new coil-over shock called the Vivid. The Vivid was created with only the essential adjustments: beginning and end stroke rebound, low speed compression. There are also 3 Drop Stop pads to adjust the last 20% of stroke.
Vivid Coil-Over Shock
Rock Shox also came out with the Monarch a new air rear shock. This shock is using the Solo-Air technology first found on Rock Shox forks. The four new shocks in this lineup will start from $210 to the upper $350.
Monarch Air Shock
SRAM wisely chose to have all of the Avid hydraulic brakes drop their weight to be under 400 grams. Here is what Velonews had to say about it:
SRAM’s brake brand, Avid, put its line of Juicy brakes on a diet. The goal was to trim every Juicy model to less than 400 grams.
The Juicy Ultimate, released last year, was already well under, but will receive an aluminum backed pad, losing roughly 10 more grams per wheel. The Carbon, Seven and Five have lost 30, 25 and 20 grams, respectively due to a redesigned lever body and slight caliper refinements. Juicy Carbon loses even more due to its use of Juicy Ultimate’s carbon lever.
Juicy Carbon Lever
All this information and more can be found on the Velonews article by clicking here.
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Velonews has pictures and a great write up of the refreshed Shimano Deore XT component group. There is some great background information including how Yoshi Shimano started the Deore XT group.
Velonews:
A quarter of a century is a milestone. It’s real history. When someone or something has been around that long it has had a chance to grow into its true being.
In 1981, Yoshi Shimano, president of Shimano’s U.S. sales office, noticed a weird new segment of bikes popping up in the U.S. bicycle market and immediately informed corporate headquarters in Japan that Shimano needed to be a part of this new “mountain” bike movement.
The following year, Shimano introduced the Deore XT component group to the world. Since other full component group options were virtually non-existent, both bicycle manufacturers and consumers enthusiastically embraced the new mountain-bike group.
XT turns 25 this year, and to commemorate the occasion it gets a facelift for 2008. While many of the improvements trickle down from last year’s revamp of XTR, there are a couple of brand-new technologies in the mix.
“This is an adventure group in the sense that it’s designed to be as contemporary as possible in its focus,” said Devin Walton, Shimano’s PR manager
“XT, because it has a few more budgetary constraints, comes into a price point where it’s going to hit a wider range and a higher volume of mountain bikes, from full, big-suspension trail bikes all the way to a cross-country-race-type bike.
“That’s why you’re seeing an even wider range and additional options over even what XTR offers. Options are sort of the result of XT’s initiative of just being contemporary.”
For your visual enjoyment:
Is it me or does the “X” remind you of X-men? Either way, it’s pretty cool.
Carbon middle ring just like big brother XTR
20mm thru axle! Shimano’s site says that quick release is also available. The 20mm thru axle is designated as the “all mountain” version.
Top are “all mountain” while bottom are XC wheels.
Can you see the black “X”? Very nice.
Brake Levers + …
… Hydraulic Brakes = 20% more stopping power (than what?)
For the original article from Velonews, click here.
More pictures at Shimano’s website.
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If you check out the Woodstock Bikes 505 hard tail, you will not find a better deal for a bike with those components on any LBS bike. The bike is laced with Sram X-7 shifters and derailleurs, nice Manitou Axel fork, TruVativ Cranks and so on.
So for the folks that are in the market for a new bike, but want more options than what an LBS is offering, don’t be shy to check out our friends at Woodstock Bikes.
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