Day 1 Randoms - Core Bike 2024

Feb 19, 2024
by Ed Spratt  


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.



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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.

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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."

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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."

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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The new bronze colour option is available across most of Hope's many component options.

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Despite Brexit's best efforts, some Eurobike weirdness made its way into the Core Bike halls.

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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.

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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.

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Silverfish were also showing off Ryan Gilchrist's Yeti special projects bike used at the Pump Track World Champs.

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Ryan Gilchrist was one of the few riders at the Pump Track Worlds not running a BMX.

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Yeti says the "Special Projects Yeti Cycles DJ has a full-carbon frame optimized for strength, stiffness, and impact resistance."

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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

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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.

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SDG has added a new olive green colour option across some of its range of saddles, pedals and grips.

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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.

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The original animal prints.

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The 2024 animal print saddles are available in three different options.

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In more saddle updates, SDG has added some leather styling to its Cam Zink Sensus saddles.




Author Info:
edspratt avatar

Member since Mar 16, 2017
3,035 articles

120 Comments
  • 98 0
 Some of these bikes look like I should take them to a watchmaker for service.
  • 15 0
 That GasGas sure looks like some fine craftmanship. Wink
  • 10 2
 The Hope bronze color really does look cool and would fit perfectly on a steampunk bike. I've been looking that picture for a while even though it wasn't the color that got me intrigued. I gave up but I'm still wondering where the lower pulley is mounted. Probably to the rear tire but I've got to see it in action to be sure.
  • 3 0
 The Hope sure looks like it can also time travel.
  • 2 0
 @vinay: The lower pulley is mounted to the bb/crank area on an arm. Ive got a 916, and a mate is down at Hope right now who posted some pics up to show the diffs.
  • 1 0
 @vinay: on the bottom bracket. You can see the bracket from he idler wheel going horizontal to the bottom bracket.
  • 2 0
 @ross-at-bikewrap: Cheers, I see it now (cranked the brightness of my screen). It does look trick indeed.
  • 2 0
 @fjm35: The Morlok who rode it into the hall did try and bite a few attendees, but damn could it shred the trails!
  • 5 2
 @cro-magnon: That GasGas looks like the most fun bike in the show.
  • 4 0
 The green hope with bronze parts is like Christmas at a stately home.
  • 1 0
 @ross-at-bikewrap: how do you like it?
  • 2 0
 @cro-magnon: looks perfect for my drunk ass to use when I bring a BIG winner home from the bar.
  • 3 0
 @cro-magnon: Strange, the "normal" GasGas e-bikes have a Yamaha motor:
www.gasgas.com/de-ch/e-bikes/enduro/eca/eca-3.3102343341.html
  • 50 0
 It looks like Hope is going to introduce a new hub standard based off the photo at the top of this article.
  • 12 1
 It's for the new 36ers that are coming out. 36' wheels really smooth out the trail. There is a little bit of inertia getting them rolling but once they start the benefits really start to shine.
  • 14 0
 @gaberoc: and with the new ultra mega boost spacing they will be super stuff but also very compliant.

