Hot Off the Press: Spec'd 29 Stuff

The entire industry has been using the Sea Otter Classic in Monterey as a de-facto new product launching area. It's crazy how important this event is for the Big Boys these days. If you don't have something ready for the Otter, it's probably not going to be ready for INTERBIKE. Spec'd took this op to announce and show some new stuff including a bike, wheels and tires. If you quicksearch around, you can see real live pics of this stuff instead of the .pdf-stripped images that I pulled for you to check out. I haven't seen ANY of this in person and can't really vouch for how it's going to hit, but knowing Specialized, it'll be worth checking out.

(By the way, a friend of a friend beat Weir in the DH at Sea Otter. Nice work Curtis!).

Here's the new Stump 29'er. Spec'd just sent our a press release about it. They said a bunch of good stuff about it. No way. Last year, they poo-poo'ed the 29'er thing when we asked about when they would come out with the bikes. Now they realize that this goofball, inbred industry is just selling more bikes to the same bike people over and over again and they should get in on the racket. Giant will be on-board next year... Keep those trends comin'! WOOHOO!

They also have a new mtn wheelset that's supposed to be sub-1400 grams in 26". THAT'S light. No word on when this stuff will hit the public. Wait, late Summer 07 for the wheels at $800. Not bad. DT stuff mostly. I'll try to get some inside info.

Also on deck are some 20/25mm thru-axle wheeliedeelies from Roval. They are E5 rims but a bit more stout for big boy use. It's nice to have an option for the 25mm stuff and these will probably come on the 08 Sworks bikes. Going 20 to 25mm thru on a single wheelset will solve a lot of problems for the travel-bike set regarding getting involved with the new E150 fork on the Enduro SL. We'll see how it goes. We won't see 08 stuff from them until August (Salt Lake this year) and I'm sure we'll see additional pressure to bring these suckers in. Since Easton has been crap on delivery this year, we'll probably see them in the store anyway. Looking good. Oh, the name is Roval XC Race and Roval Traversee with an accent over the second-to-last 'e.' (How to type that?)

On deck for later this year, we have some new tires as well. Sauser AND Ned get their own tires it appears. July 07 will see two versions of the SauserWind tires, both in a BEEFY 1.8" version. Hmmm. I wonder how many I'll buy. Oh yeah, none. The 2Bliss version of this tire is tubeless (no way) and is sub-500 grams with flat protection. Not sure what that means, but it's not an Armadillo tire. Race weenies UNITE! Or UNTIE! Whatever you need to do...

The other tire is named after Ned 'The Captain' Overend. If it's not, I feel stoopid. This is a bit more reasonable 2.0 tire in Sworks, Armadillo and regular Sport versions. This is something I'd run just in the hopes that Ned gets a few bucks extra if I buy 'em. Hear that Ned?

I've been pretty happy with the current tires from WTB (sponsor) so I'll be hard-pressed (or is that hard-up) for new tires any time soon. I hope WTB doesn't get mad that I mentioned Curtis 'Bucky' Beavers beat WTB employee Mark Weir in the downhill at Sea Otter. Maybe I shouldn't have just typed that again...

3 days until 24 Hours of Vail Lake... Laird sent me an email saying 'the course is in GREAT shape.' Weather is calling for some rain on Friday which should knock down the dust and make the trails PERFECT for racing! Getting excited!