Want to ride the same tyres as a World Champion? Julien Absalon won the XC World Champs in 2005 on a pair of all-new Michelin tyres, and now they're available to the public. This is the XCR Dry², designed (as the name and appearance suggest) for dry, smooth terrain. It's part of Michelin's Expert range, and uses the company's Dual Compount technology - hard rubber on the inside and soft on the outside. The tread pattern combines small, closely-spaced blocks in the centre of the tread for fast rolling in a straight line with larger ones on the shoulders for cornering grip. It's all built on a supple and puncture resistant 127tpi casing. There's two versions, a 485g tubed one and a 685g tubeless model.
Another week, another new brand being brought into the country by Transition Bikes UK. These sturdy-looking singlespeed gubbinses are the work of Rennen Design Group. The tensioner is called the Rollenlager. It rather cunningly mounts to both the end of the hub axle (QR or bolt-on) and the otherwise-redundant derailleur hanger, providing a solid mount. The arm is machined from 1/4in 6061-T6 aluminium sheet and carries a moulded urethane roller running on two cartridge bearings. It'll work with MTB or BMX chains.
The other thing is the Rennen Single Cog Spacer. You might think that there's little innovation to be had in the sphere of spacers to run a single sprocket on a multi-speed freehub, but think again. The Rennen spacer has a threaded coupler on each side of the sprocket, so you can adjust your chainline by threading down one side and expanding the other. Then lock it all down with the supplied lockring.
It's become something of a cliché to comment that downhill bikes look like motorbikes without engines. But here's something that turns the tables by being a motorbike that resembles a downhill bike with an engine. The FX Bikes Adventure is a "super lightweight, high performance off-road motorbike". 55kg (110lb) might sound pretty heavy, but by motorbike standards it's very light - less than half the weight of a typical 250cc MX bike. And that's the chromoly version - there's a titanium one too that comes in just under 100lb. The manufacturer says that you can carry it on a car using an MTB rack, although we wouldn't try carrying two... It'll come in 50, 90 or 125cc capacities. And yes, those are mountain bike forks, brakes and wheels. It's an interesting idea, although it's probably also the trailbuilder's worst nightmare, particularly as the press release points out that it's light enough to lift over fences. More at www.fxbikes.com.
Silverfish, importers of lots of nice things, has added Intense Tire Systems to its portfolio. Lots of top racers use Intense tyres (Nathan Rennie, Chris Kovarik, Sabrina Jonnier etc), and tyres are one of those areas where the sponsor's product is occasionally surreptitiously swapped out for something the rider likes, so the fact that Intense tyres actually get used must mean something. The whole range will be coming to the UK (that's a 909EX in the picture) including a UK-specific line of FRO (For Racing Only) LITE tyres, combining Intense's "Super Sticky" rubber compounds with a lightweight casing. There's tyres for all occasions in the range. Prices run from £26.95 for the XC tyres up to £37.95 for the poshest DH race tyres, with various others in between. See the whole range at www.intensetires.com and UK-specific information at www.silverfish-uk.com.
The next title in the popular Vertebrate Graphics MTB route guide catalogue is White Peak Mountain Biking: The Pure Trails, by Jon Barton, who also did the Dark Peak volume. It contains 26 routes in the less well-known southern half of the Peak District, swapping the gritstone, rocks and moorland of the Dark Peak for limestone, woods and singletrack. As well as the routes, there are lists of the top downhills, climbs and singletrack plus a "Family Rides" section. We expect that the design and layout will be every bit as good as Vertebrate's other excellent books - this one's due out in late February. It'll be £14.95, although there's a £2 discount for orders before 20 February. Take a look at www.v-graphics.co.uk.
