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2008 Specialized Stumpjumper - new design

Singletrack Magazine's got some great shots of the all new 2008 Specialized Stumpjumper. This classic full suspension bike lives on with yet another redesign. Many say it has borrowed from the Enduro design, but most noticeable is the new proprietary suspension design. Last year Specialized began producing it's own suspension components and I must say they do look like they have a very low-profile and therefore low-weight (I'm assuming).

Oh, it's carbon, has 120mm of travel, weighs just 23.2 pounds, and costs a million dollars, but it's a sweet looking bike.

2008 Kona Bikes preview

I'm officially declaring Kona part of the big four five bike manufacturers. That's right, their lineup of bikes is every bit as comprehensive as Specialized, Trek, Cannondale, and Giant. Sure we don't see their road bikes in the Tour de France - yet - but, Kona attacked the market from another angle.

Clearly most well known for their big hit bikes, Kona has really rounded out it's lineup in recent years. They've also shown that they can react to trends quite quickly as they were an early adopter of the 29'er and have fixies, cruisers, and commuter bikes - all very hot right now - in their quiver.

The Dirt Rag blog's got the goods on all that is new for Kona in 2008. Most notably for this 29'er cross-country aficionado is the expanded line of 29-inch wheeled bikes. Says Dirt Rag, "they now offer 4 models; one singlespeed, two hardtails, and a new 2.5” travel dually."

The Hei Hei 29 (pictured above) looks fast and is intended to be a lightweight cross-country dual-suspension bike. It's made from the same lightweight Scandium as the 26-inch Hei Hei and looks worthy of the race course.

Good stuff from Kona. Just need some more retailers to carry their stuff (at least here on the east coast) and they should see excellent growth for years to come.

Woodstock 707 review at Blue Collar Mountain Biking

I'm a man with caviar dreams on a blue collar budget...actually, not totally true, but I thought it sounded Robin Leach-esque. What I mean to say is that I've been doing some moonlighting over at Blue Collar Mountain Biking, helping out with a bike review. I've been knocking around on a Woodstock 707 full-suspension bike and recording my thoughts for the audience over there. It's a multi-part review and I just posted part two the other day.

For those that don't know, the Woodstock Bikes can only be bought online. So I am reviewing the bike and exploring the value proposition of buying a bike online versus your local bike shop. Additional posts will follow as this is a long-term review, but you should check out the first two parts now:

1. Part one - Woodstock 707 preview
2. Part two - Woodstock 707 value proposition

Up and coming band, Bat for Lashes, has video with bikes and creepy halloween costumes

I track a bunch of indie music blogs, but lately haven't found much I like for some reason. I would have totally overlooked Bat for Lashes if it weren't for the fact that the lead singer Natasha Khan was riding a bike in the video. It's a little creepy though since the rest of the band is dressed in Halloween costumes doing BMX stunts. Anyway, check out this video and not just because of the bikes, it's actually pretty good music. (Via Fuzznut)

By the way, new Interpol comes out tomorrow...

Why you better be watching the Tour de France, or at least DVR'ing it

If you don't, it will be gone. Maybe forever. The best we might be able to hope for is half-hour summary shows on ESPN 6 or whatever they're up to these days. Remember those days? It's either that or you'll be squinting at grainy images on YouTube hoping to catch a glimpse of some action. No Paul, no Phil. Just some crazy dude running after the peleton with a Canon SureShot in his hand.

I know, I know. You're over the Tour. You're sick of the doping accusations. UCI, USADA, WADA, who needs 'em. If you never see/hear these acronyms again it'll be too soon.

Do what I do...ignore it. I can't stand it either. I don't know what/whom to believe. So why bother trying? This is not a wishy-washy position either. I just want to watch some cycling.

Remember how the Tour started last year? After Basso and Ullrich were left out of it? It was actually pretty interesting. On any given day you had no idea what to expect. That's where we stand today. Shed your hang-ups about doping and you will find a very interesting race underneath it all.

So I for one will be DVR'ing the Tour and will watch as I have done in the past. You better be doing the same or you will screw it up for the rest of us, you hear?

Thank you.

P.S. It starts today, so get your lazy ass out of bed and press record.

P.P.S. If you don't like my reasoning here's 10 more reasons you may want to watch.

"There Goes an Asshole"

Iconoclasst posted this hilarious video up on Bikecentric. I love the casual lyrics. It's as though the singer is watching this theft unfold in front of his eyes, yet blames his neighbors. Funny on several levels, and yet tragic at the same time. Asshole.

It's a Go Clipless Photo Hunt!!

Do you see anything wrong with this picture?

Sloggi's beautiful bicycling butts on a billboard

Sloggi is well known for plastering underwear clad derrières on billboards throughout Europe. But during the Tour de France the ads become a bit more, shall we say, topical. Apparently the bicycling beauties first appeared in England during the 2002 Tour and have emerged for this year's prologue as well.

You can find more of the back story on both Quickrelease.tv and Velogal, but I know that you want to see more so to that end I must lead you to the b-sides my friends.

The secret of Swobo's success

Don't miss Tim Jackson's interview of Tim Parr, Swobo's founder, and Sky Yeager, product manager, if you want to know what makes this newly resurrected brand tick.

But for those of you wondering how Swobo maintains that cult-like following, the secret lies in this one quote from Tim Parr:

The Swobo brand is unique. It’s rare that a name can dissapear for 5 years, then come back stronger than it was when it was originally operating. Why? Because we represent an idea within bike culture, and not STUFF within bike culture. There’s a huge difference there that would take awhile to explain….so I’ll leave it at that. Our strategic advantage is that the bike industry (culturally) is fixated on stuff…and not ideas.

The man's a brilliant marketer, though I'm certain he doesn't see it that way. Brands like Swobo's aren't made, their lived. And that's the difference.

Lance Armstrong does Leadville, may choose to race after all

Is Lance Armstrong going to race the Leadville 100 after all? Maybe he read my letter. Lance, you know I wrote it with love, don't you?

You may remember that this past winter Lance Armstrong announced his attention to race the Leadville Trail 100 mountain bike race. Not to be out done by the former champion, Floyd Landis announced that he too, would race. No sooner did this happen, when it was learned that Lance had a, yet to be explained, 'scheduling conflict.'

Now it looks as though Lance may be contemplating the race once again. Lance's former coach, Chris Charmichael tells the story of how he, Lance, and another buddy, rode a 45 mile chunk of the course seemingly on a whim. I guess they just happened to be in the area all at once.

Anyway, despite how it may seem, I am a big Lance Armstrong fan and I would love to see this happen. Especially if Floyd joins in, though I think he'll need to do some serious training. It sounds like Lance is still an animal in the mountains.