Concepts

This week we headed to Silverstone to check out the UK’s Core Bike and�The�Bike Place�trade shows. Here’s our pick of the mountain bike kit on display, including new downhill frames from Tomac and Identiti, bikes from Liteville, RAM, Kona and Avanti, and parts from Hope, Marzocchi and E*thirteen.

Tomac

Evolution Imports were in full force at The Bike Place expo showing off two of their new lines for 2012, one of which is the boutique brand Tomac. It’s good to see the guys from Santa Cruz, California back with a downhill frame again. The Primer 200�offers up 200mm (7.9in) of rear wheel travel and is constructed from butted 6069 aluminium.

All the downhill staples are there, including an 83mm bottom bracket shell, ISCG 05 chain guide mounts, a 12×150mm rear axle, 1.5in head tube and 64-degree head angle. There are three sizes to chose from but the bike will only be available in lime green�– this might not be to everyone’s taste but it’ll certainly help you stand out. The frame will set you back £1,899 (US$1,599).

Liteville

Evolution’s second new brand is Liteville. The German company are renowned for their world-class attention to detail and as well as making bikes are responsible for Syntace components, including the increasingly popular X-12 rear axle assembly. On show were two bikes, the 301, which we tested back in 2010 and is soon to be updated, and the 601.�

The 601 seen here, with a carbon wheelset, weighed in at a claimed 29lb, which ain’t too shabby for a frame with up to 190mm (7.5in) of rear wheel travel. Further bolstering the appeal of Liteville’s bikes is their 10-year warranty. This is fully transferable with the bike so even if you’re the third owner and something should break (which apparently just doesn’t happen), the bike is still covered. The 601 frame will set you back £2,050.

Intense

Extra had a huge stand at Core Bike and were proudly displaying Intense’s latest offerings�–�the Carbine SL and the new Uzzi. We�saw both of these at last year’s Interbike show�but the Uzzi in particular is worth a second mention.�Intense have amalgamated the old Uzzi and SlopeStyle 2 (which is soon to be no more), and created this new machine which should be the best of both bikes. You still get the Uzzi’s all-round ability but with a slightly more aggressive edge to it.�

Out back sit Intense’s adjustable G3 dropouts, with a 12×150mm rear axle to keep things stiff. �Geometry has been tweaked slightly to accommodate a 180mm (7.1in) fork, the seat angle is slightly steeper than on the SS2 for improved climbing and there’s provision for a front mech. This particular model weighed in at a claimed 32lb with Cane Creek Double Barrel coil shock�– a very good weight, considering the new Uzzi delivers 165 to 177mm (6.5-7in) of rear travel. RRP is $2,399, with UK pricing TBC.�Extra say the bike will be available from April.�

Ram Bikes

This small Bulgarian brand have refined and expanded their range for 2012. There are new bikes in the Ram line-up and cleaner, neater graphics too. The AM.TWO.1 is their all-singing, all-dancing top-of-the-line all-mountain bike which boasts 150mm (5.9in) of rear wheel travel. There are various specs to choose from, with prices starting at just under the £2,000 mark and heading up to £3,299 for this particular version.

The AM.TWO uses the same suspension platform as Ram’s Nduro but with a little more travel and slightly slacker angles for those keen to ride wilder terrain at higher speeds. The head angle, for example, measures in at an on-trend 67.5 degrees.�

Spec-wise, RockShox take care of suspension duty at both ends, with this particular model sporting a Revelation RL Dual Air fork with the all-important 15mm through axle which, when coupled with the tapered head tube, should make for a nice and stiff front end.�Other highlights include the�Mavic Crosstrail wheels, which we tested back in the summer�and offer a great balance of strength and weight.�

Ram also had their new DHX2 on display, which should please many downhill fans. This particular model (the DHX2.1) belongs to their elite team rider Robert Smith (not from the Cure) and features a top-of-the-line spec that’ll retail for £4,999. There are two other complete builds to chose from, as well as a frame-only option for £1,849.

Ram have tried to create a bike with enough adjustability to cater for the wide of variety of tracks and terrain that you’re likely to encounter on this sort of beast. The 6061 aluminium frame has adjustable chainstays, an adjustable progression setting for the rear suspension and a 1.5in head tube that’ll accommodate adjustable headset cups.

A stiff 150mmx12mm rear axle setup and 83mm bottom bracket complete the race-ready frame. When it comes to rear wheel travel, well, there’s plenty of it. With a whopping 220mm (8.6in), the DHX2 should be able to handle pretty much any track.

Identiti

The guys at�Ison Distribution�were proudly presenting the new�Identiti�Mogul�downhill frame. If you’re in for a bargain, keep reading�– this little beast will only set you back £1,100, and that includes the top-of-the-line RockShox Vivid R2C rear shock. The frame is claimed to come in at 2.9kg (without shock), has�190mm of travel (7.5in) and sports a 64-degree head angle. Various colour options are available.

