Besides having some of the hottest products in mountain biking, the guys at Race Face are also huge supporters of the Mtbr prize raffle at Sea Otter. Year after year, they have come through in a big way for us. This year was no exception as we raffled tons of killer Race Face swag. Race Face even set up the autograph signing that we had in our booth on Saturday. Team Kenda Morewood riders Nathan Rennie and Mitch Delfs signed autographs and gave out free mini-posters. Thank you, Race Face!

Atlas Freeride 2009 Colourways

The Atlas Freeride Cranks are now available in a variety of cool, new anodized colors. The cranks come in such colors as: rum red, bad ass black, nurple purple, agent orange, blue steel, and more.

From the Race Face website: “Tired of hollow promises? Light but strong, Atlas FR cranks weigh 40g less than Shimano Saint, while maintaining equal strength and stiffness. Engineered for riders wanting a lightweight FR/DH crank. These cranks are manufactured in Canada using OPTIM-AL, an alloy 20% stronger than 7050 alloy, so no need for pedal inserts.”

website: www.raceface.com

Shown below is the “Blue Steel” crankset:

The Atlas cranks also come in an All Mountain version:

Other Atlas Freeride components include the Atlas Freeride bars and stems:

Deus and NeXT products>>

Jesse from Ritchey Designs shows us some new products like the new pro carbon rigid fork and super stiff and rigid carbon wheels. Also new saddles, stems, handlebars, and seat posts in Pro, WCS and Super Logic levels. Check out the wet black and wet white.

website: www.ritcheylogic.com

Part of my job as site manager for Mtbr.com is to go around to different booths at events like the Sea Otter Classic, and take photos and/or video of the latest and greatest new bikes and gear.

I talk to product managers, PR reps, marketing coordinators and sales people. And one topic that seemed to come up quite a bit was Twitter.

Now, for those of you who have been hiding under a rock, Twitter is: (according to Wikipedia.org) “a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read other users’ updates known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length…”

If you haven’t seen it, Mtbr is on twitter here: http://twitter.com/mtbr

I first heard about Twitter from Mtbr pro photographer and PhotographyReview Site Manager Photo-John (http://twitter.com/Photo_John ). At first I couldn’t understand why he was so excited about something that seemed so simple and almost…boring. I set up a Twitter account last year and made a half-hearted attempt to use it during Interbike last year. It was another thing I had to worry about and I just didn’t have time for it. I didn’t understand the benefit of using it.

But, the more you use it, the more you get drawn into it. It’s simple and basic design may seem like a huge limitation at first, but that simplicity is what makes it so special. Anyone can do it.

How twitter is used depends on who is using it. For Mtbr, we use it primarily to feed press and news articles, and during events like Sea Otter or Interbike, we use it to promote the event coverage articles.

***********************************************

One of the fellow Twitterati that I talked to at Sea Otter was Denny from Manitou. Denny had actually posted on the ManitouMTB twitter that if you came to their booth and mentioned Twitter, you would get a free t-shirt! How could I pass that up, I’m always looking for extra swag for the Mtbr prize raffle! I thought that was a great way to use Twitter. I’ll have to follow up with Denny to see how many twitterati ended up coming by their booth. Denny expressed how he loved to use it to pass on information to all different kinds of viewers: racers, customers, fellow industry people etc…

You can follow ManitouMTB on Twitter here:

http://twitter.com/ManitouMTB

***********************************************

Another Twitter user that I have communicated with online was Krien from Mountain Cycle. We had exchanged Tweets about meeting up at Sea Otter, so I stopped by the Mountain Cycle booth. But John from Mountain Cycle informed me that Krien had not been able to make the trip out to Monterey. John and I actually ended up talking more about motorcycles, but that’s probably because the Ducati girl stopped by their booth:

You can follow Mountain Cycle on Twitter here:

http://twitter.com/mountaincycle

More photos and info on page 2 (GT and Trek)>>

Here are some more snap shots of highlighted products in the Sea Otter Expo area.

Crank Brothers had a nice demo program on their new wheelsets. Shown here are the Iodine Wheels…look for a forth coming featured review article on these wheels from Mtbr.com!

Thanks to Crank Brothers for their donation to the Mtbr prize raffle, too!

website: www.crankbrothers.com/

******************************************************

Here is a shot of Bryan from Evomo, at his booth with a couple of his wares. The red shirt with the bottle on it, is a design that came from a contest that they had. Bryan was also nice enough to donate some of his t-shirts to the Mtbr prize raffle.

website: www.evomo.com “Evomo >> Bring The Rukus”

Dainese mountain bike gear>>

I didn’t have time to shoot videos of all the booths, but here are some photos from other bikes throughout the Sea Otter expo.

Santa Cruz Blur LT Carbon:

Released just before Sea Otter, the Santa Cruz Blur LT Carbon was one of the hot bikes.

Intense 951:

Also released just before Interbike, the new DH bike from Intense was also very popular. Look for a video coming soon! And a few photos of the Intense Tracer VP.

About the 951 from the Intense official press release:
“Fast Just Found A New Area Code!

