Mountain Gear

This is one tallboy you can't guzzle, but Santa Cruz's venture into the world of 29ers with the carbon Tallboy is sure to instill a buzz.

For the past few seasons Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski's carbon Superfly 29er has hovered around the 21- to 22-pound mark, a respectable weight for an extra large bike with large diameter wheels. But tech breakthroughs have the rig now under 20 pounds.

If the podiums at the recent Mountain Bike Nationals in Granby, Colorado, are any indication, the hardtail 26-incher may soon be going the way of thumbshifters and beartrap pedals. The elite podiums in Granby were dominated by 29ers (both hardtail and full-suspension) and full-suspension 26ers.

Subaru-Gary Fisher team rider Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski began his mountain bike racing career in Winter Park, Colorado, just south of the SolVista Resort, the site of the 2009 and 2010 Mountain Bike National Championships. For all intents it’s a home course for JHK and his wife, fellow Subaru-Gary Fisher racer, Heather Irmiger, who each took home national cross-country titles this weekend.

Barry Wicks and Kris Sneddon of the Kona team came into the 2009 BC Bike Race with the recognition and confidence that follows all defending champions. In 2008 the duo proved to have had the strongest legs and best technical skills over the course of last-year’s seven-day race, which started in Victoria and finished in Whistler. This year, Wicks and Sneddon have been forced to play catch up — the duo finished second in both the first and second stages of the BC Bike Race to motivated Canadian riders Seamus McGrath (Jamis) and Chris Sheppard (Santa Cruz).

Giant Factory Team rider Adam Craig won the 2008 national championship cross-country race in Mount Snow, Vermont, using a single 35-tooth chainring and half of MRP’s System 3 Carbon downhill chainguide. That race underscored his and other top cross-country racers’ commitment to leave behind multiple front chainrings for a light and simple single-ring solution.

You’ve heard the rumors about SRAM XX. There’s been speculation about how many speeds it would have, what gear combinations would be available, how light it would be and what it would be made of. Now we have all the answers. XX is SRAM’s first complete off-road group, featuring an industry-first 10-speed mountain bike cassette and the first double-ring crankset from a major group manufacturer.

First seen in public at Sunday's Bump n’ Grind event in Alabama (round three of the Pro XCT Tour), Sam Schultz’s pre-production Gary Fisher full suspension bike is full of new features. The team ventured south to participate, and tucked in the race trailer alongside the team-spec Superfly hardtails and Procaliber 26-inch-wheeled, full-suspension bikes was a completely new, full-suspension 29er that incorporates the lightweight carbon of the Superfly, big wheels from the HiFi 29er, plus flagship design elements pioneered in the Trek line.

If you pay attention to how mountain bike development goes over at Giant Bicycles, you already anticipated the arrival of the composite Anthem X model. This is how it works at Giant: First they prototype a model, build the first production model in aluminum and then follow it up with a composite flagship after the design has proven itself to the consumer.

Editor's Note: VeloNews' new technical editor, Zack Vestal, comes from the Trek-VW mountain bike team, where he was the mechanic for three years and, most recently, the manager for two years. Prior to working for the team, he spent more than 10 years in the cycling industry, both behind a desk (briefly) and in front of a workstand (extensively).