Year: 2009

Met up with Brian and Mylo of Sette at Sea Otter. They were displaying their two new 26″ carbon frames, the more XC oriented Impulse and the very racy Phantom. The Phantom comes as either frame only or fully built up. The fully built Phantom has an amazing spec sheet for the money, $2,699, a…

I came upon a bike with the Fox F29 in 15mm form. This is Fox’s new change to their highly regarded F29 fork specifically built for 29ers. The 15mm is a design between Fox and Shimano designed to be stiffer than the normal quick release, but lighter than the 20mm thru axle. I got a…

You can always count on great Dual Slalom action from the Sea Otter.  This year was no different.  There was plenty of spectacular racing in today’s Dual Slalom.  One of the top gravity racers Sam Hill out raced Cody Warren for the men’s finals.  In the women’s side, KHS’ Melissa Buhl bested Olympian Jill Kintner.  …

In my rush to get this up earlier today, I forgot to mention that the much lighter Tim “Scissors” rode the BEBOP pedals. Here are Scissor’s thoughts: You know what I like about quality pedals? Not thinking about them. I just wanna clip in and ride. Sea Otter 2009 introduced us to BEBOP, one of…

Couple of pictures from Niner bikes booth at Sea Otter 2009. Carbon wrap from steerer tube down to the dropouts The new carbon forks. Should be hitting the shops sometime in May Setup like this, the AIR9 is 17 lbs Niner’s new Solid Gold color on the SIR9 the mantra on Solid Gold Solid Gold…

Lezyne was a must stop for me at Sea Otter 2009. I’ve got one of their saddle bags and it’s pretty cool. Very functional, great material and the zipper has never let me down. We got to meet some cool people from Lezyne and were shown some of their products. First up is their floor…

Stopped by Manitou for a rundown on some of Manitou’s cool products. The first one that we asked about was Manitou’s very light carbon R7. Make sure to click on the picture of the R7 for a shot of the carbon weave We also got to see Manitou’s 10th Anniversary edition R7. This thing get’s…

Foe’s Racing has come out with a really cool 29″ full suspension prototype. Meet the Foe’s 29″ Trail bike. Foe’s unique 2:1 full suspension system The low down: – 29″ front and rear wheel design specific – 4″ rear wheel travel – 2:1 leverage ratio – Exclusive Curnutt XTD AIR or Fox RP23 shock –…

We got to check out Whyte bike’s 120mm travel full carbon full suspension bike. Whyte is making it’s first foray into the U.S. and they’re doing it with a lightweight splash. The bike comes in at a miserly 22 lbs fully built. Whyte 120mm, 22lb FS when fully built How’d it get down to 22lbs?…

This brown fella, no not Joe is my long time friend, the Sea Otter. We’ve been meeting up every year at the festival and for some odd reason, he’s way taller this time. Then later on when we saw him again, he was was shorter…it was as if he shrank or someone else was wearing…