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>>

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/

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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>>

The weather this year was very Un-Sea Otter-ish. Blues skies, light winds, plenty of sunshine and HOT!

Some might say the weather was too good. After viewing these photos, I tend to disagree:

Fuel Energy Drink Hottie:

See More Photos on Page 2>>

Mojo Raffle & The Tranny – that should be my new band name. I stopped by the Ibis booth at Sea Otter to say hi and see if they had any new toys to show off. They did. The Tranny convertible hardtail is finally shipping and they refreshed my memory about some of its key features. They also had a beautiful, Downieville-build Mojo trail bike for a raffle prize to support the Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship.

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I always check in with the Marzocchi guys at Sea Otter to see if they have anything new to show off. They usually have something stashed in the truck. I was even more curious this year since they were a little off the radar in 2008. It was a good thing I made the effort because I got a sneak peak at what looks like a very impressive 2010 fork line.

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While walking back up to the media center on Friday, I spotted this old horn. If you’re a Northern California cyclocross racing fan, you know what it sounds like. Because it’s at all the races. I asked the guy who was carrying it if I could take a picture because it looked so cool. Then I noticed the sweet, lugged Rock Lobster bike he had and it turns out he is Mr. Rock Lobster - Paul Sadoff.

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A lot of big names were missing from the 2008 pro men cross-country race, due to the World Cup in Houffalize, Belgium. The race started under sunny skies with Kona’s Ryan Trebon taking an early lead. Late in the first lap, a pack of seven racers, including number one plate Sam Schultz, Ryan Trebon, Chris Sheppard, Carl Decker, Ken Onodera, and Miguel Martinez, swapped spots on the long rolling fire road climb back to the Laguna Seca race track. At the beginning of the second lap, Miguel Martinez broke away and stretched out a huge lead, eventually winning the race by almost three and a half minutes. Sam Schultz ended up taking second, followed fourteen seconds later by Sid Taberlay. Fourth place finisher, Mitchel Peterson, crossed the line a minute and a half later and Federico Ramirez Mendez took fifth a little over 6 minutes after Miguel Martinez crossed the finish line.

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Sunday was beautiful in Monterey, with clear sunny skies. It looked like a great day for cross-country racing. However, some of Saturday’s wind stuck around and left pro racers fighting strong winds and spectators suffering from some serious wind chill. Most people were just happy it wasn’t raining, though. Rain is sort of a Sea Otter tradition – regardless of the weather forecast.

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