Kona

Alongside their new gravity bikes, which have impressed everyone who’s thrown a leg over them, Kona were proudly displaying their latest 29ers.�The £2,850 ($3,099)�Satori, which we first saw at Eurobike, offers up 130mm (5.1in) of travel which, combined with its big Easton hoops should result in a bike that can take one hell of a beating.�

Looking a little closer, it’s the small touches that help to confirm this: ISCG 05 chain guide mounts, a low slung top tube, tapered head tube and 142×12mm bolt-through rear axle. It’s no surprise to hear it was the brainchild of Chris Mandell, main man behind the Entourage and Operator. Suspension wise, things look a little different to what we’re used to from Kona but the Satori simply uses a swing link version of the company’s well-established 4-Bar linkage.

Avanti

Avanti are still pretty new to the UK but the range is looking great for 2012, including their women’s-specific model, the Motiv. We’ve already ridden the 140mm-travel�Torrent and have been impressed. For 2013 it’s set to get a 12×142mm through-axle at the rear along with ISCG 05 chain guide tabs to make for a more aggressive trail machine. Pricing TBC.

Hope

Our friends in the north are constantly fettling and tweaking their ongoing projects.�At Core,�Hope were showing approximately the thirtieth�version of their cassette. This has an integrated freehub body to allow for the tiny nine-tooth sprocket, and five of the 10 sprockets are made from titanium to keep weight at a minimum.�Also on display was the latest version of the cranks we first saw at last year’s show. Woody from Hope said these probably won’t make it to production.

Hope’s new pedals, however, should hit shops in the spring. They’ve undergone plenty of tweaks recently and their thin profile combined with a decent size platform and 10 pins per side means they should be great.�Also due for a spring release are new machined bash rings and a seat tube mounted chain retention system. This isn’t the�chain guide we saw last year�but a cyclo-cross inspired chain-catcher style device that, according to Woody, works well for mountain bike use, too.

Marzocchi

It’s great to see Marzocchi back up the top of everyone’s wishlist once again and they’ve got some even better offerings for 2012. They’ve delved once again into the world of travel adjustment, this time with the 44 and 55 forks, which offer 30mm and 40mm of adjustment respectively.

Called STA, or Switch Travel Adjust, Marzocchi’s new hydraulic system is said to work completely independently from the damping. The lever is easy to actuate and gives a firm but smooth click into place. Flick the lever and the fork will extend, with no need to pull on the bar.�

E*thirteen

Chain retention specialists e*thirteen were showing off their reworked range proudly. There are new wheels and pedals but it was the TRS+ dual-ring guide that caught our eye. This can be used with or without a bashring due to the shape of the lower guide. The lower roller is stepped and made from a stealthy plastic that should keep things nice and quiet. There’s no word yet on pricing.

Check out our image gallery for more from the�Core Bike and The Bike Place shows…

SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, CA (BRAIN) Jan 26, 10:53 MT— Registration has opened for Interbike’s IBD Summit, to be held at April 17-20 in Monterey, California, in conjunction with the Sea Otter Classic. The IBD Summit will feature speaker-led sessions on topics including current consumer behavioral trends, tools for improving profitability and insights on how progressive retailers can reach beyond their current enthusiast customer base to find the next bicycle consumer.

Trek’s race department is heavily tasked. This six-man team must support the company’s professional race teams and individual athletes, and use those programs to test new products and make existing products better�–�because at Trek, they race what they sell, and sell what they’ve raced.

The team, who are a mix of engineers, ex-racers and mechanics, work out of a 3,000sq ft corner of Trek’s massive 205,000sq ft headquarters in Waterloo, Wisconsin. Every single one of the company’s sponsored bikes runs through this ‘Race Shop’, from those used by K-Swiss triathletes, the C3 gravity program, Trek World Racing and the new RadioShack-Nissan-Trek road squad, to privateer athletes and outfits, like the new ODI-Trek squad.�

Between them, these teams require roughly 1,000 frames per season, which range from the new carbon fiber Session 9.9 downhill bike to the super-fast Speed Concept triathlon and time trial machine, and everything in between.�

Slick colour scheme for the new�RadioShack-Nissan-Trek Speed Concepts

The Race Shop was founded due to pressure from Lance Armstrong for better products during his Tour de France reign. “The starting point was the Lance rise, and what we needed to do to support that,” said Mark Andrews, the department’s road and triathlon engineer. “Having dedicated resources to support teams became a huge asset.”

