Minneapolis is always a good place to be. I’d say MPLS or minneapplepuss or whatever you wanna call it is the city with the strongest bike culture in these United States. Geno at One On One Bicycle Studio , Hurl at Car R Coffins Coffee Bar and Cykel Garage and so on, well ya can’t go wrong, even in the middle of a close-to-arctic winter. These guys make the rest of us look like pansies. I’m talking the whole MPLS community mind you. While MPLS has a luxurious system of bike paths as well as singletrack, just take a look at what we’re dealing with here on the ride home from a party at Angry Catfish, the latest in the Bikes and Coffee bizness. Solid, glaring, black ice…

Somehow I managed to not fall down on that ride home. This gave me a feeling of great self-satisfaction I’ll tell ya. Man’s got skills. But this piece is supposed to be about Frostbike, an annual mini-Interbike held at Quality Bicycle Products in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington. “Q” distributes bicycle parts to bicycle shops who then distribute the parts to you. They have grown from a few page catalog (1981) to one that is five inches thick and encomapasses two volumes. Here’s a display of the history of “Q” catalogs…

Many of QBP’s suppliers were in attendance. Salsa (A brand owned by QBP) showed off their line of Titanium hardtails, available in 2-six, 2-nine and cross. Sweet graphics lazer-etched into the downtube. Made at the Lynskey factory and retailing for $1800…

Salsa also showed a sweet rigid fork with a Maxle thru-axle. Here Ed from SRAM shows the fork and it’s required damping cartridge….

Speaking of Sram, they have a sweet new road kit for the budget minded, Apex…

I took a few photos mind you, not too many, so I’m just showing you a few things that I thought or someone told me were interesting. Like this Swingline Office Hauler garment pannier from Pacific Outdoor. You can put a fine suit in there and arrive at the office looking like a pro, as long as you have somewhere to change…

Lazer has a new helmet with an integral water feed device. Designed to cool your jets without getting water in your eyes.

The Hive has these sweet looking cranks that remind me of the old Grove Innovations design back in the day…

Ever look inside a Rohloff hub? Sweeeeeet….

And Andrea from Brooks showed off their sweet Oxford Rain Cape. While completely waterproof, it rolls up to take a very small space under your saddle. $300 retail…

The Surly booth is still the place to be. Although the prohibition on alcohol made happy hour patrons unhappy…

So those are a few things I saw at Frostbike. Here’s a shot of the QBP building. While miles from the city it is about as bike friendly as it can be…

Much like Minneapolis. The Midtown Greenway I rode home that one night has a very expensive bicycle and pedestrian bridge. Sweet Infrastructure stuff like this makes all the difference…

Bib and I wish you good day!

Thought I’d take a quick moment to introduce my newest test rig: Kona’s new-for-2010 Abra Cadabra. The Cadabra family–Abra Cadabra retailing for $3,699, Cadabra retailing for $2,799–sports the second generation (G2) of Kona’s Magic Link rear suspension, first introduced on the 2008 CoilAir. Kona’s martketing materials certainly make the G2 Magic Link on the Cadabra sound mighty interesting by providing 4″ of travel while climbing and 6″ of travel while descending. Here’s some information on Kona’s website about the theory behind the Magic Link design.

I’m pretty stoked about this bike for a couple of reasons; 4-6″ of travel that adapts to your needs automatically, the 69º headtube should be about right for the application, and the sub 30 lb weight could round this bike out to make a hell of a package.

So, how does it ride? Good question. As I’m sure you’re well aware, we’re in a bit of a holding pattern until our 20″+ of snow melts. We’re actually planning a Dirt Rag spring break trip to the deep south simply to do some bike testing.

For now though, I’ll just have to show you some pictures and specs.

The new 2010 FTM Carbon is a beautiful looking bike.  I should know because I have spent more time admiring it from my armchair than riding it. We had a bit of snow in these parts and the trails are a tad impassable due the 22” of the white stuff getting in the way.

The FTM features a curvy monocoque carbon frame with internal cable routing, which adds to the sleek look of the bike. Titus has added a couple of stainless steel protection plates to help keep the bike looking beautiful.  A large plate is under the downtube to protect it from rock and other trail derbies and the other plate is a chain suck guard on the chainstay.

