Go Clipless

So, Who Was Miss GC 2006?

As I sit here, wishing that I had just returned from this year's Interbike with a camera full of booth babe pics, I reminisce over G-man's barking for the past year - "Get the Booth Babes up!" and ""Gwadzilla has been waiting almost a year for the announcement of the winner".  [Correction: Gwadzilla has been waiting for exactly one year, today...sorry buddy]

I must get-on with the get-on and pony up to my purpose - to let the world know who was the hottest and coolest chick in the world of biking in 2006.

With good intentions and even better pictures over the previous year, I somehow managed to be even more tardy in posting the results of the 2006 GC Interbike Booth Babe (IBB) Clippy. What’s a “Clippy”? It’s the most prestigious bike blogger award in the world…the GC version of a Grammy. Each year, we’ll be identifying the leaders in categories such as:

- Coolest New Product

- Eco-friendliest

- Best Booth Presentation

- Most Enticing Advertisment

- Finest Ride

- And, of course, Hottest Interbike Booth Babe

Keep your eyes peeled for more Clippy announcements throughout the year and the annual Clippies Unclipped awards ceremony. But for now, read on to find out who we’ll be crowing in Vegas this year [, virtually]…

Got Babes? Go Clipless does!

Another Summer gone.  Interbike has passed. Autumn colors are blooming everywhere. And the bike world is again looking to GC for the hottest darn contest north of Rio.

Last year, fans checked out our babes then commented on their homeliness; We listened and responded with our usual zeal. So if you don’t like what you see this year, go numb your sandbar. Or check out the crowning of the 2005 Interbike Booth Babe.

It is with great artistic pleasure that I announce the 2^nd Annual Go Clipless Interbike Booth Babe competition. What you’re about to experience would normally require a disclaimer about adult material, but instead, I’ll give you this, more as a response to comments from the Booth Babe Preview, yet a disclaimer all the same...

Full suspension 29er roundup

Thought I'd do a quick summary of the full suspension 29 inch bikes I rode at Interbike, as a follow up to the 'real deal' post from yesterday.

I rode six dual suspension 29ers that break out into two categories:

Cross-country race inspired

• Titus Racer X 29er
• Intense Spider 29
• Gary Fisher Supercaliber 29

Endurance or all-mountain style

• Niner R.I.P 9
• Ellsworth Evolve
• Turner Sultan

Read the reviews for the detail. A word of caution, however. They should be treated as 'first impressions' and not full on in depth reviews as I only rode a few miles on each bike.

Having said that, here are my stand outs in each category. In the cross country category, the Intense Spider 29 was the winner followed closely by the pre-production Titus Racer X 29er. The Supercaliber 29 would be the budget pick in this category.

In the endurance category, I have to go with the Ellsworth Evolve as the most inspired ride of the three. Although, the Niner R.I.P. 9 is an excellent choice and I really admire Niner and Chris Sugai (the founder) for their leadership in this category. The Turner Sultan is the only one of the six that I cannot fully recommend.

Full suspension 29ers are the real deal

There is no doubt in my mind that the tipping point for 29ers is near. All of the knocks against them are rapidly disappearing, while the advantages are obvious to those who ride them.

As I prepared for this year's Interbike I zeroed in on full suspension 29ers after several high profile announcements from manufacturers. While at the Outdoor Demo I rode six full suspension 29ers and a couple of hardtails, but my focus was most definitely on the dualies.

One of the big knocks against 29ers is that they lack the "flickability" of their smaller 26 inch cousins. This is largely due to the increased weight of the bikes as well as the longer wheel-based geometry of many of the early 29ers. It would appear that the niche manufacturers are listening, however, as they have really worked on the frame design and have paid particular attention to the geometry and it's impact on handling.

Guitar Ted and I talked about this at length...he said (and I paraphrase), "no longer are bike manufacturers simply taking a 26 inch frame and just lengthening the fork and stays. They are now building specific frames to take advantage of the unique handling characteristics of the 29er platform."

Nowhere was this more evident than in the new crop of full suspension 29ers that will become widely available in 2007. As I talked to the reps in their dusty booths before taking their new bikes for a loop, I heard over and over how they made the head angle steeper (as steep as 73 degrees) and was careful to keep the chain stay shorter (around 18 inches) and reduce the overall wheel-base. Some manufacturers went so far as to say that their goal for the bike was to make it handle similar to that of a 26er.

Just a few months ago (before I decided to head down the single speed route) I was dead set on a high performance dual suspension cross country machine. I rode the Specialized Epic, Cannondale Scalpel and Rush, and Trek Top Fuel; all very fast and light race bikes. But I have to tell you, after riding these 29ers they felt every bit as fast, while at the same time yielded the benefits (G-Ted - point me to the best post you have describing these - please - I don't want to reinvent the wheel, so to speak) of the 29 inch wheel.

