Randoms Round 3: Dario's Treasures
We're in the thick of it here at the Sea Otter classic, and as per usual there's no shortage of interesting bits and bobs to pull out of the ocean of booths. We've been cherrypicking some select pieces for standalone stories, but there's plenty of good stuff that gets left in the eaves for these roundups. Here's my first batch from the show, with plenty more to come.
Duke is a french company specializing in high-end wheels and hubs.
Their higher tooth count hub has 90 points of engagement.
The hub uses one spring-backed ratchet, as well as one fixed to the freehub body.
This gravel/all-road rim uses an unusually fat bead to help with aerodynamics.
Colors aplenty.
Duke's downhill rims are used by some of the Commencal World Cup teams.
X-Fusion is working on a 38mm diameter enduro fork with 160-180mm of travel.
As well as a dual-crown jobber.
The pertinent details.
Carnage.
This goose waddled up to me and whispered my social security number into my ear.
A cutaway Push Nine.One fork.
They also had this 90's-inspired Yeti SB160, with an almost perfectly colormatched ano kit.
Shimano and SRAM wombo combo.
Little damper peeking out.
Wheels Manufacturing is toying with the idea of a crank, pedal, and bashguard in the near future.
The crank would be focused around shorter sizes, to help with specific bike fits and preferences.
Candy at the Project321 booth.
A somewhat suggestive saddle at the SQ Labs booth.
This custom REEB belongs to Tom, the founder of Outbound Lighting. It sports 120mm rear travel, paired with a 180mm fork.
Peep the bolt-on skidplate. And the sticker.
White VHS looks good.
A dreamy titanium hardtail at the Reform / Landyachtz booth.
Reform/Landyachtz
Reform/Landyachtz
Fancy new DH saddle from Prologo, featuring the world champ's signature.
As well as some new trail bike saddles.
Y'all think this is my saddle angle.
Normalize putting your homie's face on your tee shirt.
This little brick is a GPS tracker that GasGas uses to track lap times, complete with throttle, gearing, suspension, and braking information.
All the data feeds into this little computer and is accessible via an app. It probably wouldn't work as well in downhill due to the tree cover, but the concept could be adapted.
MacGyvered AirWiz situation.
This appears to be a brand based on a head angle.
Tactic is a new brand, featuring a platform pedal and some high-end alloy handlebars.
Before.
After.
Chillest dog at Sea Otter award.
For all the syrup sippers out there.
Braydon Bringhurst's custom Canyon Spectral slalom bike had graphics generated from his daughters' drawings.
Cute.
Peep the mega stack, riser bars, and 10mm rise crown race.
The artist inspecting her work.
And the stoked recipient.
Moo.
Bikepacking-BMX-Altbike-Commuter-Core. Kyoot bikes with some unique whips.
Crankbrothers is releasing a cleat fitment tool, that works with all cleat standards out there.
It helps hold things in place and sight the fit as you install.
The wings off to the side are to measure depth on the cleat channel so you know how many spacers to run.
Calming scene at the Scor booth.
Ahh.
A real photo of Mike hacking your Pinkbike account.
Author Info:
Must Read This Week
Sign Up for the Pinkbike Newsletter - All the Biggest, Most Interesting Stories in your Inbox
PB Newsletter Signup
Anyone with a CNC machine: We should make a Pedal..
Bro at the Bar: You SHOULD make a Pedal!
That's just a OneUp stem... I don't think it's particularly ugly.
We’re also building a turnkey GR86 rally car (Matt, founder of Outbound Lighting) that’s pearly white with orange side mirror and rally gold wheels, so this was built to match, down to the full width underbody skid plate with ISCG tabs on both sides of the shell for support. The key was rally suspension inspiration, where they rely on tons of negative travel and insane LSC so the dampers support the car on big landings, same idea here except bikes have so much less unsprung mass we can’t rely on negative travel, but can use the damper and HBO with a short rear so this bike still feels good on heavy impacts, only really hurts it in flat chundery stuff where you just need to ride more actively, like you would on a hardtail.
If it was a great idea I feel like any non-zero number of companies would do it, but I freaking love it. Raced Trans New England Enduro on it blind and it felt like the perfect choice.
I had a '92 Klein Rascal that was black with a mix of silver, black and purple anno parts. Wheels were black XT hubs, alternating black and purple nips, silver Araya RM20 rims. Had a purple Ringle bottle cage. The story was somebody else requested the build, but couldn't pay. I walk into the shop that day with a pocketful. Guy shows me this thing and asks "So...do you want it?" I cannot resist, out comes the wallet.
The reform saddle (which is what their booth was, I believe) has been pretty popular around here and even showed up on the Rocky Mountain enduro team's bikes.
What the hell happened to them…