January 31st, 2009

It’s been quite some time since Santa Cruz had a bike with 8 inches of travel in it’s range, arguably the ’sweet spot’ between full-on downhill and “all mountain”. So what’s this bike for? the answer can only be ‘a bit of this and a bit of that’ Seven inches of seatpost adjustment clearly points to the bike’s ability to climb, putting the seat at the same height as the Nomad, but dropping lower than the V10 to give plenty of clearance for hooning down any hill you’re brave enough to attack.
83mm bottom bracket and 1.5 inch headset and 12mm “Maxle” rear axle ensure stiffness when you’re pinning it though those techno sections.
The VPP suspension is handled with a carbon upper link pivoting on four beefy radial contact bearings, the lower link rolling on eight (count them… eight!) angular contact bearings being fed fresh grease though the handy grease port and protected further from the elements with additional labyrinth washers and lip seals
Pricing in the UK is a wallet sapping £2399 for the powercoat frame and Vivid 5.1 Shock, the goldy-orange anodized frame is £2599 with the same shock.
Expect to start seeing them under some lucky people from late May 09.
Full details can be found here
January 30th, 2009
Our favourite “does what it says on the tin” bike designer is on the move (or not, as he’ll still be working from the same garden shed) .. tune in on Monday for more details.
Good luck, Brant, it’s gunna be ace.
In the meantime, you can watch as people speculate wildly over at SingleTrack World
January 29th, 2009
More new stuff from Santa Cruz, The Driver 8 first in the gap between the Nomad and the V10. Info Over at Dirt Mag
January 20th, 2009

Santa Cruz Blur XC Carbon - Sell Your Children
It’s far too late to mess with a proper post about this but Santa Cruz have just released details of the new Blur XC. Surprisingly they’ve ditched metal entirely and gone with carbon, more details
here expect it to cost a *lot* (with the currently weak pound)

Bike pictured, in large 22.4lbs… not a fatty!
Update, UK pricing is £2,299, thank you! terrible exchange rate
June 14th, 2008

Our favourite ‘odd sized wheels‘ advocate Arleigh’s on the shortlist for this year’s Hell Ride.
Vote for her here as we all know nothing beats making a friend suffer.
June 10th, 2008
.. world collectively thinks “hey! they spelt that wrong”

June 4th, 2008
It’s official Swobo have hit the mainstream. Owen Wilson seen spotted somewhere in America having a nice pootle back from the shop on his Swobo Folsom.

(img via defamer)
May 1st, 2008
Bad news from over in California, one of the nicest online cycling personalities, Masi Guy had an enormous accident earlier in the week and he’s in bad way, his list of injuries is, sadly, very impressive.
a total nob slowed down in front of him at the SD velodrome last night and tim tried to go high and ended up hitting the boards at 30mph +. he sustained a concussion [he was out for 5 minutes], broken ribs, a few fractured neck bones and a mangled thumb
You can read more here or here.
Hope you get heal quickly, Tim.
April 24th, 2008

Brant sent me over a sample stainless steel chainring a couple of weeks ago, now I’ve had it on the 29er for a few hundred miles I’m happy to say it’s great, and set against my previous “benchmark” singlespeed chainring from Surly, I rate this one much higher.
Expect to be able to pick one up for yourself in a few weeks time for a bargain price of (Brant’s not said yet but somewhere in the region of £20-25)
From On-One