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.
  • 7 1
 2057 super super super duper boost.
  • 3 4
 @gaberoc: you can go road biking if you want a smooth trail.
  • 1 0
 @gaberoc: you joke, but Curve is currently trying to crowdfund a run of $10000 titanium 36” gravel bikes.
  • 1 0
 @MegaStoke: They are, while at the same time admiting that "yes, we know that the only tire available right now kind of sucks". Candid of them to admit it, but shows the challenges of bulding a bike like that
  • 1 0
 I was hoping this was going to be the first comment haha
  • 1 0
 @MegaStoke: That hub deserves the 36 foot tires we didn't know we needed.
  • 1 0
 @Arierep: maybe Rene Herse will make a 50mm 36". They like making weird tires
  • 15 0
 "Despite Brexit's best efforts", that made me chuckle (chuckles are all we have left).
  • 2 0
 that's very well written, indeed
  • 3 0
 Not for long; Apparently chuckles are to be nationally rationed, in order to help meet the ever rising costs of HS2…
  • 11 0
 See the bike industry is cyclical. Yeti better call it the 303. Tioga now needs to make a comeback.
  • 5 1
 Tioga? So we can have massive saddles and slippery tires? No thanks.
  • 5 0
 Are there any sliders in that rear suspension linkage? It should have at least one for it to be a 303, preferably two.
  • 3 0
 @BermJunky: disc wheels tho…
  • 7 0
 Yeti dh bike, gold hope parts, animal print saddles. What is old is new again.
  • 1 0
 @BermJunky: don't forget over priced disc wheels.
  • 1 2
 @BermJunky: the Tioga edge 22 soft is one of the grippiest tires on the market.
  • 2 0
 @RWRides: I’m talking about 20 years ago. It was as a joke.
  • 11 0
 Sponsored by Yeti
  • 60 7
 Britain's not known for its dentistry...
  • 29 1
 @korev: Private dentists have skipped Yeti and are lining up for Atherton bikes or custom Ti frames. NHS dentists, or the 2 dozen of them left, are on a rusty Voodoo that's been stolen out of the sheds of the last 4 owners
  • 2 0
 @ROOTminus1: All getting shafted on Taycans as well.
  • 4 0
 @korev: lol "Ok. I get it. I have bad teeth." --Austin Powers.
  • 4 0
 Is the chain in that Yeti DH bike touching the chainstay protector? Maybe they beefed up the protection and now it touches or they purposely added a slider, kind of an odd choice, but not the first high pivot to run into chain and chainstay clearance issues, I bet it was slapping hard.
  • 2 0
 it is touching, isn't it? But at sag it probably won't...?
  • 2 0
 Looks like it, chain probably clears the protector at sag though.
  • 1 0
 @drjohn: good point, you’re probably right at sag it doesn’t touch
  • 4 1
 no way that will be the 'fastest DH bike ever'
  • 2 0
 @drjohn: Good thing a DH bike never leaves the ground so it can stay in the sagged position. Wink
  • 2 0
 @noapathy: I think you’d have to be pedaling a lot in the air for it to be prove an issue though?

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.
  • 2 0
 @Corinthian: Good to know. TBH I would've been more concerned with suspension compressions if anything, but if they didn't have that kind of stuff sorted they wouldn't be much of a bike company anyway, eh?
  • 8 0
 Me and my Dalmatian print saddle, ready to take on Cruella De Trail
  • 2 0
 On the Dalmatian Coast?
  • 4 0
 That cow print SDG saddle is putting the country back in cross country and I kind of love it. (Also, given the options of leopard, cheetah, tiger and cow to represent the spirit of my riding, I am *definitely* cow.) Only question is, where can I get some matching SPD cowboy boots?
  • 3 0
 Patent question. The Hope is clearly using what Devinci and Salsa call the Split Pivot and Trek somehow also uses (developed independently?). Does this mean the patient is only for North America? If so, that means the Hope won't be sold in N.A.?
  • 3 0
 You got me curious so I Googled it. Devinci and Salsa license it from DW and Trek was ruled to be different enough due to leverage ratio:

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."
  • 1 0
 @breakthebeta: so how is Hope using it? I'm happy that the "big" patents are expired because it gives designers more options but this one is clearly not expired yet.
  • 1 0
 @Sscottt: if I had to guess, they have another different leverage ratio to be legally clear
  • 3 0
 @KolaPanda: That or the patent doesn't cover high pivot bikes.
  • 5 0
 Big fan of the RRP stuff but wish they'd make one for Manitou and update their site from it's current 2004 look and feel...
  • 5 1
 I think that Michelin didn’t get the memo right
We wanted lighter casing with the dh compound
Not enduro tyres “starting at 1300gr”
Like rolling bricks
  • 5 0
 Can we please have a "full bike picture" of the HB916?
  • 5 0
 The Michelin Wild Enduro MS should be named the MM (Magic Mary)
  • 1 0
 Was thinking the same thing.
  • 2 0
 Magic 22 I would say. Certainly an EXCELLENT front tyre.
  • 3 0
 As a trials rider, I can picture Danny Mac doing some sick lines on that Hope hub like he did in that Toy Box video years back.
  • 4 0
 That brown sdg Cam Zink Sensus is awesome
  • 1 0
 "if they amplify stoke of our internal team and athletes" - urgh.

