Mavic is jumping into the 29er arena with their Crossmax 29er wheel. I will be UST tubeless compatible and can be used with tubes as well. Like their 26er wheel, it will feature aluminum zircal spokes and will be very stiff, light and durable. This is a significant development in the 29er world since folks are always looking for a wheel that is laterally stiff yet lightweight. These demands are more pronounced in the bigger wheel standard.

Also, many 29er folks prefer to run tubeless as maximum traction is allowed with the bigger contact patch of the big wheel. Lower pressures area great match too with hardtail and even rigid forks. The Mavic wheelset claims the lowest rotating weight in the 29er market.

The set weighs 1745-grams and costs $775.

The long awaited Manitou Minute 29er was also on display and available for demo at the Intense dirt demo booth. Billed as a 2008 product, it features 120 mm of travel. Construction looked stunning and fork felt incredibly smooth and stiff on the ole parking lot test.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 13th, 2007 at 9:53 am and is filed under Expo Coverage. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.