Carbon Big Hits, Giant and GT Innovations

New products, badges, and giddy attendees packed into one creepy convention hall.

I recently made my ninth trip to Interbike.
Interbike, for those of you who are coming to the party late, is the annual bike industry tradeshow. Each fall, bike and component suppliers trot out their latest wares beneath the roof of the Sands Convention Center. It’s a week-long, dog-and-pony show of mind-numbing proportions, and while some journalists get jaded about sucking down the pre-packaged convention air and $10 hot dog lunches, I still get a stupid, goofy grin every morning I walk into the Sands.

I’m a geek and Interbike is a bike geek’s paradise.

Over the next few days I’m going to give you the blow-by-blow on the latest, and most significant, developments in the mountain bike market. Rather than show you a random shot of just one bike or part from a given manufacturer, I’m going to focus on larger trends and company directions…interspersed with plenty of non-sequiters. So, without further ado, here we go.

CARBON GOES ALL-MOUNTAIN
Sure, you know that composites are hot these days. People are happily coughing up $50 for carbon fiber water bottle cages, so it’s probably no surprise that carbon bars, stems and cranks (legitimate carbon products) have been in hot demand these lately. The big leap for 2006, however, is that more and more bike suppliers will be selling carbon full-suspension frames—and not your typical anorexic racing machines—next year, you’ll be seeing five and six-inch travel All Mountain frames made of carbon..

Scott USA's Ransom.

Scott USA’s Ransom LTD Carbon is perhaps the boldest specimen to date. The six-inch travel bike weighs in at 29 pounds and features a frame completely constructed from high modulus carbon (well, except for the chainstays). The Ransom LTD will roll into shops equipped with a Fox 36 RC2 fork, Mavic CrossMax XL hoops, Avid Juicy Carbon disc brakes and a custom Scott Equalizer rear shock. The air-sprung rear shock sports a platform damping setting, adjustable rebound damping, and three different shock settings (lock-out, 100 millimeters of travel and 165 millimeters of travel) which can be activated from the handlebar via remote clicker. None of this comes cheap--$6,499.99, to be exact, but damn, it’s an impressive-looking machine. While carbon frames will not become cheap any time soon (composite materials are in short supply—globally—and this means you can expect carbon parts and frames to become even more expensive over the next couple of years), there are some carbon All-Mountain frames within range of normal folks’ bank accounts. Case in point….

Ibis is back with this sexy carbon All Mountain rig.

The Ibis Mojo Carbon sports 5.5 inches of rear travel and is made completely (aside from its links) of carbon fiber….yup, even the chainstays. The frame retails for $1,899 (with the Fox RP3 rear shock) and tips the scales at just 5.8 pounds. Built up with XTR, complete bikes will weigh less than 25 pounds. Day-amn! The Mojo Carbon frame will also be available with a Fox DHX air rear shock (bigger can, more fine-tunable platform damping) for $2021.99
If the linkage here looks familiar (sorta Santa Cruz Nomad, sorta Intense 5.5, sorta Giant Reign, Sorta Iron Horse MKIII), that’s because Ibis has licensed the DW-Link suspension design from designer Dave Wiegle (Iron Horse and Independent Fabrications also license his dual link design). The downright, sexy carbon monocoque frame was engineer by Ibis designer, Roxy Lo. $1,899 for a frame and rear shock might initially sound steep, but it’s actually on a par (price wise) with similar-genre aluminum frames. Pretty impressive when you look at it that way.. The Mojo Carbon accommodates six-inch travel forks and will also be available in several complete-bike incarnations. Geometry is on the quick and cross-country side of things (70-degree head tube, 73 degree seat tube). A Mojo Carbon decked out with a Fox Float R rear shock, Fox Float RL fork, Shimano XT drivetrain and a smattering of RaceFace and Easton components will, to give you a better sense of things, sell for $3,229.99.

Specialized is also going big with their carbon offerings. The company is adding a five-inch travel S-Works FSR Stumpjumper Carbon to their line. The bike sports a carbon front triangle and aluminum rear end (kept firm and efficient via an updated “brain” rear shock).

Though Specialized, Scott and Ibis are the primary torchbearers in the carbon-All-Mountain parade, you can expect the trend to snowball in 2007….my off-the-record conversations with product managers at several bike companies revealed that other major bike companies plan on issuing their own long-travel carbon models in the next few years.

Why isn’t everyone already making long travel carbon bikes? The challenge lies in making carbon frames impact-resistant enough for true, balls-out trail riding. Composites have, historically speaking, had a somewhat spotty history when it comes to withstanding the kind of sharp impacts that come part and parcel with aggressive trail riding. Spokesmen for Scott USA and Specialized, however, contend that the technology has finally come of age—they’re plenty confident that the bikes will hold up to routine riding (and, in truth, there still are a shitload of old Cannondale Ravens, GT Lobos, Trek Carbon Fuels, etc., floating around out there….).

In short, carbon—it’s not just for tri-geeks anymore.

GIANT BICYCLES UNVEILS 3 NEW DUALIES
Last year Giant injected new life into their mountain bike line up with Maestro: a dual-linkage design that constituted a legitimate challenge to Santa Cruz’s VPP design. When Giant made this bold leap forward, they did so with three model lines: the four-inch travel Trance, six-inch travel Reign, and 8-inch travel Faith lines. It was a wise decision, as these three segments represent the bulk of the full-suspension market. For 2006, Giant is filling out the far corners of their line-up, so to speak, with cross-country and downhill racing versions of the Maestro design.