It has been an amazing year of design and development for Jeff Steber and his team at Intense Cycles. It was at Sea Otter 2008 where the Tracer VP trailbike was first introduced. In terms of sales and awards, it has gone on to become Intense’s most successful model ever. Since then, Intense has released the new Uzzi VP, the Spider 2 and the Tazer FRO VP. Now exactly one year later, Intense launches the 951 Downhill Race model. Featuring Intense’s famous World Cup winning geometry, Next Generation VPP suspension with adjustable travel from 8 to 8.5 inches, an 83mm bb and ISCG 05 mount, the 951 represents the evolution of Downhill racing. The first production will be the FRO model with monocoque downtube and G3 dropouts, allowing the rider to change wheelbase, head angle and bottom bracket height depending on the track. Later a less expensive standard model with a traditional downtube and fixed dropouts will be produced. Both will be available in 3 sizes and multiple colors. MSRP is $2760 for the FRO with Fox RC4 shock, $2420 for the standard version with Fox RC2 shock Contact your local Intense dealer for more info or to get yours on order.”

(note the adjustable mount for the dropout, to adjust head angle)

Tracer VP:

Chumba Racing, KHS bikes, Cannondale bikes>>

I had read a rumor in our very own Sea Otter discussion forum ( http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=503696 ) that Ducati would be coming to the Sea Otter Classic. Being a long time motorcycle rider as well as a mountain biker, I double checked the Ducati website to see if the rumors were true. Low and behold, they were. And not only was Ducati going to be at the Sea Otter Classic, they were bringing a whole fleet of bikes for free demo rides!

While I packed the Mtbr booth, supplies, and mountain biking gear into my truck on the Wednesday before the event, I also stashed my motorcycle helmet, boots, jackets, and gloves…on the off chance that I would be able to break away from my duties as booth organizer, swag runner, and video interviewer and photographer.

As luck would have it, my chance came on Saturday. We had plenty of volunteer booth help and the entire sign-up, intro, ride, and post ride survey would take about 1 hour of time. Cleared it with the boss and it was a done deal!

As long as you had your gear (helmet, boots, gloves, long pants and long sleeve shirts) and your M1 and your proof of insurance, you were good to go.

They had one of the new Monster 1100s on display and even one of the Brand New Street Fighters….but the demo fleet was all HyperMotards. I had originally hoped to demo a Monster 1100, but I wasn’t gonna complain… how often do you get to test ride a Ducati for free?

Sign-ups were easy and demo rides ran every hour. I signed up for the noon ride, filled out the paperwork, then went back to our booth to gear up.

Continue reading & view more photos>>

Kendall from Syncros gives us a complete look at all the changes and update for Syncros components, Grunge graphics and what “FL” really stands for. In order, we are shown the new product lineup of stems, handlebars (including a 31″ bar), seatposts, saddles, ultra light carbon MTB wheels, and pedals. These are 2009/early 2010 releases.

website: http://www.syncros.com/

The Hubdock is a revolution in rear hub technology.  I have to fully agree with nippleworks opinion that the Hubdock was the best new technology at Sea Otter in ‘09.  It seperates the mess of taking off your rear wheel from the action of taking off your rear wheel.  Hubdock is a California company that will be ready for release of the product soon.  You can find out more info on Hubdock’s website.  For now though, just watch the video.

Pablo is designer, rider, and part owner of Corsair Bikes. Here he shows us the Konig, a Slopestyle specific trail bike that he designed. The Konig has: adjustable head angle, Corsair designed linkage rear suspension, 2.5:1 leverage ratio, and switchable dropouts. It has a very stiff linkage design with short chainstays and low center of gravity, this suspension design creates a bike that is easy to manual.

From the Corsair Bikes website:
“With the König, our goal is to channel the energy of a great run into the engineering and style of a slopestyle frame. Getting off the ground, landing in one piece (at any angle) and getting the bike where you need it to be in a split second require that a bike be light, strong and maneuverable - three things that define the König.”

website: www.corsairbikes.com

I met up with fellow twitterati Denny from Manitou at the Sea Otter Classic. In this video, Denny shows us the internal workings of the all new Absolute+ damper for their 2010 model lineup. Also shown is the MILO (Manitou Integrated Lock-Out).

Manitou website (note: new Manitou website coming soon!) - http://www.manitoumtb.com/

Info from the Absolute+ press release:

“New damping technology - Absolute+
Absolute+ is a new TPC-based damping technology that will debut in 2010 Manitou forks.

Absolute+ consists of two independent damping circuits. Low-speed damping is controlled via the Speed Needle circuit, which consists of an adjuster needle that moves up and down into a round seat. Under compression, oil flows through the seat and around the needle. Turning the external adjustment dial clockwise decreases the flow area between the needles and the seat, thereby increasing the low-speed damping rate. The Speed Needle has a total of seven positions.

High-speed damping is controlled by the Pro Stack circuit. Pro Stck is a shim-based circuit that provides an additional path through which damping oil can pass under big/fast hits. The Pro Stack circuit consists of a piston with three ports covered by a shim stack. In order for the circuit to open, the fork must encounter an impact forceful enough to flex the shim stack and force oil through the ports. This allows the fork to move through its travel faster than it would if the Speed Needle were the only damping circuit. This only happens when a high-speed impact creates a force great enough to engage the Pro Stack.

The Absolute+ damper can be retrofitted into Manitou R7, Minute, and Drake forks from model year 2007 forward. A lightweight version of the Absolute+ damper will also be available for model-year 2010 Minute MRD and R7 MRD forks.”