I think the future is a 29 inch future. People say that there will always be a need or a market for both wheel platforms in mountain biking. I'm not so sure about that. The only thing that the 26er may have left over the 29er is weight...and for that it is only a matter of time as the technology continues to improve year after year. 29ers compared to 26ers is like Firefox to IE, Jet Blue to United, Target to Sears, or Toyota to GM.

Marla Streb's daughter loves GC

The elder statesman of women's mountain biking (an acurate but strange term, since she is far from old), Marla Streb was at Interbike with her new daughter Nicoya. Marla was signing posters along with the rest of the Luna Chicks while her husband was holding the baby. I told Marla that I tracked her pregnancy here on Go Clipless and I wondered if she would be willing to pose with her new baby.

It was nice to see that she remembered meeting me last year and that she was aware of my coverage of her on the blog. You see...even the celebs take a peek once in a while.

I gave Marla one of my cards, which Nicoya promptly swiped and began chewing. What a cutie.

And the winner is...?

Ok, ok, ok...before we can get on with this year's booth babe contest (the Vish swears it is coming this week) it is time to crown the winner of last year's contest.

J-Vicious searched high and low across the vast expanse that is the Interbike expo hall in search of the beautiful babe that you - fine GC readers - selected as the most deserving of the crown for 2005

And the winner is...

2007 Bianchi Rita 29er

The Rita is Bianchi's first new 29er since the early 90's. I love how they claim on their web site that they are not trying to brag, but after all they were making big wheel bikes back in the day. So I guess what I'm hearing you say Bianchi is that you swing with the trends and don't really stick with what you know is tried an true. I wouldn't be advertising that fact if I were you.

That notwithstanding, the Bianchi Rita does look like a nice bike. It's well spec'ed with the RockShox Reba SL front fork and WTB Exiwolf 29 inch tires. It's a little pricey for a single speed at $1400, but not having ridden the Rita, it's hard to say if the price is worth it compared to a comparably spec'ed bike like the Gary Fisher Rig at about $1200.

Update 10/21/06: Just noticed that Bianchi softened it's "we invented the 29er" tone a bit on its web site. Maybe we had an impact? I'm not really trying to pick on Bianchi...I'll have to make it a point to ride one so I can give it a real review. Maybe I can find one at one of the local LBS's or if Bianchi really did read this, then perhaps we can work something out?

Surly in 2007

You've all seen the Big Dummy by now. It's Surly's new cargo bike, built in partnership with Xtracycle that should be available in the Summer of 2007. Kind of looks like it is hovering there with no back wheel, huh?

Why do people love Surly so much? Are the bikes really better? I think it's because they seem like real riders experimenting with their own bikes and then productizing the results. The bikes seem organically developed and are not part of a master plan to fill niches. They clearly do fill niches, but it seems that it is more accident than planned.

Anyway, most of the updates to existing frames are with color. From the Surly Blog:

Crosscheck - green goes, Misty Mountain Grey is new, black remains
Karate Monkey - brown goes, Husker Blu is new, black remains
Pugsley - purple goes, new color is Metallic Thunderhead Gray
Instigator - black goes, new color is red Rocket
Steamroller - charcoal goes, new color is Maroon (which really looks like chocolate syrup)
Pacer - black goes - new color is Silver Bullet metallic with new graphics - super hot
Trucker and 1x1 stay the same colors for 2007

Current colors are still available until Spring. Now's your last opportunity. No, you don't get a discount.

Surly's also releasing a new crank-set and some other parts. You can find the details on the October 3, 2006 post on the Surly Blog (for some reason I can't link to the individual post.)

Post Interbike reality

Despite the rumors, J-Vicious and I made it back from Interbike. As usual we were smacked in the face with reality upon our return. I literally didn't touch the blog over the weekend as I arrived home to a house full of extended family. And since then it's been work, work, work. J-Vicious came to work with a shiner so I guess you can say he was literally smacked with his own sort of reality too.

Meanwhile, we still have tons more Interbike stuff to post about. Some of the highlights include;

• Photos - no where near as many as you will find on Blue Collar, but we'll get them up soon. I'll probably load them up to Flickr so they'll be fairly easy to sort through. Still have some organizing and renaming to do to make it easier.
• Lots of fun and wacky products seen on the floor.
• Some more bike porn.
• Two more bike reviews from Outdoor Demo that I promised earlier.
• Interbike Blogger Meetup.
• A few cycling celebs.
• The crowning of last year's booth babe contest winner.
• and of course, J-Vicious will have this year's booth babe contest together for your votes and maybe do it just a little different this year.

Retro cycling jerseys

The Retro Image Apparel Company makes cycling jerseys with images from classic advertisements, movie posters, and art work.

Metropolis is one of their newest designs.