Day 1 Randoms - Core Bike 2024
It's been two years since we last made the trip to Whittlebury Hall but we are back for the 2024 event to see what some of the UK's biggest distributors and brands have coming out this year. Here are some of the bits that caught our eye on day one.
Yeti's UK distributor Silverfish was showing off one of the brand's new DH race bikes, similar to the one ridden by Richie Rude last year.
The bike uses the Sixfinity suspension design first seen on the Yeti 160e, which has been adjusted to work on the new DH platform. Yeti says the goal was "to build the fastest Downhill Mountain Bike ever."
The bike forms part of the brand's special projects. Yeti says: "The effort and expense of Yeti Cycles Special Projects can often be irrelevant if they amplify stoke of our internal team and athletes."
We also got a first look at some updates from Michelin. First up were the front and rear specific E Wild tyres. The front option (pictured above) is available in 29" only in a DH casing and with a super soft compound.
The rear-specific option comes in 29" and 27.5" variants weighing from 1100 grams in a DH casing. These tyres were also showcasing what we were told is the new less aggressive yellow hot patch.
The Wild Enduro range of tyres sees a new rear-specific model with a faster rolling centre tread. We were told this also uses a DH casing in a 29" and 2.4" option. The claimed weight is 1225 grams. The model pictured above uses the new grey hot patch, but for those who want it, you can also get this in yellow.
Michelin also has some new front tyres, with the Wild Enduro MH being a harder conditions option. This model is available in both 27.5" and 29" in a 2.5" width with weights starting at 1300 grams.
There is also a softer conditions tire in the form of the Wild Enduro MS featuring wider spaced knobs than the tyre designed for harder conditions. This is also available in 27.5" and 29" but will be slightly narrower at 2.4". The claimed starting weight for this option is 1200 grams.
RRP was showing off the second generation of its ProGuard, which can use several different bolt-on adaptors to fit more forks than the previous version. For the second generation of the ProGuard, RRP adjusted the central area of the mudguard to ensure it could fit more forks and would not create clearance issues when forks bottom out. The update also brings some rubber patches on either side for a more secure fit and to stop any rotating or movement while attached. Pre-orders are available now with a price tag of £39.99.
While Hope made a big announcement about its new Carbon Cranks and TR stem, the UK brand also showed off some small updates to its HB916 enduro bike. The small tweaks bring compatibility with T-Type derailleurs, importantly with the addition of a lower guide pulley that reduces chain growth along the lower chain span.
The show build looked incredible with its green and bronze build. Other updates include a revised Butty Box and 10mm longer chainstays for the larger frame sizes.
The new bronze colour option is available across most of Hope's many component options.
Despite Brexit's best efforts, some Eurobike weirdness made its way into the Core Bike halls.
Princeton Carbon have created a new offshoot brand, P1 Race Tech, to launch a brand new set of lightweight wheels. The Singularis wheels have been developed and tested by Tom Pidcock and Pauline Ferrand-Prevot with both riders securing the World Championship titles with them last year.
The Singularis range has options for either a 26m or 30mm internal width rim. Using Industry Nine hubs the wheels hit the scales at a claimed 1,446g and 1,530g, dependent on rim width.
Silverfish were also showing off Ryan Gilchrist's Yeti special projects bike used at the Pump Track World Champs.
Ryan Gilchrist was one of the few riders at the Pump Track Worlds not running a BMX.
Yeti says the "Special Projects Yeti Cycles DJ has a full-carbon frame optimized for strength, stiffness, and impact resistance."
Fidlock have created a new holder for a TQ range extender. The system can hold the TQ range extender, or the base can be used to attach a Fidlock bottle when you don't need the extra battery
Birzman had a new chain keeper tool at the show that can fit both QR and 12mm axles without the need to change any parts. The tool also uses a free-spinning and side-shifting pulley wheel to allow derailleur shifts.
SDG has added a new olive green colour option across some of its range of saddles, pedals and grips.
The big new product from SDG is the return of animal prints. The new range of saddles uses the same fabric as the original animal print range but fitted to the brand's latest Bel-Air V3.
The original animal prints.
The 2024 animal print saddles are available in three different options.
In more saddle updates, SDG has added some leather styling to its Cam Zink Sensus saddles.
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www.gasgas.com/de-ch/e-bikes/enduro/eca/eca-3.3102343341.html
Don’t forget they will have a new disc brake mount standard as well, allowing you to brake the same as you always have, but at a higher price.
My Druid had a little bit of chain contact in its highest gear, unsagged. Over two years, it put a tiny groove into the chainstay protector. Seemed odd when I first set it up, but on investigation it turned out to be a Druid “thing” and never really presented any actual issues. At the time I bought a spare Forbidden chainstay protector, thinking “I’ll be needing this soon”, and it just ended up sitting in a draw.
