Gettin' all brand new on us...

Dirt magazine is quite possibly the best mountain bike publication around these days. The best photos, the best articles and most in depth product testing and gossip to keep us bike geeks salivating. It only seems fitting that they keep up with the joneses and revamp their website. 4130 in the house!

Spy Photo Numero 2

These pics are coming to you courtesy of sicklines.com. It shows Steve Peat's new 07 Santa Cruz V10. Check out the altered seat tube mast and different style of hydroforming in the top tube.

Sanjay will be M.I.A

Staying in south america till May 3rd.
Hey all,

So yesterday I made some slight changes to my travel plans. Instead
of heading back to the states March 28th I decided to stay another 5
weeks and come home May 3rd (the change was only $130 so I did
it).
This puts me back in the states very late Thursday night before the
Fontana National. I´ll see you all then.

For now I plan to get my Hero Honda Passion all fixed up from the
last 9400kms I put on it heading south to Ushuaia and back. When
I´m done fixing her I´ll head north and definitely check out Peru and
Bolivia, and depending on timing maybe hitting up one or a
combination of either Ecuador, Paraguay, Colombia or Brazil.

Right now my plans for after Fontana (if I do it) are to do a 14+
week roadtrip with some Canadians. I plan to head up to Whistler on
a Greyhound, then straight to the east for races in Bromont, Ste.
Anne and also the US Open. Then back to the west for Crankworx
and a Canada Cup on Vancouver Island. Somewhere in all of this
mess I´ll take a flight back and forth to Vermont for the US
Championship race.

Should be fun, and hope to see you all at some point.

Sanjay

I found something!

So I have been digging around trying to bring you some good bits of info from deep within the bowels of the bike world. I found a post from Dylan Dean that the UCI will announce the alternate location for the U.S. World Cup. They plan on breaing the news tomorrow so we will keep our ears to the rails and try to get it to you as fast as possible. Ohh if you get the chance, give Dylan a big congrats on his new job at Nema. As for Sean at Protec, congrats on the wedding the shoes were "fly!".

"Ripped from the Headlines"

Well at least borrowed from Dirt's site.
And I quote: "Well here you go, here is the first exclusive look of Brendan Fairclough on his new Honda, with all his new kit, flat pedals and all. We have plenty more to come, this is just a teaser. We’ve had photographer Victor Lucas out shooting for us down in Southern Spain for the last couple of days. Look for the complete exclusive story and photos in Dirt 63."

Mad stealinz yo!

In his own words.

Shutterbug: Damian Breach is featured over at the Littermag site in a slide show presentation of his work from 2006, accompanied with audio commentary. Its good to see a photographer of his caliber receive the proper recognition. Click the link in the left to "see" and "hear" from Damian. The pic above is team rider Matt Slater winning the Virginia State Championships

CrankWorx in Colorado?

Crankworx Colorado at Winter Park Resort... Two weeks before Cranworx in Whistler!
July 5th. - 7th.

Air Downhill
Super D.
XC
Slopestyle
Slopestyle Big Air

This is an official Crankworx event... Huge pro purse, huge slopestyle course, BIKE magazine will be covering the event.

This tidbit may self destruct so don't go buying plane tickets yet. We will bring you more info as we dig it up.

Meet the Athertons.

Animal Commencal Team Kit 2007

Animal are proud to roll into their 20th Anniversary year with the formation of the new Animal Commencal international mountain bike team and enter a new chapter with long-term team riders Dan, Gee and Rachel Atherton.

The UK freesport clothing brand is excited to unveil the 1st pictures of the new team race kit designed by Animal’s in house design department. Inspiration for the kit was taken from Animal’s original zebra stripe Velcro watch strap of 1987. As part of Animal’s 20th anniversary, selected team riders from pro teams across board and bike sports will carry exclusive zebra graphics. To complete the look Animal’s design department has generated the entire team look including, the Animal Commencal logo and bike decals. Over the forth coming weeks expect to see all new team truck designs, Dan Atherton’s helmet, posters and post cards.

Commencal’s passion for the sport coupled with their bikes world class performance and individual styling made the link with Animal an obvious choice. Animal sponsorship manager Steve Kitchin (founder of the Animal Mountain bike team in 1995) added “Dan, Gee and Rach joined the Animal program in 2002 as juniors, over the last four years they have taken the Animal team to a new level of International competition performance and freeride action. The Animal Commencal team is a perfect partnership and we look forward to moving into future with the Atherton’s in what promises to be their greatest years so far”

Look out for the team at the UCI World Cup, International freeride events and UK race circuit. Follow their progress at www.animal.co.uk and www.animalcommencal.com

The Animal website has been updated with the latest team images, the site is gender specific so you will need to click into the girls site to find Rachel.

Santa Cruz confirms new DH bike in da works.

Remember that crappy scan we brought you a while back about SC's new proto DH rig Peaty will be riding, well here is the juice from the source.

About that Downhill Bike
Speaking of the Syndicate, there have been rumors floating around about a new Downhill bike.

Well, they are all false. Nothing to see here. Move along.
Okay, we fibbed. There IS a new downhill bike in the works, but don’t go expecting to order one anytime soon. Really. Like, seriously, not a snowball’s chance in hell of even trying to order one before the end of this year.

This is a prototype race bike, and it’s going to be raced this season by Syndicate riders Steve Peat and Nathan Rennie, as well as the MBUK squad consisting of Marc Beaumont and Will Longden. As for the bike, it’s an evolution of the current V-10 platform, with a major emphasis placed on shaving weight. Between a new carbon fiber upper link, some super-svelte new dropouts and completely revised frame tubing (everything has been gone over, and the only parts shared with the existing V-10 are the seat and chainstay yokes), the new chassis sheds more than a pound over the old one. It also features some revised linkage rates and sits higher in its sag point for a livelier feel.

So, now you know. But remember, this bike is a LONG way from being ready for production.

From SC's Monthly Newsletter

Tune in...

Drop it likes it hot!

Tune is a german company that makes some real eye candy for two wheels. The make a few cranks, hubs, headsets, bars, bottle cages and the like. They really tend to lean to the roadie and XC crowd but are making some DH specific products this year. I will be testing out a pair of cranks soon and will let you know how they ride. If you are interested in give "Marvelous" a shout.