Enter Anthem and Glory.
Anthem is Giant’s no-holds-barred, XC race machine. Giant team rider Adam Craig had a great deal of input in the bike’s final design. Though there’s not a huge difference in suspension travel between the Trance and Anthem (the Anthem boasts 3.5 inches of rear travel via Manitou’s new S-Type rear shock), the bikes do ride very differently. The Anthem features shorter chainstays, a longer top tube and faster geometry than the Trance. There are three Anthem models ranging in price from $1,600 to $4,000. How much does it weigh? Here’s an indicator: the Anthem 1 (from the tiny 14.5-inch version to thge Shaquille-sized 22.-inch model) weighs less than 25 pounds.

Giant's Glory.

Glory, on the other side of the riding universe, is Giant’s dedicated downhill race machine. Glory is not meant to be a freeride rig—that’s already handled with Faith. Rear travel is 8.8 inches.

The Pistol is Giant's new, single pivot bike.

Last, but not least, Giant is introducing a new two-bike bike line dubbed Pistol. Price ranges from $800 to $1,100. The Pistols are five-inch travel, single pivot bikes equipped with coil-sprung rear shocks and disc brakes.

What about Trance and Reign? Not a whole lot of change there. Both lines feature a revised “pierced” downtube for a cleaner rear shock mount (see the images below). Giant has also responded to critics (such as myself) who felt that the Reign steered a tad quick and nervous for a bike with six inches of travel. Accordingly, the 2006 Reign features a slightly mellower head tube angle (a half degree shallower) and a slightly (12 millimeters) lower bottom bracket.

GT's new & improved, long-travel i-Drive.

GT REVISES LONG-TRAVEL I-DRIVE
Over the last few years, GT has refined their well-known I-Drive suspension system—ditching the bottom bracket eccentric system with a more simple design that still floats the drivetrain between the front and rear triangles.. The first incarnation of this was 2004’s 4-inch travel i-Drive 4 bikes. In 2005 they offered the simplified system in their All Mountain, 5-inch travel i-Drive 5 models (see GT ID5 TEST for a recent review).

With XC and All Mountain taken care of, the only segment of the GT line still harboring old school I-Drive were the freeride Flowta models. For 2006, GT is bringing their simplified I-Drive system into the freeride realm, with a new line of seven-inch travel bikes. The three-bike, i-Drive 7 models sport sealed main and bottom bracket pivot bearings, 12-millimeter thru axle rear dropouts (incorporating RockShox’s new Maxle system) and a host of freeride-worthy components. Pictured here is the top of the line, i-Drive 7 1.0

GT's singlespeed.

GT DOES THE 1x1 THING
Though you don’t hear people in the bike industry quacking on about the sales potential of singlespeeds the way they did in years past, the truth is there are still a hell of a lot of big-company singlespeeds on the market (including models from Surly, Cannondale, Redline, Bianchi and Kona). Well, in 2006, GT joins the Cult of One with their Ruckus SS. The lime-green singlespeeder features a butted, steel frame, RockShox Judy J3 fork (with handlebar-mounted lockout), and TruVativ Blaze ISIS crankset.It’s been a while since GT offered a relatively high end steel bike…interesting, to say the least.

GT GOES A’JUMPING
Dirt jumping is currently filling in as the bike industry’s latest great white hope—a niche that possesses the potential to seduce America’s youth into riding bikes well beyond the day that they receive their driver’s licenses. Whether this is going to happen or not is beyond my forecasting abilities. The result, however, is an interesting and evolving breed of 26er—part ballistic bmx, part trail bike, part testosterone marketing: behold the GT Ruckus DJ.

Admire its box chainstays, reinforced headtube, massive gussets, thru-axle fork, and Hayes hydraulic disc brakes. It’s basically a bike that gets sent to the principal’s office for lighting things on fire. It probably weighs a ton and its 69-degree headtube is going to make it a little weird and sloppy on climbs, but with a Big Gulp full of beer and a pocket full of Slim Jim’s in tow, it’s probably divine at the dirt jumps.

Carbon 29er wheels?

CANE CREEK JOINS THE 29er MOVEMENT
Well, it’s been about four years since 29ers took off and, in a sense, not much has changed. The ever-tribalistic mountain bike world is still divided into two camps: those who think 29ers are the cure to all that ails the universe and those who think 29ers are just plain stoopid. Personally, I think 29ers make a lot of sense for really tall riders and for folks who off-road tour, but that’s just the practical side of me talking. At any rate, there still are a decent number of 29er wheelsets out there—including models from WTB, American Classic and, now, Cane Creek.

For 2006, Cane Creek is offering two high-end 29er wheelsets: the Zonos Disc 29 and the Zonos Disc Carbon 29. The Carbon 29 (pictured here) is actually an aluminum/carbon hybrid. Cane Creek contends that the carbon overlay offers real performance benefits in the form of added stiffness and reduced weight. The 28-spoked wheels (front and rear) weigh just a hair over 1800 grams per set and retail for $975—the purely aluminum Zonos 29er wheelset weighs just 56 grams more and sells for $775.

STILL TO COME…
Well, that’s all for today. Stay tuned for news of the new in regards to Cannondale, Fox Racing, Manitou, Rocky Mountain, Marin and many more.