For years the race department was part of the Advanced Concept Group (ACG) and run entirely by Andrews and Scott Daubert, who then served as Trek’s ‘Lance liaison’. The ’shop’ was just a small corner in Trek’s prototype lab. Then, when Trek took on full equipment support of Astana in 2008, the department grew and the true Race Shop space was created.�

The Race Shop has four work areas for building bikes

“We’ve always been best-in-class, with dedicated outdoor support and dedicated indoor support for our race teams that’s superior to our competitors,” said Ben Coates, Trek’s former road team liaison and current road product manager. “It shows, at least to us, in the support and happiness of our athletes.

“In 2008, we signed up for Astana, and we were full clothing, full bike, everything, and it was a huge undertaking. At the end of that year John Burke and Joe V Vadeboncoeur, Trek’s vice president talked about expanding our racing presence. We spent a bunch of time identifying what would limit us from doing it properly, and the dedicated space and people were the two hurdles that we had to overcome.”

The Race Shop has quite the pedigree�

While the department was founded to support Trek’s headline road team, its directive�– to be on-time and on-target�with race team support that’s second to none – transfers to all of the company’s sponsored teams and athletes. The expansion of the Race Shop allowed Trek to take on Martin Whiteley’s Trek World Racing outfit and the C3 gravity program in 2010, and in 2011 a second top-tier European professional road team, in the form of Leopard-Trek.�

“The additional teams were only possible, and successful, because we set this place up to support them,” Coates told BikeRadar. “You hear about a lot of teams having the disaster of not getting enough bikes fast enough, or new paint schemes, or new product, or stuff like that, and we really don’t have those problems.

The department has its own CNC press and lathe

“Mark has a great connection with the manufacturing group and this room really operates as a leverage point. Ray Waxham, mountain bike teams technician, Vance McCaw, C3 technician, Matt Shriver, team liaison and Scott Daubert can walk up to anyone in the building and say, ‘I need something’, and then use their resources in this room to leverage our external�to the Race Shop but still within Trek�resources to supply and fulfill all those needs.”

Making all of this possible are Trek’s on-site engineering, product management and ‘halo’ product production teams. Without that last resource�– the on-site carbon factory�and custom metal production�–�Trek’s race team support could never be as successful. Managing a similar Asia-based program would be harder, and infinitely slower. “In the event that we have an issue, it’s not just four guys back here in a room trying to solve it,” said Coates. “It’s a ‘four guys who have the run of the company’ kind of deal.”

One of the Race Shop’s prototype aero downhill wheels

Of course, it’s not all about custom products. There’s plenty of more menial work to be done, too. “Simply putting the bikes in boxes can be a huge challenge,” said Coates. “Making sure they’re all painted properly, sized, have headsets in them or any other parts, screws, nuts and bolts, and all that, is really what this place does; it makes sure that we deliver on time, on target, and that the support is second to none.”

Case in point: the day�BikeRadar�visited the Race Shop, Matt Opperman and Jon Rourke, the head mechanic and team manager from Subaru-Trek, were there to pack and ship all of their team’s equipment for the first UCI World Cup mountain bike race of 2012 in South Africa.

A Subaru-Trek Superfly ready to be transported to South Africa

The fun stuff

It’s not all spinning wrenches and packing cardboard, though. The Race Shop facilitates all kinds of special team projects. It’s a playful environment and you can tell Andrews, Waxham and McCaw have a fair amount of fun doing their jobs. Recently, Waxham made some custom horizontal dropouts so he could build Frank and Andy Schleck a pair of fixed-gear�Madone training bikes.�

“They dropouts are actually from our T1000 track bike,” he said. “And it allows them the Schlecks to have a bike that fits just like their race bike, but have a fixed-gear training tool. We did two 58cm bikes for them in the same team colors; they were kind of cool looking once they were built up. Those are the little side things and little tweaks that we’ll do to production stuff, if there’s a request.”

The Schlecks’ custom Madone dropouts

The engineers also build their own custom projects just to stay sharp and creative. Andrews is known for his custom bikes for his two girls, and Waxham has become interested in the fixie scene. “It’s great to be able to have stuff at your fingertips,” said Andrews. “Ray has been doing a lot with fixies and belt drives. I like the kids’ bikes. It’s just, ‘I want to try this’ type projects. Anyone can make a regular bike but we like taking it to the next level. Like, we did a bike for Shaun Bradley, who’s 7ft 6in, a few years ago.”

Other projects can range from prototyping shock linkages for the gravity teams�– Ross Schnell needs these because he runs RockShox rear shocks instead of the stock Fox dampers – to playing with different derailleur hanger materials. Recently, the Race Shop played a part in the Madone 6.9 SSL’s swap from an alloy to carbon front derailleur boss, as well as other odds and ends like this.

One of Andrews’ pet projects

Andrews built this mini carbon hardtail for his daughters, who’ve since outgrown it; those cranks are carbon and just 145mm long