More Cool Items from Interbike 2005

OKAY, MAYBE I’M A GEEK, BUT….I think Schwinn’s all purpose DBX was one of the coolest bikes at the show. Yeah, I know—no suspension to speak of, no chain guides, not an once of testosterone in sight.

With its lightweight, butted N’Litened tubeset and 27-speed 105/Tiagra components, the DBX is admittedly a bit more Shirley MacLaine than Charlton Heston (I can’t explain my analogies…it’s five in the morning and the coffee is weak today), but damn, it’s cool. Oh, and it has disc brakes—Avid mechanicals—to be exact. That mix of technology kinda-sorta makes it mountain-ish, right? No. I guess not.

Actually, the Schwinn DBX is a road/touring/mild offroad/occasional cyclocrosser/commuting machine….and that’s why I like it. Sure, it’s not sexy, but it’s actually damn useful—the kind of bike I could go for a long road ride on. The kind of bike that wouldn’t mind me beating it up on a logging road for a few hours. That kind of versatility counts for a lot in my book. The DBX looks like the kind of bike I’d actually build from scratch and that sort of thing always gets me hot and bothered (which now makes that Shirley MacLaine comparison particularly ill-fitting…ah well…). The DBX retails for $1,199.

ONE OF THE BEST DEALS of the show had to be Mongoose’s $1,799.99 Black Diamond Double. Consider the facts: adjustable rear travel (from 6.5 to 7.5 inches); Fox DHX-3.0 coil-over rear shock with Piggyback reservoir; Manitou Stance Flow Hex fork with 120 to 150 millimeters of adjustable travel and thru-axle; SRAM X-7 rear derailluer and shifters, Hayes HFX-9 hydraulic discs with Hayes new V7 rotors; Sun Single Track rims, 2.5-inch Kenda Nevegal DH tires, Titec Knockscoper I-Beam seat post; and TruVative Hussefelt cranks, bars and stem.

No, the Black Diamond double isn’t dirt cheap, but it is pretty damn affordable for a bike with this much travel and this kind of component spec. Besides, the frame is well-built and you can easily pay $1,800 for a frame and fork these days, so when you look at in that light, it’s a damn impressive price tag.

The Black Diamond uses Mongoose’s FreeDrive suspension sytem—a patented, floating bottom bracket system that borrows (philosophically, at least) a lot from GT’s I-Drive design. While the bike ain’t a sprinting, hill-climbing fool, the design does a good job of separating pedal inputs from bumps (we tested one this year, check it out at MONGOOSE BLACK DIAMOND BIKE TEST The adjustable ProPedal rear suspension is also going to be a boon on the ride back up to the top.

In short, the Black Diamond is surprisingly efficient for a bike with this much travel. Again, at this price point, it all adds up to a hell of a lot of bike for the buck.

KINDA MAKES YOU WONDER WHY RaceFace didn’t put out a chain guide before (considering their history of building freeride components), but it looks like the company spent a fair bit of time pondering just how they’d build one (always heartening to see).

With RaceFace’s long history of machining quality parts, it’s no surprise that the Diabolus is fairly lightweight. At 386 grams, the chain guide is damn feathery (by freeride standards). I took a picture of the device’s back side—you can see the company shaved quite a bit of material from spots on the boomerang that they felt weren’t critical high-strength-high stress areas.

The Diabolus chain guide, however, is more than just light—it’s also infinitely adjustable. The world of suspension is nothing if not varied. Accordingly, RaceFace’s guide features 50 degrees of articulation—a feature which makes it compatible with a wide range of frames while also accommodating chain rise in long travel bikes. The Diabolus chain guide fits 68/73, 83 and 100 millimeter bottom bracket shells and includes Race Face’s newly designed aluminum bashguard.

The chainguides themselves are made of “advanced materials” (whatever that means) which the company says feature high impact strength and wear resistance.. The upper guide fully encapsulates the chain—a feature that RaceFace says provides greater support than single contact point systems. The lower inside guide plate is anchored to the boomerang. Race Face says this guarantees that no dirt will work its way in and that the system should keep running smooth over the long run.

ON THE OPPOSITE END OF THE SPECTRUM…Sits RaceFace’s Cadence Crank. A compact road crank? Exactly. The Cadence is aimed at all those roadies who don’t feel like blowing their knees out on steep climbs, but aren’t willing to ditch their current drivetrain in favor of a brand new triple crank, bottom bracket, long cage rear derailleur and left-hand shifter.

The Cadence marks RaceFace’s entry into the road market (and highlights the fact that, damn, the 700c market is damn healthy these days). The Cadence mates with RaceFace’s X-Type bottom bracket system and is forged from 6066 aluminum for superior strength and fatigue resistance. Aesthetically, the Cadence still has that bolshy RaceFace I-Beam profile.

All the geeks out there will be pleased to learn that, yes, the crank has a very low Q-factor. No, I don’t know what its Q-factor is. Go home and watch Star Trek Voyager. The compact (50/36 chainring combo) crank weighs in at 820 grams. The company also produces a standard chainring version (53/39) that tips the scales at 860 grams.