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...
  • 3 0
 That might be the nicest Yeti since the Straight 8*

*pull shock of course
  • 1 0
 I think the pumptrack bike really looks cool. But for it to be a (tarmac) pumptrack specific bike, I wonder why they haven't taken the opportunity to forego the suspension fork and used the freed space for a slightly taller headtube. Seems like they tried to create a lot of reinforcement over there which wouldn't be quite needed.
  • 1 0
 @vinay: I think it is a dual purpose bike, also to be used by Robin and Reed for dirt jumps where a suspension fork is a nice wrist saver
  • 2 0
 @simcik: Ah I see. I thought they really made a pumptrack specific bike (for pumptrack racing specifically). A suspension fork does make sense for these other purposes indeed.
  • 1 0
 Recently took my RRP mud guard back to the shop because it couldn't bolt onto my Domain fork. Couldn't find an adapter for it anywhere!
  • 3 0
 Had the same problem. This is why they have redesigned it. New one will fit.
  • 4 1
 A lot of these parts are what I like to call "please steal my bike" parts.
  • 3 0
 Love that huge Hope hub sculpure.
  • 3 0
 Richies forearm steals the show
  • 3 1
 You had to say something..... now he's going to get a "random" visit from WADA.
  • 1 0
 @RonSauce: I just didn't want to spoil Bruce Banner
  • 2 0
 I had that cow print saddle. Would definitely run it again if it was a wider size.
  • 1 0
 I'd imagine Gilchrist is wondering if he would have won the Pumptrack world champs had be been using the right tool for the job.
  • 1 0
 #bmxbackground comes in handy when it comes in handy! Yeti did make a 20" for Graves and Willoughby BITD. ‍♂️
  • 4 0
 Sdg saddles look sick!
  • 3 0
 I honeslty think that the HB916 deserved a picture of itself.
  • 1 0
 I've still got an i-beam cow print saddle. I'm pretty sad I can't find an i-beam dropper. Although I do at times use it on my gravel bike!
  • 3 1
 SDG pedals = exact copy of One Up’s other than different text on them?
  • 6 1
 and you can also get a clone with the rockbros name on it for a fraction of the price
  • 2 1
 This is why you don't send your designs to China.
  • 2 1
 @L0rdTom: It was actually designed by a Canadian and manufactured in Taiwan...
  • 2 0
 @DaveRobinson81: I have a pair on one of my bikes and having had a one up composite before they are just as good
  • 2 2
 The knock off plastic pedal market is a funny one,
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
  • 2 1
 OneUp pedals have a convex profile where as SDG’s is flat. Aesthetically it’s hard to make pedals look that much differently, but functionally they can be super different based on the profile and pin placement.
  • 1 0
 @hanseoulo: sadly in recent years I've had Taiwanese white label manufacturing companies try to buy my products too. It certainly never used to be that way.

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.
  • 1 0
 @L0rdTom: It's nearly impossible to patent pedals and they'll make whatever they want. A lot of these brands are actual factories stealing ideas, but they still need to tool their own pedals. Sure it looks similar but that's just the way the world of bicycles are. I guarantee the two pedals you mention are not from the same factory nor the same mold. The SDG pedal is a mold paid by SDG. Trust me I know.
  • 1 0
 @hanseoulo: As you are likely already aware you don't have to patent something to protect its form, you just need to register your design (assuming it's distinct enough to pass). I am aware it's factories copying designs and technology, having had many try! I guess I just have no sympathy for companies that hand over their work to known plagiarists.
  • 1 0
 @L0rdTom: SDG deals with trustworthy manufacturers in Taiwan. They do not work with Chinese factories and I'm sure trust is a big factor when you are working with the same manufacturer that makes a lot of the pedals in the industry. Some battles are worth fighting for but a flooded market of $60 pedals are not it. As if people just hand over 3D files to know plagiarists...LMFAO!
  • 1 0
 Does anyone know if they're ever going to mass produce and sell that Yeti DH bike?
  • 2 1
 I'm not looking forward to seeing those Hope bronze parts on a bike with anything Kashima #clashtastrophe
  • 7 0
 Kashima already clashes badly enough with itself
  • 2 1
 Gray hot patch sure makes a big difference on the Michelin rubber.
  • 1 0
 I ride faster with maxxis sharpies
  • 1 0
 New updates but still not ISCG05 mount on that hope...
  • 1 0
 The Yeti DJ frame looks amazing shame I cant dj wort a damn
  • 1 0
 Yooo we need that yeti frame wtf
  • 1 1
 ....Dentists Rejoice \m/
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