PB article from 2013 says:
The article says that regarding patent '301, the judge "found enough difference in leverage ratio curves to rule Trek did not infringe on this Split Pivot patent." Regarding patent '212, there was no infringement, "because the rear shocks Trek uses do not closely conform to the shocks Split Pivot describes in the patent."
We wanted lighter casing with the dh compound
Not enduro tyres “starting at 1300gr”
Like rolling bricks
SDG cowskin seats - get in! My original cowskin Ti railed Bel Air was on my old commuter bike when it was nicked. Going to get another now...
*pull shock of course
rockbrosbike.us/products/rockbros-mountain-bike-pedals-nylon-composite-bearing-9-16-mtb-bicycle-pedals-with-wide-flat-platform-black
i was a big fan of my ugly coloured composite kona wah wah 2 pedals until the bearings went all shitty. Imagine my delight when i saw knock offs in prettier colours for half the price.
I got orange and green ones but the bearings were even shitter than the real thing and the spindle and bearing arrangement is slightly different.
Externally they are identical though, same plastic etc. these moulds must get swapped around. I’m intrigued as to whats going on? if theres much chinamen on pinkbike please enlighten me
Maybe SDG did infact design this pedal, and the design wasn't registered well enough to prevent copycats, but rockbros almost certainly got hold of them from a white label manufacturer. Maybe the same one that one up use
Don't send your designs to the Far East.
Nobody NEEDS a DH bike.
There's always pedaling around between DH trails even and I don't see why we should limit ourselves.
If you want to put a dropper on a DH bike, you're missing the point of a DH bike. Get a long travel enduro bike instead
So an enduro enduro bike has 160-180mm of travel and is biased toward DH, and a DH bike has 200mm of travel and is also biased toward DH, and Enduro bike geometry is already more progressive than DH bikes were just a few years ago, what is really the difference other than some arbitrary set of rules of what a bike is suppose to be?
The real question is, what would it hurt? how would it make a DH bike any less capable of doing what it is suppose to do by adding a dropper post and a water bottle?
(Washes mouth out with soap and awaits the downvotes....)
You don't need a dh bike. You need a DH mentality
Only if you want to be competitive, then once again we are into wants, not needs.
but how does dropper post routing and a bottle cage make a bike worse....?
It doesn't hurt anything but the delicate sensibilities of pinkbikers.
I'm not asking them to change the nature of a DH bike. Leave everything the way it is except give it the ability to fit a dropper post and a bottle cage. It doesn't have to be good at climbing, just able to make a quick connecting trail without having to be walked. It is a bicycle after all, and bicycles are suppose to be pedaled, not walked.
If you want to go uphill, you well need a longer cage derailleur which is way easier to rip off and will sound absolutely atrocious.
On some of them the linkage limits insertion. On the yeti in question it does not appear that it would, which is why I brought it up. It doesn't need to pedal like an XC bike or anything. And not that I think it would really need it, but lockout switches do still exist. And I think you're exaggerating the issue of the derailleur... derailleurs aren't as delicate and loud as they use to be. Plus most bikes are 29" these days for better or for worse. a 26" bike short cage derailleur surely runs a lot closer to the ground than a long cage with a 29" wheel, and derailleurs did fine on 26" DH bikes.
@gabiusmaximus
What you're suggesting is completely different. If you really want to press the sports car comparison, what I am suggesting is comparable to just asking the car is capable of driving from home, or even just the parking lot to the start line at the track, not "towing a caravan" Which, as far as I know, they already are...
But I digress. whether you people like it or not, this is the next logical step in mountain bike evolution. I am simply making a small suggestion that may bring us there sooner. Enduro bikes get bigger, heavier, and more capable. more people are riding them like DH bikes therefore are asking more and more of them. Some are already bordering on DH bike capability, or even surpassing what a DH bike was capable up 5-10 years ago. At the same time DH bikes are losing ground in sales and more and more companies have stopped making them altogether, mostly because of their lack of versatility for the average rider. Innovation isn't going to just stop where it is, whether they make DH bikes a little more versatile, or make Enduro bikes a little more capable it will pretty much be the same outcome.
But I'm not even asking for that yet. I'm just asking for cable routing (which can easily be made optional) and a bottle cage. -_-
You say yourself "And I want a bike that is uncompromised on the descents" but then ask that compromises are made to make it more comfortable and user friendly when slogging between DH tracks. Literally the exact design brief of long travel enduro bikes. The design brief of DH bikes is to go as fast as possible down hill, zero compromises.