Friday News and Views

29"ers To Meet and Ride in the Mid-West in '07?: Yesterdays float of the idea on having a 29"er ride gathering here in the mid-west has garnered attention from individuals and companies that has made looking into the possibility of actually doing this feasable. I really can not divulge any details yet, but things look promising. There are a couple of things that I want to see happen before I can go public with all of the parts of the puzzle so far, so hang on. While that stuff is going on, why not leave a comment? Does this idea make any sense? What should it look like? What type of trails would you be most interested in riding? Should there be demo bikes for you all to ride to get yer 29"er on? Discussions or seminars? Low key or structured? You make the call, I'm listening.

24hrs of Moab Update: It appears that the quagmire of course conditions has continued to make a quagmire out of getting the "official" results done for the event. Interestingly, it has come to light that there was, in fact, an inclement weather policy in force at Moab that was later deemed insufficient. Now it appears that the policy for restarting a stopped race is to literally restart it as it began; with a LeMans style run up and the whole she-bang. I'm not privy to all of the specific rules, but it seems to me that if your course is torn up from heavy run off, that you shouldn't be out riding on it again. Just my opinion. I realize that there are alot of hopes pinned on a 24 hour event and alot of money wrapped up in throwing the party, but the trail conditions and sustainability of the trail should trump all of that. What's a 24hr event without a good course, right? Then again; I wasn't there, and perhaps Moab can sustain such a hit. I just can't imagine that the ruts and errosion talked about on the internet forums could have been a good thing. See these cyclingnews.com stories for more backround on the event.

Testing Updates: The Badger Dorothy goes back next Wednesday, so look for the detailed final review to come on this site and Twenty Nine Inches. After that we'll start back with the carbon fork testing including the Bontrager Switchblade Race X Lite and the Superlight Carbon from On One. Also continuing onwards with the XXIX testing and Project Upgrade on the same bike over the winter months.

Look for future products to be hitting the Guitar Ted Labratories soon including a Haro Mary XC frameset and a XXIX+G from Raleigh. More to come in ride reports in the future with bikes from Gary Fisher and Salsa hopefully. Lot's going on, so stay tuned!

Have a great weekend and ride yer bike! The snow will be flying soon!