New 29"er Stuff: Coming Soon!

Well, if you had told me last fall that I would be this busy talking about new 29"er stuff now, I would have said you were nuts! But here we are and we have all sorts of stuff flying out of corners far and wide in regards to new products, rumors, and hints. Take a look at a few things I have rounded up for ya here..........



<===New Phil 135mm front hubs.

From Jeff Jone's "Blog" we have a look at Phil Wood's newest hub, a 135mm front for "wide" fork applications. Note: The Paul "Whub" is in the foreground.

I don't know, but to my eye, it looks like a regular Phil hub with a longer axle. I could be wrong, but I like the design of the Paul hub better. That maybe is just me though....





<===As seen on mtbr.com

Maxxis is having some prototype Aspin 2.1 X 29"er and Ardent 2.4" X 29"er tires tested in the field by test riders across the country. We've seen the Ardent befor and the new one is a wider version. I'm not a big fan of the Ardent, but the Aspin does look interesting.

Unfortunately, Maxxis isn't doing anything with tubeless ready beads, so even though they may work tubeless as is, I think it is a mistake not to engineer some better beads into the tire and just call them tubeless ready.

Looks like a great rear tire to mate up with an Ignitor or CrossMark front. At anyrate- Yay for more choices!





The long awaited W.F.O.9's are about to set sail!

Niner Bikes W.F.O.9, the technology laden long travel 29"er is about to hit the trails after a long delay. What is super cool is that finally a manufacturer has stepped up to back the production of the long hidden away WTB Kodiak 2.5 inch monster tires! Folks around here won't be interested much in these shoes, since they are really made for abusive, gnarly, high speed chunk riders. That and the projected weight is 1400 grams each! Still, they are the answer to a lot of folks prayers that live in technical, rocky mountainous areas.

Word is that the casings on these monsters are 62mm wide and that they are 66mm wide at the knobs. If true, these are now the biggest 29"er tires, taking away that crown from WTB's own WeirWolf LT tires.

Tidbits: I'm hearing Norco has a 29"er in their line up for 2010 that will feature the Gates Carbon Belt Drive System. (Obviously a single speed) and that Banshee Bikes is working on their own 5 inch travel FS rig which should be interesting given that companies gravity driven roots.

Finally, I hope to be getting some new information soon on some other interesting 29 bikes for 2010, so stay tuned here, and of course, on Twenty Nine Inches.