Phew, by the power of airport internet, jet lag, and many battery pack charges, here’s the second and final instalment of new things spotted at Sea Otter. Look out for more interviews and bike checks to come! Maxxis AspenAspen ST The Aspen ST for short track racing, and the Aspen, are now available in a 170TPI team edition, instead of the usual 120TPI. PNW PNW were teasing a potential limited edition purple dropper, showing their new CNC’d stem (available as 32 or 40mm), and their new 31.8mm handlebar (with the grey grips). The bar is designed to have the same feel as the 35mm bar. Also on di ..read more

The new Saracen Myst uses a combination single pivot, shock link and brake linkage, all made viable by the move to a shock tunnel seat tube design. Here are the edited highlights from Saracen’s press release: Saracen launch new re-designed Myst platform This is the biggest update to the frame since its inception in 2010 with a lowered shock and centre of gravity change, braking characteristics and suspension kinematics all integrated into the new design. Development on this new frame design started back in 2019 with the Madison Saracen Factory Race Team. Focusing on weight distribution, brake ..read more

The second World Cup of the year took place in Brazil. Here are the results, race reports and a highlights video from Araxá. XC World Cup Araxá: results Race reports and photos courtesy of Warner Bros. Discovery Sports: 2024 UCI CROSS-COUNTRY OLYMPIC WORLD CUP: BATTEN AND ANDREASSEN TAKE XCO HONOURS IN ARAXÁ Two adrenaline-pumping elite UCI Cross-country Olympic World Cup (XCO) events rounded out the 2024 WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series double header in Brazil in style this Sunday, as the USA’s Haley Batten (Specialized Factory Racing) and Simon Andreassen (Cannondale Factory Racing) r ..read more

Another lap of the stands at the Sea Otter Classic in California, another round of new things. Some are new and available now, some are still to come, and some are still prototypes under development. We’re not done yet, and there’ll be more bike checks, interviews and other things to come. Stay tuned. Cane Creek Let’s start with the stuff you don’t really need but possibly want: a silver edition of their EE brakes (half the weight of a Dura Ace set) joins the line up. OK, it’s road, but look at it (and its multi-coloured siblings might be enough to tempt you to ride road bikes with terrifying ..read more

Having bought the Kona brand from the founders just two years ago, owners Kent Outdoors have announced they are abandoning the bike market altogether and have put the Kona brand on the market. Kent Outdoors owns a large portfolio of 15 outdoor brands with a specialism in watersports. The alarm bells first began to ring this week at the Sea Otter Classic event when Kona employees were seen taking their stand down and leaving the site just a day after setting it up. One insider, who wishes to stay anonymous, told us Kent believe the global bike industry is unlikely to show signs of recovery for ..read more

You may recall that last year we reported on Tom Pidcock’s new XC race bike from Pinarello. Today that bike is now officially on sale to the general public along with it’s hardtail version. Here to refresh your memory is that story. Pidcock’s new Pinarello Dogma XC revealed But essentially it’s a full on XC race bike, for actual racing. You could ride it on your local trails for fun, if your idea of fun is having a bike that takes efficiency over comfort to new, spine thumping levels. As well as coming in hardtail or full suspension shapes it comes in just two model levels of expensive and ..read more

Sea Otter, the massive bike event in California that combines expo, racing, camping and a lot of bike love, gets underway on Thursday. We popped in to collect our media passes and did a quick walk around while folks were still setting up their stands. Here are some new things that caught our eye – with what details we could glean as slightly stressed brand managers did their best to build stands and unpack products under the hot sun. Look out for more news in the coming days as the event kicks off properly. TRP RSO5E Rotors These have the same thickness as other TRP rotors, but have been lase ..read more

The annual Sea Otter Classic race and expo is the traditional new season starter event. Based in California it attracts racers and some of the world’s biggest bike brands every April where they get the chance to show off their new bikes and bits in the real world for the first time. We have Hannah out there at the moment and she has pointed us towards some unsettling developments with the Kona stand, which after setting up shop on Tuesday was seemingly disassembled on Wednesday with apparently no comment from staff as to why they were leaving the site. The bike industry trade website BRAIN is ..read more

The Forestry 450 involves covering 450 miles exclusively on Forestry England’s cycle trails. You have between now and the end of October. I f and when you complete the task, you’ll get a medal to show off and a chance to win a prize bundle worth £1,000. You may have heard of the Rapha Festive 500 road cycling challenge thing (“500 kilometres. Eight days. December 24-31”). We assume this new Forestry 450 takes more than a little inspiration from it. Forestry England press release: Gear up for the ultimate riding adventure: Forestry England unveils Forest 450 challenge Are you eager to enhance ..read more

New Bikestuff Day is back! Here’s the most interesting stuff in our inbox this week (plus a quick debrief as to all the stuff that was announced last week) RockShox press release: Product Announcement | RockShox Psylo, Domain, Rudy ISOLATOR DAMPER With a nod to the premium Charger 3 damper found in our Signature Series forks, the all-new Isolator damper utilizes a shim-based, spring-backed Internal Floating Piston (IFP) damper to give riders a consistent and predictable feel throughout its entire travel. Isolator’s three-position Compression adjustment (Open, Pedal, and Firm) means that when ..read more