The FTM has 135mm of rear wheel travel via a custom-valved  Fox RP23 shock.  Up front we have a tapered headtube that flares from a 1 1/8” to a 1 1/2”. The fork is a Fox 32 Talas  RLC with the 15QR system and the new FIT damper.

Hopefully the weather breaks soon and I get some saddle time on this steed.

For those folks who are curious on how a carbon frame is made, checkout the Titus Facebook page for some great pictures.

Hey, you might have heard,  we are buried in snow. Just in time for my new test bike to arrive. I might have been able to get in just slightly snowy ride in before this last big storm, but a few little things kept me off the new technical trail bike from Fisher, the Rumblefish. Little things my friendly neighborhood Fisher dealer would have handled for me, had I bought this locally. Instead I dusted off my mechanic’s skills with front and rear brake bleeds and installation of a new rear shock that didn’t leak oil from the control knob cluster.

So you want some ride impressions? Ummm, it sure is slippery on the way to the coffee shop.

If you want some real ride impressions, check out my blog from the Fisher press camp in Park City , UT in the fall. I know it won’t be snowy forever here, and pictures like this keep me going:

What else to say? How about a list of noteworthy attributes? E2 tapered head tube and fork, Fox 32 F29 1200 fork with 15mm thru-axle, and FIT damper, RP23 DRCV rear shock with ProPedal and Boost Valve, ABP rear end, BB92 bottom bracket shell, hydroformed tubes, 36t cassette cog, etc. More info at the Fisher website.

I won’t be waiting for the snow to melt, stay tuned for a snow ride report.

Snowed in.

I’m snowbound and dreaming of endless ribbons of singletrack with white-knuckle descents. My new test bike is a 2010 Cannondale RZ One Twenty 3, and as luck would have it, the east coast is buried under a couple feet of snow – and more on the way. So I’ll whet your appetite (and mine) with a rundown of the interesting features and a few snow photos.

The RZ One Twenty lineup features four versions (numbered 1 through 4) and are booked as “marathon” or “ultra endurance” trail bikes. All have 120mm of travel front and back.

Some of the more interesting specs include the 6061 T-6 Aluminum hydroformed front triangle, 3-D forged double butted seat tube with integrated bottom bracket and lower pivot. The RZ One Twenty 1 and 2 have the BB30 Si bottom bracket, models 3 and 4 do not. This one has bonus stickers.

Providing the squish up front is a Lefty Ultra and in back is a Rock Shox Monarch 3.3. Sounds like fun. I wouldn’t know…not yet anyway. I’ll keep you posted.

Cannondale is online at www.cannondale.com.

Weekly meeting after weekly meeting, I’ve been promising to get this done, but this morning our esteemed web editor said that he’s “counting on me” to write a blog and submit it today. The blog post based on my experience with the “new” Santa Cruz Tallboy. What to do? I have a few words written down, but not much, and the deadline for the full print article is right around the corner as well. Doh!

Let’s keep it short and sweet. The kids over at Santa Cruz have been delving into the “latest and greatest” of materials, carbon fiber. I’ll get into it more in the upcoming print article, but Santa Cruz tells me that this 29 inch frame is 2 pounds lighter than if it were made of aluminum. So what do I say? You’d be stupid not to! No need to discuss the pluses and minuses right now, this is my first 29er test ride under 30 lbs.

Let me give you an idea of just how much I’ve been procrastinating on this. I picked up the bike after Interbike’s On-Dirt Demo back in September, rode her in Flagstaff on the way home, and this post has been due ever since. This amounts to my incredible squandering of the immediacy of the internet, and for this I am sorry.

The ride however, was not sorry. In Flag, riding up mount Elden was certainly the proof to this low-cal pudding, as I was able to keep up despite the past week’s long workdays and longer nights.

After the hill comes Lower Moto, a technical trail if there ever was one. Rocks, baby, rocks. Big wheels sticking to rocks for awesome traction, yet the lightness and stiffness abounding as I carve the tiny spaces between the derailleur infringing rocks on the sides of the narrow trail.

Yea, I like this bike, it’s no wonder it’s the receiver of much hype. Let’s finish with this Justin Steiner shot of me stunting…

Mine is flat black, the best color, and has a XPX 29 kit. That’s mostly Shimano XT, a Fox F29 RLC100 and a RP23 shock. MSRP is $4874 this way, but a complete is available for as little as $3599. Frame price is $2350 before shock upgrade. Company website: www.santacruzmtb.com.